Clickair

Clickair

IATA XG ICAO CLI Callsign CLICKJET
Founded	2006 (as Catair)
Commenced operations	1 October 2006
Ceased operations	15 July 2009 (Became Vueling Airlines)
Operating bases	Barcelona-El Prat Airport Málaga Airport Palma de Mallorca Airport Seville-San Pablo Airport Valencia Airport
Fleet size	26
Destinations	41
Company slogan	Vola intel·ligent English: Fly smart
Parent company	Iberia Group
Headquarters	El Prat de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain
Key people	Alex Cruz (CEO) Carlos Losada (President)
Website	www.clickair.com

A Clickair Airbus A320 landing at London Heathrow Airport, England. (2008)

A Clickair Airbus A320 landing at Munich Airport, Germany. (2007)

Clickair was a low-cost airline that was based in the Parc de Negocis Mas Blau in El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona, Spain.^[1][2] Clickair flew to nearly 40 destinations in Europe. The airline's main base was Barcelona International Airport with bases at Málaga, Seville and Valencia.^[3]

Clickair merged into Vueling Airlines on 15 July 2009.

History

Early Years

The company was first called Catair, derived from CAT (CATalonia) and AIR, but changed its name to Clickair just before starting operations. Catair Líneas Aéreas was the name of the holding company.^{[citation needed]}

The airline started operations on 1 October 2006 with 3 Airbus A320 aircraft operating 5 routes from its Barcelona hub.^[4] The company was founded from initial capital investment from Cobra, Iberia, Iberostar, Nefinsa and Quercus Equity (Group Agrolimen), each with a 20% share, with Iberia setting up the airline.^[5] Although Iberia holds a 20% stake in the airline, it controls 80% of its economic rights. The company has plans for the operation of 30 Airbus A320s on 70 routes, carrying 10 million passengers a year by the end of 2008.^[3] Clickair's IATA code, XG was inherited from Gestair Cargo's retired passenger airline Regional Líneas Aéreas.

Vueling and Clickair Merger

In June 2008, Clickair and rival Spanish low cost airline Vueling announced their intention to merge.^[6] The merger was agreed because they wanted to make a single carrier better equipped to take out high fuel costs and fees, and both airlines were losing a lot of money. The merger would cause Clickair to cease operations because Vueling was to be the name of the new airline. The airline was to be based in Barcelona where both of the low cost airlines were based and were to keep its original hubs. Boss of Clickair Alex Cruz was also to be the chief executive of the airline.^[7]

On the 15th July 2009 the merger of Vueling and Clickair was completed.^[8] The new merged airline operates under the Vueling brand, with Clickair ceasing their operations. Since the merger, Vueling has become the second largest Spanish carrier flying 8.2 million passengers in 2009, to almost 50 destinations.

Destinations

Main article: Clickair destinations

Inflight services

Clickair offered Clickbasics, which is a shopping and buy on board programme for food, drinks, and other goods.^[9]

Fleet

The Clickair fleet consisted of the following aircraft (at 21 March 2009):^[10]

Clickair Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Passengers
Airbus A320-200	26	180

At 21 March 2009, the average age of the Clickair fleet was 10.2 years.^[11]

After ceasing operations, 20 of the 26 aircraft went to Vueling. The rest of the fleet went to Astraeus Airlines, Vertir Airlines and Ural Airlines, with EC-GRE and EC-GRI being stored.

Aircraft orders

5 aircraft were planned to be introduced in 2008, however the airline scaled back its expansion plans and would add only one aircraft to the fleet during the year.^[12]

External links

	Spain portal
	Companies portal
	Aviation portal

• Clickair official website (Archive)
• Click Magazine inflight magazine (Archive)

References

1. ^ "Contact." Clickair. 17 November 2006. Retrieved on 13 September 2011. "Central office: CLICKAIR S.A. C/ Solsones, 2 Esc.B 3º 1ª Parc de Negocis MAS BLAU Prat de Llobregat 08820 Barcelona (Spain)"
2. ^ "Article: clickair on track to carry 4.5 million passengers by year end.(Brief article)." Airline Industry Information. 25 September 2007. Retrieved on 30 March 2009.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International: p. 67. 2007-04-03. 
4. ^ Flight International, 3–9 October 2006
5. ^ Clickair website
6. ^ Vueling To Merge With Clickair
7. ^ Merger Information
8. ^ Vueling new airline name to UK. TravelMole. Phil Davies.
9. ^ "Clickbasics." Clickair. Retrieved on 20 January 2009.
10. ^ Clickair Fleet
11. ^ Clickair Fleet Age
12. ^ Spain's Clickair scales back growth plans - Reuters