Back to News Archive

Astraeus: On 21st November, UK wet-lease operator Astraeus Airlines ceased operations. It’s CEO Hugh Parry in a memo to all staff said that the Board of Directors had concluded that with “little visibility on start dates for proposed winter contracts, the forecast losses during the winter period were simply too great to allow Astraeus to continue in business”. The board decided to place Astraeus into administration and Mr Nick Cropper of Zolfo Cooper was appointed and would “contact each member of staff”. “The start of the Astraeus ACMI model encapsulated the best of these aims with contracts with bmi, Ghana International, Palmair, Trawel and ,of course, Iceland Express. Unfortunately for Astraeus, and in keeping with the difficult economic climate, these long-term contracts disappeared one by one leaving only Iceland Express as a long term client” he added. Iceland Express has now switched to Holidays Czech Airlines (a subsidiary of CSA) as operator effectively sealing Astraeus fate. For a time, when Aer Lingus was looking for a UK AOC, its UK-based services were operated by Astraeus on the Astraeus AOC. Iron Maiden rocker Bruce Dickinson flew airline's last flight on November 21^st from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Manchester landing at about 14.35. The airlines summer 2011 season was also severely impacted by operational issues on the IEX and MOD contracts. Whether through crew shortages, or engines requiring shop visits halfway through the expected normal lifetime, the fact remains that costs outstripped revenue during the key summer months.

British Airways (BA): British Airways will recruit fewer new staff next year as a result of the Government's 8% rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD). British Airways had been planning to create approximately 800 new jobs in 2012 to support growth in its flying programme. Against an already difficult economic background, “these fresh tax hikes make it impossible for us to proceed with this level of recruitment, so we expect to reduce this number by about half” it said in a statement. “We will also postpone our plan to bring an extra Boeing 747 into service next summer, and review the use of two others. This will have consequences for our flying schedule and will affect suppliers in Wales, Northern Ireland and England, undermining efforts to sustain employment levels” it added. Separately, British Airways has appointed Huge Digital to revamp the airline's flagship website ba.com.

easyJet: In a statement on 6th December Carolyn McCall from easyJet, Willie Walsh from IAG, Michael O'Leary from Ryanair and Steve Ridgway from Virgin Atlantic described the Government's consultation on APD as “a sham and a waste of taxpayers' money”. "We are left with a tax that has already cost 25,000 jobs, is doing increasing damage to the prospects for economic recovery - and sends a message to the world that Britain is a difficult and expensive place to do business” they added. Calling for an independent study of APD's overall economic value and impact they concluded by calling for this tax on passengers to be axed.

Flybe: Flybe has welcomed the Department for Transport’s draft Civil Aviation Bill and, in particular, the requirement that airlines publish information about the environmental impact of their operations. Flybe has long-since blazed a trail on transparency in this area, most notably in the form of its groundbreaking Ecolabel Scheme. Launched in June 2007, the ‘ecolabel’ provides Flybe passengers, at the time of booking, with a detailed but user-friendly breakdown of fuel consumption, carbon and NOx emissions as well as noise levels for the aircraft to be used on their journey. Flybe has also become the first airline to offer its passengers the opportunity to purchase ‘Snow and Ice’ travel insurance. The product provides reassuring cover for a unique variety of winter travel issues including a passenger not being able to leave home because their vehicle is prevented from making the journey due to snow and ice, or resultant road closures. Flybe has also secured a loan from the Brazilian Export Development Bank for $500 million (€373.55 million) to help update its fleet. The regional budget airline is buying 35 new Embraer aircraft, with delivery between 2011 and 2016, and will use its new loan to pay for around 20 of these.