newstodate.aero
Feb 16, 2011 (newstodate): West Air Sweden is currently seeking a solution to the future localization of its flight operations department after the carrier lost in the latest tender by Post Norway for postal flights.
The four-year contract expires by July 31, 2011, and with it goes some 60 percent of carrier's total volume requiring prompt remedial action.
-Some 10-11 carriers participated in the tender, and it became obvious that West Air Sweden operating in a high-cost environment would not be able to compete due to high wages, high social costs, and high costs for maintaining AOCs, says Russell Ladkin, Sales & Operations Director West Atlantic.
-Due to our geographical diversification, the West Air Europe Group comprising West Air Sweden, West Air Luxembourg and West Atlantic is able to operate under various competitive market conditions, but we have to bring down the cost base of West Air Sweden. The only viable venue will be to out-source the carrier's flight operations department to another country where the cost-base will provide us with the competitiveness required to survive in the European aviation scene.
-Unfortunately, the Scandinavian pilot unions have not been too supportive of these efforts, and we have therefore been forced to file the redundancies for all pilots in West Air Sweden.
-On the other hand, the Norwegian postal flights tender was won by West Air Europe, and we are now to decide where to allocate the flight operations to serve Norway. The traffic will remain with the ATP aircraft, and so we will definitely need ATP pilots after August 1, 2011, as well.
-But contrary to speculations in the market, no decision on the future site for our flight operations department has yet been made, and the issue is still under investigation.
-I must also stress that the coming changes will comprise the flight operations department only. All other activities will continue unaffected, says Mr Ladkin.
The four-year contract expires by July 31, 2011, and with it goes some 60 percent of carrier's total volume requiring prompt remedial action.
-Some 10-11 carriers participated in the tender, and it became obvious that West Air Sweden operating in a high-cost environment would not be able to compete due to high wages, high social costs, and high costs for maintaining AOCs, says Russell Ladkin, Sales & Operations Director West Atlantic.
-Due to our geographical diversification, the West Air Europe Group comprising West Air Sweden, West Air Luxembourg and West Atlantic is able to operate under various competitive market conditions, but we have to bring down the cost base of West Air Sweden. The only viable venue will be to out-source the carrier's flight operations department to another country where the cost-base will provide us with the competitiveness required to survive in the European aviation scene.
-Unfortunately, the Scandinavian pilot unions have not been too supportive of these efforts, and we have therefore been forced to file the redundancies for all pilots in West Air Sweden.
-On the other hand, the Norwegian postal flights tender was won by West Air Europe, and we are now to decide where to allocate the flight operations to serve Norway. The traffic will remain with the ATP aircraft, and so we will definitely need ATP pilots after August 1, 2011, as well.
-But contrary to speculations in the market, no decision on the future site for our flight operations department has yet been made, and the issue is still under investigation.
-I must also stress that the coming changes will comprise the flight operations department only. All other activities will continue unaffected, says Mr Ladkin.