newstodate.aero
Jun 26, 2012 (newstodate): The Latvian charter and ACMI company SmartLynx has taken in a new Airbus A320 aircraft in June 2012.
This is, however, not an increase in the number of aircraft as the company returned one other A320 to its owner.
-We were actually thinking of adding an extra Airbus A320 aircraft for this summer's traffic. But we ran out of time and did not manage to complete this although market demands would certainly have justified this transaction, says Jurgis Sedlenieks, SmartLynx VP Commercial.
-We will probably grow the fleet before next summer, but in the meantime we keep our fleet at eight Airbus A320 and two Boeing 767 aircraft that are on an ACMI contract with an operator in South America - Santa Barbara Airlines based in Caracas, Venezuela.
-All aircraft are operated on ACMI basis, expect for two A320 that are based at Riga and Tallinn, respectively, and operated by SmartLynx for local tour operators, says Mr Sedlenieks.
Based at Riga Airport, SmartLynx Airlines was acquired by the Icelandair Group in 2006, but was put up for sale in 2011 and acquired through a management buy-out as the Icelandair Group formulated the strategy of returning to core business.
This is, however, not an increase in the number of aircraft as the company returned one other A320 to its owner.
-We were actually thinking of adding an extra Airbus A320 aircraft for this summer's traffic. But we ran out of time and did not manage to complete this although market demands would certainly have justified this transaction, says Jurgis Sedlenieks, SmartLynx VP Commercial.
-We will probably grow the fleet before next summer, but in the meantime we keep our fleet at eight Airbus A320 and two Boeing 767 aircraft that are on an ACMI contract with an operator in South America - Santa Barbara Airlines based in Caracas, Venezuela.
-All aircraft are operated on ACMI basis, expect for two A320 that are based at Riga and Tallinn, respectively, and operated by SmartLynx for local tour operators, says Mr Sedlenieks.
Based at Riga Airport, SmartLynx Airlines was acquired by the Icelandair Group in 2006, but was put up for sale in 2011 and acquired through a management buy-out as the Icelandair Group formulated the strategy of returning to core business.