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SAS eyes profit despite losses
SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINE SAS has said it expects to be in profit by the end of next year despite posting a 2010 annual loss of £213.3 million. Deputy chief executive John Dueholm said the 2010 losses were inflated because of one-off redundancy costs, a ¤70 million European Commission fine for cargo price fixing – against which SAS is appealing – the ash cloud, and losses incurred in the sale of aircraft. But he said there should not be any extra
redundancy costs this year and predicted the car- rier would return to profit by the end of the year. SAS will not be adding any more routes this
year, but will increase frequencies across Europe, although not in the UK. Dueholm said this was because there had been
over-capacity on some routes, such as Stockholm and Copenhagen to London. However, SAS is expecting UK demand to grow by up to 4%, only slightly behind the prediction for Europe of 6%. SAS will introduce an internet service in all classes towards the end of the year. It will be free in business and premium economy classes, but a fee will be charged in economy.
KLM makes room for seat upgrade
KLM IS introducing a new European Business Class on March 27 for the start of the summer. The product will replace KLM Europe Select and the airline said it would provide more room than before because middle seats could no longer be reserved and would always be left empty. Every business-class seat in its 737 fleet is also being fitted with a socket to charge electrical appliances. The meal service is changing, with four menus
rotating each month. Food will be served on china, which is now used in the business-class cabin. Europe Business Class is being introduced on all flights in Europe that are operated by KLM or KLM cityhopper.
22 18.02.2011
HAVE A HEART: Nicole Meek (centre) from Ilkeston Co-op Travel in Derby receives a gift from East Midlands airport staff Natalie Walsh (left) and Anita Kane on Valentine’s Day. The airport gave agents chocolate hearts and pink balloons to promote its new destinations of Tallinn and Seville with Ryanair and Verona with bmibaby. It also gave a £10 Love to Shop voucher for every booking made during Valentine’s week.
Arik Air mulls new Lagos connections
Chris Gray.
ARIK AIR is to expand its west African regional routes connecting to its Lagos hub next month. The Nigerian carrier has been operating a daily
Heathrow-Lagos service since 2008 and started regional west African services to Ghana in the same year. It now serves six west African destinations outside Nigeria, but from the end of March is set to more than double that, with up to 10 new regional routes potentially being added (see right). Of those being considered,
Luanda is the only destination served by a direct flight from the UK. Arik will offer an alternative to transferring via Paris, Amsterdam or Brussels for the others. UK sales manager Simon Cook said business travellers would be the key target market as many of the destinations were in countries where oil and other industries
were developing. However, he said there could also be a significant visiting friends and relatives market.
ROUTES CONSIDERED Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Malabo, Equatorial Guinea Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Brazzaville, Republic of Congo Libreville, Gabon Douala, Cameroon Bamako, Mali Abidjan, Ivory Coast Conakry, Guinea Luanda, Angola
Arik operates the Heathrow-Lagos route with an Airbus A340-500 that has a Business First cabin with 36 lie-flat seats, a bar and lounge area. It claims the long-haul service is comparable or better to British Airways or Virgin Atlantic. The domestic flights will use Boeing 737-800s. Cook said the airline still had
to increase awareness in the UK market, but passenger num- bers on the Heathrow-Lagos route were rising as customers saw the product and realised Arik was using more modern aircraft than its competitors. Arik has put its domestic and long-haul services originating in Nigeria on the Sabre, Galileo and Amadeus GDSs. It is also looking at adding a Lagos- Houston route.
cgray@ttglive.com
020 7921 8003 Chris Gray
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