Glasgow airport fills Zoom and XL slots

[November 21st 2008]

Glasgow airport says it has almost filled the gap left by airlines Zoom and XL going bust, with other airlines stepping in to offer flights to Canada and holiday sun destinations.

The airport has secured thousands of extra seats for 2009 and is in discussions with other airlines to offer more flights. Zoom flew to five cities in Canada from Glasgow, but the airport says it will offer more seats to Canada in 2009 than in 2008.

Canadian Affair will operate 11 flights a week to Toronto Pearson airport plus weekly flights to Calgary and Vancouver, while airline Flyglobespan will also offer flights to Canada.

"The loss of Zoom and XL Airways, within weeks of each other, was a significant blow for Glasgow Airport, and came at a difficult time for the airline industry. The credit squeeze and falling demand has seen airlines around the world reduce capacity and ground aircraft in order to save money,” comments Glasgow airport managing director, Amanda McMillan.

"Despite these challenges, we have worked hard to recover the capacity lost by the demise of Zoom and XL, with impressive results,” she adds.

Between them Zoom and XL carried almost 180,000 passengers a year from Glasgow. XL operated flights from Glasgow to more than a dozen holiday hotspots in the Mediterranean and to Orlando in Florida. Glasgow airport says 88% of these seats have now been backfilled.

Charter airline Teleticket is providing extra capacity to Dalaman, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Paphos and Alicante, while Turkey holiday specialist Scottravel is laying on extra flights to Dalaman.

McMillan says a number of existing airlines at Glasgow have already confirmed extra flights in 2009 and discussions on further capacity increases are continuing.

"Given the current economic climate, this is a real vote of confidence in Glasgow Airport from the airline industry, and a sign of our real commitment to gain new business for Glasgow,” McMillan states.

Written by: Nick Purdom