Volare’s naff LTN start

[LTNman]

Volare comes to Luton this month after switching from Gatwick but their arrival at Luton is already an unhappy one.

Luton services will operate for 10 days from 26th October until 4th November, then all services will be suspended and re-commence 4th December.

This is due to Volare being an aircraft down for this period - Luton service were chosen to carry the cuts due a combination of forward sales for Nov and aircraft utilisation (the aircraft would have day-stopped at Luton Tue/Thu/Sat).

[LGS6753]

I heard that Volare has had some leased aircraft reposessed recently.

Anyone know if this is true?

Hope that these incidents are not an indication of problems within the Volare group (which also includes Air Europe).

[Powerjet1]

Can't say I'm surprised. Haven't seen one piece of advertising for any of their routes, anywhere. No one knows anything about it. Seems to have all the hallmarks of HLX, on their short-lived love affair with LTN. If Volare are still using LTN at the start of the summer schedules at the end of Mar 04, it will be a miracle. Classic TBI.

[Buster the Bear]

I guess local advertising is paid for by the accepting airport using Ryanair custom and practice, well until Strasbourg anyway!

Re-possessed aircraft! Please tell Buster more?

Ciao Fly for now!! Or is that Volare(noworsometimes)web?

Look, if you are creating a airline operator, firstly you must tell everyone, then you must fly the flippin' routes.

From the London Luton airport web site tonight:

Italian Carnival as VOLAREWEB.COM transfer UK operations to London Luton Airport!!

Established airline VOLARE today announced the transfer of all its UK operations to London Luton Airport, with the launch of low cost services to three prime Italian destinations. Under their new low-cost branding of VOLAREWEB.COM the airline are moving their entire UK base to London Luton Airport, where from 26th October they will be flying daily services to Venice (Marco Polo), Rimini and Cagliari.

So who is blatantly telling porkies?

[mmeteesside]

The Volare Group includes:

Volare
Air Europe
Volar (ex LTE)

Scott

[The_Bean_Counter]

newspaper reports in Ireland yesterday stated that a high court injunction was obtained by ILFC (leasing company) to prevent Volare moving 2 large airbus aircraft from Dublin due to a catalogue of missed payments and refusal to pay current outstanding amounts

[FlyLowCost]

Volare Group situation is the follow:


1) Volareweb division is performing very well. Good yield and high load factor on the domestic network and on a large part of European routes. They are using 18 A320.

2) Air Europe is still alive only to keep long haul rights. They have only one A320 in PE livery, but they put PE code on all long haul network.

3) Volare Airlines got the worst situation. They had all the old debits, low demand on charter flights and they provide all the fleet and F/As-pilots to all the group divisions.

So in few word only Volareweb is good, all the rest is really in a bad situation.
Plan is to try to sell all the airlines to a big company, or shout down PE and VA and keep only Volareweb.

At the moment:

A320 I-PEKO (stored in DUB)
A321 I-PEKM (stored in DUB)
A320 F-XXXX (stored in SXF)

2 A332 in MXP.

Reason of the situation:
1) Old debits when VA bought PE
2) Cost of the VAweb start up
3) Low demand in charter market
4) Strong cpmpetition in long haul charter from L4, BV e GJ

In any case Volareweb will start from mid december two new routes:
VCE-BCN
FCO-BCN

Their advertising in Italy are really good. They used all the main newspapers, radios and also national TV.
Their brand in Italy is well known, like Ryanair, maybe more in the south part of the country.

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

Buster - that text has been on the website since it was officially announced that Volare were going to Luton. there has been no attempt to update the words to reflect the true position.

Of course the first news of the move was announced ..... on PPRUNE ... wherelse?

[virginblue]

My understanding is that Volare tried to re-negotiate lease rates for the A320 fleet with the lessors and one of the lessors refused to accept the suggested cuts, resulting in three aircraft being reposessed.

[Lite]

I have been very disappointed with the travel opportunities open to people wanting to visit Rimini from the United Kingdom.

When Ryanair dropped the low cost service from London/Stansted there were no other direct links to Rimini besides the once a week charter flights by MyTravel Airways from Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham.

There was a lot of excitement from my family when MyLite announced they were to launch a Birmingham to Rimini route however that was quickly abandoned in favour of another Malaga rotation.

I have not seen a bit of advertising from VolareWeb, the only way I know about the RMI flights ex LTN is because of reading airline industry magazines.

I am certain Volareweb's routes ex LTN would do very well if they only advertised a bit more. Ask the average Brit about a low cost airline and they'd just say EasyJet so ... advertising would help!

[Buster the Bear]

As Volareweb are only moving thier UK operation from Gatwick to Luton, marketing should be much easier than announcing a totally new service.

When was the last time an established BAA customer left to come to Luton? Any ideas Mr 1 BRAVO?

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

Buster - even with my steadily advancing years, I can not remember when an airline totally left a BAA airfield for Luton ... although maybe the years have affected my memory! As you know, it's usually the other way round.

