Helvetic Airways

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Helvetic Airways
Helvetic Airways logo
An Embraer 190 shortly before landing at Zurich Airport
IATA code : 2L
ICAO code : OAW
Call sign : HELVETIC
Founding: 2003
Seat: Wilen , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
Home airport : airport Zurich
Company form: Corporation
Management: Tobias Pogorevc ( CEO )
Leonardo De Luca
( Board of Directors )
Number of employees: approx. 450 (January 2017)
Fleet size: 16 (+ 7 orders)
Aims: National and international
Website: www.helvetic.com
A McDonnell Douglas MD-83 of Odette Airways

Helvetic Airways AG is a Swiss regional airline with operational headquarters in Kloten and base at Zurich Airport .

history

A Helvetic Airways Fokker 100 in the old livery in 2004
Airbus A319-100 of Helvetic Airways
A Fokker 100 approaching runway 14 at Zurich Airport

2003 - creation

Helvetic Airways was created in autumn 2003 as an extension of the already existing Odette Airways , which has operated guest worker flights to destinations in Southeastern Europe such as Pristina with a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 from the former Crossair since February 2002 . This one machine was only briefly supplemented at the turn of the year 2002/2003 by an MD-82 machine leased from Swiss . In November 2003, Helvetic became the first low-cost airline in Switzerland to start operations with a Fokker 100 and three destinations. In 2004 a total of seven Fokker 100 machines were operated and the route network expanded.

2006 - Complete takeover by Martin Ebner and the birth of Helvetic Airways

In March 2006, Martin Ebner took over the financially troubled airline completely and invested a total of CHF 50 million in the rescue. The takeover brought some changes; the management posts, which to this day only consist of two people, have been filled. Since the takeover, Bruno Jans as CEO and Tobias Pogorevc as CFO have been in charge of Helvetic Airways, the fleet had been reduced to 4 aircraft by June 2006. In addition, the airline the image of a low-cost airline, which have also been felt in the visual appearance of the painting of the outer skin of the aircraft adopted: So the bright pink with white Helvetic lettering was replaced by a white ground with silver gray Helvetic lettering and the vertical tail in red held with a Swiss cross . The new design was presented to the public in December 2006. At the same time, the crew's uniforms were adjusted and the pink was also removed and the anthracite-colored uniform was supplemented with red elements (scarf). As a slogan was Swiss on whole line selected.

The new strategy is a mix of three main pillars: scheduled flights , wet lease and charter flights , which is considered to be a successful model at Helvetic.

Martin Ebner stated in an interview that the airline was profitable two years after his initial investment and did not need any further support. The fleet was expanded again in 2010 by two Fokker 100s.

2013 to 2016

On its growth path, Helvetic procured an Airbus A319 in May 2013 and seven Embraer 190s in 2014.

In 2015, Helvetic Airways carried a total of 1.75 million passengers with a fleet utilization rate of 85%. The recruitment of enough pilots and flight attendants was cited as an obstacle to growth .

2016 - 10th anniversary

In April 2016 Helvetic Airways celebrates its 10th anniversary. According to media reports, the permanent management consisting of Bruno Jans and Tobias Pogorevc as CFO was seen as a sign of the committed commitment of the owner Martin Ebner.

As of 2017

Owner Martin Ebner intended to develop Helvetic Airways into Europe's leading airline for special flights for football and sports clubs as well as companies. In December 2016, Helvetic Airways sponsored the Spengler Cup to match .

The fleet was reduced to 12 aircraft in April 2017 when the Airbus A319 was returned to the lessor. Helvetic wanted to concentrate on machines with a good 100 seats in the short-haul segment and save maintenance costs with a fleet with only two types of aircraft. At the Farnborough Airshow 2018, Helvetic announced an order for 12 Embraer 190-E2s plus options for 12 additional E190-E2 / E195-E2s to replace the existing E190 and Fokker 100 aircraft. On June 14, 2019, the Fokker HB- JVG their last flight for Helvetic as a sightseeing flight over the Alps; the last regular passenger flight had taken place a week earlier. The first Embraer 190-E2 with the registration HB-AZA was delivered in October 2019. The second followed in December with the registration HB-AZB .

