Article: OzJet cuts flights, old planes playing up
Article: OzJet cuts flights, old planes playing up
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Ozjet struggles to fill flights
From: By Steve Creedy
December 15, 2005
STRUGGLING business-class start-up Ozjet has been operating flights with as few as three passengers and will cut its schedule over Christmas because of poor demand.
Ozjet chief executive Hans van Pelt confirmed yesterday that some flights had run with only a handful of passengers.
"There are few of those, and there are a few that have got 20, 30 or 40," he said. "We're a new kid on the block and the load factors are improving."
Mark Day, a columnist with The Australian, said he flew on a 3.55pm flight to Melbourne on Monday with two pilots, four cabin crew and just three passengers. Day said his flight back to Sydney on Tuesday was cancelled because of aircraft service difficulties and he was bumped to Qantas (qan.ASX:Quote,News). Another report said a plane was evacuated after a fault triggered a false fire alarm.
Mr van Pelt admitted the airline had suffered "a few technical issues" and people had been taken off planes.
The Ozjet chief said the airline was maintaining its overall schedule integrity and its on-time performance was no worse than its competitors.
It would reduce its flying during the Christmas week and the first week of January but was still working on details. However, it expected to bounce back when the business market began to pick up in February and was due to take delivery of a fourth aircraft in January.
Ozjet raised eyebrows among an already sceptical aviation industry when it decided to launch at the end of November and at the start of the traditionally quiet Christmas business travel period.
Asked about the launch timing, Mr van Pelt said regulators had not given the green light earlier and it was a choice of sitting out a quiet business travel period or trying to get some momentum going.
"We knew that in December and January, we were going to lose money. We budgeted for it, it's tough to do, but we've taken this approach that we'll get as many people on board as we can to convert them."
Mr van Pelt said Ozjet was getting a positive response from passengers, the travel industry and was signing corporate deals.
The airline also expected to get a boost from deals with distribution systems that would allow it to start selling e-tickets by early next year.
"I think we'll get very quickly to the point where we won't have enough seats in the market and we'll be turning people away," he said.
Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said Ozjet was under increased surveillance because it was a start-up but this was a normal practice.
It was also required to do additional checks and maintenance because of its older aircraft, but he was not aware of any major problems.
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Re: More bad news for OzJet in the Australian....
Quote:
Ozjet struggles to fill flights
Mark Day, a columnist with The Australian, said he flew on a 3.55pm flight to Melbourne on Monday with two pilots, four cabin crew and just three passengers. Day said his flight back to Sydney on Tuesday was cancelled because of aircraft service difficulties and he was bumped to Qantas (qan.ASX:Quote,News). Another report said a plane was evacuated after a fault triggered a false fire alarm.
I wonder if he was bumped to Qantas Business Class or Economy? If economy he would not have been a happy camper given the difference in the in-flight amenities and service.
I wonder if he was bumped to Qantas Business Class or Economy? If economy he would not have been a happy camper given the difference in the in-flight amenities and service.
Someone who I know was bumped from O7 to QF due to a technical problem and ended up in QF Economy
Dave
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Member of: AA Exec Plat; QF LTG; PC Plat; HHonors Gold
Posts: 10,055
Re: More bad news for OzJet in the Australian....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Noble
Someone who I know was bumped from O7 to QF due to a technical problem and ended up in QF Economy
I wonder what the fare type was? Did they earn full econpmy SCs or discount economy SCs? Assuming of course that the bump ticket was eligible for FF benefits :? .
:?[/quote]
Closest I got to it was a Phuket Air flight from BKK-HKT.
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