Well, Steve. I think that they are in a middle of an identity crisis. They have been cornered by low costs, Universal Airlines (by AF and AEA) is about to start operations, and CRJ is not really cost effective.
They can´t purchase bigger aircraft since they have a deal with Iberia pilots trade unions not to go for bigger planes. They have been trying to introduce CRJ900 in many profitable niches, and putting fares down. For the moment, they have the Iberia protective umbrella, and are trying to diversify business by participating in Clickair.
Spains is not disorganized yard where nobody has definite plans where they should go to. So there´s a deep feeling of uncertainty. Air Nostrum is a fine airline, so I am sure if they will be able to survive. They make profits but their market is shrinking. They even have many problems in finding niches to put their planes into.
When someone finds there´s traffic, a low cost gets in and they have to quit, or use a Clickair flight. Now they are very dependant on subsidies. If you fly them the fuselage has advertisments, the seat a different one, they handed out brochures of a different thing, advertising in the tissues, or magazine, and flight attendants tell…”fly to…..”, A kind of a regional big flying piece of advertisment.
But they are not getting more, since many regions are feed up of spending money on an airline which offers high fares which are no accesible by most middle class spaniards. fares have gone down, but not enough. If the put them down more and more, they surely die.
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