Hapag Lloyd Express
Financial Times; Dec 20, 2002
Hapag-Lloyd Express, the German low-cost airline launched this month by Tui, the world's largest travel group, is adding a second operating base at Hanover, as it expands rapidly to challenge the pioneer no-frills carriers led by Ryanair and EasyJet.
The airline started flying earlier this month from Cologne/Bonn airport to seven destinations in Italy, Germany and the UK with a fleet of four Boeing 737-700s.
Charles Gurassa, chairman of Tui airline group, said yesterday that the airline would add a further seven destinations from next April including Manchester , Madrid, Barcelona-Reus and
Valencia in Spain, Nice, Marseilles and Rome
The fleet at Cologne/Bonn would be expanded to seven Boeing 737-700s, and an eighth aircraft would be based at Hanover to serve three initial destinations: Rome, Venice and Nice.
Tui is planning to expand Hapag-Lloyd to a fleet of 12 by the end of next year and to at least 24 aircraft in 2005.
Mr Gurassa is targeting 1.3m passengers in 2003 rising to more than 5m within three years. The main focus of expansion will be the German market, which is expected to account for around 70 per cent of its passengers
Germany has become the main battleground after the UK for the low-cost airline sector. Eurowings, an affiliate of Lufthansa, launched its own no-frills operator, Germanwings, at Cologne/ Bonn in October
Buster is off having his claws clipped, so asked that his favourite meal post this instead!