While almost every airline was plagued by the bugbear Corona virus this year, the private charter airline Air Hamburg will be in the black in 2020.
“We were lucky,” says founder and managing director Floris Helmers, describing the situation of private jet providers. In fact, the slump in the premium business turned out to be less severe than in the case of the large, mass-business-oriented airlines. People who can dig deeper into their pockets preferred private travel. Because the passengers would avoid crowds, both at the airports, where they use separate private airport terminals, and on board, such as Abendblatt.de reported.
A transmission of the new virus through the cabin air is almost impossible. This caused demand to rise - there were even more flights in July and August than in the previous year. "However, even with a fleet that has been enlarged from 29 to 35 machines," says Helmers. Nevertheless: In the last week of March, business almost collapsed with the premium provider. Instead of the usual 70 circulations a day, there were only three to four on the weakest days. This meant that the majority of the workforce had to be sent on short-time work.
But the descent did not last long, it quickly went up again. How the winter months would go depends heavily on the travel restrictions of the individual countries. Nonetheless, Air Hamburg can look back on a turbulent, but nonetheless stable year. The financial forecast also looks stable: The carrier is expecting a turnover of around 180 million euros. About as much as last year.