OLT Express (Germany)

[davidjohnson6]

I'm just as guilty as anyone else, but we've been using the Southend thread to discuss the German airline OLT Express for rather too long and it's time to set up a separate thread now. The (bankrupt ?) Polish airline has it's own separate thread. http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes/491635-olt-express-2.html

To start the thread off, I notice that at the end of November, the airline has yet to publish any kind of fares / schedule beyond the end of March. Assuming the company intends to keep on flying, anyone know when they intend to start accepting summer season bookings ?

[insuindi]

Their schedule is still very "fluid"... they keep changing frequencies and serving patterns on the routes they are currently serving, e.g. the FMO-VIE and FKB-VIE flights have now become FMO-FKB-VIE, before switching back to direct services in a while, but then at reduced frequency.

OL is busy acquiring charter contracts for the summer period, and I guess they hope for more of those whilst also needing more time to understand the traffic levels on planned sceduled routes before finalising the summer schedule.

[tws123]

I notice that both Saarbrucken and Dresden are on sale for the end of March with the same frequencies as before (Dresden 7x weekly and Saarbrucken operating Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). All SEN have said is that they expect them to operate a full schedule from Summer 2013. Hopefully now the airport has mentioned them on their website with a link to their website and on the route map, perhaps we can see some proper advertising from both the airport and OLT Express Germany. From what I understand the advertising in Germany was good. I get the impression that both sides want this to work but I really don't know what has gone on - There was clearly something not right as how can the airport have scheduled flights coming and going but not advertise the routes? To me it seems that OLT forced the flights on the airport when SEN probably wanted them to come in 2013 when there was enough time to promote the routes and the terminal extension would be well underway with the new arrivals area complete.

[Expressflight]

tws123

I would say that you have summed up the situation correctly and hopefully a proper route launch might result this time.

[Tagron]

It may be worth remembering that at the same time they reduced their planned SEN winter operation they made similar or greater cuts to their other new international routes, viz Munster to CDG and MXP, and Dresden to Budapest.

[davidjohnson6]

Tagron - thank you for pointing out the cuts that OLT have performed over the winter - I hadn't realised the extent

I've had a look through the schedules, focussing on the first full week of March 2013 - i.e. a period in the winter season when there should be maximum flying while excluding Xmas + Easter

Looking at the published schedules for aircraft based at Dresden, Karlsruhe, Munster and Saarbrucken, fitting all the times together into a schedule using 6 aircraft, I've calculated the average length of time across the week that each aircraft is non-stationary - i.e. block time. I'm also assuming that the FMO-VIE route which is approx 420 nm takes 1h45 and not the published 2h45

Dresden1 - 4h06 per day
Dresden2 - 5h57 per day
Saarbrucken - 7h50 per day
Karlsruhe - 6h06 per day
Munster1 - 6h08 per day
Munster2 - 5h24 per day

I accept that this ignores any charter work or time for maintenance.
First departures for each aircraft seems to be around 0645, with last arrival about 20h45, so about 14h00 per day available for commercial service.

Looking across all 6 aircraft, this means airframe have an average block utilisation time of approx 5h55 per day. For an airline that flies almost entirely city routes and thus is less seasonal compared to beach-centric operators, this looks a little on the low side

[harriewillem]

David,

OLT Express (Germany) is the old OLT with the assets of Contact Air and the "sales knowledge" of Cirrus.

Looking at the hours you come with indeed it is not many hours, but the old OLT flew much less per unit.

Imagine "overnight" you have doubled your fleet in numbers and only added the larger aircraft (F100) in your fleet. And you need to make them work (Contact Air were only assets not the ACMI contracts), so you start... This is what OLT did, so no surprise the routes have **** loads, and they are switching.

I hope for all involved they will make it, as it is always nice to have choice... But it is an harsh market!

[insuindi]

OLT Express flights are now bookable via Amadeus (except for FKB flights).

[s2art1e]

As a potential customer, and from a personal and selfish view point, I really wish that both OLT and SEN could confirm one way or another what the future plans are with these flights.

I live West of London and although SEN is 2 hour drive away, I would consider using the Dresden flight when we visit my Fiancee's family, which we do numerous times a year, and likewise my Fiancées family visiting us. I have to say though, I'm sure the route would have more success if it operated from one of the other London airports - I digress.... We are also getting married in Dresden in April and I potentially have a number of friends and family that would use this service if they knew the service would definitely be operating in April - you can only book tickets up to the end of March at the moment.

The point I am making is that there are potentially a lot of people in similar situations i.e. would like to make plans using these services, but because of the indecisiveness of the parties involved they will loose out on the potential business as people look for other alternatives.

Anyway rant over!

[Iver]

Anyone know the status of the Contact Air FK100 crews? Were many furloughed or are most still "working" for OLT Express as it figures out what to do? Did they lose many flight crews in the transition? Not many airlines hiring in Europe and the Fokker 100 type rating is not so popular these days... :confused::eek:

Cheers for any update (and good luck to the pilots/FAs!).

[harriewillem]

s2art1e...

If the customer base was solid they would have been flying long time ago...

I know a few customers :)

"I would consider" "I potentially" and some friends he has as well ;)

People in the same situation like you don't make a route work...

Take a step back look at it... SEN DRS is a **** route.

SEN is not London, and will only works for LOCO's , F100 is not LOCO aircraft...

[insuindi]

I think we can now forget about OLT and F100 on the SEN-DRS route, as Cityjet will start DRS-LCY on 22APR13.

[s2art1e]

This is great news! Thanks for the update.

[s2art1e]

harriewillem - please humour me for a little while longer, but can you explain to me why a F100 is not a LOCO aircraft and the likes of a B737 that other LOCO's use is?

[ron day]

One of their planes was taking off from Luxembourg on Wednesday - any ideas why?

[Hotel Tango]

It had somewhere to go?

[tophat27dt]

OLTexpress are operating a daily afternoon flight ZRH-LUX-ZRH on behalf of Swiss.

[insuindi]

OLT are cancelling most of their new routes. Eg. looks like only the FMO-MUC route surviving for FMO with routes to MXP and CDG not even started, I'd suspect that they will not be seen for scheduled traffic in the UK any time in the near future.

[insuindi]

Further news regarding OLT Express - they have lost the Swiss contract (assuming that's from April onwards) and the Airbus contract for BRE-TLS.

4-5 F100 are leaving the fleet, job cuts will also follow according to several sources.

[Phileas Fogg]

I'm still laughing that, apparently, the F100 isn't a LoCo aircraft ... Down here the LoCo's operate ATR42's, ATR72's, Bombardier Q400's and even Chinese built MA-60's ... F100's would be an upgrade! :)


Rekkof Aircraft is a Dutch company dedicated to restarting the production of upgraded versions of the Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 regional jets as production of those stopped when Fokker was declared bankrupt in 1996. They first announced their plans in late 2003 and intended to first re-launch the Fokker F70NG (NG standing for Next Generation) and if enough orders were placed later also the Fokker F100NG. Notable changes on the NG models would have been winglets and different engines. A possible third unnamed stretched version of the aircraft had also been mentioned.

Rekkof believes there is a sufficient market for the aircraft and that the design can still compete with similar modern regional airliners from manufacturers as Embraer and Bombardier Aerospace. However, while the announcement of a launch customer and the production restart have been called "imminent" by Rekkof a number of times between early 2004 and mid-2005, none of Rekkof's plans have materialised to date. KLM, a current user of Fokker aircraft and suggested as a launch customer, has denied that they are in negotiations with Rekkof and has Embraer regional jets on order to replace their Fokker fleet.

In March 2010 it was announced that the Dutch government granted the company a 20 million Euro loan to help develop the aircraft. Though Rekkof has stated that it prefers to assemble the aircraft in the Netherlands, with Lelystad Airport and Enschede Airport Twente mentioned as possible assembly locations, Bangalore in India had also been mentioned as a possible location with Indian engineering firm Cades Digitech having stated they were planning to invest 300 million US dollars in an assembly plant.[1] Construction on an aircraft parts plant started in November 2011 in the Brazilian state of Goiás in the city of Anápolis (some 35 mi/55 km from state capital Goiânia).[2][3] The works were however suspended due to the crisis in Europe[4] Later on, Rekkof mentioned that assembly of the airplane would have to stay in the Netherlands due to certification procedures.

In released promotional render, a new design called the Fokker F100NXT is shown, with the most notable difference being a redesigned wing, lacking the winglets proposed for the Fokker F100NG. In mid-2008 a new website was launched, and the new design was renamed to XF100.

[Buster the Bear]

Tay engines are thirsty

[ericlday]

So are Bears...especially at Christmas time.....Cheers

[insuindi]

OLT are about to disappear.

Their summer schedule is now available via their schedule pages - this link shows the remaining flights to SEN OLT Express - Flight schedule - London (SEN) (http://fly.oltexpress.de/en/flugplan/london) . The only routes that seem to continue are SCN-MUC and FMO-MUC, as well as FKB-VIE and FMO-VIE (VIE routes at 4/7, plus a 1/7 for DRS-VIE).

OLT has some charters planned for the summer season, but so far the fleet looks mainly to be grounded. With the loss of the Swiss contract plus the Airbus contract loss, I think this airline will soon join many others...

[s2art1e]

It's a shame, hope they are able to fulfil their remaining schedules especially through this Festive period.

I see OLT today started their seasonal service between SEN & DRS. Does anyone have any idea on the loads? Judging by their ticket pricing it would seem that there is at least some seasonal demand.

[Mr A Tis]

Well all the FK100s were flying today, some of them for Swiss.
So when does the Swiss contract end?

Certainly Swiss are making good use of OLT & Helvetic FK100s.

[insuindi]

Swiss contract ends with the winter timetable. I possibly should have been a bit clearer on the timeframe - I'd expect them to disappear during 2013, not immediately (unless they can find some new contracts that would utilise the majority of their fleet).

[s2art1e]

It will be interesting how this all plays out. I guess the one thing in their favour is their parent company is Panta Holdings which also owns Maas Air Leasing and Denim Air.

Between the three entities, they can shuffle their pack and hopefully utilise their assets in different ways (Leasing, Wet leasing, Charter operations etc) until they are hopefully successful in securing some more long term contracts or establish some more lucrative routes.

Does Swiss have the headroom to incorporate the routes OLT ran for them using their own equipment now, or have they simply dropped others creating the capacity?

[Mr A Tis]

If Swiss need substantial leases from Helvetic & OLT for the winter schedules, then how will they operate their 2013 summer schedule? Or have they a shed load of new metal coming?
My money is on OLT & Helvetic renewals for S13.

[davidjohnson6]

Game over.

[mikkie4]

As of midnight tonight OLT express(germany) will be no more,shame another european airline gone to the wall

[MKY661]

Company has been shut down:
OLT Express Germany shuts down and ceases all operations | World Airline News (http://worldairlinenews.com/2013/01/28/olt-express-germany-shuts-down-and-ceases-all-operations/)

Sad to all those affected :(

[harriewillem]

Anyone idea on how much passengers left stranded by OLT? Are we talking hundreds or thousands?

[insuindi]

Effectively stranded hundreds, given their limited operations as of recently.

Flight bookings that have not yet started to be flown will be thousands, particularly if you consider the LX BRE/DRS routes, and I understand FMO-MUC was well booked as of lately.

In fact, OLT was still attending travel fairs on the weekend, selling tickets...

[Iver]

How many pilots impacted? How many of those pilots were originally from Contactair?

Any other FK100 operators hiring in Europe? Not many airlines hiring in Europe in general - perhaps the ME mega-carriers will appreciate their flight experience (even though FK100s not operated beyond Iran Air in the region).

Good luck to all involved!

[Mr A Tis]

OLT operated many Swiss(LX) flights, as does Helvetic with FK100s.
Maybe there is scope for Helvetic to take on some of the OLT FK100s & crews to service LX wet leases (?)
What shape are Helvetic in ? I know the FK100s are pretty thirsty but LX seem to like using them on thinner routes.