AIR TURKS AND CAICOS, LTD.: Turks and Caicos Islands (1976-1979). Air Turks and Caicos is formed at Providenciales during the first week of October 1976 to replace the former TIGAS (Turks and Caicos Islands Government Air Services, Ltd.). Initial shareholding is held by the government (30%), Trans-Jamaican Airlines, Ltd. (35%), and private interests (35%).
Equipped with a Douglas DC-3 and a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, the national airline undertakes service on October 11. Domestic schedules link Grand Turk, Salt Cay, South and Middle Caicos, Pine Cay, and Providenciales while international routes link the islands with Cap Hai-tien and Santo Domingo.
In 1979, the carrier is renamed Turks and Caicos National Airline, Ltd.
AIR 21: United States (1995-1997). Mark Morro, who had founded Wings West Airlines some years earlier, establishes this large regional at Fresno Airport, California, in the fall of 1995.
A pair of Fokker F.28-4000 Fellowships, painted in a gray and navy blue livery, are leased from USAir. The first aircraft, flown by a USAir crew, arrives at Fresno on October 30, where it is christened Spirit of Fresno in a ceremony held at the hangar the airline is renting from the city. The second Fokker arrives the following week and both begin route testing; the company completes its certification process.
The start-up receives its FAA Part 121 Certificate on November 17. Scheduled no-frills, low-fare services are inaugurated on December 20 to Las Vegas, Palm Springs, and San Francisco.
Another F.28-4000 enters service during the first weeks of 1996. On March 1, a few days later than advertised, a daily nonstop return flight is initiated from Colorado Springs to Grand Junction, Colorado, with continuing service to Las Vegas, Fresno, and Los Angeles. Nonstop frequencies are also started from Grand Junction to Salt Lake City, continuing on to Fresno.
Confusion surrounds the new service starts because facilities are not initially ready at the Colorado Springs Airport. The airline has neither an office nor a local phone, not even a desk prepared to sell tickets or answer inquiries. The matter is quickly put right. Travel agents at Colorado Springs agree to form an advisory board to assist the airline in developing and implementing a business plan.
Sixty daily frequencies are now offered to nine destinations, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Grand Junction. Still, it must be admitted that passengers flying into the latter point aboard Air 21 must wait at least two hours for their connections and, as a result, company flights to Colorado Springs are often only half full. On the bright side, flights from Grand Junction to Las Vegas are almost always sold out.
On May 23, President Morro announces that service to Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City from Fresno will be dropped because the route has not lived up to its expectations. He does not mention that Delta Air Lines had cut its prices to compete over the same route, overwhelming the new entrant and, in fact, forcing it out.
The three Fokkers are redeployed into the current market. Plans to start flying from San Francisco north to Bend and Eugene, Oregon, and Seattle on June 17 are postponed; however, a new route is opened on June 19 from Monterey to Las Vegas.
A marketing agreement is signed with Reno Air in July; the pact will, as it turns out, be short-lived. Possibilities are discussed with Atlantic City casino owners to provide long-haul charters, but result in no actual service contracts.
Traffic and fiscal reports are only released through October. In the year’s first 10 months, a total of 157,259 passengers are flown and $5.91 million in revenues are generated. Costs are high and losses result: $2.03 million (operating) and $2.42 million (net).
On November 8, it is announced that the company has retained On-Flight Media to paint scenes on its jetliners in an “outdoor” advertising AirLogo program similar to that used by Frontier Airlines (2) and Western Pacific Airlines (Westpac).
The financially troubled regional leaves thousands of holiday travelers stranded when it halts regular flights in late December.
On January 8, 1997, the airline begins formal bankruptcy proceedings. A spokesman announces on March 12 that the carrier will convert its Chapter XI status to Chapter VII and liquidate and distribute its assets to its creditors. The process is completed by summer.
