“1000’s stranded as finances airline ceases operation” – that was once the headline in The Impartial in March 2019 when Wow Air closed down.
I point out the unlucky loss of life of the Icelandic airline, which went bust to the track of £150m, as a result of a brand new challenge, Fly Atlantic, turns out to have a identical marketing strategy.
Wow Air’s technique was once to funnel passengers from issues throughout the United Kingdom and the Continental into an island hub at the edge of northwestern Europe. Planes would contact down from Edinburgh, Gatwick, Amsterdam, Lyon and Barcelona, discharge passenger right into a transit space then distribute them to North American towns comparable to Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Montreal and Toronto.
Fly Atlantic is making plans one thing very identical, beginning in summer time 2024.
The island hub this time will probably be Belfast Global, the biggest airport in Northern Eire.
Andrew Pyne, the airline’s leader government, mentioned: “Our imaginative and prescient is of Belfast as a robust aviation hub linking Europe and North The us.
“The loss of direct transatlantic air products and services has obviously been an obstacle to Northern Eire’s financial and tourism building, which we now intend to take away.
“The undertaking is usually a gamechanger. That is an airline that may ship better connectivity and lend a hand transmit Northern Eire’s distinctive id to a world target market.”
Superb phrases – however why must Fly Atlantic paintings when Wow Air failed?
The prices must be considerably decrease: an airline founded in Iceland has to pay Icelandic-scale wages, which can be upper than the ones in Northern Eire. For many of the potential hyperlinks, Belfast gives a extra direct flightpath than Reykjavik – saving 300 miles on a London-New York jaunt.
Northern Eire’s inhabitants is 5 instances larger than that of Iceland, which must lend a hand with native call for.
But the pitfalls outweigh the benefits, I worry – beginning with pageant. Wow Air was once competing in opposition to Icelandair for transatlantic connecting visitors. There aren’t any direct opponents for a Belfast-based operation. However one of the vital nice aviation good fortune tales during the last few years has been Dublin airport – and particularly its transatlantic providing.
The Irish capital is one in every of few towns which is able to be offering “pre-clearance” for america – wherein passengers move via American border formalities whilst nonetheless on Irish turf. After landing in america, there is not any want to manner. The method at Dublin airport takes (in my enjoy) a few mins however can probably save a few hours on arrival.
Dublin has a gravitational pull on other people from Northern Eire who will fortuitously business a few hours’ further adventure overland for a tight fare, a large number of locations and the danger to swerve US border controls on arrival.
The airport for the Irish capital could also be noticed as a possible tax saver by means of British travellers: whilst long-haul departures from Belfast are exempt from Air Passenger Accountability, any individual connecting from Nice Britain must pay £87 from subsequent April except they pause in Belfast for a minimal 24 hours. And if Belfast began to attract an excessive amount of visitors clear of Dublin, Aer Lingus may just are available with some compellingly low fares in a bid to peer off the upstart.
Assuming Fly Atlantic can procure some investment and a few planes, early summer time 2024 may well be filled with bargains for travellers as they play off the fares from Belfast and Dublin. However such fares wars don’t appear to remaining too lengthy ahead of anyone retires harm – and it’s hardly the incumbent.
I am hoping my pessimism is out of place. A country at the some distance northwest of Europe merits to be smartly hooked up to The us, and Fly Atlantic’s plan would do exactly that. Allow us to hope the endeavor generates the correct of wow issue.