New European Low cost airline backed by major middle east airline & TUI
 

What do we make of this?
New European low cost airline using TUI 737s, Air Berlin 737s & Fly Nikki A320s
New low-cost airline to become one of Europe?s ?big six? | The Independent

Well there is no shortage of capacity in the European market so they will have to pull customers away from other carriers which, unless they have something new or different to offer, will mean having to undercut their rivals which will be a tall order assuming they want to make a profit.

Maybe Simon Calder doesn't know what low-cost means. No-where in his article does it say how this airline will achieve low operating costs.

"With 60 aircraft, it will be one of the largest budget airlines in Europe, alongside Ryanair, easyJet, Vueling, Norwegian and Wizz Air."

With a comment like that we can safely conclude that Mr. Calder doesn't know much, if anything, about the subject.

After all the "success" stories Etihad has had in Euroope, they will start a low-cost carrier with two different aircraft types that are essentially the same size?

Good luck with that.

Not much new capacity here. It's the former Air Berlin and Tuifly tourist business.

I thought this had more to do with restructuring Air Berlin, to try to keep it going, or swapping the deckchairs on the Titanic if you prefer.

Personally from seeing Calder over many many years he normally gives a good picture so don't get too hung up. Only time will tell..

How come the three groups have a surplus number of aircraft, that are not gainfully employed already?

I thought this was just a device to keep Air Berlin group (AB own Niki) going without breaching limits on ownership by non-EU nationals but that's possibly just me being a cynic

It surely is.

German media reporting that after 30 years Air Berlin is leaving PMI handing over the operation to the "new Niki".

AB now plan to concentrate on long haul - basically reverting to the business plan of LTU who they took over many years ago, and was probably the beginning their overstretching.

How the second largest airline in Germany can't make a fist of a european operation when Lufthansa can't guarantee anyone a flight on a given day because of the abysmal state of their labour relations is beyond me. Omnishambles doesn't come close to describing the incompetence of AB, and the situation in LH / Eurowings.

JV ?

No chance of success.

It will be a bottomless pit where both have to chuck huge amounts of money.

What is their Brand offering to consumers ?

Hmm, still 5 big no frills operators in Europe?

So much for Michael O'Leary's predicted "bloodbath"!

I can understand (just) the shuffling between Air Berlin & Nikki but Whats in it for TUI?
TUI already had Hapag Lloyd Express, that had an established large
Customer base and ditched it.
I'd have also thought Vienna is hardly a low cost airport to be based at.

Bratislava (BTS) down the road could be.

If using FR-speak, it would be "Vienna-East".

How many airlines gone since 2008 ?

How many others are making money and have cash reserves ?

See the quote above, one of the "largest budget airlines in Europe" along with 5 others. It was not about airlines in general.

The "bloodbath" implied only 2: FR and U2.

Not my interpretation of it.