I have a very vibrant airline with SlovAir out of prague in the Tempelhof world. running load factors at 80-85% and profitable every week since last July.
HOWEVER
Whenever I try to open a route to the east, something as modest as kiev, LED, DME, IST, DXB, etc. I can never get even one seat booked. I've tried all sorts of time slots, etc...I've given routes 2-3 weeks to develop....nothing! Filling up intra-europe routes is easy, but anything outside the region and I'm goose-egged.
Currently I transit about 85,000 pax a week, and that number has been growing by 5% each week for months. I add at least 1 new bird to the fleet a week, at minimum.
Can it be a factor of the Tempelhof world, or is it a 'me' problem? I typically send ERJ190/195 or C-Series planes, but not sure that equipment plays a serious role. One would think someone in Europe would pay me to fly to them east......
Any advice would be welcome since I'm saturating my Europe timetable and need to start thinking about expansion. Thanks!
Your home country is Slovakia. So you do not have traffic rights to countries outside of the EU from Prag. You can only fly to destinations outside of the EU from Slovakia.
Your best expansion option would be to start flying from Bratislava, from there you can fly to any non-EU destination, or you can start a base at another EU airport and fly from there within EU. For example Linate, Lyon, or several UK airports such as Birmingham or Nottingham.
Your best expansion option would be to start flying from Bratislava, from there you can fly to any non-EU destination, or you can start a base at another EU airport and fly from there within EU. For example Linate, Lyon, or several UK airports such as Birmingham or Nottingham.
Your home country is Slovakia. So you do not have traffic rights to countries outside of the EU from Prag. You can only fly to destinations outside of the EU from Slovakia.
Ahhhhhh. Thanks for this info. Never dawned on me.
Next issue then: Can I have the airline switched to be based out of Prague or is it too late to request a transfer of the head office?
Vía flights count as a connection so you will not get many bookings, as mentioned, because all your inbound connections to Prague would be the first connection and via stop in BTS would be the second connections. Two connections is maximum the passengers will accept and the flights with two connections are rated very low. You would need a huge network for two connections to work, or serve airports where nobody else flies to.
Vía flights count as a connection so you will not get many bookings, as mentioned, because all your inbound connections to Prague would be the first connection and via stop in BTS would be the second connections. Two connections is maximum the passengers will accept and the flights with two connections are rated very low. You would need a huge network for two connections to work, or serve airports where nobody else flies to.
Thanks. I'm afraid this may be the case. I set up 2 flights to follow the new idea of a pitstop in BTS. I'll let it sit for a week and see how traffic behaves. I may need to get used to being a Euro only airline because I didn't understand the rules covering the base of an airline. And I certainly can't uproot the airline and move it back to BTS. It will destroy it and ruin all the interlining that has helped grow the project.
Thanks. I'm afraid this may be the case. I set up 2 flights to follow the new idea of a pitstop in BTS. I'll let it sit for a week and see how traffic behaves. I may need to get used to being a Euro only airline because I didn't understand the rules covering the base of an airline. And I certainly can't uproot the airline and move it back to BTS. It will destroy it and ruin all the interlining that has helped grow the project.
You don't need to uproot and move everything to BTS, just start expanding your network with flights to/from a Slovakian airport, and then make another expansion into international (non-EU) flying. Your existing flights operating within the EU will help fund your Slovakia growth.
You don't need to uproot and move everything to BTS, just start expanding your network with flights to/from a Slovakian airport, and then make another expansion into international (non-EU) flying. Your existing flights operating within the EU will help fund your Slovakia growth.
the experiment is working thus far.....having a PRG-BTS-*** routing is resulting in good (green) load factors so far to IST, DME and TLV. Good split between 'my own connections' and 'external connections'.