Flyglobespan

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Flyglobespan is a low-cost airline based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It operates scheduled services from Glasgow and Edinburgh to 19 destinations in 7 countries in Europe. Its main base is Glasgow International Airport, with a secondary hub at Edinburgh Airport. The airline's tag line is "Scotland's low fares airline".

Contents

1 History
2 Today
3 Future Plans
4 Destinations
5 Fleet
6 External links

History

Flyglobespan (a trading name for Globespan Airways Limited) was established in November 2002 as an offshoot of the Globespan Group. Operations started in April 2003 using two Boeing 737-300 aircraft provided by Channel Express on services from Glasgow Prestwick International Airport and Edinburgh Airport to 5 destinations in Spain, France and Italy.

Globespan, an Edinburgh-based tour operator with over 30 years experience, already offered a comprehensive portfolio of scheduled and charter flights, cruise travel, rail and coach travel, motor home and car rental, and hotel accommodation tailored for holidaymakers visiting popular destinations in Canada, the USA and Spain. The scheduled flights, mainly to Canada, were operated by Air Transat from a number of airports throughout the UK, with Globespan acting as the booking agent and selling the flights under its own brand. In summer 2002, a similar arrangement was trialed between Edinburgh and Nice, in the south of France. This was to prove particularly successful for Globespan, and led to the creation of its own no-frills brand, Flyglobespan.

Services began in 2003 with aircraft and crews provided by Channel Express, though under the Flygobespan brand with red and white livery, offering irregular flights to some of Europe's most popular holiday destinations. The offshoot was to prove successful however, and frequencies were increased to maximise aircraft utilisation and expand its market share. At this point, the operator relocated from Prestwick to the larger Glasgow International Airport, which is much closer to the major population centres of central Scotland, within months of commencing operation. In 2004, so it could operate its own aircraft, the Globespan Group bought the defunct airline operator Cougar Leasing along with its CAA Aircraft Operating Certificate. Now with its own Operating Licence expansion was swift for the new airline. New destinations were added to the network, including Prague, where the airline faced competition from Czech Airlines, and further points in Spain, including the Canary Islands. CSA withdrew their Glasgow to Prague service on 1 August 2005.

By March 2005 the airline had grown to offer 15 destinations across Europe, with a fleet of 9 aircraft, of which 3 were bought new, and had tripled its passenger numbers to 1.5 million annually. Profits for the year ending October 2004 had risen from £2m in its first year to £3.7m, on a turnover of £98m.

In May 2005, the first domestic services were launched, with twice-daily flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh to London Stansted - routes that were already operated by the much larger low fares carrier easyJet, with much higher frequencies. However, these services were withdrawn in February 2006, together with plans to serve Bournemouth from Edinburgh.

Today

Despite high fuel costs and intense competition in the no-frills market, the airline is clearly ambitious. Flights from London Stansted commenced in October 2005, as well as a new daily service between Glasgow and Amsterdam, replacing the twice daily easyJet service between the two cities.

On the 1 November 2005 Flyglobespan announced its first long haul service from Glasgow to Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida, US. This service will be operated by a Boeing 767 aircraft in a 3 class configuration commencing June 2006. The same aircraft type will also operate three services per week to Cape Town, South Africa and Toronto, Canada from Manchester International Airport, commencing in November 2006. Alicante and Málaga services have been upgraded to twice-daily throughout the summer for 2006, while Murcia will now be served daily. It has also been announced that Winter 2006 destinations will include Fuerteventura. This means all four main Canary Islands destinations will be served from Scotland. Flyglobespan commenced weekly services linking Glasgow with Athens and Heraklion, in May 2006. It is yet unknown whether Flyglobespan will sustain those summer-only services in its next winter schedule. It will discontinue its Glasgow-Amsterdam service in June 2006. It claims low passenger bookings on the route. The daily Boeing 737-800 flight had already been reduced to 4 times per week. It does have expansion on its agenda: its Chairman mentions possible service to New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco, the Caribbean, Mexico, Africa and the Middle East.

Liverpool will also be added to the Flyglobespan network in Nov 2006, with flights to Tenerife and Prague. From 2007 a service to New York Newark using Boeing 757-200 aircraft will commence in May 2006, with daily flights, thus creating Liverpool's first ever long-haul service.

It will inaugurate nonstop service Manchester-Toronto on November 3, 2006. It will operate 1 flight a week on Friday using a Boeing 767. A second weekly flight departing on a Thursday has been added to the schedules from January 2007. However, it appears that additional aircraft will be required to operate this service. In January 2006 Flyglobespan announced a 70% rise in pre-tax profits from the previous year.

Future Plans

Flyglobespan has announced plans to add additional aircraft including its first Boeing 757 aircraft and additional Boeing 767-300 and Boeing 737-700 aircraft aircraft to its fleet. Flyglobespan recently (June2006) announced an intention to operate out of Aberdeen International Airport next summer (2007) now that 24 hour airport operation has been confirmed. The first Flyglobespan route to operate from Aberdeen will be one to Tenerife, commencing in Winter 2006. It has yet to announce further routes. All the new aircraft will be leased. It announced plans to nearly double the number of aircraft it operates. It plans on leasing 2 Boeing 767, 2 Boeing 757 and 3 Boeing 737. It has leased a used Boeing 767-300ER from ILFC. It is scheduled to be delivered in October 2006. The airline currently plan to start services from Newcastle International Airport in 2007.

Destinations

Fleet

The Flyglobespan fleet consists of the following aircraft (at June 2006):

4 Boeing 737-300 (2 wet leased from Jet2)
4 Boeing 737-600
3 Boeing 737-800
1 Boeing 767-300

External links

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