JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON
Charter broker Hunt & Palmer International (H&P) is to launch a division to cater for the flying needs of sports teams in response to the growing demand within Europe. Cloud Nine has been formed to offer top level soccer teams and other sporting organisations season-long contracts.
H&P commercial manager Pete Lynch Williams says the company is working with its existing customers, who include the German national football team and Italy's Torino football club, to offer a single point of contact for club agents when booking flights for away games, new signing deals and supporter travel promotions. Through its offices in France, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland, H&P will operate as an outsourced flight department for the clubs, which cannot predict how frequently they will travel or what size aircraft they will need, says Lynch Williams.
H&P says the unique demands of sports team transport, such as oversized baggage, players' egos and off-airport formalities, increase the risk of things going wrong. Consequently the new programme, which could be formalised into a block-advance purchase deal, will also incorporate H&P's Flight Protect scheme, which is the only insurance-backed failure scheme for ad hoc charter brokers.
Initially a European programme, Cloud Nine will be offered in the USA through a joint venture with Albuquerque, New Mexico-based CSI, in time for the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.
In addition to the team shuttles, which will mainly use BAe 146s chartered from around Europe, Lynch Williams says that the company expects around 50% of the total flights will be for clubs with a need for smaller cabin business aircraft to transport board members and individual players. H&P is also targeting other professional sports.
Source: Flight International
