- EUjet
EUjet was a
low-cost airline based atShannon Airport ,Ireland . It operated a network of services from its main base at Shannon Airport (SNN), with a hub atKent International Airport (MSE),Manston, Kent , UK. The airline was sold to a British company,PlaneStation , which also owned Kent airport, for €10m. In July 2005 PlaneStation went out of business with €40m in debts, forcing EUjet to cease operations.Code data
*IATA Code: VE
*ICAO Code: EUJ
*Callsign: Union JetHistory
The airline was established in
2003 and started operations in May 2003. It was created by former TransAer headPJ McGoldrick , who linked withFokker F100 leasing specialist Debis AirFinance to offerwet lease s and charters. In 2004 the company moved into scheduled services. Airport operatorPlaneStation completed its takeover of EUjet in January 2005 by acquiring the remaining 70% of the shares. It had bought the first 30% in May 2004. On 26 July 2005 the airline went into administration.ervices
EUjet operated the following services (at July 2005):
*UK domestic destinations:
Belfast ,Edinburgh ,Manchester ,Kent International Airport and Newcastle.*Ireland domestic destinations:
Dublin and Shannon.*International scheduled destinations:
Alicante ,Amsterdam , Faro,Geneva (ski seasonal destination),Girona ,Ibiza ,Innsbruck ,Málaga ,Murcia ,Nice ,Palma de Mallorca ,Prague ,Salzburg and Valencia.Fleet
The EuJet fleet consisted of the following aircraft:
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On
25 July 2005 trading in shares for EUjet's parent company PlaneStation was suspended. Passenger numbers were far down on expected figures and suffered a £6.5 million loss in the last half of 2004. The company stated that discussions with the banks have "not been positive".On
26 July 2005 all flights were suspended along with the operations of Kent International Airport for all bar freight traffic. Later in the day EUjet went into voluntary administration leaving up to 5,000 passengers stranded abroad and 500 jobs in the balance.Lack of passenger numbers are one reason cited for the failure of the airline with only 330,000 out of the 500,000 passengers predicted for the first year of operation. In addition the airline had been plagued with disruption and protest from people in Thanet of whom a significant proportion were against any expansion of operations at Kent International Airport.
easyJet , a rival airline, offered to fly home the thousands of stranded EUjet customers for a flat fee of £25. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/4737319.stm] [http://www.sligoweekender.ie/news/story.asp?j=24156] [http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=6778-qqqx=1.asp]External links
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=EUjet&distinct_entry=true Photos of EUjet aircraft]
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