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Companies News 2004

NEWSFLASH
THOMSONFLY!! at last another chance to put Bournemouth on the map, this exciting news will be announced Wednesday 13th October, the routes will also be announced. Hopefully a couple of new routes desperatly need that are currently far too expensive.

Airport welcomes new airline, to be announced Wednesday 13th October.

Airport opens new lounge bar in the main terminal.

Ryanair opens new route to Barcelona ( Gerona ).

Airport Employs new staff, new MD and Marketing Manager for 2004.

Airport issues new advertising contract to www.airport-advertising.com

BYE BYE BUZZ

News that Buzz has been bought by Ryanair for a knockdown £4m (the full price was £15m, but Buzz had £11m worth of orders on its books) is bad news for travellers in the short term. BIA News enjoyed flying with Buzz, whose level of service and cleanliness were better than many a national carrier. Ryanair hasn’t confirmed which routes will be dropped, but Amsterdam, Geneva and Paris appear most vulnerable because Buzz uses the cities’ main airports and Ryanair hates paying higher landing fees.
After five years of incredible growth, low-cost airlines in Britain account for 41 per cent of seats on domestic flights and 32 per cent on routes to continental destinations. But entering the no-frills business is no guarantee of making money. Buzz's Dutch parent, KLM, could no longer afford to go on bankrolling multimillion Euro losses. Last year, Ciao Fly began flying from Luton to Parma and lasted six weeks. Goodjet, a Swedish discount airline, launched last April and was declared bankrupt in January. Air Scotland, due to start flying from Glasgow, has had to delay the start of ticket sales while it finds the money for a regulatory bond.

In the last 12 months, MyTravelLite, BmiBaby and Jet2 have started up from regional airports while the Germans have launched Hapag-Lloyd Express and Germanwings. The north-east of England and Scotland are still poorly served, but that is changing.

However, punters beware. The Consumers’ Association is concerned that the Buzz deal, by restricting competition, “may be the beginning of the end for the good times”. The future looks like Ryanair and EasyJet plus a handful of regional carriers. So be careful what you purchase.

30 October 2002 this is now a dream turned into a nightmare. So sad for Bournemouth and most of it's residents.

BUZZ SET FOR MASSIVE EXPANSION IN THE UK AND EUROPE

Amsterdam, Belfast, Bergerac, Glagow, Malaga, Murcia and Paris.

New bases and fleet for UK’s third largest low cost airline

Buzz, the UK’s third largest low-cost airline, has announced aggressive expansion plans that include rolling out three new bases in the UK and Europe. The first new UK base will be Bournemouth Airport and flights will commence from March 2003 with seats on sale this Autumn. A second new UK base and a mainland Europe base will follow by the end of 2003. In addition, the airline’s seat capacity will increase by over 50% by the end of 2003 as the carrier replaces its current BAe 146 aircraft with larger 737-300 aircraft.

Speaking at KLM’s Investors Day in Amsterdam this morning, Floris J van Pallandt, CEO, buzz, said, "We have an unswerving commitment to developing the low cost market through implementing an ambitious growth strategy thus capitalising on the dramatic upsurge in consumer demand for low cost travel which has seen the dynamic of the industry change dramatically in the last six months. Coupled with an evolving business model, consistent year on year growth and 30% increase in passenger volume this year, we are well poised to continue our position as one of the leading low cost carriers in Europe."

Today’s announcement also sees buzz de-merge from KLM uk from 1 November 2002. buzz will then operate as its own fully fledged limited company within the KLM Group.

The deal with buzz is Bournemouth Airport's largest ever and will see over 200 jobs created as a direct result of the carrier’s intention to base two of its aircraft at the airport initially. buzz estimates that it will put 750,000 seats into the market from Bournemouth Airport in its first year, through a selection of European routes.

Tony Camacho, Chief Commercial Officer of buzz, said "We have been courted by a number of UK airports but ultimately we felt that Bournemouth Airport had the strongest offering. We believe that it’s a superb regional base for us to grow the South Coast market and offer flyers a welcome alternative to London Gatwick. Bournemouth is already the UK’s fastest growing airport and is therefore ideally suited to become another low-cost, stress-free gateway to Europe."

buzz is the UK’s third largest low cost operator and is the second largest low cost carrier in France and Germany. buzz currently flies 24 routes in Europe in France, Germany and Spain. Last year the airline carried 1.4 million passengers. By the end of 2002 buzz predicts it will carry 1.8 million flyers with 86% of bookings coming via the internet.

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