Due to the sharp decline in passenger numbers and the falling demand for wet lease services due to the COVID-19 pandemic , Helvetic Airways operations were temporarily suspended in March 2020. The planes are to be parked at Dübendorf airfield .

Ownership

In the course of a financial restructuring, financier Martin Ebner took over the entire shares in Helvetic Airways through his joint venture company Patinex AG , after he had previously been the majority shareholder. To prevent the threatened bankruptcy of the airline, which had accumulated a total of 40 million Swiss francs in debt since it was founded in 2003 , the share capital was reduced from 40 million CHF to zero and the capital was increased from zero to 10 million CHF. The money for this capital increase came entirely from Patinex AG .

Destinations

Helvetic Airways currently flies to Bordeaux , Kittilä , Olbia , Palma de Mallorca , Shannon and Tromsø from Zurich or Bern in the regular service. Helvetic Airways also flies to other destinations in charter operations for various tour operators .

From the summer of 2018 from Zurich from Calvi and Rostock served. In addition, of Bern also Calvi and additionally Jerez served.

Since 2010, three of the six Fokker 100s have been in use for Swiss as part of a wet lease agreement , and Helvetic has been using a total of four Fokker 100s for Swiss since the 2013/14 winter flight schedule until at least 2017 . In August 2014 it was announced that Helvetic is purchasing seven new Embraer 190 aircraft. Four of these aircraft had been in service with Swiss since the end of 2014, replacing aging Avro RJ-100 aircraft . The collaboration was expanded in 2019 to include up to eight planes that fly to destinations such as Bremen, Budapest, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Ljubljana. Some Helvetic planes are also in use for the German airline, for example from Munich.

Since the end of March 2016, there has also been a wet lease agreement with the German Lufthansa for the Zurich - Munich route . Lufthansa is now operating the route again with its own aircraft.

fleet

Current fleet

An Embraer 190 at Zurich Airport

As of July 2020, the Helvetic Airways fleet consists of 16 aircraft with an average age of 7.7 years:

Aircraft type number ordered Remarks Seats Average age

(July 2020)

Embraer 190 11 came from Niki between December 2014 and June 2015 ; leased 104/112 11.0 years
Embraer 190-E2 5 3 replace the Embraer 190. +12 options on the Embraer 195-E2 . 110 00.4 years
Embraer 195-E2 4th Delivery in 2021. 134
total 16 7th 7.7 years


Former aircraft types
Aircraft type number Floating Extermination
Airbus A319-100 1 2013 2017
Fokker F100 9 2003 2019
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 1 2002 2005

Trivia

  • On every Helvetic Airways scheduled flight (without wet lease), passengers receive a Zurich Hüppen and a Sugus to say goodbye .
  • Martin Ebner's wife Rosmarie is said to have indirectly moved him to make the investment through a comment made during a joint flight with Helvetic Airways.
  • During the transfer flight of the 5th Embraer 190-E2 for Helvetic Airways, the aircraft flew from São José dos Campos to Natal and then directly to Zurich without a stopover on Gran Canaria . With a flight time of 9:10 hours and a distance of 7300 kilometers, this was the longest flight of an Embraer 190-E2.

See also

literature

  • Jessica Bannister-Pearce: The big swiss switch. In: Airliner World , January 2020, pp. 36–43