AIR 2000, LTD.: First Choice House, London Road, Crawley, West Sussex, England, RH10 2GX, United Kingdom; Phone 44 (1293) 518 966; Fax 44 (1293) 524 642; Http://www. air2000.co. uk; Code DP; Year Founded 1986. Air 2000 is founded in July 1986 at Manchester by former Air Europe, Ltd. Managing Director Errol P. Cossey as the airline of the Owners Abroad Group (OAG) to operate flights in the package holiday industry, with a goal of offering 300,000 seats per year in the U. K. market. About half of this capacity will be taken by the OAG, the major (76%) shareholder. Cossey becomes the new Air 2000 CEO and, together with senior management of the new company, hold the remaining 24% interest. Orders are placed for two, leased Boeing 757-28As.
On April 11, 1987, the 290-employee enterprise begins 35 weekly leisure charter and inclusive-tour services to 12 European and Mediterranean destinations. Late in the year, one Boeing is subleased to British Airways, Ltd. (2).
Enplanements total 513,000 and an operating income of $6.76 million is generated, along with a net gain of $2.39 million.
The workforce is increased a huge 88.4% in 1988 to 275 and the fleet now includes 4 leased B-757-28As and 1 B-737-33A, the latter chartered from British Midland Airways, Ltd. Glasgow is added as a base from which to operate charter flights to the Continent and long-haul flights are initiated from London (LGW) to destinations in Canada, Kenya, Gambia, Mexico and the Caribbean.
A Canadian 2000, Ltd. subsidiary is formed, but as a result of protests from other Canadian carriers the Canadian Transport Ministry revokes its license late in the year, just before it is scheduled to open revenue services.
Local investors move in and purchase the company from its British parent. The winter season wet-leasing of certain of the U. K. airline’s aircraft to its one-time offspring continues.
Passenger boardings skyrocket 103% to 860,379 and revenues increase 137.5% to $82.8 million. Profits total $11.6 million (operating) and $6.45 million (net).
Airline employment increases 75% in 1989 to 483 as two additional B-757-225s, equipped to Extended Range Twin-Engine Operations (ETOPS) standard, are acquired. Direct Glasgow to Orlando service is launched in September and represents the first time that a British airline has successfully challenged the U. K. government policy that requires the use of Prestwick for international flights originating from Scotland.
Service to Boston and Newark also opens. Customer bookings surge 59% to 1,372,939 and revenues jump 71.2% to $125 million.
In 1990 the number of company workers increases by 55.4% to 673 and the fleet comprises 10 leased B-757-200s. In April, the OAG pays $11.2 million to acquire the 24% shareholding in the airline that it does not already possess. At the same time, Britain’s third largest tour operator acquires the fourth largest operator, Redwing Holidays, in a three-year deal worth $8.8 million.
Flights now begin from a new London (LGW) base. In December, the company is granted a license to inaugurate scheduled flights to Larnaca from a new base at Birmingham, as well as Manchester, Glasgow, and— for the first time after the government relaxes its restrictions—from London (LHR).
Passenger bookings increase 34.7% to 1,848,825 and the operating profit is $17.6 million.
At the time the new flights begin in early 1991, the leased fleet includes 1 B-737-33A on charter from British Midland Airways, Ltd., 2 B-757-225s; 4 B-757-23As; 3 B-757-236s, 4 B-757-28As, including 2 subleased to Canada 3000, Ltd., and 1 chartered B-757-2Y0. Simultaneously, airline employment is increased 30% to 758.
Following the collapse of the International Leisure Group and its flagship airlines, Air Europe, Ltd., in March, the OAG raises ?28.9 million ($50.6 million) in a public stock offering to be employed on expansion. In one six-day period in early April, over 100,000 vacations that would have gone to ILG are booked.
Customer boardings swell 30.4% to 2,443,512 and revenues jump 29.6% to $290 million. The operating profit reaches $24.4 million and net profit is $15.2 million.
Airline employment grows 28.1% in 1992 to 1,002 and the B-737-33A is returned and replaced in April by 4 chartered Airbus A320-231s, 2 of which are placed in storage late in the year. Antigua, Bucharest, Funchai, and Skiathos are added as new holiday stops, with a number of flights being initiated, beginning in May, from a new hub at Bristol.
