p22 air apr10 6/4/09 16:09 Page 22
Air
Chris Gray
020 7921 8003
cgray@ttglive.com
For the latest news about flights, airlines and airports, visit ttglive.com/air
PACKAGE FLIGHTS.
KLM’s new service from John Lennon airport to Amsterdam’s
Lennon boss sets
global hub, Schiphol, has finally put Liverpool on the network
carriers’ map. Chris Gray reports from the two cities
charter challenge
LIVERPOOL airport boss Neil Pakey has claimed
tour operators are failing to meet huge demand
from passengers who want to take package
holidays without travelling to Manchester.
Pakey (pictured) said charters made up only
3% of John Lennon airport’s business, even
though hundreds of thousands of people from
the region took package holidays every year.
He claimed the success of Ryanair and easyJet
flights to destinations such as Palma and
Tenerife had demonstrated Liverpool customers
wanted to fly from their local airport.
About one million people flew from the
north-west to the Canaries and Balearics each
year but only 5,000 departed
from Liverpool – meaning large
numbers were forced to travel to
Manchester airport. NEW KLM SERVICE.
“If people would rather fly
from Liverpool but the market
is not responding, maybe it
needs a new tour operator or
Liverpool links to
entrepreneur to do something
different,” said Pakey.
600 destinations
DUTCH HUB.
Schiphol to agents:
THE LAUNCH of KLM’s Liverpool-Amsterdam persuading KLM to start the route had been
service means agents will find it easier to book helped by the economic resurgence of the city.
test our transfers
flights from the city because Liverpool will show However, KLM senior vice-president Pieter
up on all computer reservation systems and Elbers said the flight, which uses a Fokker 70
online search engines. aircraft carrying up to 80 passengers, was
SCHIPHOL AIRPORT is inviting agents to come Airport boss Neil Pakey said the thrice-daily expected to run at load factors of about 40%
and experience “how easy it is” to transfer service would plug the city into worldwide rather than the planned 50%.
through the hub to worldwide destinations. reservation systems as well as more than 600 But he said KLM was committed to the service
Aviation marketing director Jasper Spruit destinations from Schiphol operated by KLM and – its 15th UK destination – for the long term,
made the offer as Liverpool became Schiphol’s its SkyTeam partners. because it was part of the airline’s strategy to
20th link in the UK and Ireland. Liverpool was already linked to Amsterdam by expand in the regions.
Schiphol’s passenger numbers in February easyJet but because the no-frills airline did not Even at relatively low load factors it could pay
were 14% down compared with the same month show up on CRSs or some online search sites, its way by putting extra traffic on to KLM routes
last year. But the airport expects to increase its agents and customers looking for long-haul from Schiphol because about 65% of passengers
aircraft movements from about 423,000 to flights were often not aware of the link, he said. would be connecting, he added.
510,000 by 2020, and is not operating at That meant booking engines often produced The routes to benefit most so far were to
maximum capacity, unlike Heathrow. “crazy” itineraries for customers looking to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Nordic countries, but
“We are very good at serving transfer passen- travel from the US to Liverpool, such as going via passengers had also travelled to destinations
gers,” said Spruit. “We want agents to come and Dublin and the Isle of Man. such as Cape Town and Lagos.
see for themselves how easy it is to transfer.” Pakey is deputy chief executive of Peel KLM also flies to Amsterdam from Durham
Agents wanting to arrange a visit to Schiphol Airports, which also runs Doncaster/Sheffield airport, and this week denied rumours it was
should email aviationmarketing@schiphol.nl and Durham Tees Valley airports. He said about to scrap the route.
22 10.04.2009
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