Estonian Air signs agreement with Air Charter Service
Air Charter Service, a global aircraft charter company, has signed an agreement to market and sell air charter on Estonian Air’s Embraer 170 airliner. The aircraft is likely to be based at Birmingham Airport in the UK.
Matt Purton, commercial jets director at Air Charter Service, said: “With a capacity of 76 seats and a range of around three hours, we feel that the aircraft is very versatile and will be ideal for sports teams, oil and gas clients and the MICE industry. The aircraft is in an all economy plus configuration, with 31 inch pitch seats in a two-by-two configuration. There is a lack of this kind of capability, in the UK market especially, and at the request of our client base, we have brought it in.”
“We’ve been pleasantly surprised at the uptake from tour operators looking for niche routes from regional airports to Mediterranean countries especially,” added Purton. “Also we’ve already seen some demand for ACMI coverage, all this is in addition to our core charter business,”
The agreement means that Air Charter Service is the sole agent for the aircraft, with availability exclusive to their customers. Purton also confirmed that the contract started on 1 January 2014 and that he expects the initial deal to be extended. “If the current market trends don’t change too much, I can only see us continuing this partnership on into 2015,” he said.
Mikael Wangdahl, the cheif operating office of Estonian Air, said: “We see a good opportunity to utilise our surplus aircraft capacity in the UK’s market and we have had a very good, longstanding cooperation with Air Charter Service. By signing the agreement with ACS we extend the existing relationship and get good value for marketing and sales on the Western side of Europe.”