Passenger boardings leap upward by 32.3% to 3,404,843 while revenues climb 30.9% to $369.9 million. Expenses are up 31.2% to $339 million and leave an operating surplus of $30.9 million. Net gain reaches $15.7 million.
Airline employment in 1993 stands at 1,200. CEO Errol Cossey becomes chairman and former Finance Director Ken Smith is appointed managing director. Two more A320-231s are delivered and new charter markets are opened at Cancun and Verona.
The carrier, with its parent Owners Abroad Group, is able to defeat a hostile takeover bid by Airtours International, Ltd. The merger is largely derailed due to an inquiry by the U. K. Monopolies and Mergers Commission as well as by obstructive tactics of First Choice Holidays, which also takes a large stake in OAG.
Air 2000 introduces scheduled service in October over an inaugural route from London (LGW) to Larnaca and Paphos on Cyprus.
Customer bookings accelerate 19.1% to 4,063,064 as revenues swell 14.5% to $403.5 million. Expenses rise only 14% to $367.5 million and leave an operating profit of $36 million. The net gain climbs to $21 million.
The workforce is increased 0.7% in 1994 to 1,250 as scheduled flights to Cyprus are initiated from Birmingham. Plans are made to initiate services from Birmingham and Manchester to Larnaca and Paphos during spring of the upcoming year.
Late in the year, a B-757-236 is leased to the new Argentinean charter operator Dinar Lineas Aereas, S. A.
Passenger boardings move ahead by 3.4% to 4,200,500.
There is no change in the size of the workforce during 1995; however, all of the new services announced the previous year are started during the spring. New hubs are opened at Newcastle and Belfast. Following a change of senior management, the Owners Abroad Group is renamed First Choice Holidays. Approximately 75% of the airline’s passengers come from First Choice, with more than 25 other tour operators contributing the balance.
In September-October, company pilots, flying wet-leased B-767s on behalf of Alitalia, S. p.A., become the object of displeasure and job action by the pilots’ union of the Italian state carrier.
The year is not good as the company suffers a 10.4% decline in customer bookings to 3,762,900.
Airline employment is reduced 4.3% in 1996 to 1,196. A third major base is opened at Dublin from which flights are started.
Traffic recovers and enplanements increase to 4,742,000. In addition, 1.16 million FTKs are operated.
The workforce grows to 1,350 during 1997. At the beginning of the year, the carrier unveils a new corporate color scheme, designed by Lan-dor Associates, in which jetliners are painted in a variety of liveries, some including advertisements for specific destinations.
Destinations visited from Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, London (LGW), Glasgow, Manchester, and Newcastle include Antigua, the Bal-aeric Islands, Barbados, the Canary Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Florida, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, and Venezuela.
Customer bookings climb 3.7% to 4,676,149. It is revealed sometime later that a massive accounting error has erased ?8.6 million from the parent’s corporate balance sheet.
During the first quarter of 1998, a three-year program is launched. The new plan is designed to increase pre-tax profits to 4% of sales by the third quarter of 1999.
While en route from Birmingham to Malta on an April 7 holiday charter, an intoxicated father and son begin to brawl with other passengers. When the fracas cannot immediately be settled, Capt. Hugo Vonwiller is forced to divert the packed B-747-28A aircraft to Milan. Anthony and Roy Psaila are arrested and returned to the U. K. for trial, where they will eventually be sentenced to prison for a year (with six months suspended).
Also in April, a B-757-2Q8ER is acquired under charter from ILFC. Also during the second quarter, the B-757-2Y0 that has been operated on long-term lease, is sub-chartered to Thomas Cook Travel for an around-the-world trip, a TCS Expedition. The jetliner is painted in the colors of the tour operator and is temporarily christened Explorer I.
A deal is now struck for the lease of two chartered B-767-300ERs, to be delivered in April 1999 and April 2000, respectively. They will be the first wide-bodies operated by a British charter airline to feature two classes of service.
