Zoom launch Gatwick - New York flights today
21.06.07
Low-cost Canadian airline Zoom launches a daily flight from Gatwick Airport to New York's John F Kennedy International today. The airline is offering one-way fares from £129 including taxes and charges on its 266-seat Boeing 767-300s, with slightly larger 'premium economy' seats an additional £99 each way.
Zoom, based in Ottawa, Canada, and at Gatwick, has operated full-service, low-cost flights from the UK to Canada for three years and already operates 10 to 12 daily long haul flights. It is adding the New York - London route because nearly 42,000 people travel between the two cities every week, said chairman Hugh Boyle.
Boyle said the four-year-old company is profitable, and knows what it's doing. He said: 'We know it [the airlines low cost model] works between Canada and the UK. It will work to New York too.'
A benefit of Zoom's one way pricing is that does not require passengers to stay over on a Saturday night, a typical requirement for a cheaper flight on most airlines. It claims to be offering savings of between 42 percent and 71 percent on the fares being offered by traditional airlines.
The airline will sell as many as 25 percent of its seats at the £129 rate, but other seats will be more expensive. The average fare will also be boosted by the 88 'premium economy' seats and Zoom will also carry cargo.
Boyle boasted flight occupancy rates of 90 percent, compared with an industry average of about 81 percent. He said that the airline has already sold almost 10,000 seats on the New York - Gatwick flights and added that Zoom is looking at other busy routes and may add new flights early next year. He said: 'The US from the UK is a huge market, and we will roll it out.
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