clickair carries 4.6 million in passengers in 2007; most punctual airline serving Spain
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Spanish LCC, clickair, carried 4.6 million passengers in 2007 and, according to Eurocontrol statistics, achieved top ranking as the most punctual operator at Spanish airports †on both international and domestic services.
clickair enters 2008 ready to deliver a number of inflight service enhancements, including for the first time, the option to allow business travellers to pay for the middle seat on the first few rows of the A320 aircraft (the B and E seats) for a supplement of EUR30. clickair is marketing this – on more than 200 flights as its ‘Premium Plus Seat’, along with its existing Premium Seat (EUR10 for the first few aisles and emergency seat rows). The Premium Plus Seat is now available for flights on sale from 28-Mar-08 will be available until 15-Jun-08.
In addition, clickair it is adding its click&fly check in at more airports around the network. The latest is BAA-owned London Heathrow and London Gatwick will follow soon. click&fly eliminates the need for the check in process, enabling UK and European-originating passengers to select their seat and print their boarding pass as soon as the booking is confirmed - even if the date of travel is six months’ away. click&fly is now available on most other clickair routes from Spain.
“The Spanish airline market is fiercely competitive and our strategy to keep one step ahead is to continue to grow our network, refine the number of frequencies in some weaker markets in order to achieve this and start consolidating after what has been a period of phenomenal growth,” said Alex Cruz, CEO.
From Oct-06, during clickair’s first three months of operation, the Barcelona-based carrier flew nearly 400,000 passengers on an initial six routes with three aircraft, so 2007 traffic actually increased 1,050%.
“Right now, the key to success is all about being realistic, especially with these escalating fuel prices. Even so, we still expect to show a 60% increase in overall passenger growth this year with the planned new routes we have and other destinations such as Malta, Dubrovnik and Moscow we are reintroducing for the summer,” Mr Cruz stated.
This week, clickair will accept its 23rd A320 from Airbus, and, in Feb-08, will acquire its 24th.
“We will continue monitoring closely the evolution of the market and we are prepared to make additional capacity increases in 2008 if we believe they will be financially sustainable,” Mr Cruz added.
New Winter routes include Palma, Asturias, Alicante, and Brussels from Barcelona. Tel Aviv, Cairo and Istanbul are currently planned for the European Summer.
Clickair kicked off 2008 with the launch of five daily services from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca on 01-Jan-08. On 01-Feb-08, the airline will add Barcelona-Asturias and on 24-Feb-08 will commence new services from Barcelona to Alicante. On 01-Mar-08, the airline will add twice daily service to Brussels, taking its total number of routes from its Barcelona home base to 41.
Additional new domestic and international routes, commencing from the Summer schedule, will be announced shortly to further strengthen the current 50-strong European network. Some await slot approval.
clickair operates a 23-strong fleet of A320 aircraft, with 180 seats in a one-class configuration. Its headquarters are at Barcelona El Prat Airport. clickair entered the low cost airline market as “probably the best financed start up in Europe” – with an initial capital of EUR120 million. It started out with three A320s serving Barcelona to Seville, Geneva, Zurich and Lisbon and between Seville and Paris-Orly. clickair is backed by five major Spanish companies, each with a 20% share of the equity. These are: Iberia; Nefinsa (parent of Spanish regional carrier Air Nostrum); Spanish construction group ACS, through its Cobra affiliate; hotel and resort company Iberostar and Querus Equity, a private equity fund, part of the Agrolimen Group.
(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 10-Jan-08.
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clickair carries 4.6 million in passengers in 2007; most punctual airline serving Spain 
