newstodate.aero
Sep 22, 2009 (newstodate): Serving a home market comprising only about 50,000 people, the Faroe Islands' Atlantic Airways has to move cautiously to remain in the air during times of financial and economical crisis.
The carrier is based at Vagar Airport, where flight operations are still conditioned by a short runway pending the realisation of a long-awaited plan for a extension by 350 m to 1,600 m, which will allow operations without weight penalty by larger aircraft than the BAe 146/Avro aircraft currently used, and a new passenger terminal to replace the existing one dating back to the 50'ies.
-We have ended a contract with SAS for provision of flights, and the charter market is severely down, meaning that we will have to retreat to the core business of providing scheduled air services between the Faroe Islands and Copenhagen and a few other European destinations, says Magni Arge, Atlantic Airways CEO.
-As the business volume has thus been reduced we will have to shrink the aircraft fleet to five BAe 146/Avro aircraft. One aircraft has already been taken out, and another will follow shortly. Plans are to phase out the BAe 146 and focus on Avro aircraft in the future.
-We have seen the rates of decrease in passenger and cargo volumes easing during the last two months, but it still remains to be seen if this will established itself as a steady trend. Signs in the Faroese market seem to indicate a more positive approach, but it can still move either way.
-Cargo is an important complement to our business, and the trend is slightly encouraging, while mail volumes remain low. In both cases volumes reflect the situation in the economic environment, which is still volatile.
-We are sticking to our plan to acquire one Airbus A319 aircraft, to be delivered by the end of 2011 if the runway extension has been completed as planned by then. The Airbus aircraft is more fuel-efficient than our current fleet, but capital costs are of course to be taken into account, considering the fact that our current aircraft are almost fully written-off, says Mr Arge.
The carrier is based at Vagar Airport, where flight operations are still conditioned by a short runway pending the realisation of a long-awaited plan for a extension by 350 m to 1,600 m, which will allow operations without weight penalty by larger aircraft than the BAe 146/Avro aircraft currently used, and a new passenger terminal to replace the existing one dating back to the 50'ies.
-We have ended a contract with SAS for provision of flights, and the charter market is severely down, meaning that we will have to retreat to the core business of providing scheduled air services between the Faroe Islands and Copenhagen and a few other European destinations, says Magni Arge, Atlantic Airways CEO.
-As the business volume has thus been reduced we will have to shrink the aircraft fleet to five BAe 146/Avro aircraft. One aircraft has already been taken out, and another will follow shortly. Plans are to phase out the BAe 146 and focus on Avro aircraft in the future.
-We have seen the rates of decrease in passenger and cargo volumes easing during the last two months, but it still remains to be seen if this will established itself as a steady trend. Signs in the Faroese market seem to indicate a more positive approach, but it can still move either way.
-Cargo is an important complement to our business, and the trend is slightly encouraging, while mail volumes remain low. In both cases volumes reflect the situation in the economic environment, which is still volatile.
-We are sticking to our plan to acquire one Airbus A319 aircraft, to be delivered by the end of 2011 if the runway extension has been completed as planned by then. The Airbus aircraft is more fuel-efficient than our current fleet, but capital costs are of course to be taken into account, considering the fact that our current aircraft are almost fully written-off, says Mr Arge.