Claiming to be Heathrow”s only true low cost airline, and funded by Iberia as well as a Spanish consortium, clickair expects to fly its one millionth passenger in April ” six months after debut.
During March, clickair carried 245,763 passengers, 34% more than in February. The increase reflects the addition of new routes, including new destinations from Barcelona to Frankfurt, Dublin and Pisa; from Seville to La Coru”a and Gatwick; from La Coru”a to Heathrow and from Malaga to Bilbao.
”Our growth in these first six months has been unprecedented in the European airline industry and we”re very proud of what we”ve achieved,” said clickair CEO, Alex Cruz, formerly of Accenture and before that American Airlines. ”We”ve honed the operation to ensure good punctuality; we”ve achieved commercial success and we”ve managed to keep our operating costs among the lowest in the industry. All of this has allowed us to move forward and develop new and innovative products for our passengers.”
London is performing well, showing early signs of profitability, particularly on southern routes, he noted. ”We promised the UK market a review after a few months of operations, particularly at Heathrow ” so far, we are encouraged by both the revenue and cost figures related to this airport. We look forward to continuing operations over the coming months.”
Since 1 April, the clickair route network has been expanded to 31 destinations with the inauguration of three connections between Barcelona and the Galicia region in North Western Spain (to Vigo, Santiago and La Coru”a); two flights to Morrocco (Marrakech and Casablanca) and a new route to Italy (Verona).
Starting in May, as further Airbus A320s are added to clickair”s fleet, new routes will open from Barcelona to Marseilles, Naples, Helsinki, Rome, Venice, Bucharest, Tunis, Jerez de la Frontera, Moscow, Malta, Budapest and Dubrovnik, as well as from Seville to Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Clickair now operates a 13-strong fleet ” 11 in service and two on stand-by or scheduled maintenance.