A Viennese startup wants to launch a new airline with a flat rate tariff model in April 2020. Customers should be able to use a certain number of flights for a fixed monthly fee. Rented aircraft of the types Airbus A319 and A321 are to be used as aircraft.

SupremeFly is located in the first district of Vienna, but does not want to start from Schwechat, but from Bratislava. The company explains to Aviation Direct: "Bratislava Letisko is primarily operationally more cost-effective and more flexible in flight handling". The first route is expected to lead to Istanbul from April 2021. Other destinations to be included this year are: Tunis / Algiers, Cairo, Marrakech, Beirut, Amman and Benghazi. Company founder Ahmed Taieb intends to continuously expand the route network in the next few years: "The upcoming destinations targeted for 2022/23 include Jeddah, Berlin, Cologne / Bonn, London, Paris, Madrid, Moscow and Kiev".

Flat rate models between 79 and 999 euros per month

The business model provides for three flat-rate models. The cheapest is said to cost 79 euros per month and includes four flights per month to two destinations. The family package includes up to eight flights, on-board catering and children up to five years of age for 149 euros a month. For 999 euros per month there is unlimited flight in the route network, on-board catering, transfer from / to Bratislava, WiFi and lounge access at the Slovak capital airport. At the moment, SupremeFly is not collecting any binding registrations with payment obligations, only non-binding expressions of interest. As soon as it starts, the interested parties should be contacted and can then decide whether they want to book or not.

Ahmed Taieb describes the business model and how the idea came about as follows: “The obsolete method of purchasing tickets in the airline industry has pissed me off over time. The time-consuming search for suitable flight tickets gave me the motivation to change some things in the airline industry - for the benefit of customers, and above all for the benefit of the hard-working people in this industry. In my eight years of experience in the aviation industry, I have tried a lot and accordingly quickly realized that a future-oriented change is not only practical, but also imperative. Just as we already got to know them on the real estate market with AirBnB or in the ride hailing area with UBER, it is also high time to revolutionize the flight industry in terms of the customer experience with commercial flights. For the good of the people. In addition to an unbelievable attractiveness, more to travel, which inevitably leads to an increase in urban tourism, from the exemption from vacation clusters to annual get-together on an intercontinental basis. As we say: SupremeFly connects people. Our business model is therefore not only attractive for end customers, but above all healthy for our industry. "

Airbus A319 and A321 are to be chartered

The startup will not have its own AOC or its own operating license. “We will transport our customers with an Airbus A319-100 and sometimes with an Airbus A321-200 from Bratislava to their favorite destination. As far as the AOC is concerned, we are working with a European AOC holder, ”said Taieb. However, the SupremeFly boss did not mention the operator's name. “The expected start is in April. We start with 2 flights a week to Istanbul, ”said the manager.

In the United States of America there are already some providers of flat-rate flights. The business model is not yet very widespread in Europe. When asked what advantages SupremeFly has for customers, founder Ahmed Taieb replied: “Flexible booking in less than two minutes, no more time-consuming searching / comparing flight tickets, travel more often, travel cheaper, full transparency and control over travel costs with a monthly fixed price for the selected subscription. COVID-19 monitoring works quickly and easily via an upload of the current Covid-19 test in the profile area - this can be accessed at any time and explicitly assigned to each passenger. Further advantages for our customers are in the works. "

It is currently not foreseeable how booking behavior will develop in the 2021 summer flight schedule. SupremeFly's approach is completely new, at least for the Austrian and Slovakian market, and is breaking new ground, especially in the area of ​​customer loyalty. The free market ultimately decides whether the Viennese's business idea will be successful or not.