The only thing I can think of would be in the late 1960's or early 1970's when Air Bridge used to run Vanguards/Merchantmens on Heathrow - Brussels for DHL and they moved the whole operation to LHR.

Maybe EGGW Relic will know - maybe ask him monday night before he has too many!!!

[Eddie Ginley]

Buster / Olney 1 Bravo

Reckon this is the first time (effectively "in living memory") - and v.nice for lil' ole Luton to be able to stick one on BAA for a change...

Volareweb.com are clearly after the large Italian ex-pat visiting friends and relations market in Bedfordshire / Herts and North London - so it makes complete sense for them to leave Gatwick for Luton

Sorry got to go now - got some Bingo to call...

Love Eddie

[Buster the Bear]

Eddie, where have you been and as usual you are correct?

Mr 1 Bravo, are the drinks on you (From your large hospitality budget)?

The time is 19:50, what is that roar I hear? No not the Tiger, but Ryanair off to Dublin!

[LTNman]

Ryanair started life flying Waterford to Gatwick then transferred operations to Luton when they got their 748’s. Mind you they went onto Stansted leaving only a token Dublin service.

[LGS6753]

Well, it arrived.
40 minutes late, but an impressively swift turn-round.
Don't know how many pax though?

[Powerjet1]

Oh dear!. After only about a week into their revised launch out of LTN, the Rimini route has already been cancelled twice, in consecative days, due to lack of pax. If they can't get the pax in the the run up to Xmas, methinks an early chop of the route, at least for the winter, is on the cards.

Of the other destinations, the Venice routing is doing ok and the Cagliari is looking extremely good. Hope it does not end up doing a HLX, which started from LTN this time last year, only to leave in June.

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

If you mean yesterdays (i.e. Sunday) and todays flights being cancelled ... then todays is operating according to the Luton website.

I'm also told that yesterday's flight was cancelled due to thick fog at Rimini, which is borne out by the NOAA Weather website - I see there is an ILS at Rimini but don't know if it is CAT3

[Powerjet1]

Well that lasted a long time didn't it. Both Venice & Rimini flights pulled from 11 Jan 2004. Continuing Cagliari ops 3 x weekly where loads seem to be ok based on a CAG-LTN-CAG operation. Are they heading back to LGW for the summer?. I thought HLX was short- lived but this takes the biscuit. Yet another loss to TBI who seem incapable of keeping any airline at LTN unless its easy, ryan, monarch. No wonder no foreign LCCs want to come to LTN, it always seems doomed before they start.

[LTNman]

Helios is a Luton success but the only one I can think of. Maybe it is down to Stansted sniffing out the airlines that are going to fail leaving Luton to pick up the business or is it just bad luck?

Easyjet has shown that there is strong demand for services from Luton in fact they have just dropped their Zurich service from Gatwick as they can’t make any money from it while their service from Luton continues to make a profit.

Luton will pick up business as slots become scarce at Stansted but the challenge will be to hang onto business when the second runway at Stansted opens. Ryanair and TNT were established Luton based airlines when the might of BAA looked to Luton for business for their “new” Stansted airport. I don’t seem to remember them poaching airlines out of Gatwick.

While the government has given the green light for expansion at Stansted and Luton, TBI are a company that hasn’t got any money and now can’t even fund the new pier to the north apron in this financial year. Work starts on the new dual carriageway into Luton Airport in the New Year but that is government funded.

It will only be a matter of time before TBI sell their Luton asset now that permission for some serious growth has been given. Lets hope it is to a company with vision and money. :ok:

[Powerjet1]

Ltn Man

You are right. Helios has been a great success at Luton and despite them now adding STN & LGW to their programme, I understand they are even considering increasing their schedules to twice daily on certain days, not just saturdays. for the summer. I believe they have also secured slots at LHR to start ops mid-april.

Have to agree with your other comments re TBI. A sale of TBI now expansion has been given the green light must be the best option.

You mention that work on the dual carriageway into the airport starts in the New Year. I was under the impression that Sept/Oct 2004 was the earliest start date, even being delayed to Feb 2005 if a a Public Enquiry was called for.

[Buster the Bear]

Try booking Luton-Venice during Feb or March, certainly on the numerous dates I tried, despite the timetable telling me of a daily service, you cannot book.

What is going on?

[LTNman]

Wake up bear, Powerjet1 has just said that the service ends on January 11th

[Powerjet1]

Buster

Service is withdrawn from 11 Jan except Cagliari. Volare customer service even confirmed by email. Did add a vague statement saying they hoped the route could be reinstated sometime in the future.

[LTNman]

as posted to L-A-F:

Wondered how long it would take for that one to leak out - 10 days
must be a record.

It is not quite as quoted (but close)
Yes regular service to Venice is being dropped from 11th or 12th Jan
Regular service to Rimini is being suspended also from 11th or 12th
Jan - but the route will re-commence for the Summer (from end March?)
Frequency to Cagliari is being increased from 3 to 4x weekly from
11th or 12th Jan

There may, however, be occasional flights to Venice and Rimini on a
charter basis.

Reason for the changes is poor sales on Venice & Rimini but strong
sales on Cagliari. Like Half-Lload Express last year one could be
forgiven for missing the advertising for these routes - which has
mainly been concentrated on the ethnic Italian poulation rather than
the UK public at large.

Volares were not the only Italian airline to show an interest in
(and even file slots for) Luton-Venice this Winter so lets hope
someone else will step in at least for tthe Summer.
NRM

[WHBM]

There are poster ads for the Volare services to Italy on the London Underground. I noticed one at Bond Street station a few days ago, which must be an expensive (and effective) site. So not true to say no publicity.

[atco-matic]

Yes I saw those posters on the underground too... there are also advertisements on some bus stops in London.

[Powerjet1]

I don't think the Venice routing was helped by the timings. Although the inbound Venice-Luton arr at 10.10, the return on the Luton-Venice was not until 15.40 because the Rimini & Cagliari ops are fitted in as well. To make it more attractive to the UK pax, it would probably have been better to forget about the Rimini ops until at least the summer and do the return Luton-Venice at 10.40. I used the LTN-VCE when it started for the first time at the end of Oct. Due to the late arrival of the Rimini flight, we never left LTN until 17.50 and arrived in VCE until 20.50. Not the best time for the one and only flight. Only about 50 pax onboard but the cc were really friendly and helpful and the flight good. Shame.

[Buster the Bear]

So how many folk booked seats on non existent flights? The routes were available for oniline sales back in the autumn, I know because I checked for a friend who wanted to go to Venice on business, once toward the end of Jan and again in Feb 2004. Fares were very cheap at the time as well.

The local papers have been running VolareWeb adverts in them for quite a few weeks stating all five destinations (Inc one via Marco Polo). I hate the local commercial radio stations, so I have no idea if this media outlet has been utilised?

All very bizzare, but typical for Luton airport.

Anyway, what happened to Skybus International and the Gay airline?

Never a dull moment in Beds! (Luton, Beds)

[CAP670]

Second runway at Stansted? LTNMan you're living in cloud cuckoo land!

BAA can't fund a second runway except by cross-funding from LHR and LGW or by increasing the charges at STN. TBI will take legal action if this happens.

BAW, VIR and BMI have also all threatened legal action if the charges at LHR are upped to pay for the STN second runway.

Any increase in charges at STN or LGW would however, finally make LTN more competitive depite the £3/passenger TBI has to pay to the Luton Borough Council.

Also, RYR and EZY are threatening legal action if BAA increases the charges at STN simply to fund the second runway.

And all this even before the NIMBY's come out fighting and take it to the courts in the UK and Europe.

Second runway at Stansted? Not this side of 2010!!

TBI is reportedly extremely happy with the outcome of the White Paper since a new runway at Luton was never really a viable business option. However, with the tacit 'nod' from the Government to allow Luton to extend the existing runway eastwards, to further improve infrastructure and to increase passenger throughput above the current 10M per year maximum, TBI must be ripe for a take-over.

The construction of the first pier is dependant on additional services and airlines, two of which are RYR and the Now. Since RYR's additional services and Now's new services have yet to materialise, TBI ain't going to spend money unnecessarily.

But just watch those shares move upwards...



:ok:

[Buster the Bear]

I have just had a glance at the Volareweb timetable for summer 04. Only 2 destinations, Cagliari and Venice to be operated 4 times per week.

Rather a bit less than thier operation from Gatwick last summer, which they moved to Luton for winter 03/04.

[Powerjet1]

Buster

I think you will find it is only one for summer 04, Cagliari x 4. Last Venice ops, 7 March. Complete waste of time really, moving from LGW.

[Buster the Bear]

Powerjet1, you are correct. Cagliari 4 per week, unlike the operation they moved from Gatwick to Luton (4 destinations, 2 return flights per day from Italy to Luton).

The Lo-Co bubble has burst! But I have been saying this for ages.

[GEENY]

Volare started as a charter airline (ex-aero taxi people),transformed itself into a scheduled full service airline (even code-shared with Alitalia) and of recently is trying the LO-CO approach.The account is in deep red,anything else to try?
No more smiles on certain faces (Soddu,Zoccai and friends),they join the likes of Tanzi,Cragnoti and other clowns.
Will the public money be spent on the lost causes again,I would say yes,but who cares?

[mindpower]

Well said Geeny.....

It's strange that nobody has bought this fact up about Volare's terrible financial situation .
They are waiting for this Argentian businessman to bring fresh cash flow otherwise they are in deep trouble . In the meantime three A320 and two A330's have been repossed and it seems that another two A330 will be leaving very shortly. Flights are leaving without catering, wages are being paid towards the end of the month and the general morale of the people is at an all time low .
It isn't a very good time for most of the airlines here in Italy (Gandalf, Minerva, Azzurra ) so I hope, for the sake of the people that work at Volare that at least this complicated financial operation will go through.

[pug munter]

If Volare charters are departing without catering, surely the passengers must be squealing to tour organisers? Does this mean that Volare's reputation will quickly become known and hasten its demise? What excuses do the crew give?

Insurance?

Parmlat2?