Well, Cyprus Mail has certainly been busy today. Here is another interview with the management of the new airline, A-jet or ajet, or whatever, which will now be 80% charter operation. In one day, we've gone from total charter to 80%. Life is certainly interesting.
‘New airline is not Helios in disguise’
By Leo Leonidou
LIBRA HOLIDAYS GROUP (LHG), one of the biggest UK-based tour operators said yesterday that its new charter airline, ajet, was not Helios in disguise but “a completely different business model.”
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Managing Director of the new airline, Bryan Field said “the important thing is that it’s not just a name change”.
Helios Airways will remain as a subsidiary of LHG but without any operations while awaiting the results of the Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board (AAIASB) probe into last August’s crash north of Athens which killed 121 passengers and crew. The results of the investigation are not due out at least until the end of April.
“As part of LHG’s strategy to strengthen its position in the market as the number one specialist to Cyprus, LHG are pleased to announce the launch of ajet airways,” a press release stated.
Andreas Drakou, Chief Executive of LHG, said ajet will “strengthen our position in the air charter market primarily in the UK and Europe.
“More than 80 per cent of our business will be on a chartered basis leaving only some routes on a partly scheduled basis due to high demand from our UK customer base.”
“We expect that this effort will continue contributing positively to the overall Cyprus tourist industry with some 250,000 return passengers in our first year increasing to around 500,000 by 2008.”
Field, who has over 30 years experience with British Airways and was a former director of BA’s CitiExpress, explained that the decision was taken to create a different type of airline in the spring of 2005.
“When LHG bought Helios, they bought a scheduled airline, but what they really need is a charter airline which is better suited to their leisure operations.
“After last August’s accident, plans were put on hold but we decided in December that UK tour operators had stuck with us and this encouraged us. There was a future, provided we could build a good, strong company.”
Seats will be sold on a no-frills basis, online through ajet.com. It will be a ticketless system, which makes travel easier and cheaper for the customer.
“The start-up cost is relatively low,” Field said. “A big overhaul has taken place and we have kept costs as low as possible. We want to learn to walk before we can run and want a year of consolidation. Our aim is to get ajet up and running and profitable in the first 12 months and will then look to start expanding when the leased plane comes back, which will give us a 50 per cent capacity increase.”
Ajet currently have two Boeing 737-800s and will take delivery of a third in May, at which point one of the existing two will be leased out for one year to a UK carrier.
The airline is to start operating on March 25. Field said the company is confident that it will receive an air operator’s certificate and operating license and will demonstrate that it is a competent operator.
He added that the Helios investigation outcome shouldn’t be pre-judged.
“All carriers worldwide will learn from this. Helios wasn’t the first company to have an accident and won’t be the last.”
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