p28 air nov14 11/11/08 4:58 PM Page 28
Air
Chris Gray
020 7921 8003
cgray@ttglive.com
For the latest news about flights, airlines and airports, visit ttglive.com/air
Gulf reports
best-ever
load factors
GULF AIR claimed it recorded the best load
factors in its history in each of the last six months.
The airline, the national carrier of Bahrain,
had a 74.9% load factor in October, compared
with 66.4% the year before. The previous
October record was 71%.
Chief executive Bjorn Naf said it had also
recorded the highest monthly load factors in
May, June, July, August and September.
He said the figures were the result of changes
to the airline’s schedules and increased frequen-
cies to Paris and Frankfurt. WING PLAY: Air Southwest has renewed its partnership with Plymouth Argyle Football
“I am especially delighted with our long-haul Club to fly the team to away games. Air Southwest crew members Clare Faulkner (second
performance, which indicates the strength of our left) and Vicky Triggs join Argyle strikers Jamie Mackie (left) and Paul Gallagher at a
product and network. We are on target to carry training session. Air Southwest starts a weekly Plymouth-Grenoble link on December 20.
six million passengers this year,” he said.
Chief strategy officer Tero Taskila said the
carrier planned to expand its network.
“Strong performance in all the classes contin-
Farley plans new
ues and we are looking at our forward bookings
very carefully to adjust our capacity to the
demand. So far, the global economic slowdown
has not hit us,” he said. charter carrier
Chris Gray.
Farley claimed he had financial backing from
Monarch’s traffic
ANOTHER fledgling airline is being set up to cap- oil industry investors for the airline, to be
italise on the shortfall in capacity left by the col- called All Europe, and was buying the aircraft
up 7% in October
lapse of XL Airways and other charter carriers. from Alaska Airlines. In September, Alaska
Blackpool-based aviation broker Garry Farley Airlines said it was cutting up to 1,000 jobs and
MONARCH Airlines reported higher scheduled is behind the venture, which aims to operate four reducing departures by 15%.
passenger numbers in October compared with 165-seat MD83 aircraft for European package Farley said the airline would fly from regional
the same month last year, but a small drop in the holidays from next March. airports to wherever operators or agents
proportion of seats sold. Farley said he was aiming to provide seats for wanted. It will charter only full aircraft rather
Monarch carried 394,600 scheduled passen- independent operators and agents such as those than selling several allocations to different
gers last month, a 7.27% increase on 2007. Its in Bristol who found they had customers wanting operators.
load factor fell from 83.2% to 81.2%. The share to book holidays from their local airports but Farley said that would mean agents or opera-
of sales made online rose from 88% to 90%. had no capacity (TTG October 31). tors joining up in groups to charter an aircraft.
Overall, Monarch carried 685,500 scheduled His move follows the establishment of Kiss “The gap in the market – no XL, no Futura, no
and charter passengers during October 2008. Flights, run by former bosses of XL-owned Sterling – means more than 100 aircraft are
Freedom Flights, and plans for a new airline with missing from the European market for bucket
four Boeing 737s by former Zoom UK boss and spade holidays,” he said.
EasyJet has reported a year-on-year 18.4% rise Jonathan Hinkles. Farley, who has been in aviation broking for
in carryings in October to 3.6 million, while load They are trying to enter the market to provide many years and worked for airlines including
factors eged up 1.4 percentage points to 83.9%. capacity that has disappeared with the collapse now-defunct Air Scotland, said he had applied for
of XL, Air Futura and Sterling Airlines. an Air Operators’ Certificate for up to six aircraft.
28 14.11.2008
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64