After a successful winter, Astraeus Airlines is expanding this year with new contracts to supply aircraft in Bournemouth and Italy. The new business is medium and long term. Other contracts are in advanced negotiation for start dates early next year.

Now that the operation is in place for this year, we are using the time to expand our consultancy arm. This is ideal for new start operations needing expertise, or even initial lift pending an AOC application. Most clients will have recognised a business opportunity, but have limited industry expertise. The concept is to allow our client full access to the Astraeus Airlines back office infrastructure and management team to launch a new airline or new route, in this way the client can concentrate on the marketing of their business and not get hampered by operational matters. We have several clients already, all potential new starts.

Looking ahead, at Astraeus Airlines we see the face of charter flying changing as the industry comes out of recession. Consolidation of the vertically integrated travel firms has limited the options available to the independent tour operator.  In the future we see a bigger role for consolidators, or even medium sized tour operators, directly wet leasing a whole aircraft for between six months to two or three years on a cost plus basis, typically the type of contract in which Astraeus specialises. The consolidator or tour operator can then sell the seats independently of the airline rather than taking a commission per seat. The new model allows for a more tailored product, up to the point where the aircraft is dedicated to an individual tour operator and branded as such. It will also allow an independent tour operator contracting directly with Astraeus to compete directly with the low fares carriers and generate revenue from onboad sales. If you would like to know more about this please contact my team.