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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0459.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT EU ENLARGEMENT CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / PARIS & JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON EU debutants decide to ditch frills Airlines from central and eastern Europe reveal low-cost ambitions as they seek to compete with western rivals Smaller airlines across central and eastern Europe are using this week's enlargement of the European Union to launch no-frills business models and expand their networks in a bid to compete against existing low-fares carriers. The enlargement of the EU on 1 May will take in eight former com munist states in central and eastern Europe as well as Cyprus and Malta - all will become part of the liber alised air transport market. Several low-fare airlines from existing west ern European EU countries includ ing Easyjet, Scandinavian Airlines' Snowflake and Air Berlin City Shuttle are exploiting European competition rules to start services to destinations previously subject to air service bilaterals. While the region's two largest carriers, CSA Czech Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines have been drawn into international alliances, flag carriers in the remaining eight states are considering their own no-frills ser vices and are offering flights from third countries, in order to com pete in the single aviation market. Maltese flag carrier Air Malta is to launch a service from London Gatwick to Catania on the Italian island of Sicily from 2 May, and is also launching flights under its Fares4U no-frills sub-brand from its base in Luqa to London Stansted, in addition to its scheduled full-ser vice operations to Heathrow and Gatwick, says Dale Keller, Air Malta head of northern European sales. Meanwhile, Cyprus Airways is awaiting enlargement to acquire 100% of its Greek budget sub sidiary Hellas Jet, but admits it is also awaiting the enlargement with some trepidation as "until now we were protected on some of our main routes but these will now be open to competition". Cyprus Airways plans to further integrate Hellas Jet and Cyprus Airways oper ations once full ownership is secured. From 1 May, privately- owned full-service Helios Airways will also introduce a five-times- weekly service from Larnaca to London Heathrow. Polish low-cost start-up Wizz Air is aiming to capture the expanding passenger market resulting from the country's EU membership when it launches services on 19 May linking Katowice to Berlin, London, Milan and Rome using 180-seat Airbus A320s. It plans to build its fleet from an initial six to nine by the end of the year, with 10 more aircraft due to arrive next year. Further north, Latvian carrier AirBaltic will be the first Baltic air line to take advantage of the open ing of the aviation market follow ing EU accession, says Bertolt Flick, AirBaltic president. The carrier has decided to strip its service down to the basics. "Our aim is to offer reg ular air transport from Vilnius for the prices that are competitive not only with other airlines, but also with the prices of buses, cars, trains or ferries," says Flick. Lithuanian Airlines, meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines is seeking to lease its first Airbus A330s in a move that could help the manufacturer with its long-running efforts to place A340-300s with the carrier. Fast-growing Vietnam Airlines last week issued tender notices seek ing leases on two A330-200s, as well as two more Boeing 767-300ERs and two additional Boeing 777-200ERs. It wants deliveries of the A330s and 767s in July, and the 777s in the first quarter of next year. Vietnam Airlines does not cur rently operate A330s, although it has 14 Airbus A320s and A321s, as well as another five A321s on firm order. Airbus has been trying to place long-range A340s with Viet- the only one of the three Baltic flag carriers to be 100% state-owned, is making fleet changes in view of route developments associated with EU membership. Dalijus Zebrauskas, marketing and sales director, says its two Boeing 737- 500s will be used on routes such as Amsterdam, London and Paris, and its turboprops on routes to the for mer Soviet Union. Estonian Air, meanwhile, is adding three addi tional Tallinn-London Gatwick flights a week from 16 May, taking the total to nine. SEE FEATURE P40 nam Airlines for years, and the car rier says they are being considered. The airline is an existing opera tor of 767-300ERs, with seven, and 777-200ERS, with four. It has a fur ther two 777-200ERS on order. Vietnam Airlines is planning to expand its international network over the next two years with sev eral new routes. It said in January that it aims to double its fleet to around 70 aircraft by 2010. New long-haul destinations being studied include London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver. Within Asia it is consid ering services to Jakarta in Indonesia, Mumbai and New Delhi in India, and Nagoya in Japan. GROUNDING TOLGA OZBECK/ ISTANBUL Squirrels' bid for freedom leaves aircraft on tarmac An Airbus A340-300 of THY Turkish Airlines has been grounded for a week at a cost of some $1 million after a cageload of squirrels escaped inside the aircraft. The aircraft (TC-JII) is at the THY Technic facility at Istanbul Ataturk Airport where it is now undergoing a C-check during which it was hoped the 36 missing squirrels would be found. The incident occurred on 12 April when a cargo of 15 cages of squirrels was uploaded in Beijing for carriage to Rome via Istanbul. But at Istanbul two of the animals were seen in the cabin by flight attendants. An inspection revealed that one of the cages was open and 40 squirrels were missing. The aircraft was taken to the hangar and gas used to try to kill the squirrels - but by last week only four had been found, raising safety and health fears. TOLG / ISTANBUL EXPANSION NICHOLAS IONIDES / SINGAPORE Vietnam to add A330s Country Airline Revenues $ million Passengers thousand Cyprus Czech Rep Estonia Hungary Malta Latvia Lithuania Poland Slovakia Slovenia Total Cyprus Airways CSA Czech Airlines Estonian Air Malev Air Malta AirBaltic Lithuanian Airlines LOT Polish Airlines Slovak Airlines* Adria Airways 306 517 51 409 155 48 57 670 14 106 2,333 5.0 40.4 n/a -18.9 0.9 n/a 1.1 27.3 n/a 2.9 58.7 1,660 3,060 320 2,400 1,660 260 260 3,220 100 810 13,750 Note: Results ranked by revenue for financial year 2002 converted into US dollars at aver age rate sourced from Airline Bus/ness/AT! database Op result=operating result *=estimate 12 27 APRIL-3 MAY 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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