EURO BELGIAN AIRLINES (EBA), the low-cost carrier acquired in April by Richard Branson to launch his long-awaited Virgin Express operation, has revealed figures for 1995 which show that its no-frills scheduled services captured more than 20% of the market on its key routes from Belgian capital Brussels.
EBA Express, modeled on the ticketless US no-frills carriers, carried 233,400 passengers in 1995 on its five scheduled routes, representing more than half of the total growth in these markets.
The airline estimates a market share of 27% on its busiest route, to Barcelona, carrying 67,400 passengers, and of 19% on the Rome link, with 73,000, while Vienna also gave a 20% share and the newer Madrid service was at 13%.
Virgin Express now plans to step up services from 2 September, adding another four flights a week to the key destinations. Barcelona will rise to 12 flights, while Rome and Madrid are to get 11.
The bulk of EBA's business remains in charter operations, however, which carried more than 1.3 million tourists across Europe. Charter sales reached BFr3.9 billion ($128 million), compared with BFr789 million for EBA Express.
Overall, group sales climbed by more than 40%, to BFr4.8 billion, while profits nearly trebled, to BFr181 million.
Source: Flight International
