Clickair, the Spanish low cost operator funded by five equal investors, including Iberia, is on line to carry 3m plus passengers in the first year. The airline made its maiden flight on the 1 October 2006.
The carrier claims to have the lowest costs of any airline operating out of Heathrow. Speaking exclusively to ABTN, CEO Alex Cruz noted that 29% of passengers are business travellers, of which 8% are corporate. He said that the investors are very pleased with results to date.
”There is every indication that a 10m passenger target for 2008 will be met,” he said. ”We are getting very positive vibes from passengers and next year expect to be operating 30 aircraft.”
Clickair”s main hub is Barcelona, from where it serves 41 destinations. It flies daily Gatwick - Seville (SVQ) and from Heathrow to both La Coru”a (LCG) and Valencia (VLC).
Cruz said he was satisfied with the Heathrow loads and confirmed that the route will continue through the winter. ”The crunch will be the autumn, but things are looking good,” he said.
By next summer only half the routes will be ex-Iberia and Cruz said that he expects that percentage to drop as the airline develops.
The airline operates to date 21 180-seat Airbus A320s. It offers assigned seating and expects its click and fly (click&fly) policy of printing boarding cards at time of booking to be copied by other airlines.
Cruz said the airline was flexible regarding air bridges and would continue to use them on its major business routes, which include Barcelona to Frankfurt and Moscow. He added that they were very little more expensive than steps which did allow the rear doors to be used, but on balance there was little to choose in the way of boarding passengers.