Tag Archives: low fare airline

Ryanair launches aircraft advertising

Ryanair (Dublin) under the file “It was bound to happen”, has announced it will now sell advertising space on its 303 Boeing 737-800s. Although not a full logojet, a space by the nose and three other locations is being offered to any potential advertisers. The ultra-low fare airline issued this statement:

Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC), on July 17 offered businesses across the world the chance to advertise their brand on its fleet of 303 Boeing 737-800 aircraft and reach millions of European passengers through Europe’s largest and cheapest outdoor advertising medium. Ryanair operates over 1,600 flights per day, connecting 180 destinations in 29 countries, through over 1,600 routes and will carry more international passengers this year (81.5 million) than any other airline in the world. Companies can have their brand featured on four different locations on the Ryanair aircraft, including on the inner and outer winglets, front fuselage and rear fuselage, for a 12-month period, for a fraction of the price of a newspaper advert.

Ryanair Launches Aircraft Livery Advertising

Ryanair:

Flying on Norwegian’s first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on a “Dreamtour”

Norwegian Air Shuttle (Norwegian.com) (Oslo) is currently operating the pictured Boeing 787-8 EI-LNA (msn 35304) (above) (Antony J. Best) on European routes before it enters its long-haul service career with Norwegian Long haul. EI-LNA was the first 787 for the rapidly-growing low-fare airline and was handed over to the carrier on June 29, 2013.

The Norwegian is operating a “Dreamtour” for its European customers this summer. From July 4 through August 4 the airline is substituting its new 787 on select European routes from Oslo. This includes flights to London (Gatwick) as well as Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Nice on the Mediterranean Sea.

Allan Huse booked and flew one of these “Dreamtour” flights, a round trip from London (Gatwick) and Oslo and return.

Asked about his experience and first impressions of the 787, Allan said; “It was very enjoyable and smooth flight. The crew was friendly and knew all about the aircraft and the on board systems. The fare was good at under £100 return. I would recommend a flight on one!”

Allan has also provided these in-flight and cabin photos of EI-LNA from his “Dreamtour”.

Above: The “front-end office” of EI-LNA with the latest state-of-the-art equipment. The crew loves the new “toy”.

Above: EL-LNA is dedicated to Norwegian figure skater and film star Sonja Henie. Her image appears on the tail and also in the inside of the cabin where Norwegian has placed a photo of Sonja on the bulkhead.

Above Two Photos: Even of these short European routes, Norwegian is showing off the mood lighting on EI-LNA.

Above Photo: For those with the perfect window seat, the beautiful sweeping lines of the wing of EI-LNA is apparent.

Top Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best (all others by Allan Huse). Boeing 787-8 EI-LNA prepares to land at London (Gatwick).

Norwegian:

Video: In Norwegian. Following in the footsteps of Thomson Airways. Norwegian is taking a state-of-the-art aircraft with its lower operating costs and merging it with its low-fare strategy on new leisure routes.

WSJ: Allegiant Air: The Tardy, Gas-Guzzling, Most Profitable Airline in America

Allegiant Air (Las Vegas) is under the financial analysis of the Wall Street Journal in a special detailed article by Jack Nicas that explores why this fast-growing airline is the most profitable airline in the United States. This low-fare airline, which breaks most of the industry “rules”, has been off the radar screens of most of the mainstream media for a long time, except in the smaller cities where a new Allegiant route to Las Vegas, Arizona, California, Hawaii or Florida grabs local headlines. Allegiant has the “lowest costs, fullest planes and highest margins” in the United States according to this article. The secret formula, as we have detailed, is flying mostly older planes that others no longer want from cities that are too small for the others to care about to exciting vacation destinations on a limited number of peak traffic days. Allegiant Air also makes a lot of ancillary revenue from its travel packages, taking a page out of the Ryanair playbook. Allegiant aims to be the total travel package airline for the traveller. The business plan is working well.

Now Allegiant is planning to expand in Mexico. This article details the growth and its expansion plans.

