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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 0030.PDF
UK CHARTER AIRLINES Before the European Union's third package of air-transport lib eralisation measures ended regu latory distinctions between charter and scheduled airlines, it was received industry wisdom that deregula tion would lead to a gradual blurring of the differences between them. For example, the now-defunct Air Eu rope of the UK and Trans European Airways of Belgium had franchised their names to set up mixed-mode, pan- European operations. German carrier Aero-Lloyd and Meridiana Air of Spain had expanded heavily into business- oriented routes (although the former stopped scheduled services in April, 1992, and the latter ceased operating altogether in October 1992), while many other predominantly charter carriers experi mented with scheduled services. Today, most of the carriers which survived those experiments are returning to basics and concentrating on their core businesses. "We are going to focus on our core leisure market and what we are good at," declares Steve Allen, marketing and sales director of the UK's largest charter carrier, Britannia Airways, which has dropped its handful of scheduled services. "The demise of Dan-Air and Air Europe had deterred other charter carriers from following that [charter to scheduled] route," says Danny Bernstein, joint man aging director of Monarch Airlines. Monarch operates four scheduled routes for local traffic between its Lon- ••»&.'?." says that they ac count for only 3% of capacity and are un likely to grow in im portance. Air 2000's I* scheduled operation is limited to the non- European Union (EU) destination of Cyprus, which re stricts charters. British World Air lines has two sched uled routes, in addi tion to its extensive charter/contract activ ities. None of the other UK charter spe cialists operates schedules and, al though most of the scheduled carriers do some charter flying, this is generally a small proportion of their total business. The clear distinction between the two groups remains the concentration by char ter carriers on leisure-led markets and by scheduled carriers on business-led mar kets. That said, however, all European routes have a mixture of business and leisure traffic; indeed, there are more leisure passengers on the main scheduled route from the UK (London-Paris) than on the top charter route (London-Palma). Business needs, such as frequency and on-demand seat availability, are the main factors determining the type of service provided between Lon don and Paris, while, in the leisure-led London- Palma market, price is the key factor. "The charter opera tor's raison d'etre is hav ing a lower cost base than a scheduled air line," says Britannia's Allen, "but customers want good service and a lot of effort is going into making our econ omy service as good as, or better than, that of the scheduled carriers." • • K^aijUlrttiShii AIR zoo a don/Luton base and Spain, but Bernstein The third package oj air-transport liberalisation measures may have ended any regulatory distinction between charter and scheduled carriers within the European Union (EU), but their strategies still differ. Mark Blacklock examines the charter market in the UK, which accounts for 40% of the EU total. CHARTERED TE 28 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 5-11 January, 1994 "
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