serko
19th Dec 2003, 20:47
"City may lose out over new airline Dec 19 2003
By Neil Hodgson Liverpool Echo
A NEW UK domestic airline wants to set up in Liverpool flying to 41 UK and Irish destinations in direct competition with the rail industry.
Air-Train proposes to use 32 200-seat jets with 16 permanently based here, creating almost 600 jobs at Liverpool John Lennon airport.
But airport chiefs say they do not have the capacity to handle the ambitious scheme and Air-Train founder Neil Bellion says he may now have to take his proposal to Manchester.
Airline consultant Mr Bellion, 39, from Liverpool, is part of a four-strong team aiming to raise £65m on the Alternative Invesment Market, the junior stock market, in the first quarter of 2004 to fund their plans.
He sees no shortage of investors: "Richard Branson recently floated an airline in Australia which was 10-times over subscribed, and easyJet's flotation was also oversubscribed.
"We want to get our funding away in the first quarter of the year and we have to have an airport in our prospectus. Manchester is looking more likely."
Mr Bellion, whose last project was setting up an airline in Kurdistan, said Liverpool has turned down his proposal but offered to help him set up at Finningley in York-shire, a small airport which parent company Peel bought earlier this year.
He said: "I've been talking with Liverpool for two years and I'm still looking at JLA, but they say they don't have the capacity.
"They need to raise their ambitions in terms of their infrastructure and their airport. There's bags of land available."
He added: "They don't want to spend the money on the infrastructure we need. Finningley isn't an option because it won't be open for another year."
He explained the idea behind using Liverpool as a "hub and spoke" operation is because it is ideally located in the middle of the country.
Planes would link virtually all the UK, from Northern Ireland to the tip of Scotland, London and the Channel Islands.
Mr Bellion said: "For example, if someone from Newcastle wanted to get to Birmingham they would fly to Liverpool and change planes onward to Birmingham.
"Liverpool would be like the Crewe station of the air industry."
Tickets would range from as little as £9 one way, with the most expensive return fare priced at £128.
"All fares will be lower than the train," said Mr Bellion.
"Flights will be ticketless. We'd issue smart cards. Passengers would book online and we would credit their smart card for the flight. Electronic readers would then allow their card access at the gate."
He said the business could handle 256 flights a day, carrying 22 million passengers a year, making Liverpool the country's fourth busiest airport.
And because most passengers would not carry luggage there was an opportunity to make Liverpool the UK's premier hub for same day mail and parcel delivery.
Although Air-Train would be a domestic operation he said it represents a fantastic opportunity for Liverpool to take long-haul transatlantic flights and offer passengers onward planes to anywhere in the country.
Mr Bellion says he has already been offered 33 Boeing 757s by Thomas Cook Airlines: "Because of the state of the holiday industry they are using smaller planes."
Liverpool JLA corporate affairs manager Robin Tudor said: "We're talking to a number of start-up operations and would include Neil Bellion in that.
"We do have a problem in that what he is proposing we couldn't accommodate in time.
"Our expansion plans have been agreed with the local authority and we can't divert from that.
"We have to be realistic as to what we can accommodate within the guidelines as agreed with the local authority. There's no point in kidding anybody if we can't cope with it. Parking the planes was a problem in itself.
"Finningley is a new airport with huge potential but we're still in discussions and we are certainly not saying 'go away we're not interested'."
By Neil Hodgson Liverpool Echo
A NEW UK domestic airline wants to set up in Liverpool flying to 41 UK and Irish destinations in direct competition with the rail industry.
Air-Train proposes to use 32 200-seat jets with 16 permanently based here, creating almost 600 jobs at Liverpool John Lennon airport.
But airport chiefs say they do not have the capacity to handle the ambitious scheme and Air-Train founder Neil Bellion says he may now have to take his proposal to Manchester.
Airline consultant Mr Bellion, 39, from Liverpool, is part of a four-strong team aiming to raise £65m on the Alternative Invesment Market, the junior stock market, in the first quarter of 2004 to fund their plans.
He sees no shortage of investors: "Richard Branson recently floated an airline in Australia which was 10-times over subscribed, and easyJet's flotation was also oversubscribed.
"We want to get our funding away in the first quarter of the year and we have to have an airport in our prospectus. Manchester is looking more likely."
Mr Bellion, whose last project was setting up an airline in Kurdistan, said Liverpool has turned down his proposal but offered to help him set up at Finningley in York-shire, a small airport which parent company Peel bought earlier this year.
He said: "I've been talking with Liverpool for two years and I'm still looking at JLA, but they say they don't have the capacity.
"They need to raise their ambitions in terms of their infrastructure and their airport. There's bags of land available."
He added: "They don't want to spend the money on the infrastructure we need. Finningley isn't an option because it won't be open for another year."
He explained the idea behind using Liverpool as a "hub and spoke" operation is because it is ideally located in the middle of the country.
Planes would link virtually all the UK, from Northern Ireland to the tip of Scotland, London and the Channel Islands.
Mr Bellion said: "For example, if someone from Newcastle wanted to get to Birmingham they would fly to Liverpool and change planes onward to Birmingham.
"Liverpool would be like the Crewe station of the air industry."
Tickets would range from as little as £9 one way, with the most expensive return fare priced at £128.
"All fares will be lower than the train," said Mr Bellion.
"Flights will be ticketless. We'd issue smart cards. Passengers would book online and we would credit their smart card for the flight. Electronic readers would then allow their card access at the gate."
He said the business could handle 256 flights a day, carrying 22 million passengers a year, making Liverpool the country's fourth busiest airport.
And because most passengers would not carry luggage there was an opportunity to make Liverpool the UK's premier hub for same day mail and parcel delivery.
Although Air-Train would be a domestic operation he said it represents a fantastic opportunity for Liverpool to take long-haul transatlantic flights and offer passengers onward planes to anywhere in the country.
Mr Bellion says he has already been offered 33 Boeing 757s by Thomas Cook Airlines: "Because of the state of the holiday industry they are using smaller planes."
Liverpool JLA corporate affairs manager Robin Tudor said: "We're talking to a number of start-up operations and would include Neil Bellion in that.
"We do have a problem in that what he is proposing we couldn't accommodate in time.
"Our expansion plans have been agreed with the local authority and we can't divert from that.
"We have to be realistic as to what we can accommodate within the guidelines as agreed with the local authority. There's no point in kidding anybody if we can't cope with it. Parking the planes was a problem in itself.
"Finningley is a new airport with huge potential but we're still in discussions and we are certainly not saying 'go away we're not interested'."