General Lee
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ATA To Add Scheduled European Flights By Summer 2006
Monday February 23, 3:31 pm ET
By Elizabeth Souder, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--ATA Holdings Corp. (NasdaqNM:ATAH - News) plans to begin operating scheduled flights to Europe in the next two years, a move that would make it the first U.S. low-cost carrier to offer such service across the Atlantic.
ATA Chief Executive George Mikelsons said Monday in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires that the Indianapolis carrier could enter the transatlantic market as early as 2005, and "not later than summer '06."
In the airline industry, "domestic revenue in general is down quite a lot, but the overseas traffic, carried almost exclusively by legacy carriers, is recovering, and we are looking on that with envy," Mikelsons said.
ATA, which operates scheduled low-cost flights throughout the U.S., to Mexico and to the Caribbean using Chicago as a hub, isn't a typical low-cost airline. It is also among the largest providers of charter airline service for the U.S. military, operating flights to destinations around the globe.
In fact, ATA flies nearly 20% of its total capacity to international destinations. Mikelsons pointed out that ATA already operates several weekly flights to Ireland. And ATA used to operate international charter flights for civilian tour operators, though that business dried up as international air fares dropped.
"The cost of this would be negligible," Mikelsons said, because of ATA's international presence and because the airline already has planes that can make long-distance flights, like the ones it uses to operate a scheduled service to Hawaii.
Low air fares across the Atlantic, prompted by capacity increases among major carriers, will keep ATA from flying to Europe this summer. The situation will also keep ATA from flying the most popular routes, like New York to London.
"If we entered that market this summer, we'd be dead," Mikelsons said. He added: "We're not going to go New York to Paris or New York to London. We'd get killed."
Instead, ATA would fly routes between popular tourist destinations, such as Orlando and small European cities. And he plans to wait until major carriers cut back on transatlantic capacity.
"Once excess capacity has dried up, there's going to be room for us to do on a scheduled basis what we used to do on a charter basis," Mikelsons said.
The airline is interested in talking to European carriers about code sharing, but hasn't yet had such talks. Code sharing is a practice in which each airline sells seats on its partner's flights as if they were its own.
Those talks would most likely be with an individual airline, as opposed to an alliance. That's because some alliances require member airlines to offer a particular level of first-class service, including first-class seats and separate airport lounges, among other amenities.
But adding business class later this year could be a step toward European code-sharing for ATA. Mikelsons said most European carriers have business class, and would want code-sharing partners to offer the upgraded service.
ATA plans to begin offering business class by the end of this year, boosting revenue by $30 million a year, Mikelsons said. In 2003, the airline's total operating revenue was $1.52 billion.
Earlier this month, ATA said it would slow its capacity growth in 2004 to 9% from last year's 20% growth, because increased competition has pushed some fares down. Still, Mikelsons said, he is considering adding new destinations this year in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Bye Bye--General Lee
PS--I would like to point out that the article said they would go to Europe from Orlando and places like that--avoiding the larger cities---which would be smart. Sounds like a good strategy overall. We used to fly from Orlando to Frankfurt and Paris (??)---let me stress again USED TO.
"Instead, ATA would fly routes between popular tourist destinations, such as Orlando and small European cities. And he plans to wait until major carriers cut back on transatlantic capacity."
Didn't Medflyer say we wouldn't be able to do as well with our Transatlantic flying? I thought I pointed out to him that our INTL flying saves our a$$.
Monday February 23, 3:31 pm ET
By Elizabeth Souder, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--ATA Holdings Corp. (NasdaqNM:ATAH - News) plans to begin operating scheduled flights to Europe in the next two years, a move that would make it the first U.S. low-cost carrier to offer such service across the Atlantic.
ATA Chief Executive George Mikelsons said Monday in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires that the Indianapolis carrier could enter the transatlantic market as early as 2005, and "not later than summer '06."
In the airline industry, "domestic revenue in general is down quite a lot, but the overseas traffic, carried almost exclusively by legacy carriers, is recovering, and we are looking on that with envy," Mikelsons said.
ATA, which operates scheduled low-cost flights throughout the U.S., to Mexico and to the Caribbean using Chicago as a hub, isn't a typical low-cost airline. It is also among the largest providers of charter airline service for the U.S. military, operating flights to destinations around the globe.
In fact, ATA flies nearly 20% of its total capacity to international destinations. Mikelsons pointed out that ATA already operates several weekly flights to Ireland. And ATA used to operate international charter flights for civilian tour operators, though that business dried up as international air fares dropped.
"The cost of this would be negligible," Mikelsons said, because of ATA's international presence and because the airline already has planes that can make long-distance flights, like the ones it uses to operate a scheduled service to Hawaii.
Low air fares across the Atlantic, prompted by capacity increases among major carriers, will keep ATA from flying to Europe this summer. The situation will also keep ATA from flying the most popular routes, like New York to London.
"If we entered that market this summer, we'd be dead," Mikelsons said. He added: "We're not going to go New York to Paris or New York to London. We'd get killed."
Instead, ATA would fly routes between popular tourist destinations, such as Orlando and small European cities. And he plans to wait until major carriers cut back on transatlantic capacity.
"Once excess capacity has dried up, there's going to be room for us to do on a scheduled basis what we used to do on a charter basis," Mikelsons said.
The airline is interested in talking to European carriers about code sharing, but hasn't yet had such talks. Code sharing is a practice in which each airline sells seats on its partner's flights as if they were its own.
Those talks would most likely be with an individual airline, as opposed to an alliance. That's because some alliances require member airlines to offer a particular level of first-class service, including first-class seats and separate airport lounges, among other amenities.
But adding business class later this year could be a step toward European code-sharing for ATA. Mikelsons said most European carriers have business class, and would want code-sharing partners to offer the upgraded service.
ATA plans to begin offering business class by the end of this year, boosting revenue by $30 million a year, Mikelsons said. In 2003, the airline's total operating revenue was $1.52 billion.
Earlier this month, ATA said it would slow its capacity growth in 2004 to 9% from last year's 20% growth, because increased competition has pushed some fares down. Still, Mikelsons said, he is considering adding new destinations this year in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Bye Bye--General Lee
PS--I would like to point out that the article said they would go to Europe from Orlando and places like that--avoiding the larger cities---which would be smart. Sounds like a good strategy overall. We used to fly from Orlando to Frankfurt and Paris (??)---let me stress again USED TO.
"Instead, ATA would fly routes between popular tourist destinations, such as Orlando and small European cities. And he plans to wait until major carriers cut back on transatlantic capacity."
Didn't Medflyer say we wouldn't be able to do as well with our Transatlantic flying? I thought I pointed out to him that our INTL flying saves our a$$.
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