interview primera air


want to try a similar trick – it is on trend with the right aircraft at the right time. The next one along will be Aer Lingus, which takes the fi rst of seven LRs next autumn and will also fl y them to North America. Primera’s budget rival Norwegian has 30 on order.


More aircraft Meanwhile, there is more to come


for Primera; next year, it takes delivery of 10 Boeing 737 MAX9 ER (Extended Range) aircraft, another narrow body type with long-range capability, which will probably be used to fl y from continental Europe to Asia and the near East, plus beach destinations like Cape Verde and Mombasa. Norwegian has already proved the Boeing’s worth, using the smaller MAX8 to fl y transatlantic from Scotland and Ireland.


In two years, Primera will boast 32


aircraft, the majority of them capable of long-haul but equally suited to short-haul if its plan fails. Not bad for an airline that has until now been a short-haul carrier mainly serving its own tour operation with just 10 aircraft. Visnakova is keen to emphasise that Primera “is not a start-up airline” – it was founded as an in-house charter carrier in 2003. Indeed, the Primera branding is a familiar sight in the Mediterranean, where it is a prominent mainstream tour operator. Primera Travel Group has an annual turnover of more than €650 million and carries a million passengers with nine tour operating brands selling in Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Its pedigree is Icelandic, being solely owned by its president Andri Mar Ingolfsson, who originally founded a travel agency, Heimsferoir, in 1992, and which is


New-generation Airbuses give Primera its USP


still part of the Primera stable. The


group head-


Premium Class


quarters is located in Copenhagen and the airline operates under a Danish licence but moved its main base to Riga in 2014, pushing costs down further and attracting Visnakova to join from Latvia’s Air Baltic.


As well as Stansted fl ights to Newark, Boston, Toronto and Washington (the latter from August 22), Primera also operates to Newark and Boston from Paris Charles de Gaulle. Next year, a Paris-Montreal service is planned. There are also eight short-haul routes from Birmingham and six from Stansted, plus Primera will launch a Manchester-Malaga service in October, although it claims it has no plans to fl y transatlantic from Manchester. Visnakova is untroubled by the competition on short-haul, particularly from Jet2.com, which is a strong competitor at both Primera’s UK bases. “Demand is really huge. There is a space for us in this market,” she says. Visnakova has in the past compared the Primera Group to Jet2.com, and its tour operating pedigree means dynamic packaging of hotels, car hire and other ancillaries will shortly be a possibility for its transatlantic customers; in the world


of budget airlines, add-ons are key. But fi rst there are the fl ights to sell and the Primera brand name to get across.


Satisfactory sales Visnakova says Stansted sales have been


“very satisfactory”, with an even split on both sides of the Atlantic. Primera had something of a rocky start due to late delivery of its Airbus aircraft: at Stansted, it was forced to charter in capacity from the US for the fi rst month of operation, while the same problem has led it to suspend its Birmingham transatlantic fl ights until 2019 – a major setback given initial load factors of 70% on the Birmingham-Newark fl ight. Primera is nevertheless confi dent about the Midlands airport, where sales of its New York fl ights have been helped by the departure of American Airlines and United Airlines from the route last year, which will make Primera the sole carrier. There may be more instances of legacy carriers departing and their place fi lled by the new breed of low-cost long- haul brands. “It’s hard to be a legacy carrier in a very competitive environment,” says Visnakova. “We do not have a legacy, so our low operating costs can deliver great results.” If reality doesn’t match expectations, Primera will not be left with expensive wide-body aircraft that are not readily adaptable to short-haul use; once again, the A321 scores. Not that it will come to that, she believes. “We are diff erent; we are not growing so fast. We try to eat the piece of cake we are cutting.”


Primera Travel Group brands


Denmark Bravo Tours


Iceland


Heimsferoir, Iceland Tours (inbound), Terra Nova Iceland (inbound)


Pic caption for here please... 18 wtm insights summer 2018 Finland


MatkaVekka, Lomamatkat


Norway


Solia, Norway Tours (inbound)


Sweden Solresor, Primera Air


Pic caption for here please... wtm.com


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