AIS Airlines has stopped its flights
Airline company AIS Airlines is to stop flying from Airport Eelde to Copenhagen and Münster. The last flight will be operated this Thursday, February 20. As reported by the Dagblad van het Noorden, the commercial manager of AIS, Nicola Scheffer, has said that the cost of running the route is too high.
The decision to stop wasn’t formulated on passenger numbers, says Scheffer. It was simply not cost-effective enough to keep flying to these destinations and that is why the route will be stopped.
AIS Airlines operated flights between Groningen and Copenhagen from March 2019. From September the Eelde-Copenhagen flight was extended with a further stop in Münster / Osnabrück to try and get into the German market, but this proved impossible.
The airline does not exclude the possibility that the flights will return in the long term, but it must first investigate whether fixed costs can be reduced.
It was not an option to raise ticket prices, Scheffer explained. It is not a low budget flight and is, all in all, fairly expensive.
For Groningen Airport Eelde, the disappearance of AIS Airlines means “a loss for the North,” says Bowy Odink, commercial manager of Airport Eelde. Not only will a fixed core of passengers fall away, but the loss of the flights are a decrease for the airport’s overall offering.
Travelers who have already booked a ticket through AIS airlines will be given the option to change their ticket or get a refund. They can expect a call from the airline in the short term.
Image via the AIS Flight Academy on WikiMedia (copyright free)
