Start-up Air Madrid Seeks Codeshares, Plots Growth
Spanish long-haul start-up Air Madrid is in discussions with South American carriers to co-operate on intra-continental flights as well as considering fleet expansion for 2005. Talks tackle codeshare agreements on flights from Costa Rica and Ecuador to other Central and South American destinations.
Airline CEO Javier Taibo said: “ We will be co-operating with some Latin American airlines. We will be co-operating from a commercial point of view in San Jose and possible in Ecuador. We need some support to fly from San Jose and other points in Latin America.”
He notes the carrier hopes to have an agreement with a Central American carrier this month and with an Ecuadorian airline in February. Additionally the carrier is hoping to launch flights to Asia “possibly” in 2005 says Taibo, citing India and Thailand as potential destinations.
“Our first step is Latin America and in our second step we will expand into Asia,” he adds. Presently neither of Spain’s two long-haul scheduled carriers, Iberia or Air Europa, offers direct flights to Asia.
The airline, which is pitching itself as a budget carrier, is preparing to launch operations in May and will initially serve 11 destinations from its Madrid base. It will operate scheduled services to Cancun in Mexico, Varadero in Cuba, Isla Margarita in Venezuela, Punta Cana and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, San Jose in Costa Rica, Bogota and Cartagena in Columbia, Lima in Peru, Quito in Ecuador and Brazil.
The company has not set a launch date for its first flight but is confident of gaining its air operator’s certificate (AOC) in April. It plans to start services with three wide body aircraft and has signed a five-year operating lease agreement with International Lease Finance (ILFC) for two A330-200s.
It is continuing negotiations to take one A330-300 for May but the airline would not confirm if the aircraft would come from ILFC. From 2005 the carrier hopes to further expand its fleet, potentially with A340s. “We will expand with one or two aircraft per year. The aircraft may possibly be A340s and the fleet definition for 2005 will be decided in June,” says Taibo, adding the carrier will also announce its Asian network in June.
