Et hop, de l'eau a mon moulin et une nouvelle histoire triste aux nouvelles du jour. Voyons si Elysair tiendra plus de 3 mois.
Australian all-business class airline OzJet has suspended its entire scheduled operation and will downsize its workforce to become a charter operator.
The carrier, which launched operations on 29 November 2005 and had its last scheduled flight last night, currently has 120 employees and will “lose about half” that, founder and major owner Paul Stoddart says from Melbourne, where the airline is based.
“We didn’t get the passenger loads. Some passenger loads were around 70% but there were too many with single digit or passenger loads in the teens. Our average passenger load factor was 39% and the yield was not brilliant,” says Stoddart.
The airline aimed to attract high-yield business class passengers but soon after launching resorted to offering heavy discounts to try and boost passenger numbers.
Stoddart says the carrier has “lost in excess of A$10 million ($7.3 million) since it launched” and “what tipped it for me” was the realisation that there was no increase in passenger loads after the Australia Day weekend late in January.
He says OzJet also expected its Melbourne flights to be fully booked during the Melbourne Commonwealth Games over 15-26 March but instead plenty of seats remained unsold.