newstodate.aero
May 12, 2010 (newstodate): With its entire fleet of aircraft fully engaged on charter contracts for the remainder of 2010, Air Atlanta Icelandic is now considering new acquisitions again.
-Our company has always been very cautious in fleet planning, maintaining flexibility to match changing needs in the markets, says Baldvin M. Hermannsson, Air Atlanta Icelandic VP Sales & Marketing.
-As we are now seeing all our aircraft engaged with no availabilities for the rest of the year, it has again become time for considering new acquisitions. And our focus will not be on Boeing 747 classics, but rather on Boeing 747-400 aircraft.
-The market has been picking up over the last year after a very tough period, and it remains to be seen how things will develop. But we receive new requests for aircraft now that we are unable to respond to as we do not have enough aircraft.
-The problem is that aircraft acquisitions are long-term affairs. We have the crews and facilities to operate a larger fleet, but we prefer to build our develompent on long-term relationships with customers, rather then going for brief ad-hoc businesses. Also the market will be strongly affected by airlines' decisions about how much capacity, currently parked in the US deserts, will be returned to operations in the time ahead.
-We are therefore keen to focus primarily on the developments in our existing customer portfolio, and as these customers report positive expectations we are ready to follow as well, says Mr Hermansson.
In the fleet of Air Atlanta Icelandic are currently three Boeing 747-400 freighters, three Boeing 747-300 passenger aircraft, one of which is currently parked, three Boeing 747-400 passenger and three Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft.
-Our company has always been very cautious in fleet planning, maintaining flexibility to match changing needs in the markets, says Baldvin M. Hermannsson, Air Atlanta Icelandic VP Sales & Marketing.
-As we are now seeing all our aircraft engaged with no availabilities for the rest of the year, it has again become time for considering new acquisitions. And our focus will not be on Boeing 747 classics, but rather on Boeing 747-400 aircraft.
-The market has been picking up over the last year after a very tough period, and it remains to be seen how things will develop. But we receive new requests for aircraft now that we are unable to respond to as we do not have enough aircraft.
-The problem is that aircraft acquisitions are long-term affairs. We have the crews and facilities to operate a larger fleet, but we prefer to build our develompent on long-term relationships with customers, rather then going for brief ad-hoc businesses. Also the market will be strongly affected by airlines' decisions about how much capacity, currently parked in the US deserts, will be returned to operations in the time ahead.
-We are therefore keen to focus primarily on the developments in our existing customer portfolio, and as these customers report positive expectations we are ready to follow as well, says Mr Hermansson.
In the fleet of Air Atlanta Icelandic are currently three Boeing 747-400 freighters, three Boeing 747-300 passenger aircraft, one of which is currently parked, three Boeing 747-400 passenger and three Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft.