..."I dunno about Eurodirect, but Astraeus is run by every experienced pilots....They might not be so good at selling tickets.."
cocolo..
Granted, its always nice to have a flashy website regardless of what type of operations you undertake, but I think you miss the point. Eurodirect was a scheduled carrier selling seats direct to the public. Astraeus is a charter airline with no direct seat sales. Surely, therefore, the focus for them must be on running a safe, solid operation (as it must for any air company) and after all, at the end of the day, the Tour Operator customers must be more interested in getting the right price and that their mututal customers (the passengers) are looked after well in-flight.
Perhaps its an indication of the state of the industry that people have forgotten what independent charter carriers are: ie focus upon customer service in-flight rather than getting side-tracked by ticket sales through integrated multi-national leisure groups.
I say good luck to the little guys like AEU, FJE, EAF etc trying their best (and, more or less, succeeding) in a difficult and crowded market.