The company unveils a homepage on the World Wide Web during May.
When a minor fire breaks out in the cockpit of Flight 63 on June 22, a B-757-2Q8ER with 9 crew and 205 passengers returns to Larnaca, Cyprus, its point of origin.
Also during June, First Choice Holidays, the carrier’s tour-operator parent, purchases Unijet Group, parent of Leisure International Airways, Ltd., and will now be able to form a combined carrier the size of Monarch Airlines, Ltd., the country’s third largest charter carrier. All seven Leisure International aircraft are incorporated into the Air 2000 fleet in time for the opening of the winter holiday season at the end of October.
Reports begin to circulate in late December that an unnamed bidder has come forward in a series of “preliminary approaches concerning possible offers” to take over First Choice Holidays, all of which are “highly conditional.”
Passenger boardings accelerate 22.6% to 5.94 million.
By the beginning of 1999, airline employment has increased by 45% to 1,958. It is announced on January 18 that Air 2000, the U. K.’s second largest charter airline, will launch Scotland’s only nonstop scheduled service to Cyprus during the spring.
On January 20, the Golden Globe award for the U. K.’s Best Charter Airline, is presented to Air 2000 at the travel industry’s awards banquet in London. This is the sixth time in the award’s nine-year history that Air 2000 has been the recipient.
The rumors concerning a possible takeover by an outside source continue to circulate during the first quarter and increase the value of First Choice Holidays by 56%. Finally, the accuracy of the speculation is confirmed by First Choice on the London Stock Exchange on March 1 and revealed to the public in the on-line version of The Guardian on March
2. The media speculates that the potential bidder is thought to be Europe’s largest tour operator, Preussag, A. G. Analysts suggest that the move may not be successful since the German concern holds a stake in rival Thomas Cook Holdings, parent of Flying Colours Airlines, Ltd., which, in turn, owns 10% of First Choice Holidays.
The Guardian notes on March 7 that the approach to First Choice had been made not only by Preussag, A. G., but also by Airtours, parent of Airtours International Airways, Ltd. First Choice shares have soared 27p each in value over the last week. In a brilliant stroke, Airtours Chairman David Crossland is able to persuade Preussag to sell its remaining 10% stake in First Choice and remove itself from the bidding process.
On March 10, it is reported that First Choice is at an advanced stage of merger talks with Kuoni Reisen Holdings, A. G., a Swiss-based travel concern. Within days, the two companies agree to merge via stock swap, in which Kuoni shareholders obtain 53% of the combined group and First Choice shareholders the remainder. The offer from Kuoni is valued at 148.8p per share. Under terms of the arrangement, First Choice Chairman Ian Clubb becomes executive chairman, while CEO Riccardo Gul-lotti becomes group CEO. A new 14-member board will be drawn from both companies that will continue to trade in London and Zurich. The new joint enterprise will have ?1.5 billion in capitalization.
The company’s first new B-767-38AER is delivered on March 30. Simultaneously, the company completes the repainting of the fleet of the former Leisure International Airways, Ltd., including a pair of B-767-39Hs.
On April 19, First Choice Holidays Chairman Ian Clubb warns Air-tours not to continue its attempt at a hostile takeover in a bid now valued at ?852 million. Such a “reckless gamble” is certain to require at least six months of regulatory agency investigation, while corporate profits would be badly damaged by the uncertainty of a review during the peak summer trading period. Unspoken is an additional First Choice fear that the 229p per share of common stock offer from Airtours will crush the Kuoni deal.
During the last week of April, the Swiss tour operator Kuoni and First Choice Holidays formally agree to the merger worked out earlier; the union will create the second largest European tour operator (after Preussag, A. G.’s TUI-Hapag Lloyd). The combined airline that will eventually result through a union with Edelweiss Air, A. G. will be the fifth largest charter carrier in Europe; in 1998, the two combined transported 6.8 million passengers.
