August has seen a number of start-up carriers taking shape across the world, including South African carrier, Fly Blue Crane, and Air Costa Rica which is set to launch later this year
Johannesburg-based Fly Blue Crane is set to commence operations on September 1, 2015, offering multiple daily scheduled flights from Johannesburg OR Tambo to Bloemfontein, Kimberley and Nelspruit onboard Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft.
The new budget airline is backed by Pretoria-based aviation consultancy, Blue Crane Aviation, the Directors of which include former South African Airways chief executive officer, Siza Mzimela, Commercial GM, Theunis Potgieter and former SAA Head of Revenue Planning, Jerome Simelane.
“Fly Blue Crane’s customers can look forward to such a fresh approach to air travel, which blends the best of both worlds without compromising on premium service,” said Theunis Potgieter.
Fly Blue Crane CEO, Siza Mzimela, added that the airline anticipated, and was positioned to deliver on what customers wanted: the enhanced convenience of frequent flights through high on-time performance, commitment to consistent service excellence, advanced online technologies that will make the booking and travel process fuss-free and highly competitive fares.
Meanwhile, Air Costa Rica is planning to commence operations in December this year, providing that it completes the final stages of certification with the Costa Rican civil aviation authority.
With one Boeing 737-300 sourced from Air Panama already in its inventory, Air Costa Rica plans to launch with a fleet of two B737-300s and two Fokker 100s.
The airline plans to launch with services from San Jose to destinations in the US and Central and South America and has already filed authorization requests with authorities in Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Colombia.
Originair commenced commercial operations earlier this month with flights between Nelson in New Zealand and Palmerston North. The airline has two British Aerospace Jetstream 32 aircraft with 19 leather seats in a 2x1 configuration. Owned by Air Nelson founder Bob Inglis, Originair is also planning to serve Christchurch and Wellington in the near future, as well as offering charter services on demand.
(via Originair Facebook page)
Extrajet is a Yorkshire-based start-up looking to connect Leeds with mainland Europe and Scandinavia, with scheduled operations expected to commence early next year.
Initially, the start-up plans to offer doubly-daily lights from Leeds/Bradford to Copenhagen Kastrup and Antwerp.
Extrajet’s main USP is that it will provide twice daily, direct flights on unserved regional routes, whilst focusing on the business traveller segment. The company will operate 2 Embraer 135 jet aircraft.
Croatia’s Sea Air has commenced scheduled operations with flights between Osijek and Frankfurt International on August 23, 2015. The airline has since commenced flights to both Munich and Stuttgart onboard a Boeing 737-300 aircraft.
The airline also plans to offer flights to Kuwait via Sarajevo using a B737-400, as well as offering religious charter flights from Italy and Sicily to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Following three years of inactivity, PAWA Dominicana has resumed commercial operations. The Dominican Republic’s national carrier’s first flights were to Aruba, Curacao and St Maarten on August 14, 2015.
The airline intends to use Santo Domingo as a regional hub, offering services to San Juan, Miami, New York and Havana. PAWA Dominicana will face direct competition on a number of routes including Curacao, and St Maarten which are both operated by Insel Air.
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