How’s this for a slogan on an airline’s home page? “Carrying your customers with care.” It may strike you as odd, because the passenger would expect something like “carrying you with care”.
But in the case of the UK’s newest airline, Ascend Airways, the customer isn’t the passenger – it is another carrier.
Ascend Airways is both the latest British airline and the newest component of the Avia Solutions Group family. This Dublinbased company is the leading short-term supplier of planes with pilots and cabin crew. This practice is known as “wet-leasing”, or by the acronym Acmi – which stands for aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance. And it has been a common part of the airline business for decades.
The organisation also includes SmartLynx of Latvia (which calls itself “the Uber of aviation”) and Avion Express, with roots in both Lithuania and Malta. But you will look in vain for any branding on the planes. And you can’t directly book tickets on any of them.
Alastair Wilson, chief executive of Ascend Airways, says: “We obtained our AOC [air operator certificate] in April this year and immediately commenced operations on behalf of two airlines – flying their passengers to various destinations in and around the Mediterranean.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 06, 2024 من The Independent.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 06, 2024 من The Independent.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
'Explaining a film takes the fun away for the audience'
Acclaimed director Andrea Arnold speaks to Louis Chilton about working with Barry Keoghan, plucking great actors off the street, and why working in US TV felt like a holiday’
Why you can't buy tickets on the UK's newest airline
Simon Calder hears about the benefits of wet lease’ capacity and white-tail’ aircraft from the boss of Ascend Airways
Fly me to the moon? Not tonight, thanks, I'm busy
Singer Olivia Rodrigo says men who want to go to space are weird’. It makes sense, writes Helen Coffey, who has her own list of signals that a first date is also likely to be the last
Penned in: family farms are facing an existential threat
Coming from a generation of farmers, Richard Benson has seen the battles those in agriculture face as he fears the tractor tax’ will irrevocably damage the British countryside
Barbados kid leading next generation in all formats
Jacob Bethell is starring for England in the West Indies with his flamboyant style and has a big future in the Test game
United have found a classy manager, in any language
Sporting CP’s Champions League match with Manchester City last night was full of intriguing sub-plots, as manager Ruben Amorim prepares to join Manchester United later this month and his sporting director and close friend, Hugo Viana, prepares to join City in the new year.
City thumped by Sporting in Amorim's home farewell
Ruben Amorim endeared himself to Manchester United fans before even arriving at Old Trafford by engineering a stunning 4-1 defeat of Manchester City with Sporting Lisbon.
Devastating second-half display sees Reds run riot
A vision of an alternative future turns into a brush with history.
North Korean troops will be cannon fodder' in Ukraine
The North Korean troops being used to bolster Russian forces in Ukraine face becoming cannon fodder” and their presence in the region will not alter the path of the war, said military experts.
McGregor 'took cocaine and raped woman' in hotel
Conor McGregor allegedly pinned down and raped a woman ina Dublin hotel while high on cocaine, the city’s High Court has been told.
