Travel agencies warned about new airline

12 January 2004

AMSTERDAM — Dutch travel agency association ANVR has warned its members against booking flights with new budget airline JetsSky, raising doubts about whether the internet-based company has planes or even landing and take-off rights.

JetsSky intends to officially start flying to nine destinations from 1 February. Its website is offering flights from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to Barcelona, Las Palmas, Malaga, Oslo, Stockholm, Danish city Billund and Athens.

But the ANVR has urged travel bureaus to warn customers to use caution in dealing with the new company. “The choice is naturally with the consumer, but we think travel agencies should adequately inform their customers,” the association said.

It said caution was advisable because despite the fact that JetsSky was already offering flights from its website, it is clear that the company is still in the process of being established, an NOS news report said.

But a JetsSky spokesman reacted with displeasure to the warning, saying that the ANVR should be more receptive to new organisations. “Naturally, we are not as stable as the established order, but these sorts of announcements can be unnecessarily damaging, especially at this time,” he said.

The spokesman said the company was in advanced negotiations with Boeing and Airbus over the hiring of airlines and that JetsSky was working extremely hard to ensure that people can start flying with the airline from the start of next month, news agency ANP reported.

Meanwhile, about 3,000 travellers have already booked flights with the new airline, but Schiphol has not yet included JetsSky flights in its schedule. An airport spokeswoman confirmed, however, that the new airline has applied for take-off and landing rights.

Despite this, the spokeswoman said JetsSky representatives have not yet been to Schiphol to officially obtain landing rights from airport authorities, nor have they made agreements over elements such as airline parking.

Schiphol has tried in vain to make contact with the airline and despite the fact that airport spokeswoman said it is possible in principle that JetsSky will put its affairs in order before 1 February, but that it would have been logical to have everything arranged before embarking on airline ticket sales.

Subject: Dutch news + airlines