clickair carried 4.6 million passengers in 2007. According to Eurocontrol statistics, achieved top ranking as the most punctual operator at Spanish airports - on both international and domestic services. clickair enters 2008 ready to deliver a number of inflight service enhancements, including for the first time, the option to allow business travellers to pay for the middle seat on the first few rows of their Airbus A320 aircraft (the B and E seats) for a supplement of 30 Euros. 

clickair is marketing this - on more than 200 flights as its ‘Premium Plus Seat’, along with its existing Premium Seat (€10 for the first few aisles and emergency seat rows). The Premium Plus Seat is now live for flights on sale from 28 March and will be available until the 15th of June.

In addition, it is adding its innovative click&fly check in at more airports around the network.  The latest is BAA-owned London Heathrow and London Gatwick will follow soon.  click&fly eliminates the need for the check in process, enabling UK and European-originating passengers to select their seat and print their boarding pass as soon as the booking is confirmed - even if the date of travel is six months’ away.  click&fly is now available on most other clickair routes from Spain.

 

“The Spanish airline market is fiercely competitive and our strategy to keep one step ahead is to continue to grow our network, refine the number of frequencies in some weaker markets in order to achieve this and start consolidating after what has been a period of phenomenal growth,” said Alex Cruz, CEO.  (From October 2006, during clickair’s first three months of operation, the Barcelona-based carrier flew nearly 400,000 passengers on an initial six routes with three aircraft, so 2007 traffic was actually up 1,050%.) 

 

“Right now, the key to success is all about being realistic, especially with these escalating fuel prices.  Even so, we still expect to show a 60% increase in overall passenger growth this year with the planned new routes we have and other destinations such as Malta, Dubrovnik and Moscow we are reintroducing for the summer.”

 

This week clickair will accept its 23rd Airbus A320 - a brand new aircraft direct from Toulouse.  In February it acquires its 24th, also a new model. “We will continue monitoring closely the evolution of the market and we are prepared to make additional capacity increases in 2008 if we believe they will be financially sustainable.”, he said.

 

New winter routes include Palma, Asturias, Alicante, and Brussels from Barcelona.  Tel Aviv, Cairo and Istanbul currently planned for the summer.

 

Clickair kicked off 2008 with the launch of five daily flights from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca on 1 January.  On 1 February, it adds Barcelona-Asturias and on the 24th of that month commences new services from Barcelona to Alicante. On 1 March it adds twice daily flights to Brussels, taking its total number of routes from its Barcelona home base to 41. 

 

Additional new domestic and international routes, commencing from the summer schedule, will be announced shortly to further strengthen the current 50-strong European network.  Some await slot approval.
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