Web links

Commons : Helvetic Airways  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Extract "Helvetic Airways AG" from the trade register of Canton Schwyz  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 4, 2016@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / sz.powernet.ch  
  2. ^ Helvetic Airways - Organization ( Memento from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Helvetic Airways (ed.): Relax Bordmagazin (print edition) . Zurich 2017, p. 82 .
  4. ↑ MD-82 HB-INR , planespotters.net, accessed January 1, 2018
  5. ↑ a b Martin Ebner prevents bankruptcy , print edition SonntagsZeitung (CH), October 1, 2006
  6. ↑ a b c Stefan Eiselin: The loosened Ebner. Tagesanzeiger.ch , April 27, 2016, accessed on January 8, 2017 .
  7. ^ Helvetic Airways Organization. Retrieved January 8, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Report in SkyNews ( Memento from November 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.9 MB)
  9. ^ Helvetic Airways Group. Retrieved January 8, 2017 .
  10. ↑ a b Hanspeter Bürgin: Helvetic Airways is celebrating its 10th birthday. travelnews.ch, April 23, 2016, accessed on January 8, 2017 .
  11. ^ Adrian Müller: Helvetic Airways earns good money with flights from Bern. derbund.ch , April 27, 2016, accessed on January 8, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Laura Frommberg: Helvetic Airways has its A319. aerotelegram.com, May 8, 2013, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Helvetic Airways expands its aircraft fleet by seven Embraer 190. aargauerzeitung.ch , December 19, 2014, accessed on January 8, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Helvetic Airways on record course - and recruiting. travelnews.ch, February 11, 2016, accessed on January 8, 2017 .
  15. ^ The other investment by Martin Ebner. finews.ch, April 27, 2016, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Silver Sponsor Spengler Cup. Retrieved January 8, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Helvetic Airways says goodbye to the Airbus A319. abouttravel.ch , November 7, 2016, accessed on January 8, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Helvetic airline with huge orders for new aircraft | Lucerne newspaper . In: Lucerne newspaper . ( luzernerzeitung.ch [accessed on July 17, 2018]).
  19. ↑ Last flight: Helvetic says bye-bye to the Fokker 100 , Handelszeitung, June 14, 2019
  20. ↑ Helvetic Airways will soon also have a whisper jet , accessed on August 29, 2019
  21. ↑ a b Laura Frommberg: Helvetic Airways has received its first E2 jet. In: aerotelegraph.com. aeroTELEGRAPH, Zurich, October 31, 2019, accessed on December 1, 2019 .
  22. ↑ The second E190-E2 from Helvetic Airways is here. In: travelnews.ch. December 23, 2019, accessed December 23, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Economy course: Helvetic is grounding the entire fleet. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. March 24, 2020, accessed on March 25, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
  24. ^ Christian Brändli: The Dübendorfer parking space. In: zueriost.ch . April 12, 2020, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  25. ^ Helvetic flight plan. Retrieved January 8, 2017 .
  26. ↑ {Internet source | url = https://abouttravel.ch/reisebranche/transport-luft-land/helvetic-airways-im-sommer-2018-mit-neuen-zielen-und-comebacks/ | Helvetic Airways in summer 2018 with new Aiming and Comebacks | hrsg = abouttravel.ch | access = 2018-03-09}
  27. ↑ helvetic.com: Wet-Lease Agreement ( Memento of November 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) July 27, 2010
  28. ↑ aerotelegraph.com - Swiss and Helvetic extended partnership from September 27, 2013
  29. ↑ http://www.travelinside.ch/travelinside/de/index.php?we_objectID=31720
  30. ↑ Abouttravel Wet-Lease Lufthansa , accessed on July 3, 2016
  31. ↑ a b c d Helvetic Airways Fleet Details and History. In: planespotters.net. Retrieved April 8, 2020 .
  32. ↑ a b c d Helvetic Airways fleet - ZRH-Spotter. Retrieved April 8, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Helvetic Airways pulls out the E195-E2 card from Embraer. July 15, 2020, accessed on July 15, 2020 (German).
  34. ↑ airfleets.net - Fleet Helvetic (English), accessed on April 7, 2017
  35. ↑ Helvetic Airways - Fleet and Maintenance
  36. ↑ Helvetic Airways: And after Appenzell mineral, SUGUS is now looking forward to welcoming the guests on board together with Helvetic Airways! Pic.twitter.com/hzkZGy5TfQ. In: @helvetic_de. June 3, 2016, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  37. ↑ Helvetic Airways creates a long flight record. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. July 2, 2020, accessed on July 3, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
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