With Ryanair announcing a four-aircraft addition to its Gerona operation; easyJet expanding significantly at Madrid, both in early 2007; and clickair beginning operations at Barcelona yesterday (Sunday 1 October), Spain is set for a big rise in air traffic over the next 12 months.
Barcelona will prove the most interesting. In spite of attempting to rename Gerona Barcelona the fact is that the Costa Brava airport is 65 miles from the Catalonian capital. It may well be that in future Ryanair will drop the Barcelona title as it has more or less done for Carcassonne (which it used to promote as Toulouse and is also 60 miles away).
With more Boeing orders just announced the airline has ordered an astonishing 281 Boeing 737-800 aircraft with 133 operational by the end of March 2007.
Clickair is headed by Alex Cruz, previously European partner and director Commercial Aviation Division of consultants Accenture, with many years of airline experience in American Airlines and Sabre. With an initial fleet of three Airbus A320s the airline is launching with services from Barcelona”s El Prat airport to Seville (six daily frequencies), Geneva (twice daily), Zurich (once) and Lisbon (single service). An additional route, with two daily frequencies, will link Seville with Paris-Orly.
Clickair”s 2006-2008 strategic plan predicts the development of more than 70 routes in 55 Spanish and European cities with a fleet of 30 Airbus A320 aircraft. Founder shareholders, each with 20%, are ACS, Iberia, tour operator Iberostar (owner of regional airline Air Nostrum), and the risk capital fund Quercus Equity.
Image source: Wikipedia Commons