Danish regional airline group Cimber Air is to start a pre-pay corporate shuttle service linking textile firms in the country to outsourced locations in Ukraine and is studying additional destinations.
Cimber, based in the southern Danish city of Sonderberg, will operate one of its three ATR 42-500 turboprops on a twice-weekly service branded as Company Flight from Billund in central Denmark to the Ukrainian city of L’viv. The service is aimed at the estimated 350 textile industry companies located on the Danish mainland Jutland, many of which established factories in western Ukraine, close to the Polish border and the European Union.
The service will operate as a private flight, with companies committing to and pre-paying for 20 sets of tickets for their employees. The current round trip, including a drive to Copenhagen and connecting flight to Frankfurt with a major airline, takes around 6h, which will be cut to 2h with the scheduled private charter service.
There are historic trading links between Scandinavia and Ukraine, and Denmark established an embassy in the country last month to aid investment in the free-trade western region of the country, with Danish textile firms among the leading investors. The former Soviet country scrapped visa requirements for European Union citizens in June.
Cimber is working with the textile industry association to identify other routes the block-booking charter service could be extended to. Cimber aims to sell 2,500 sectors before the Company Flight service starts later in the year.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE/SONDERBERG
Source: Flight International
