newstodate.aero

Nov 03, 2020 (newstodate): Air Atlanta Europe plans to launch operations in 2021 from the coming new base at Malta.
   The strategic move by Air Atlanta Icelandic aims at strengthening the company’s position in the global ACMI and charter market by enhancing its market access in an increasingly competitive post-Covid-19 ACMI environment.
   -Market access is the key. And Malta offers beneficial air services agreements allowing us to do business that has so far been beyond our reach, says Unndor Jonsson, Air Atlanta Icelandic VP Sales and Marketing.
    -Till now, we have been limited in our ability to expand in markets and services. Iceland offers a healthy environment for aviation; but while we have benefiting from the bi-lateral agreements between EU and the USA, we are still not really within EU. Earlier, this was not a major problem, but there are operations that we just cannot bid on lacking the rights as based on Iceland.
   -We see competitiveness as the crux in the post-Covid era. To expand our business we need to broaden our business through enhanced access to markets.
   -Right now, an abundance of airlines are offering ACMI and ad hoc services. But the ACMI market will shrink and to survive we must be prepared for this with a suitable  aircraft fleet and a strong position in the market.
   -In the short term, the market in 2021 will remain almost as of today, with little passenger traffic, low belly cargo capacity, and strong demand for all-cargo and freighter flights. But this is going to change; passenger traffic will return to normal, and we must be prepared to serve the passenger market as it rises, while the cargo market will decline - leading to increased competition.
   -So based at Malta, Air Atlanta Europe will start out with one passenger aircraft on the register while we will not preclude adding also freighter aircraft at a later stage if warranted by the market.
   -Malta offers a very efficient CAA with ample resources to handle AOC applications. The process may still take about a year, so we will be fully up and running in 2021, in time for meeting the fresh challenges and stiff competition expected by 2022, says Mr Jonsson.