On April 30, it is reported that Airtours has officially made its hostile takeover bid and that its chairman, David Crossland, has elected to avoid hearings by U. K. competition agencies by appealing directly to the European Commission (EC), which has final jurisdiction. It is also noted that rival Thomson Holidays, parent of Britannia Airways, Ltd. and Britain’s largest travel group, is planning a price war designed to dilute any value of an Airtours-First Choice merger. The counteroffensive will bring something of a revolt among Thomson shareholders, many of who would rather accept a number-two listing than suffer large financial losses.
Concerned about the possible creation of a monopoly in the U. K. travel market, the Association of Independent Tour Operators on May 1 petitions the U. K. and European Union competition authorities to disapprove the hostile takeover of First Choice by Airtours.
A boozy stag party of 37 men from Sunderland, South Tyneside, and Liverpool show up at Newcastle Airport on May 1 intent upon taking the company’s 2-hr. B-757-2Q8ER service to Ibiza. After acting in an “ungentlemanly” manner before the flight’s other passengers at the departure terminal, ground staff notify the jetliner’s captain, who orders the party barred from boarding. Still making a nuisance of themselves two hours after the aircraft’s 8:40 p. m. local time departure, the men are finally escorted off the premises by police, who make no arrests. This “Sun Jet Ban for Rowdies” is reported in the on-line issue of The Newcastle Chronicle & Journal Limited on May 5.
Employing a B-757-2Q8ER, the new daily Glasgow to Paphos roundtrips commence on May 5. These are in addition to the Air 2000 scheduled frequencies to Paphos and Larnaca already operated from London (LGW), Manchester, and Birmingham.
The Guardian reports on May 9 that early signs are that an Airtours move to bypass U. K. regulators and apply directly to the EC — which has the final word—for approval of its First Choice takeover will be successful. This despite an expected negative submission from U. K. competition authorities expected to arrive in Brussels during the following week.
On May 26, the U. K. Department of Trade and Industry announces that it will not review the First Choice takeover on competition grounds and will not ask the EC for authority to undertake a separate investigation.
Rather than rubber-stamp the arrangement, the EC, on June 3, indicates that the deal will be subjected to an in-depth investigation that could last until October and may well result in its denial on competition grounds. As Airtours becomes aware of it’s growing first-half losses, it withdraws its bid for First Choice on June 10. This reversal revives the possibility that the March merger between First Choice and Kuoni will be completed.
Just after takeoff from Glasgow on September 3, the right engine of an Edinburgh Air Charter Cessna 404 with 1 pilot and 10 passengers stops, causing the aircraft to crash; 8 aboard are killed, including an entire Airtours cabin crew.
New EU antitrust commissioner Mario Monti, on September 23, shoots down the Airtours takeover of First Choice Holidays. A company B-757-28A, wet-leased to Aero Continente, S. A. for six months, allows the Peruvian carrier to inaugurate daily roundtrips on November 17 between Lima and Miami.
Although Airtours drops the bid for its rival, it does, however, formally appeal the ruling on December 2, charging that, by failing to recognize the industry’s competitiveness, the regulator’s ruling is flawed and should not stand as precedent.
Passenger boardings at Britain’s second largest charter airline jump 32.8% on the year to 6,046,000. Cargo makes an even more spectacular jump, climbing a remarkable 879.2% to 13,414,000 FTKs.
Airline employment at the beginning of 2000 stands at 2,032, a 3.8% increase over the past 12 months.
During the first quarter, 2 B-757-28As are wet-leased to TCS Expeditions. Airtours, on May 16, sells its 3% stake in First Choice Holidays.
In July, the First Choice carrier becomes the first charter airline to mount a serious challenge to the low-cost carriers easyJet, Ltd., Ryanair, Ltd., and GO. The company, which has flown scheduled service to Cyprus since 1994, now launches scheduled leisure flights from eight U. K. airports to Alicante, Faro, Lanzarote, Malaga, Palma, and Tenerife. Unlike the no-frills airlines, passengers are offered free drinks and in-flight entertainment.
World History