Read the full article: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Most airlines cannot get rid of these older, fuel-guzzling McDonnell Douglas MD-80s fast enough. Not Allegiant, they love the type and only fly their aircraft when they can make money. During mid-week, when most passengers are already at their holiday destinations, Allegiant parks most of its inefficient, fuel-guzzling fleet. Allegiant only flies when it can make money. Departing on a weekend, former SAS McDonnell Douglas DC-9-83 (MD-83) departs from Los Angeles International Airport.

Allegiant Air:

Route Map:

Video: Allegiant Air TV commercial:

Spirit Airlines starts New Orleans-Dallas/Fort Worth service

Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood) yesterday (January 25) started operating nonstop service between New Orleans and Dallas/Fort Worth.

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems. The “Spirit of Las Vegas” arrives at its namesake still dressed in the old black version of the 2004 livery. The pictured A319-132 N522NK (msn 2893) was handed over to the ultra low fare airline on November 9, 2006.

Spirit Airlines:

Founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou and his family reduce their share of easyJet to 37%

EasyJet’s (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has sold a portion of his shares in the airline and reduced his family’s holding to just 37 percent of the total shares. The sale was a protest against the direction of the low-fare airline and he threatened a further cutback in his stake should the company acquire new airplanes in five years according to this article by Bloomberg.

Haji-Ioannou family members sold 600,000 shares last week.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth. Set against stormy skies, EasyJet’s Airbus A319-111 G-EZFA (msn 3788) arrives at EuroAirport (Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg) with special “La France au coeur” markings.

EasyJet:

Ryanair announces its 55th base at Chania, Greece

Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it will open its first Greek base and the 55^th base in total at Chania in April 2013 with one based aircraft. The ultra low-fare airline unveiled 11 new routes (26 in total), from Chania to Billund, Bremen, Bristol, Eindhoven, Katowice, Marseille, Memmingen, Thessaloniki, Venice, Vilnius and Warsaw. Ryanair is investing over $70 million at Chania.

Chania is the second largest city on the island of Crete and is also the capital of the Chania region. Chania is located the north coast of the island, about 90 miles west of Heraklion which gets most of the traffic to Crete.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Boeing 737-8AS EI-DCL (msn 33806) painted in the Dreamliner promotional colors arrives at the London (Stansted) hub.

Ryanair:

VietJetAir launches new routes as it gets ready to celebrate its first anniversary and its first international route to Bangkok

VietJetAir (VietjetAir.com) (Ho Chi Minh City) on December 15 launched its ninth domestic route linking Ho Chi Minh City with Vietnam’s the paradise island of Phu Quoc. The carrier will also be the first airline operating an Airbus A320 aircraft on the route.

Attending a ceremony to celebrate the route’s maiden departure from Phu Quoc International Airport, guest of honor Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was joined by dignitaries from the Central Government, the Ministry of Transport, Kien Giang province people’s committee and representatives from VietJetAir. The carrier also marked this special occasion by providing 300 health insurance cards to residents of Kien Giang province living in disadvantaged circumstances.

VietJetAir will become Vietnam’s first private airline to open an international route on February 10, 2013 when the airline flies from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok. This auspicious date is the first day of the New Lunar Year, so perfect timing for Vietnamese, Thai and foreign travelers planning to celebrate by travelling abroad during this festive season.

The route will start off with round trip per day initially with VietJetAir’s newly acquired Airbus A320. The one hour and 30 minute flight will depart from Ho Chi Minh City at 11 am (1100) and return from Suvarnabhumi Airport at 1:30 pm (1330).

Above Photo: VietJetAir. VietJetAir’s flight crew get ready for international operations.

The first private low-fare airline of Vietnam launched operations on December 25, 2011.

Top Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best. Formerly operated by Olympic Air, this Airbus A320-214 registered as SX-OAU (msn 4193) will join the VietjetAir fleet as VN-A699.

Hot New Photos:

EasyJet to go to allocated seating tomorrow

EasyJet (UK) (London-Luton) is shifting away from its open seating policy copied from pioner LCC Southwest Airlines (Dallas). Instead the low-fare airline will change to allocated seating starting tomorrow. The company has issued the following statement:

EasyJet will introduce allocated seating on all of its flights – typically over 1000 a day – from November 27, 2012. The airline trialled allocated seating in April 2012 with nearly 2 million passengers flying on 12,500 allocated seating flights. In response to the trial’s success, the airline took the decision to roll out allocated seating across the whole network.

EasyJet trialled allocated seating because passenger research showed that the boarding process could be a source of stress for some customers and in some case, a barrier to them flying with EasyJet. The key tests of the trial were to improve passenger satisfaction without impacting EasyJet’s ability to deliver industry leading punctuality – all of which were achieved on trial flights.

Research among passengers who have travelled on an EasyJet allocated seating flight has shown that 71% think allocated seating is better due to the improved boarding experience, while over 60% said that they are more likely to fly with EasyJet in the future as a result.

Some interesting facts also emerged from the trial flights:

On shorter journeys seat 6A was the best seller while on longer flights it was 1A
On shorter journeys seat 16B was the least popular while it was 19B on longer flights
Passengers preferred seats on the left hand side of the plane with seats A, B and C out selling D, E and F

All passengers will be allocated a seat for free on EasyJet’s flights but will have the choice of selecting a specific seat for a fee when they book flights, or adding them later to guarantee where they’ll be sitting. There are three bands of pricing, dependent on the seat selected:

£12 for extra leg room
£8 for up front seats (emergency exits, row 2-5 on A319 or 2-6 on A320)
£3 for any other seat

EasyJet trialled allocated seating during the summer season, the busiest time of year, to stress test the new systems and procedures. The airline decided to roll out the system in the winter season when fewer people travel to ensure a smooth transition. The trial flights showed that allocated seating can be delivered at the same time as maintaining strong levels of on time performance and without adding cost.

EasyJet (UK):

The first Airbus A319 for Allegiant Air is painted, net income of $16.9 million in the 3Q

Allegiant Air‘s (Las Vegas) first Airbus A319 has been painted at Southend awaiting delivery.

In other news, the low-fare airline has cancelled all plans to operate Monterey-Honolulu service according to Airline Route.

On the financial side, the parent company issued the following statement for the third quarter:

Allegiant Travel Company has reported the following financial results for the third quarter 2012 as well as comparisons to prior year equivalents:

Unaudited	3Q12	3Q11	Change
Total operating revenue (millions)	$216.9	$191.5	13.2%
Operating income (millions)	$28.7	$16.7	71.8%
Operating margin	13.3%	8.7%	4.5pp
EBITDA (millions)	$44.6	$27.5	62.3%
EBITDA margin	20.6%	14.4%	6.2pp
Net income (millions)	$16.9	$9.5	78.6%
Diluted earnings per share	$0.87	$0.49	77.6%

“We are very proud to report our 39^th consecutive profitable quarter,” stated Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Allegiant Travel Company. “I`d like to thank our Team Members for their great efforts and contributions to another successful quarter. The third quarter is typically our weakest quarter of the year, and yet we were able to produce the highest third quarter earnings per share in the company`s history. This is particularly noteworthy to have done this in a quarter with the average oil price at $92 per barrel and in a demand environment that has been slightly weaker than historical norms.”

Notable company highlights

Entered into a lease agreement with GECAS for nine Airbus A319 aircraft on August 27
Announced intention to acquire ten Airbus A319 aircraft from Cebu Pacific Air on July 30
Announced service to Honolulu from Boise, Idaho, Phoenix and Spokane, Wash. to begin in early February 2013
Announced the formation of Allegiant Systems, a joint venture with AvIntel and Lixar IT to develop and market a wide variety of mobile technology services to the commercial aviation industry
As of October 23, we have converted 40 MD-80s to 166 seat aircraft
Announced fifteen routes, in addition to Hawaii, expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2012

Revenue performance

Average fare – ancillary air-related revenue per passenger has grown to $37.05 in the third quarter 2012, a $4.66 increase since the first quarter 2012
September average fare – ancillary air-related revenue per passenger has grown to $38.08, a $5.48 increase since March 2012
11^th consecutive quarter of year over year increases in total average fare

	3Q12	3Q11	Change
Scheduled Service:
Average fare – scheduled service	$82.30	$84.94	(3.1)%
Average fare – ancillary air-related charges	$37.05	$30.38	22.0%
Average fare – ancillary third party products	$5.59	$5.31	5.3%
Average fare – total	$124.94	$120.63	3.6%
Scheduled service passenger revenue per ASM (PRASM) (cents)	7.89	8.58	(8.0)%
Total scheduled service revenue* per ASM (TRASM) (cents)	11.98	12.19	(1.7)%
Load factor	90.1%	92.2%	(2.1)pp
Passengers (millions)	1.6	1.5	9.4%
Average passengers per departure	143	136	5.1%

* Total scheduled service revenue includes scheduled service, ancillary air-related, and ancillary third party revenue.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Formerly operated by easyJet (Switzerland), Airbus A319-111 HB-JZK (msn 2319) is the first A319 for Allegiant Air. It is pictured after painting at a Southend, near London. The airframe will become N301NV on delivery.

Hot New Photos:

Allegiant Air:

Vueling Airlines to add 28 new routes from Barcelona next summer

Vueling Airlines (Barcelona) is again increasing its route network at its home airport next summer. The low-fare airline issued the following statement:

Vueling in 2013 will for the fourth consecutive year, will expand operations at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, where it plans to reach 100 direct destinations during the upcoming summer season. Highlights include new routes especially attractive to the business traveler as London-Gatwick, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, as well as a significant increase in flights to new cities in Germany, France, Italy and Scandinavia.

In the last two seasons of summer, the company has launched a total of 45 new destinations that have made the second El Prat airport in Europe after Frankfurt, with greater flight of short and medium haul by your company dominant airline. The goal is that by 2014 Vueling Barcelona will become the European leader in this type of connections.

Of the 28 new routes planned for next summer IATA season, which begins in March 2013, highlights five never before operated from El Prat: Dresden (Germany), Rennes (France), Fez (Morocco), Rhodes and Kos (Greece ). The airline also added four new countries to its network: Gambia (Banjul), Finland (Helsinki), Bulgaria (Sofia) and Luxembourg.

Vueling, which already flies to London-Heathrow, starting in 2013 the route London-Gatwick Barcelona. It also launched routes to other European cities and North particularly attractive to business travelers and Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Turin and Casablanca. With this, the company responds to the demand for direct connections between Barcelona and different regions of interest to businesses. The goal is to reach Vueling end of 2013 to 50% of business travelers on its flights.

To meet this new offering, the airline will increase the number of aircraft based in El Prat from 34 to 43 and will include 500 new employees, including pilots, cabin crews and support personnel from different categories and specialties.

With this new momentum, Vueling consolidates its leadership position in El Prat, which currently has a market share of 30%, operating over 240 flights daily. Under this increased activity, Barcelona Vueling expects to attract a greater number of travelers who visited the city during the summer of 2012 on flights of the company, which was 4.7 million.

Besides Barcelona, Vueling will also grow in most of its other operating bases. Next season, there will be more flights from Bilbao to Canaries, Greek Islands and the route to Berlin will operate from the beginning of the summer. From Malaga and Alicante, there will be more routes to France and Benelux.Baleares will increase capacity on some of its existing routes, such as Palma-Moscow spends three to five times a week. Paris Orly and Amsterdam increase capacity in existing flights. And finally, in Canary thinking times will improve the business traveler and the connection with northern Europe through the company’s hub in Barcelona.

Vueling renews communication code and presents a new class Excellence for the business traveler Vueling continues to work to improve services for the business traveler. This launches the new class to Excellence, a very competitive price, offers all the elements required by the passenger to fly with flexibility, convenience and speed. Different cabin seating, lounge access, preferential boarding, ergonomic head, snack on board, total flexibility changes and extra points loyalty plans of the company are some of the attributes of this rate.

All these developments are part of a significant change for the airline: a new communication code that aims to project maturity and current size of the company without sacrificing the innovative spirit that has always characterized the brand. The starting point of all the work of the company is its people.

All this is included in a brand new concept:

LOVE THE WAY YOU FLY

It is a concept that denotes quality international service and closeness and trust.

Vueling Airlines: