Summer 2006 Charters

[ATNotts]

There are various threads running presently generating undue excitement over the IT operator's plans for 2006, citing apparently real flights, real airlines, real schedules and the like.

The reality ( and I'm sorry to bring the "R" word up) is that the Tour Operator's brochures and programs are up with Mills and Boon in the fiction stakes 12 months ahead of the first flights.

Summer 2005 has just about been finalised, Winter 2005/6 is at this stage still enormously fluid, and as for Summer 2006 - well, your guess is as good as mine!

It's also worth noting that charter airlines do not run the flights. The "organ grinder" is the tour operator who charters the flights, the airlines are the "monkeys" who fly the routes they are contracted to fly.

[Leodis]

Yes but don't spoil the fun............:D :D

[Jamesair]

ATnotts

You are, of course, correct about it being the Tour Operators who decide where and who flies the routes, but often it is one and the same thing, with the airline being owned by the operator i.e Thomson...Britannia/Thomsonfly.

I'm not sure where Excel fits into this pattern as they seem to choose some of their own longhaul flights and maybe sell blocks of seats to the operators. Someone might have more information on this.

[ATNotts]

I would think it most unlikely that Excel would take such a risk. Since they are not tied (owned) by one of the big four players, and therefore rely on smaller operators buying smaller blocks of seats this could be risky strategy.

The big issue for the "non-tied" charter carriers is that when bookings are poor, the major players will tend, where they can, to consolidate their flying on to their own in-house airline, leaving the independent high and dry.

The main point to my original posting was, though, that there is little point in putting too much store by the initial tour operators launch programmes, since they sometimes seem to represent a "wish list" rather than an commitment to do something!

[irishcc]

A lot of Excel's capacity is used by Libra holidays for the short haul, and in bases such as NCL and BRS for some of the larger tour operators. Also , they do sell a huge amount of seat only via XL.com , and Freedomflights.com

Long haul flights are operated for Golden Caribbean , and now some SFB for Travel City Direct.

[Jamesair]

thanks irishcc . I know that they are no longer owned by Libra but still do a lot of work for them, presumably under a multi-year contract.

I'm sure I have read from time to time that "Excel are considering flying to "x/y/z" and wondered what this might mean in terms of "going it alone" or "in conjunction with whom?"