UK business aircraft operator PrimeFlight has suspended its scheduled service for five months while it irons out technical and operational hitches that have been hampering its fledgling operation since it began on 1 March. PrimeFlight is continuing to offer charters with its Piaggio P180 Avanti, wetleased through Piaggio's Bologna-based subsidiary FoxAir, and is also pursuing its newly created Members Club venture. (Flight International 30 March - 6 April).
PrimeFlight director Giles Atkinson says the twice-daily service to Brussels National from Northern Ireland's Belfast Inter-national airport has built up a small but loyal customer base, some of whom use the company for charters. "There is strong demand for a scheduled service from Belfast to Brussels," Atkinson says, but admits the company was not prepared for the problems it encountered.
"Customers would reserve a seat online using our own sales and distribution system, but the software would indicate that there was no availability when there was," he says. PrimeFlight operated from the Abelag fixed-base operation in Brussels, but many customers would arrive at the main airport terminal, where its flights are not listed on the departure screens, and the airport's information desk has no record.
Atkinson says the company had two choices, "to carry on and not hit our targets, or come back in with all guns blazing, having sorted out the problems". PrimeFlight is seeking to join a proprietory reservation system, such as Amadeus, Galileo or Worldspan, which it hopes will strengthen and widen its coverage. The company is also holding talks with Brussels National to list its service on the terminal flight information system.
Source: Flight International
