Swiss regional carrier Flybaboo will treble in size under the leadership of new acting chief executive Jacques Bankir, with the arrival of three Embraer 190s.
"We are going to triple the airline overnight," says Bankir. "During the first phase, over the next three months, we will have to control a brutal change of dimension." Bankir has maintained the airline's plans to launch routes to St Petersburg and Kiev, but he has axed a planned Geneva-Malaga link that Flybaboo was due to serve from the end of May. "It is too late to profitably launch a leisure business," he says.
Flybaboo will add new services to Sofia and Vienna, as well as its first non-Geneva originating route - Nice to Venice - when it starts taking delivery of its new aircraft in June. "The objective is to be successful in this phase of growth with the backing from M1 and become as profitable as soon as possible - if possible by 2009," says Bankir. The carrier's shareholder Lebanese-controlled M1 Group has eight E-190s on order and two options, having firmed up three of its original five options earlier this year.
Source: Airline Business
