File this under unlikely new revenues streams. Could low-cost carriers, already picking up additional business traffic as a result of the recession, be about to tap in to a new demand - premiership footballers? The Portsmouth News is reporting cash-strapped English Premier League club Portsmouth have been forced to shun the usual private jet treatment and turn to budget carrier Flybe for this weekend's game at Burnley. I assume this will also be followed by a table for 11 at a Harvester for the early bird special and a night at the Burnley Premier Inn.
So will these Premiership stars be able to cope. Well only last year Everton manager David Moyes suggested his players might. 'It is refreshing that a club like ours has done well," says Moyes. "We are different, we might still get on Easyjet like the average man would do."
And judging by this bizarre photo I stumbled on, Portsmouth and England goalkeeper David James looks like he might have already found even less glamorous ways to travel than budget airlines (the result of some team banter rather than his own choice)
![David James rexfeatures_818985b[1].jpg](http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/airline-business/David%20James%20rexfeatures_818985b%5B1%5D.jpg)
Today is a really sad day for Portsmouth, a brilliantly-supported club which now finds itself in administration, and the mood of its supporters will probably not be improved in the knowledge that they have had to turn to the current shirt sponsor of their arch-rivals Southampton, Flybe, to get to the Burnley game.
It also turns the tables a bit from autumn 2008, when the collapse of UK charter operator XL Airways left English Premier League club West Ham United in the unenviable position of losing a shirt-sponsor midway through the season.
Picture credit: Robin Jones/Rex Features
on February 26, 2010 2:40 PM | Reply
Sad times for Pompey. Chartered jet to Flybe....
As a supporter I just hope these cost cutting measures help to save the Club rather than end up in some dodgey off-shore bank account...!
on March 16, 2010 2:04 AM | Reply
definitely my favorite kind of streaming entertainment, THE FREE KIND!,to recap your title "New revenue stream for budget carriers: Premiership footballers - Airline Business" if you insist! why do movie shops even exist anymore when we've got the likes of you guys!
Peace, horror boy
on June 23, 2010 5:14 PM | Reply
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