Air Slovakia, under new private ownership, has expanded its fleet and added charter flights to fill the void left by Slovak Airlines.
Air Slovakia special projects executive manager Robert Sitta says the Bratislava-based carrier quickly arranged this spring the lease of an Airbus A320 and two Boeing 737-300s to provide extra charter capacity following the demise of Slovak Airlines. He says Air Slovakia and Slovak Airlines used to each have roughly a 50% share of the Slovakian charter market but this summer Air Slovakia has operated about 95% of the charter flights in the country.
Slovak Airlines ceased flights in January and filed for bankruptcy in March amid a dispute between the Austrian Airlines Group and the Slovak government. Austrian had a 62% stake in the carrier.
"We decided to sign contracts with travel agencies which had initially planned to work with Slovak Airlines during the summer even though the respective rates were low for us because they will be more than compensated by long-term co-operation with these agencies," Sitta says.
Air Slovakia also operates scheduled services but this market has not been affected by the demise of Slovakian, which was primarily a charter carrier. Air Slovakia, which also operates two Boeing 757s and one 737-200, is looking to expand its scheduled network in Europe and Asia. New flights to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are planned to supplement its current services to India. It is also considering launching a service to Toronto.
Air Slovakia faces new competition from low-cost carriers such as Ryanair but Sitta claims this has not affected the carrier. "Air Slovakia's regular flights are to destinations other than those of interest to Ryanair et al," he says. "What better proof, after all, do you need than the fact that our passenger numbers [in first half of 2007 compared to the same period of last year] grew by 200%."
At the end 2006 UK citizen Harjinder Singh Sidhu purchased Air Slovakia for about €20 million ($27 million). Sitta says this is considered to be the biggest British investment in Slovakian history and "the owner's main priority was to rid our company of debts".
Since the carrier changed ownership, former Ryanair market director Mike Halper has taken over as general manager and new executives in finance and maintenance have been appointed.
Source: Airline Business
