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Airline Insider-November/December 06 |
| Written by Brian Dunn | ||||||
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Flyglobespan, a Scottish budget airline, has unveiled a major long-haul route expansion which will link Glasgow, London and Manchester with Calgary, Hamilton and Vancouver beginning next May. It will also offer weekly Hamilton flights from seven regional airports – Belfast, Birmingham, Doncaster, Edinburgh, Exeter, Liverpool and Newcastle. The airline said that these are likely to be stops on the daily Stansted- Hamilton route. In May, Flyglobespan will begin daily Hamilton services from Glasgow, London- /Stansted and Manchester. At the same time it plans to roll out a number of services from Glasgow, Manchester and London/Gatwick to Calgary and Vancouver using Boeing 757-200s in a three-class configuration. Based on Flyglobespan’s preliminary 2007 schedule, the airline could add 100,000 to 125,000 seats to the Canada-UK market next year, a capacity increase of 7% to 8%, according to David Newman of National Bank Financial. Flyglobespan has also linked up with Ottawa’s Zoom Airlines, allowing both carriers to sell seats on each other’s aircraft. Flyglobespan was launched in 2002 as a subsidiary of Edinburgh-based The Globespan Group, which has been active in the Canadian travel market since 1974 and uses Air Transat as its Canadian travel partner. Flyglobespan began longhaul service in June with a Glasgow-Orlando/Sanford service. It has since announced a number of other routes, including Cape Town- Manchester, Liverpool-New York and Glasgow–Boston, Las Vegas and Barbados. Flyglobespan’s long-haul fleet consists of a single Boeing 767-300ER and a 757-200. Earlier this year, the budget carrier detailed plans to acquire a further two of each aircraft type by summer 2007. It is also planning to add two Boeing 787-8s from lessor International Lease Finance to its fleet in 2010. NEW RMS PLANNED FOR AIR CANADA Air Canada has hired ITA Software of Cambridge, MA, to develop a next-generation reservation management system. In addition to reservations, the system will include inventory control and seat availability as well as check-in and airport operations modules. The complete system will be operational by late next year across the entire Air Canada network, including reservation call centres and airport locations worldwide. “The power of this core management system will be a key instrument in Air Canada’s strategy to maintain market leadership through product and customer service differentiation. Moreover, it will provide unprecedented flexibility and significant cost savings,” said Sean Menke, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer at Air Canada. TRANSAT ACQUIRES UK RIVAL Transat A.T. has acquired The Airline Seat Company, its main British rival, which operates under the Canadian Affair name, for $43 million. Transat and Canadian Affair each had 40% of the Canada-UK charter market, thereby giving Transat a commanding 80% of all charter traffic between the two countries. Including scheduled carriers, Transat now flies about a quarter of all seats between Canada and the UK. Previously, Transat sold outbound tours from only Canada and France. By adding the UK, it gains a major presence in the largest European market for leisure travel to Canada. According to Jean-Marc Eustache, Transat’s chief executive, “we are now setting up shop in a third market, the UK, which is the most important European market as far as Canada is concerned.” The $43 million Transat paid for Canadian Affair represents less than a sixth of its current $268-million cash reserves. Last year, the airline’s holding company was under shareholder pressure to buy back shares as a way to reduce its cash reserves, which were then near $500 million. Transat did buy back $125 million in shares, but kept the rest as a contingency fund and to finance its growth plans. It has since bought Thomas Cook Travel in Canada, thereby expanding its retail distribution network from a Quebec stronghold into other parts of Canada, especially Ontario. Transat has also added three new European routes with direct flights from Montreal to Madrid, Lisbon and Bordeaux. It also has revealed it is planning to buy its first hotel chain, but has not yet provided any details. In 2005 Transat carried 2.5 million passengers and had revenues of $1.45 billion. Meanwhile, the travel company recorded a thirdquarter profit of $4.2 million on revenue of $611.1 million, compared to a year-earlier profit of $794,000 on revenue of $552.9 million, when the company wrote off future income tax asset balances worth $5.6 million. AIR CANADA ADDS LAS VEGAS FLIGHTS Air Canada has expanded service from Western Canada to Las Vegas with twiceweekly non-stop flights from Edmonton to the entertainment capital and twiceweekly flights from Winnipeg. The Edmonton flights depart Thursdays and Sundays on 120-seat Airbus 319 aircraft in executive and economy class. The Winnipeg departures are on the same days on CRJ-705 aircraft with 75 seats in two classes. This winter, Air Canada will offer up to 55 weekly flights to Las Vegas from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal. AMERICAN EAGLE ADDS LGA-HALIFAX SERVICE American Eagle Airlines was scheduled to initiate nonstop service between New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Halifax. The daily Embraer ERJ-135 service was set to begin on December 14. American Eagle also serves Halifax thrice daily from New York/JFK, while Continental Airlines operates daily regional jet services from Newark, NJ, to Halifax. HARMONY CODE-SHARES WITH CHINA EASTERN Harmony Airways has signed a code-share agreement with China Eastern Airlines. The deal will link China Eastern’s service between Shanghai and Vancouver with Harmony’s domestic flights. “Our cooperation with Harmony Airways, particularly on domestic routes within Canada, will help us improve our market performance in North America and develop our international business,” said China Eastern director of airline planning and international affairs Hu Zhenming. “This agreement demonstrates our commitment to enhancing the China and North America aviation network and developing even more economic and cultural ties between China and other countries.” CANJET WINS CHARTER CONTRACT CanJet Airlines is still alive after it reacquired a key contract to fly charter flights for tour operator Sunquest, providing job opportunities for some of its 376 employees laid off in September after the airline decided to halt scheduled service. CanJet has assured Sunquest that its aircraft will be available to fly the tour operator’s passengers to sun destinations this winter. When it halted scheduled operations, CanJet had 10 leased Boeing 737 aircraft. |
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