A good publicity stunt there!
FlyBe were not flying to Switzerland this summer season 😀
LOL…Meanwhile there seems to trouble brewing..
This from free.uk.airports-luton:
There’s turbulence in the skies over Geneva, where three major airlines are furious at the airport’s policy of favouring their low-cost rivals.
In April, Geneva International Airport (GIA) proposed lower fees for airlines that use only basic terminal services.
At the same time, fees for mainstream carriers are to be raised.
Airlines have until the end of this month to respond, and KLM, Air France and Lufthansa have already spelled out their implacable opposition.
GIA, they say, is freezing them out in order to curry favour with budget airlines – principally Easyjet, which sees Geneva as a major European destination.
The airport has pinned its hopes on attracting fast-growing carriersBudget airlines currently account for one-quarter of its traffic, a figure that GIA expects to approach 35% over the next 10 years.
The airport’s April strategy aimed at segmenting its service. “We realised that there are two kinds of airlines,” says Philippe Roy, spokesman for GIA.
“Those with a complex international network, and those just go from point A to point B. The second group – budget airlines – only need a very basic service from us, and should be charged accordingly.”
The proposal is to refit an old airport building into a basic terminal, suitable only for loading and unloading passengers.
The existing terminal, meanwhile, will be made more luxurious.
So GIA expects traditional airlines to pay more; under the proposal, passenger taxes are to rise from 19 Swiss francs (£8; $15) to 22.
The cheaper terminal, meanwhile, will be charged at a lower 14-franc rate.
The airline argues that a fuller service demands a higher cost, but mainstream airlines feel cheated.
“This is inappropriate at a time when we are doing as much as we can to keep fares down in a difficult economic climate,” says Frank De Reij of KLM.
The airlines feel that their higher fees are being used effectively to subsidise Easyjet, and to pay for a second terminal that they will not benefit from.
There are suspicions that the new tariffs came under pressure from Easyjet, which is known for hammering out tough terms with airports.
“It’s very apparent that this is a solution designed to suit Easyjet,” Werner Kellerhals of Lufthansa told the Tribune de Geneve newspaper.
The plan is due to be discussed at the airport’s board meeting on 2 July, and Mr Roy insists that nothing has yet been decided.
The case is the latest example of the difficulties airports face in dealing with the changing airline industry.
Charging lavish fees for the various handling and maintenance services they have traditionally provided to international airlines is no longer so easy.
Budget airlines, which account for a fast-growing share of European traffic, are not interested in most of the services airports have to offer.
But they can provide a promising stream of passengers, arguably the only source of genuine revenue growth in the troubled aviation industry.
Their relations with airports have been fraught with political difficulties.
In the best-known case, the European Commission found that Charleroi airport near Brussels had effectively subsidised Ryanair, by offering the carrier
favourable terms.
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