newstodate.aero

Aug 18, 2021 (newstodate): The Danish charter and AMI carrier Jettime is back into the air since July 2021 - but the Nordic charter markets are still uneven in recovering.
   -The Danish market has actually come out the strongest, and good for us as this is also our home turf, says Birthe Madsen, Jettime VP Management Support.
   -Sweden is also doing rather OK, and actually never fully stopped charter flights to Mediterranean leisure destinations; what remains to be seen in Sweden is however the rebound of charter traffic at the country's many smaller and regional airports.
   -However, the Finnish charter market lags significantly behind in the Nordic context; we have a few weekly charter flight from Helsinki Airport, but we have not yet seen anything like a ketchup effect in this market.
   -So basically, we are experiencing a slow, but steady rebound in business; but this also have its benefits as it allows us to gradually restore activities after a prolonged standstill during the Covid-19 pandemic.
   -We initially planned to have some two to four aircraft in service during this summer, but it is still rather only two out of our fleet of seven aircraft, including four Boeing 737-800 and one Boeing 737-700. We still plan to have four aircraft in the air by September with one aircraft as back-up, and two aircraft will be in for C-checks from August/September.
   -We may therefore need to lease-in extra Boeing 737-800 capacity as five aircraft may not suffice for the winter season, including the expected Christmas peak. We are looking around in the market and capacity is there, while we are rather critical about LOPA and will go for aircraft, preferably with winglets, not older than 10-12 years.
   -Anyhow, we are in business and are seeing staff now up from only 30 during the lock-down period, to some 200 today, mainly recruited from the earlier roster, says Mrs Madsen.