City Star Airlines cease operations
- Thread starter CK
- Start date
Olebno
ScanFlyer Gold
print this story Email this story to a friend
More Headlines | Back to home page
ABERDEEN AIRLINE COLLAPSES AS AIRPORT IMPOUNDS PLANE
08:50 - 31 January 2008
Aberdeen's City Star Airlines has shut down after running into financial difficulties.
More than 50 people will lose their jobs today following the cessation of operations at midnight last night.
The company secretary, Allan Chalmers, confirmed last night that he had resigned.
The closure decision came only hours after one of the airline's aircraft was impoun-ded by Aberdeen Airport.
The airline was due to run scheduled services to three Norwegian airports today and efforts were being made last night to contact nearly 100 passengers affected.
City Star Airlines spokeswoman Kerry Rohan said people with bookings would be able to get refunds from their credit card company or booking agent.
Aberdeen Airport made the move to confiscate the 32-seat Dornier 328 turbo prop plane at lunchtime. A spokesman would not reveal the reason, but it was understood to be over unpaid bills.
The loss of the plane meant that more than 30 football fans from Aberdeen could not catch a charter flight to see Manchester United play Portsmouth last night.
The cancelled charter had been hired by Aberdeen entrepreneur Mike Wilson, who is in Dubai on business.
He has regularly chartered aircraft from City Star Airlines since it was set up, and said a number of his friends were let down yesterday.
"Many of them had expensive boxes and tickets which they can't use. Only four of them managed to get south on another flight," he said.
Mr Wilson said the airline's fate was sad as it was a local firm and the airline crew had been first-class, but he is hoping that City Star Airlines, or parts of it, can be saved.
Alti Arnason, chief executive of parent group City Star Holding, could not be contacted for comment.
Runar Fossadal Arnason, managing director of City Star Airlines, said their problems stemmed from an incident at Aberdeen Airport on November 25 when one of their two planes was damaged by mobile passenger steps operated by SGS Ground Handling Aberdeen.
He said: "We suffered the immediate loss of an aircraft which required us to take emergency measures to secure continued operation.
"Unfortunately the incident has had a major knock on effect and we have simply not been able to recover from this and as of midnight have ceased all operations."
Miss Rohan said the international credit crunch was another contributory factor.
Fifteen employees were made redundant after the airport accident. Today, 44 jobs will be lost at City Star Airlines and 11 at its sister company, City Star Handling.
Miss Rohan said another sister firm at the airport, Caledonian Airborne Engineering, was still trading. It has over 70 employees.
In December there was a second blow for City Star Holding when it emerged that another subsidiary had delayed launching Aberdeen's first scheduled service to the US.
City Star Executive had planned to start flights to the Texan oil capital of Houston this month.
Alti Arnason, a former check-in clerk in Iceland, told the Press and Journal there was no new date pencilled in.
He said factors for the delay included soaring fuel costs and the global credit crunch, which had raised borrowing costs.
Aberdeen Airport has also been talking to other airlines about starting a direct service to Houston.
City Star's liabilities at the end of 2005 were more than £784,000 greater than its assets, but Mr Arnason said that was not an unusual in a new airline - launched in March, 2003, and backed by investors in the UK and Iceland.
The four directors are listed as Alti Arnason, of Callum Park, Kingswells, his brother Runar, of Iceland, Allan Chalmers of Malcolm Road, Peterculter, and Dagbjartur Einarsson, of Iceland.
City Star Airlines flew to Kristiansund, Oslo and Stavanger in Norway.
More Headlines | Back to home page
ABERDEEN AIRLINE COLLAPSES AS AIRPORT IMPOUNDS PLANE
08:50 - 31 January 2008
Aberdeen's City Star Airlines has shut down after running into financial difficulties.
More than 50 people will lose their jobs today following the cessation of operations at midnight last night.
The company secretary, Allan Chalmers, confirmed last night that he had resigned.
The closure decision came only hours after one of the airline's aircraft was impoun-ded by Aberdeen Airport.
The airline was due to run scheduled services to three Norwegian airports today and efforts were being made last night to contact nearly 100 passengers affected.
City Star Airlines spokeswoman Kerry Rohan said people with bookings would be able to get refunds from their credit card company or booking agent.
Aberdeen Airport made the move to confiscate the 32-seat Dornier 328 turbo prop plane at lunchtime. A spokesman would not reveal the reason, but it was understood to be over unpaid bills.
The loss of the plane meant that more than 30 football fans from Aberdeen could not catch a charter flight to see Manchester United play Portsmouth last night.
The cancelled charter had been hired by Aberdeen entrepreneur Mike Wilson, who is in Dubai on business.
He has regularly chartered aircraft from City Star Airlines since it was set up, and said a number of his friends were let down yesterday.
"Many of them had expensive boxes and tickets which they can't use. Only four of them managed to get south on another flight," he said.
Mr Wilson said the airline's fate was sad as it was a local firm and the airline crew had been first-class, but he is hoping that City Star Airlines, or parts of it, can be saved.
Alti Arnason, chief executive of parent group City Star Holding, could not be contacted for comment.
Runar Fossadal Arnason, managing director of City Star Airlines, said their problems stemmed from an incident at Aberdeen Airport on November 25 when one of their two planes was damaged by mobile passenger steps operated by SGS Ground Handling Aberdeen.
He said: "We suffered the immediate loss of an aircraft which required us to take emergency measures to secure continued operation.
"Unfortunately the incident has had a major knock on effect and we have simply not been able to recover from this and as of midnight have ceased all operations."
Miss Rohan said the international credit crunch was another contributory factor.
Fifteen employees were made redundant after the airport accident. Today, 44 jobs will be lost at City Star Airlines and 11 at its sister company, City Star Handling.
Miss Rohan said another sister firm at the airport, Caledonian Airborne Engineering, was still trading. It has over 70 employees.
In December there was a second blow for City Star Holding when it emerged that another subsidiary had delayed launching Aberdeen's first scheduled service to the US.
City Star Executive had planned to start flights to the Texan oil capital of Houston this month.
Alti Arnason, a former check-in clerk in Iceland, told the Press and Journal there was no new date pencilled in.
He said factors for the delay included soaring fuel costs and the global credit crunch, which had raised borrowing costs.
Aberdeen Airport has also been talking to other airlines about starting a direct service to Houston.
City Star's liabilities at the end of 2005 were more than £784,000 greater than its assets, but Mr Arnason said that was not an unusual in a new airline - launched in March, 2003, and backed by investors in the UK and Iceland.
The four directors are listed as Alti Arnason, of Callum Park, Kingswells, his brother Runar, of Iceland, Allan Chalmers of Malcolm Road, Peterculter, and Dagbjartur Einarsson, of Iceland.
City Star Airlines flew to Kristiansund, Oslo and Stavanger in Norway.
BSSW
Browncoat
Den person kan neppe være veldig glad nå. Tenk å ha den hengende rundt halsen....å ødelegge et fly som på sikt også "hjelper" til med å slå flyselskap konkurs.
Det er jo alltid greit å ha noen andre å skylde på
Det som skjedde der tviler jeg at har så mye skyld som de vil frem til. Alle seriøse selskaper har da forsikring i tilfelle slike ting skulle skje.
Finnes det noen rapporter eller bilder på hva som skjedde?
Her var du raskt ute og forsvarte SGS. Hadde dette vært Norport feks. så hadde vel pipa hatt en annen tone.
Back to topic. Synd City Star forsvinner da. Håper de klarer seg noe som ser mørkt ut.
Nok en trist nyhet, som viser hvor ømfintlig et selskap kan være for uregelmessigheter. City Star Airlines led vel også under visse voksesmerter - de lanserte blant annet en rute mellom Aberdeen og Housten som aldri kom i gang.
Jeg fløy faktisk med City Star i går.. Da var alt fryd og gammen med ca. 15 pax fra ABZ til SVG (alle skulle videre til KSU), og helt fullt fly fra SVG til KSU. God service og svært behagelig fly. Skikkelig synd dette her.... Men jeg er helt sikker på at Eastern Airways bare står å sikler etter å ta over...
flyKSU
ScanFlyer Gold
Var det ikke slik at bl.a. Norske Shell hadde avtale om Oljerute fra KSU til ABZ, eller er jeg helt på jordet nå? Før CityStar kom inn var det jo også to ganger daglig KSU - ABZ med North Flying (Metro) og Scott Airways (Do.328)
Håper vi får se Eastern her oppe. Noen må jo ta over dunne ruten... tror jeg. En Fokker til SVG om dagen er jo langt fra nok
Håper vi får se Eastern her oppe. Noen må jo ta over dunne ruten... tror jeg. En Fokker til SVG om dagen er jo langt fra nok
The Ticketor
ScanFlyer Dusty
Jo CK, men du vet like godt som meg at det er umulig å bedømme noen sånt på kun én flight. Men man kan jo ikke se bort fra at dette faktisk var representativt for kabinfaktoren, men sikker kan man ikke være.
Last edited:
Olebno
ScanFlyer Gold
Jeg vil nok si at tallene fra i går var langt bedre enn gjennomsnittlig kabinfaktor. Og dette er på den STORE reisedagen fra ABZ. Offshore-crew roterer på onsdag/torsdag. Nei, dette var egentlig ikke overraskende.
Det som imidlertid var overraskende var at CityStar la skylden på SGS ABZ. Det er høyst uvanlig i bransjen at legger ansvaret for egen elendighet på et handling selskap. Årsaken ER dårlige pax tall og økonomi. Intet annet. Forøvrig står en av maskinene i "arrest" i ABZ. City Star har ikke betalt regningene sine til BAA ABZ.
Som det ogsaa ble nevnt i artikkelen, var dette den egentlige aarsaken til stoppen ...
Er det sannsynlig med noen ny operatør på OSL-ABZ? Med den loadfaktoren som har vært nevnt på denne ruten med City Star er vel det høyst tvilsomt?
salmon-air
ScanFlyer Silver
er det norskt Crew på City Star??:question:
