Tag Archives: Southend

EasyJet introduces Flight Tracker

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) has introduced its new “Flight Tracker” service for its passengers with the latest flight information. The company issued today this statement:

EasyJet passengers can now access minute by minute updates about their flight thanks to a new Flight Tracker tool available at easyjet.com and on the easyJet app.

Flight Tracker allows customers jetting off on a summer holiday or business meeting to access live information about their flight up to 48 hours before departure and en route to the airport.

In addition to providing traditional departure and arrival information, Flight Tracker gives easyJet passengers supplementary information direct from its operation control centre at London Luton Airport. The system is believed to be an industry first, with no other airline offering information en mass at an individual flight level.

EasyJet began trialling Flight Tracker in February 2013, since then nearly 3.5 million passengers have used it to access information about flights at: www.easyjet.com/en/flight-tracker

Peter Duffy, Marketing Director for easyJet, said: “Flight Tracker is a real innovation in the aviation world and is now available to all easyJet passengers via our website, the easyJet app or their mobile device. It allows customers – and their friends and family – to gain peace of mind by checking the status of their flight en route to the airport or during periods of adverse weather or strike disruption.”

During the peak of summer Flight Tracker will monitor up to 214 easyJet aircraft as they take hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers across Europe, the Middle East and Russia. Updates can be added for one flight, all flights from a specific airport or every flight in a just a matter of seconds.

Flight Tracker is now available on the easyJet app which also allows passengers to download mobile boarding passes to their phone. The award winning app has been downloaded over 5.4 million times, with over 100,000 mobile boarding passes downloaded since May. It is available to download at http://www.easyjet.com/mobile

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EZIO (msn 2512) is the “Supporting UNICEF” special livery climbs away from Southend, easyJet’s newest London hub.

EasyJet (UK):

Boeing leases additional 717s to QANTAS Link and Volotea

Boeing’ (Chicago) leasing unit, Boeing Capital Corporation, announced additional deployments of 717s.

Australia’s largest regional airline, QANTAS Link, will receive an additional five leased 717s to add to its existing fleet of 13 of the twinjets that operate across Australia. Those deliveries will begin in late 2013 after the aircraft are refitted with upgraded interiors to include a full business class experience and new in-flight entertainment systems. The QANTAS Group has operated the 717s since 2002.

The 717s will be deployed on the Sydney-Canberra, Brisbane-Canberra and Melbourne-Canberra routes.

In Europe, startup carrier, Volotea (Barcelona and Venice), will increase its 717 fleet (below) in 2013 to a total 15 as it continues to develop its business model of offering point-to-point service to passengers between medium and small-sized European cities. Volotea began operations on April 5, 2012 with a network built around the 717 that is supported by a comprehensive Boeing solution for operations and training.

Volotea recently surpassed the million passenger mark enabled by its operation from 52 European airports, currently serving 97 city pairs.

There are more than 150 Boeing 717s in service today since the first airplane was delivered in 1999. The twinjet’s technology and fleet performance have earned it the distinction of being the world’s best jetliner serving the 100-passenger airline market.

Top Copyright Photo: Micheil Keegan/AirlinersGallery.com. Operated by Cobham Aviation Services Australia for QANTAS, Boeing 717-2K9 VH-NXH (msn 55055) prepares to land in Perth, Western Australia.

QANTAS Link-Cobham:

Volotea:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 717-2BL EI-EWI (msn 55170) climbs away from Southend after maintenance.

EasyJet further expands operations at Southend Airport with three new routes

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) on June 20 celebrated two milestones at London Southend Airport.

To further enhance the airline’s expansion and network of destinations from London Southend, EasyJet has added a fourth aircraft to its fleet based at the airport. The additional plane will enable the launch of three new EasyJet destinations to Berlin, Krakow and Newquay with 130,000 passengers expected to fly on these new services annually increasing passenger traffic at London Southend Airport by almost 20%. The announcement comes just over one month after EasyJet’s inaugural flights to Edinburgh took off from the airport in May.

EasyJet marked the addition of the fourth aircraft and its inaugural Newquay flight with a fun send-off by the London Southend Airport Fire Service which gave the plane a 40 foot high water arch salute before it took-off (see below).

Southend along with London City Airport serves the east side of the metropolitan London area (Microsoft).

The addition of these new services brings the total number of EasyJet destinations from Southend to 15:

Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast, Berlin, Edinburgh, Faro, Geneva, Ibiza, Geneva, Krakow, Majorca, Malaga, Newquay and Venice.

(L-R) Hugh Aitken (easyJet UK Commercial Manager) with Paul Simmons

The LSA Fire Crew give the first flight to Newquay from London Southend

EasyJet (UK):

Routes from Southend (SEN):

Norwegian’s strategy to remain competitive

Norwegian Air Shuttle (Norwegian.com) (Oslo) has issued a new video. This video explains Norwegian’s strategy in order to stay competitive. New aircraft, a smooth organization and international expansion are mandatory to stay in business. This video contains interviews with independent sources, Norwegian’s CEO Bjørn Kjos and several employees at Norwegian.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. Norwegian is rapidly phasing out its less efficient Boeing 737-300s. Boeing 737-36N LN-KKL (msn 28671) with Roald Amundsen on the tail departs from Southend.

Norwegian:

Video (in Norwegian with English sub-titles):

Small Planet Airlines is retiring its last two Boeing 737-300s with newer Airbus A320s

Small Planet Airlines (formerly FlyLAL Charters) (Vilnius) is expanding its charter fleet. It is billing itself as the fastest growing charter airline in Europe. The charter airline is leasing five additional Airbus A320s. The first A320 was added in April 2011. The remaining two aging Boeing 737-300s should be retired at the end of the current summer season.

The current fleet serves the Polish charter market along with the UK, France and Lithuania. Small Planet Airlines works with the major tour operators to bring holiday travelers to Greece, Spain, Turkey, Egypt and other sunny destinations. The company also charters flights for the government, sport teams and private customers.

Top Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Formerly operated by Air Astana, Airbus A320-232 P4-UAS is becoming LY-SPB (msn 2987) with Small Planet. All other images and photos below from Small Planet.

Small Planet:

Video:

Condor Berlin’s flight operations are merged into Condor Flugdienst

Thomas Cook Group (London) today (May 1) merged the flight operations of subsidiary Condor Berlin (Berlin) into Condor Flugdienst (Frankfurt). This move is part of the group’s new strategy to streamline operations and to reduce the amount of its subsidiaries. Condor Berlin will continue to operate as a maintenance company in Berlin. The 12 Airbus A320s and 1 A321 of Condor Berlin are now being operated by Condor Flugdienst. All aircraft operate under the Condor and Thomas Cook brand.

Condor:

Video: A cockpit view of a Condor Airbus A320:

Allegiant’s 1Q net profit increases to $31.9 million

Allegiant Travel Company (Allegiant Air) (Las Vegas) reported the following financial results for the first quarter 2013:

Unaudited	1Q13	1Q12	Change
Total operating revenue (millions)	$273.0	$237.9	14.8%
Operating income (millions)	$52.4	$36.3	44.2%
Operating margin	19.2%	15.3%	3.9pp
EBITDA (millions)	$69.4	$48.3	43.6%
EBITDA margin	25.4%	20.3%	5.1pp
Net income (millions)	$31.9	$21.7	47.1%
Diluted earnings per share	$1.65	$1.12	47.3%

“We are very proud to report our 41st consecutive profitable quarter,” stated Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Allegiant Travel Company. “The month of March is typically our busiest month of the year, and this year was no different. Thanks to the tireless efforts of our Team Members, we have had another profitable quarter.”

Notable company quarterly highlights

Began flying our first A319 on March 1, 2013, the second A319 on April 4, 2013
Repurchased over 284,000 shares for $22.2 million dollars, average purchase price of $78.15
Received board approval to increase share repurchase authority to $100 million
Completed the 166 seat MD-80 conversion project in February
Added two new small cities Provo, UT and Reno, NV
Added eight routes in the quarter
Announced five routes which will start in the second quarter, including one new city, Little Rock, AR
Operated 198 routes in the first quarter of 2013. Expect to operate 203 routes in the second quarter of 2013

First quarter 2013 revenue performance

13^th consecutive quarter of year over year increases in total average fare
First quarter 2013 average fare, average ancillary air per passenger, and total fare were the highest in the company’s history
First quarter TRASM increased by 1.2 percent even though we increased average scheduled service stage length by 4.9 percent and scheduled service ASMs grew by 17 percent
Load factor returned to a normalized rate closer to 90%
Same store markets, those which were operated in the first quarter 2012 and 2013, had a 4.3 percent TRASM increase versus the system average of 1.2 percent
Fixed fee revenue’s decline is attributable to no longer operating two aircraft in track charter programs as previously disclosed

	1Q13	1Q12	Change
Scheduled Service:
Average fare – scheduled service	$97.54	$94.95	2.7%
Average fare – ancillary air-related charges	$41.64	$32.39	28.6%
Average fare – ancillary third party products	$5.81	$5.36	8.4%
Average fare – total	$144.99	$132.70	9.3%
Scheduled service passenger revenue per ASM (PRASM) (cents)	8.60	9.04	(4.9)%
Total scheduled service revenue* per ASM (TRASM) (cents)	12.79	12.64	1.2%
Load factor	89.8%	91.1%	(1.3)pp
Passengers (millions)	1.8	1.7	8.4%
Average passengers per departure	148	138	7.2%
Average scheduled service stage length (miles)	978	932	4.9%

* Total scheduled service revenue includes scheduled service, ancillary air-related charges, and ancillary third party products revenue.
ASMs = available seat miles
PRASM = scheduled passenger revenue per scheduled available seat mile

First quarter 2013 cost performance

Operating CASM, excluding fuel increased only 0.2 percent to 5.18 cents despite an almost eight percent decrease in aircraft utilization for the same time period due to a higher concentration of flying during peak periods
Operating expense per ASM decreased by three percent even though our average fuel expense per gallon increased by three percent. System ASMs per gallon of fuel improved to 67.3; a 9.6 percent increase versus the first quarter 2012
Maintenance and repairs expense per passenger decreased by 19.2 percent due to a more normalized rate of engine overhaul expense compared to unusually high levels in the first quarter of 2012
Salary and benefits expense per passenger increased by 18.4 percent due mainly to increases in pilot compensation. As we reached a trailing twelve month operating margin of 14 percent in November of 2012, our pilots moved into a higher pilot pay rate band per our compensation agreement with our pilot work group. Additionally, higher flight attendant headcount resulting from the increased gauge of our MD-80 aircraft and operating six 757 aircraft as opposed to one during the first quarter 2012
Depreciation and amortization per passenger increased 35 percent primarily due to accelerated depreciation from the announced retirement of six MD-80s from first quarter 2013 through third quarter 2013, along with higher depreciation stemming from 51 converted 166 seat MD-80s at the end of the quarter versus 17 a year ago
Other expense per passenger increased 35 percent primarily attributable to a higher write-down of engine values in our consignment program

	1Q13	1Q12	Change
Total System*:
Operating expense per passenger	$117.31	$112.03	4.7%
Operating expense per passenger, excluding fuel	$59.62	$55.10	8.2%
Operating expense per ASM (CASM) (cents)	10.20	10.52	(3.0)%
Operating expense, excluding fuel per ASM (CASM ex fuel) (cents)	5.18	5.17	0.2%
Average block hours per aircraft per day	5.9	6.4	(7.8)%

* Total system includes scheduled service, fixed-fee contract and non-revenue flying.

Second quarter 2013 cost trends

Salary and benefit expense is still subject to the same pressures as in the first quarter including the higher pilot pay band in effect
We expect the bulk of the engine and heavy airframe maintenance for the year will be incurred in the second and third quarters. For the full year, we are still anticipating maintenance per aircraft per month to be between $100 thousand and $110 thousand which has been our normalized historical run rate
Second quarter depreciation expense will still feel the impact of the accelerated depreciation reflected in the first quarter and to a lesser extent the higher depreciation from the converted 166 seat MD-80s as we had converted 27 aircraft by the end of June 2012. Four of the MD-80s driving the bulk of the accelerated depreciation are scheduled to be retired in the third quarter of 2013. In addition, we are expecting higher depreciation in the fourth quarter as we are currently expecting to place seven A320s into service by the fourth quarter of 2013.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Allegiant introduced the first Airbus A319 into operations on March 1. The second was introduced on April 4. The former easyJet (Switzerland) A319-111 HB-JZN became N302NV (msn 2387) when it was delivered on February 11, 2013. The airliner is leased from GECAS.

Allegiant:

Sunwing Airlines reports a glycol vapor entered the cabin of flight 326

Sunwing Airlines (Toronto) issued this statement yesterday:

Sunwing Airlines confirms that its flight 326 en route from Ottawa International Airport to Varadero, Cuba departed at 6:32 am. Approximately 5 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft interior filled with vapor from glycol (de-icing fluid) that entered the aircraft through the auxiliary power unit (APU) vent.

The captain made the decision to return to the Ottawa airport and the aircraft landed without incident. As the vapor had dissipated by that point, the aircraft returned to the gate where all of the passengers and crew disembarked.

At this time, investigations are ongoing to determine how the glycol entered the aircraft through the APU vent. Ottawa International Airport has a centralized de-icing facility that is operated by Aeromag 2000 Ottawa Inc. All Aeromag employees are trained on the safe application of de-icing fluid, which includes avoiding excess spraying on certain areas of the aircraft.

Sunwing Airlines rebooked passengers on a flight that will be departed Ottawa later at 12:35 pm.

Sunwing Airlines:

Czech government approves the Korean Air $3.4 million bid to acquire 44% of Czech Airlines

Czech Airlines-CSA (Prague) will have a new airline partner. The Czech government has approved Korean Air‘s (Seoul) $3.4 million offer to acquire 44 percent of the stock of state-owned Czech Airlines.

Read the full report from The Financial Times: CLICK HERE

Czech Airlines-CSA:

Allegiant cancels its deal with Cebu Pacific Air for 10 Airbus A319s

Allegiant Travel Company (Allegiant Air) (Las Vegas) today announced its proposed transaction to acquire ten Airbus A319 aircraft from Cebu Pacific Air has been terminated as a result of the parties’ failure to satisfy certain conditions to proceeding with the transaction. The potential transaction was made public on July 30, 2012 after the signing of the letter of intent.

“We are disappointed that we were not able to finalize this agreement on which we spent a substantial amount of time and effort,” said Andrew C. Levy, Allegiant President. “Unfortunately we were unable to come to terms on some of the economic provisions of the transaction and as we have demonstrated in the past, we will not purchase aircraft just for the sake of growth. Our disciplined approach in asset purchases is a core competency that we will not compromise.”

“We continue to have fleet flexibility in 2013 even without the Cebu A319s. Seven of the nine A320 aircraft, which we announced the intention to acquire on December 19, 2012, are expected to be delivered in 2013 and we now plan to introduce these aircraft into service at a faster pace so as to offset the capacity that had been planned with the Cebu A319s,” concluded Levy.

Allegiant is now expecting 2013 total CAPEX to be between $170 and $180 million. The company has signed operating leases for nine A319 aircraft with GECAS and purchase agreements for nine A320 aircraft formerly operated by Iberia. Allegiant will remain active in the market for the purchase or lease of additional Airbus aircraft.

Allegiant Air: