newstodate.aero
Aug 22, 2013 (newstodate): The Lithuanian charter and ACMI carrier Small Planet Airlines is reporting brisk business for its aircraft fleet continuing into the coming winter season.
-During this summer season we have been operating a fleet of nine aircraft - three in Poland and two in Lithuania, France and Great Britain, respectively. This will be reduced to seven aircraft during the winter season after delivering two Boeing 737-300 aircraft back to their Ukrainian owner, says Vytautas Kaikaris, Small Planet Airlines CEO.
-Five of these aircraft to serve with us during the winter season are already fully contracted, one is still being marketed, while the seventh aircraft will be kept as a back-up.
-The outlook for the coming season is thus rather promising. The current upheaval in Egypt may have some effects on our plans but of the five aircraft now contracted, three are unaffected by these developments while two will partly be serving traffic to Egypt. We must wait and see what will happen, but there are various scenarios.
-Over-all, the market is challenging, but we have a strong emphasis on longer-term planning rather than short-term ad-hoc operations. Actually we are already planning for the summer 2014 season, and for fleet planning our horizon extends over three years.
-We are also little engaged in the ACMI market, focusing rather on full-charter contracts. Of course, there is a seasonal cycle as we are fully engaged during summer seasons leaving little or no capacity for ACMI contract that may rather be relevant during the slack winter seasons with less demand for charter tourist traffic, says Mr Kaikiris.
-During this summer season we have been operating a fleet of nine aircraft - three in Poland and two in Lithuania, France and Great Britain, respectively. This will be reduced to seven aircraft during the winter season after delivering two Boeing 737-300 aircraft back to their Ukrainian owner, says Vytautas Kaikaris, Small Planet Airlines CEO.
-Five of these aircraft to serve with us during the winter season are already fully contracted, one is still being marketed, while the seventh aircraft will be kept as a back-up.
-The outlook for the coming season is thus rather promising. The current upheaval in Egypt may have some effects on our plans but of the five aircraft now contracted, three are unaffected by these developments while two will partly be serving traffic to Egypt. We must wait and see what will happen, but there are various scenarios.
-Over-all, the market is challenging, but we have a strong emphasis on longer-term planning rather than short-term ad-hoc operations. Actually we are already planning for the summer 2014 season, and for fleet planning our horizon extends over three years.
-We are also little engaged in the ACMI market, focusing rather on full-charter contracts. Of course, there is a seasonal cycle as we are fully engaged during summer seasons leaving little or no capacity for ACMI contract that may rather be relevant during the slack winter seasons with less demand for charter tourist traffic, says Mr Kaikiris.