Sundair

[davidjohnson6]

New company that wants to operate flights from Berlin, Frankfurt and Kassel. Website says they plan to start flight operations in April 2017. No, I have no idea why they are based in Stralsund

Personally I'm dubious about this company - but then again I'm usually cynical about most airline start-ups; I'm hoping someone will convince me that the people running this company know what they're doing

Anyone know anything about them (as opposed to just using Google) ?

[virginblue]

My understanding is that some key personnel is of Hamburg Airways / Hamburg International origin, so there is staff around that knows how to run an airline. If successfully is another question... Sundair's founder hails from Stralsund and he has gone on the record that it does not matter where an airline's administration is headquartered. The idea behind the location could well be that labor and facilities are rather inexpensive in that region.

Sundair is 50 per cent owned by Schauinsland Reisen, a German tour operator that will celebrate its 100year anniversary in 2018. It has a turnover of roughly 1bn EUR. Sundair is Schauinsland's in-house airline.

[davidjohnson6]

Start of operatons seems to be delayed until 01-July-2017
Management are giving some spiel about aircraft availability but I'm not sure I fully understand what the reason behind it all is. The only thing I do know is that for an airline flying between Germany and beach towns, they are missing out on plenty of revenue in June

[Harry Wayfarers]

Sundair's founder hails from Stralsund and he has gone on the record that it does not matter where an airline's administration is headquartered.

He is quite correct, just look at the isolated call centres of the modern era, even back in the old days there was a time when British Caledonian (I think it was BCal anyway) relocated their operations to and ran their airline from the Ideal Home Exhibition.

[virginblue]

Management are giving some spiel about aircraft availability

Well, they say they have been so successful that because of the great success they will not start early, but late - as they now intend to use A320s instead of A319s and only crappy A320s were available on the market, the launch had to be postponed until a later date when more bling bling examples are available.

Something along these lines... At least they don't lack creativity coming up with funny stories.

[Harry Wayfarers]

I'm sure there are plenty of parked-up MD80/90's, never mind whatever else, available and/or parked-up in a desert someplace, many a start-up has leased one type of aircraft for a first season before replacing it with their permanent fleet for the next season etc.

[nohold]

Former TAM/LATAM Brasil A320 (a year 2011 frame) arrived at Abu Dhabi in May 2017.

[Heathrow Harry]

" parked-up MD80/90's, never mind whatever else, available and/or parked-up in a desert someplace"

you'd never fly with the airline again.................

[virginblue]

They are still awaiting their AOC from the German CAA. In the meantime, they are leasing in aircraft.

[davidjohnson6]

virginblue - any idea as to form whom they are leasing aircraft, and also why is the AOC is taking longer than they had originally hoped ?

[Harry Wayfarers]

" parked-up MD80/90's, never mind whatever else, available and/or parked-up in a desert someplace"

you'd never fly with the airline again.................

The MD is quite a nice piece of kit, I hate clambering over passengers so get on the 2 abreast seating side then problem pretty much solved, also no need for aircraft steps so can operate to airports/airfields where other types wouldn't dare!

[virginblue]

As far as I see it, the aircraft were not ready in time. There is now a first aircraft in full Sundair colors undergoing mods in Abu Dhabi:

http://www.ostsee-zeitung.de/var/storage/images/oz/vorpommern/stralsund/wirtschaft/sundair-ist-bereit-zum-abheben/594152865-4-ger-DE/Sundair-ist-bereit-zum-Abheben_pdaArticleWide.jpg

The delay has been partly caused by the last-minute switch from A319s to A320s. The two A320s they were able to source are ex LATAM aircraft.

First flight is now scheduled for July 20. In the meantime, they are using third-party aircraft. There will only be two aircraft for this summer season, based at TXL and KSF. The FRA base has been scrapped and FRA-passengers are now booked on Condor. The third aircraft will join Sundair for the summer 2018 season.

[davidjohnson6]

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/sundair-fliegt-unter-den-schutzschirm

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