Blue Lines starts fleet renewal

[Springbal]

Blue Lines starts fleet renewal by adding Airbus A320-family aircraft.

Despite being a rather modest airline, Blue Lines has growing ambitions. The phasing out of the older Boeing 737-200adv. Is a cornerstone in the overall strategy.
London, 8th of February 2007

PRESS CONFERENCE MINUTES

"I think it is needless to say, we live in challenging times. There is a demand for airtravel, a demand for aircraft. But the market is pretty closed at this time. According to sources, there are upto 50 airbus A320-family aircraft in storage. Yet none are brought to the market. This is a major hurdle for smaller airlines to grow. Yet we try to do so. Our data show we can. But it is too slow to keep up the pace."

With these words Blue Lines CEO Bart P. opened the press conference, with a rather gloomy prospect. Yet The airline remains positive and determined to increase passengers trust, satisfaction and overall growth.

In June last year we ordered thee Airbus A321-200. They took service between the end of last december and the beginning of februry. Two aircraft will help expand the fleet and allow us to fly on some new destinations. The third aircraft started the phasing out of our Boeing 737-200adv. family. An important step to increase the number of seats, complience with environmental laws and passenger convenience as a whole. Holiday passenegers who saw themselves upgrated from the older 737-200 to the brand new A321 reacted enthusiastically.

The rapidly aging fleet of the Boeing 737-200, who played an important roll in our fleet and network developement, starts causing several challenges. Finding adequate square parts, outdated passengercomfort, noisy and fuel inefficient. The new airbus A321 has many opportunities for the airline. A single A321 carries in a full economy lay out, 72 extra passengers extra per flight, using 10% less fuel. The maintenance is quicker, cheaper and the planes are quiter.

The Airbus A321 allows us not only to give more passengers a more comfortable seat, we are able to explore new markets. The new Airbus provides us with easy access to the Greek Islands, Turkey, the Canary Islands, Senegal and Iran. But the main goal now is phase the Boeing out. We will continuously explore new markets tough.

We are now starting the operations to retrain our existing crews and engaging new crews. For each flight we will need two extra cabin crew so we will also grow as an employer. The Pilots are enthousiastic about the new mordern cockpit and avionics. Some die-hards whom are at a stonethrow form retirement, will end their carreer on the Boeing. Farewell flights will be held. The cabin crew now has larger galleys to work in and can offer an even greater service than before. Some overhead screns will provide inflight entertainment, flight information and ground information. We look forward for more happy passengers and happy crew.

The overall goal is phasing out at a rate of two aircraft per year. So they all departed the fleet before the next D-check. For every aircraft, there will be a sufficient replacement based on the type of flights it operates. Not every Boeing will standard be replaced by an A321. The next Boeing 737 is planned to be replaced by the beginning of august. Exciting times, indeed.

Passengers can discover our new amenities, flight schedules and more information on our brand new webiste. Our Customer Information Centre can be joined 24/7 via e-ticketing, phone, chat. On the airport our Passenger Care Teams are happy to help you further.

BLue Lines,
Happy to have you with us