patmustard - Astraeus is an '
independent' charter airline.
This, in part, means that it is
not directly associated with a 'vertically integrated' operation, e.g. such as, say, MyTravel, that might have travel agents in the High Streets, and an in-house airline to fly their passengers, and affiliated hotels in resorts, and resort reps, etc, veritably the rack’m high sell’m cheap type operations ( which I’ll admit is something of a product generalisation ).
Likewise AEU is not a scheduled service operator ( albeit AEU might supply seat capacity to a travel agent customer that is selling what amounts to scheduled service ).
Accordingly, AEU provides:
- Contracted seat capacity to the smaller 'independent / specialist travel companies' – where these companies are somewhat loath to fly their customers ( the passengers ) on a competitors airline and / or that their sales volume / bookings are such that they couldn’t fill the larger type of aircraft that’s typically in use with the vertically integrated carriers.
- Contracted seat capacity to the energy supply industry ( i.e. the folks searching / developing oil & gas fields ) in typically far flung / remote destinations. This is very much ‘thin route / small load’ stuff, but one which demands high levels of onboard service ( veritably business class ) - hence why AEU now use a B757 with IFE and only 186 seats @ 36” seat pitch for these flights.
- Contracted ‘thin-route’ capacity for the vertically integrated operations, i.e. the big holiday companies contract AEU to operate flights ( i.e. using 148 seat B737’s ) where it would not be economical to operate these trips using their own in-house ( typically much larger ) aircraft.
- Various ad-hoc charter requests – typically during the shoulder seasons and, again, where the loads tend to be light and / or specialised.
- AOC hosting - such as for Iceland Express where AEU supply (two) B737’s and pilots ( and IE supply their own Icelandic lovelies as cabin crew ).
In any event AEU do not
sell direct to the general Public – there’s no need to and it’s not part of the business plan..
I hope this helps to explain the whys and wherefores as to why you can’t procure a ticket direct from AEU.
Nb. You can see
some the companies who contract with AEU by navigation the links under ‘
Where we fly to’ menu item – where this is not a definitive listing.
green-eyedbabe - just seen your post
( hence the edit ).
The present in-flight sales system is supposedly going to be replaced with a computerised one. Indeed, from what I understand of it, this will begin to happen after this / '04 summer season has finished ( Nb. It'd be pandemonium to attempt to introduce it in the summer ). It is to be hoped that this new system will take a lot of the angst out what happens presently and will aid & abet speedy in-flight sales as well as improve the accuracy of pre-flight / post-flight stocktaking and reconciliation.
The other issue you mention can only be addressed by directing it through the relevant management channels – though I’ll admit that it could prove to be controversial.
