CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / SALZBURG
Regional European airlines seem to be bucking the economic trend of their larger rivals, with many turning in respectable growth this year.
Speaking at the European Regions Airline (ERA) Association general assembly in Salzburg last week, director-general Mike Ambrose said: "Our members can reorganise more quickly, have faster decision-making processes, more local loyalty and have not been affected by the severe downturn in long-haul and US domestic traffic."
ERA members' scheduled traffic was up 6.3% in the first six months of 2002, while revenue passenger kilometres grew by 7%. Norway's Widerøe, for example, has posted its best results ever, recording a pre-tax profit of NKr57.15 million ($7.72 million) for the first half of 2002. It expects passenger numbers to rise by over 7% this year to 1.5 million.
Finland's Air Botnia, a member of the Scandinavian Airlines-led SAS Group, suffered a "drastic" drop in business traffic. "We are affected by what happens to Eriksson, Nokia and the telecoms industry generally, and when they are in trouble, business travel stops," it says.
Karl-Friedrich Müller, director of marketing and sales at Eurowings, says regionals benefit when majors do well, because they are pulled along in the wake, but also when majors pull out of markets "because then routes are ripe for the picking".
French carrier Air Jet has taken on domestic routes previously operated by Air France and has seen a 65% traffic increase. Sweden's Skyways Express hopes to pick up five new routes dropped by SAS. Chief executive Jan Palm‚r says part of its expansion strategy is "to drop shorter routes and move resources to the longer routes that SAS is stopping."
Antonis Simigdalas, chief operating officer at Aegean Airlines, says some of the repercussions of 11 September "were positive", as lease rates fell because of excess supply.
KLM Exel president Roberto Stinga says low-cost airlines have had "little impact" on the airline's operations, although its thrice-daily Eindhoven/Stansted route competes with a daily Ryanair service.
Source: Flight International
