Misplaced Pages

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42-604: In January 2018, Lauda acquired Niki , an airline originally founded by Niki Lauda. Amira Air then became a scheduled airline. Since June 2020, all Lauda flights were operated as wet leases with Ryanair flight numbers. As of November 2020, Lauda has been replaced with the Maltese Lauda Europe . The airline was founded in 2004 as Amira Air by investor Ronny Pecik as a provider of charter flights for executive travel, serving European and international destinations. In 2016, Niki Lauda took over Amira Air and renamed

84-414: A finance lease . A wet lease is a leasing arrangement whereby one airline (the lessor ) provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) to another airline or other type of business acting as a broker of air travel (the lessee ), which pays by hours operated. The lessee provides fuel and covers airport fees, and any other duties, taxes, etc. The flight uses the flight number of

126-520: A B737-8 can be leased for slightly more than $ 385,000 per month and a 12 year term with a good credit can be lower than $ 370,000 per month for an A320neo (0.74% of its around $ 49 million capital cost ), generating $ 53 million of revenue and over $ 8.5 million in an end of lease compensation for maintenance , while still being worth $ 20 million. Airlines which cannot afford a good deal on factory direct aircraft or carriers who prefer to maintain flexibility can lease their aircraft with an operating lease or

168-571: A compound annual growth rate ( CAGR ) of 4.1%. A dry lease is a leasing arrangement whereby an aircraft financing entity (lessor), such as AerCap or Air Lease Corporation , provides an aircraft without crew, ground staff, etc. Dry lease is typically used by leasing companies and banks, requiring the lessee to put the aircraft on its own air operator's certificate (AOC) and provide aircraft registration. A typical dry lease lasts upwards of two years and bears certain conditions with respect to depreciation, maintenance, insurances, etc., depending also on

210-584: A dry lease. In some markets, there may also be hybrid models, such as with crew provided by lessees. Operating leases of jet airliner accounted for less than 2% of the fleet in 1976, then 15% in the early 1990s, 25% in 2000 and 40% in 2017, with lessors involved in 62% of second hand mid-life aircraft transactions since 2000: 42% in Europe and 29% in North America. In 2015, over $ 120 billion worth of commercial aircraft were delivered worldwide and half of

252-492: A form of charter whereby the lessor provides minimum operating services, including ACMI, and the lessee provides the balance of services along with flight numbers. In all other forms of charter, the lessor provides the flight numbers. Variations of a wet lease include a code share arrangement, a block seat agreement, and a capacity purchase agreement. Wet leases are occasionally used for political reasons. For instance, EgyptAir , an Egyptian government enterprise, for many years

294-484: A larger aircraft requires. Reconfiguring an Airbus A330 -300 can cost $ 7 million and even more for a Boeing 777 -300ER or an Airbus A380 : introducing IFE - $ 1.5 million ($ 5,000 per seat), replacing business seats - $ 1.5 million ($ 30,000 each), replacing economy seats - $ 1 million ($ 5,000 each), a new lavatory or galley - $ 100,000, moving a monument - $ 35,000, class dividers - $ 50,000, passenger service units - $ 9,000 per passenger, sidewall panels - $ 6,000 each, updating

336-464: A new Austrian subsidiary of Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling as a replacement for Niki. For this purpose, a new subsidiary of Vueling in Austria was to be founded and act independently. Of the approx. 1000 Niki employees, 740 were to be retained. On 8 January 2018, a Berlin administrative court ruled that only an Austrian court had the jurisdiction to handle the insolvency of Niki. On 23 January 2018,

378-672: A sandwich or a cold snack, soft drinks, juice, tea, and coffee on all short-haul flights as well as on charter routes to Greece, Tunisia, and Turkey. On mid-haul charter flights to the Canary Islands and Egypt, all passengers were offered a warm snack. Also, gourmet menus from Demel could be ordered before the flight. There was also a buy on board service. On 9 January 2004, Niki announced cooperation with Air Berlin . In late 2011, Niki merged completely with Air Berlin , sharing operations, booking systems, and aircraft. On 20 March 2012, Niki became an "affiliate member" of Oneworld as

420-686: A subsidiary company of Air Berlin . Starting in late 2012, Niki successively repainted their aircraft in the Air Berlin paint scheme, using the Niki logo only at the nose. The new paint scheme was applied during regular C checks . In October 2014, Niki announced the cancellation of their flights from Vienna to Copenhagen, Moscow, and Frankfurt due to decreasing demand. In exchange, new leisure routes will be started by summer 2015. Also in spring 2015, Niki started to replace its fleet of Embraer 190s with Airbus A319-100s from its parent, Air Berlin , with

462-507: A variety of owners, including two stints of ownership under Niki Lauda (1949–2019). In January 2018, the airline was acquired by Lauda , an airline that also had ties to Niki Lauda. In 2003, Niki Lauda , ex- Grand Prix driver and founder of Lauda Air , acquired the former Aero Lloyd Austria operation. The airline started operations on 28 November 2003. Although Niki was often described as "low-cost", it provided full services, such as free refreshments, newspapers, and baggage. It offered

SECTION 10

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504-650: The European Union . Eleven planes from Niki were being operated by Laudamotion as of April 2018. Niki operated scheduled services to leisure destinations mainly in Spain , Portugal , and North Africa from its home base in Vienna as well as several more airports throughout Austria , Germany , and Switzerland . Niki maintained codeshares with the following airlines: Prior to the shutdown in December 2017,

546-420: The 150 lessors are managing 8,400 aircraft worth $ 256 billion with 2,321 aircraft on backlog from 28 of them, their penetration having stabilised at 42.6%. Aircraft lessors are often banks, hedge funds or financial institutions. Aircraft financing is a $ 140 billion industry, dominated by Ireland due to the rise and collapse in 1992 of pioneer Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA), of which the former executives manage

588-412: The 50 largest in 2017, led by ICBC leasing in the top ten, having the value of their managed fleet grew by 15% since 2016. In a few cases, Chinese lessors forgot they had to get secondary leases and missed the redelivery timing, stranding aircraft for a few months. Rentals are often anchored to LIBOR rates. A320neo and B737 MAX 8 lease rates are $ 20-30,000 higher than their predecessors: by 2018,

630-550: The Austrian Press Agency announced that Niki Lauda's company Lauda had beaten IAG in the bid for Niki, and would take over the company. Less than two months later, Ryanair agreed to purchase a majority stake in Laudamotion, initially acquiring almost 25 percent for less than 50 million euros ($ 61.7 million) with the intent to purchase another 50 percent at a later date. The deal was subsequently approved by

672-588: The US. DHL has a joint venture in the United States with Polar Air Cargo , a subsidiary of Atlas Air , to operate their domestic deliveries. In the United Kingdom, a wet lease refers to an aircraft lease in which the aircraft is operated under the air operator's certificate (AOC) of the lessor. An arrangement where the lessor provides the aircraft, flight crew and maintenance but the lessee provides

714-771: The agreement due to signs from the European Commission that the merger would not be approved. Niki declared bankruptcy and ceased all operations on 14 December 2017. The day after, former owner Niki Lauda expressed interest in repurchasing the airline named after him. On 29 December 2017, it was announced that International Airlines Group (IAG), parent company of British Airways , Iberia , Aer Lingus and Vueling , would acquire for 36.5 million euros major parts of Niki including 15 Airbus A321 aircraft and traffic rights in Düsseldorf , Munich , Vienna , Zurich and Palma de Mallorca . IAG planned to establish

756-472: The airline to 75% and that it planned to double the fleet from 9 to 18 aircraft. Laudamotion was scheduled to receive 18 Airbus A320 aircraft by summer 2019, which were to replace and expand its current fleet. In January 2019, Ryanair revealed that it completed the purchase of 100% of Laudamotion from NL Holdings in late December 2018. It also revealed further fleet expansion plans, increasing from 18 to 25 aircraft by end of 2019, and 40 by summer 2020. Initially,

798-577: The cabin crew is sometimes referred to as a "damp lease", a term especially used in the UK ; it is also occasionally referred to as a "moist lease". In the UK, a dry lease is when an aircraft is operated under the AOC of the lessee. At the end of July 2015, the top 50 aircraft lessors managed 8,184 aircraft: 511 turboprop regional airliners , 792 regional jets , 5,612 narrowbody and 1,253 widebody airliners. In 2017,

840-529: The company LaudaMotion . Until February 2018, the airline operated chartered business flights with a fleet of business jets. The operation was moved to a new unit to make way for scheduled passenger flights. On 23 January 2018, the creditors' committee of the insolvent airline Niki agreed to sell the airline to Lauda Motion GmbH. It was announced that the Niki brand would be retired and all operations transferred to Laudamotion, which would operate 15 aircraft transferred from Niki and be ready to begin operations for

882-749: The end of 2020, with the fleet being transferred to Malta-based Lauda Europe . The impact on operations is expected to be minimal. The new company will be the second Ryanair group entity to be based in Malta, alongside Malta Air . In August 2020, Ryanair announced the closure of its base in Düsseldorf as well - which has been operated on a wetlease basis by Lauda - by 24 October 2020, leaving Lauda without bases in Germany. As of 31 October 2020, Lauda ceased all operations with its assets being handed over to Lauda Europe . As of July 2020, Lauda has operated

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924-504: The exception of flights to Tel Aviv which remains under the Lauda brand due to traffic rights. At the same time, Ryanair cancelled all remaining Airbus A320 family orders for Lauda. In July 2020, Lauda announced they would shut down their base at Stuttgart Airport by October 2020. Prior to this announcement, the base staff rejected a new labour agreement. In late July 2020, it was announced that Laudamotion GmbH would cease operations at

966-460: The financial burden of buying them, as well as to provide temporary increase in capacity. The industry has two main leasing types: wet-leasing, which is normally used for short-term leasing, and dry-leasing which is more normal for longer-term leases. The industry also uses combinations of wet and dry. For example, when the aircraft is wet-leased to establish new services, then as the airline's flight or cabin crews become trained, they can be switched to

1008-443: The fleet of Niki consisted of the following aircraft: [REDACTED] Media related to Niki at Wikimedia Commons 48°07′26″N 16°33′45″E  /  48.1238°N 16.5624°E  / 48.1238; 16.5624 Wetlease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without

1050-700: The following aircraft: [REDACTED] Media related to Laudamotion at Wikimedia Commons Niki (airline) Niki (also styled as NIKI or flyNiki , legally NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH ) was an Austrian low-cost airline headquartered in Office Park I at Vienna Airport in Schwechat . It operated scheduled and charter services to European and North African leisure destinations from Vienna , Salzburg , Graz and Innsbruck and also started services from several German airports in March 2017. Niki had

1092-406: The geographical location, political circumstances, etc. A dry-lease arrangement can also be made between a major airline and a regional airline , in which the major airline provides the aircraft and the regional operator provides flight crews, maintenance and other operational aspects of the aircraft, which then may be operated under the major airline's name or some similar name. A dry lease saves

1134-903: The global lessors were based in Ireland . Having an aggressive growth mandate, more aggressive, smaller entrants have overpaid for many of their assets in the sale and leaseback market and are then undercharged on lease rates in order to win the business, with lower maintenance reserves and return conditions: lease-rate factors have fallen to 0.6% per month (7.2% per year), even reaching 0.55% (6.6% per year). Despite Air Berlin and Monarch Airlines bankruptcies, their leased aircraft have been rapidly placed at "normal market rates" due to traffic growth as global revenue passenger kilometers are up by 7.7% over one year through September 2017, and Airbus struggles to deliver A320neos due to engine supply delays. In 2007, Beijing allowed Chinese banks to start leasing units, and nine Chinese lessors were part of

1176-457: The largest lessors: Aengus Kelly is the CEO of AerCap , the world's largest, Domhnal Slattery heads the third largest, Avolon , and Peter Barrett runs the fourth, SMBC Aviation Capital while the second largest, GECAS , formed from the hulk of GPA. Lessors have a preference for narrowbodies over widebodies due to more remarketing opportunities and the substantial reconfiguration time and cost

1218-427: The lessee. A wet lease generally lasts 1–24 months. A wet lease is typically utilized during peak traffic seasons or annual heavy maintenance checks , or to initiate new routes. A wet-leased aircraft may be used to fly services into countries where the lessee is banned from operating. It can also be used to replace unavailable capacity or to circumvent regulatory or political restrictions. They can also be considered

1260-488: The major airline the expense of training personnel to fly and maintain the aircraft, along with other considerations (such as staggered union contracts, regional airport staffing, etc.). FedEx Express uses an arrangement of this type for its feeder operations, contracting to companies such as Empire Airlines , Mountain Air Cargo , Swiftair , and others to operate its single and twin-engined turbo-prop "feeder" aircraft in

1302-488: The new joint-venture. However, the sale never happened. Also in December 2016, Niki announced the termination of its only medium-haul route, from Vienna to Abu Dhabi , Etihad's home base, by March 2017. Niki later also announced it plans to terminate all of its 12 routes from Vienna to non-leisure destinations such as Milan or Zürich by 30 January 2017. In January 2017, it was also announced that Niki will cease all operations to and from Linz Airport at short notice due to

Lauda (airline) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1344-570: The next couple of years”. In March 2019, the airline changed its brand name from Laudamotion to just Lauda . In December 2019, Lauda announced the opening of its fifth base, at Zadar Airport in Croatia shifting over further capacity from parent Ryanair. However, the Zadar base was scrapped amidst the Coronavirus pandemic with a possible start delayed to 2021. In May 2020, Lauda announced

1386-487: The plan was for Laudamotion's fleet to remain exclusively Airbus, despite Ryanair only operating Boeing aircraft, and in March 2019, Laudamotion announced plans to purchase at least 100 (50+50 options) Airbus A321neo for future expansions. However, during an interview in May 2020 Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said, “I think Lauda will have a fleet of about 30 Airbus aircraft - we would probably replace those Airbus with Boeing over

1428-556: The planned closure of its largest base at Vienna International Airport on 29 May 2020. The planned closure was a source of conflict between Lauda and Ryanair, the labour union and the Austrian government. In June 2020, Ryanair decided that Lauda flights would be operated under its own FR code, downgrading Lauda from an airline to an inhouse wetlease operator. This includes the Vienna base which now will remain open in that function with

1470-483: The restructuring measures. The announcement was made after the 2017 schedule had already been made available for booking. For the 2017 season, Niki reduced the number of flights from Austria to 56 flights a week to 20 destinations, compared to 34 destinations in 2016. Shortly after, it was announced that Niki would take over several Air Berlin leisure routes to and from Germany. It also has been announced that Niki's fleet will be switched over to Airbus A321s only while

1512-556: The smaller A319s and A320s are handed over to Air Berlin. It has also been announced that TUI fly Deutschland will additionally start to operate 15 Boeing 737s currently wet-leased to Air Berlin for Niki. On 17 August 2017, Niki's parent Air Berlin announced it was filing for bankruptcy but that all operations would continue until further notice. On 9 October 2017, Air Berlin told its staff that it would cease all remaining operations under its own brand name, but that Niki flights would continue after this date. On 12 October 2017, it

1554-559: The summer 2018 season. On 16 February 2018, Condor agreed to take over sales and marketing of three Laudamotion planes, as well as operational functions. Initial destinations will included flights from Düsseldorf , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Basel to Majorca , Ibiza and Málaga , which could be booked through the Condor website and travel agencies. On 20 March 2018, Ryanair announced it would acquire 24.9% of LaudaMotion, to rise to 75%, subject to approval by EU authorities. The deal

1596-649: The used Embraers being transferred to Helvetic Airways . On 5 December 2016, parent company Air Berlin announced plans to sell its entire 49 percent stake in Niki to its own minority owner Etihad Airways . Etihad Airways itself would merge Niki into a new joint-venture to be created with the German leisure carrier TUIfly . At the same time, Niki and Air Berlin would exchange several aircraft to harmonize each fleet. It had also been announced that Niki would take over several routes to southern European, north African, and Turkish leisure destinations from Air Berlin as part of

1638-439: Was announced that German Lufthansa would purchase some of the assets from Air Berlin which included Niki and operations would continue and jobs were to be saved. On 24 October 2017, it was announced that Niki was to be absorbed into Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Eurowings Europe . It was announced that Lufthansa plans to cease the Niki brand by the end of 2017 altogether. However, on 13 December 2017, Lufthansa pulled out of

1680-421: Was ending its cooperation and sales agreement with Laudamotion earlier than planned. Condor stopped providing sales infrastructure and stopped selling Laudamotion flights at the end of April 2018. In the same months, Eurowings also announced it would not extend its short-lived cooperation with Laudamotion. The wet-lease contract ended on 31 May 2018. In August 2018, Ryanair announced it had increased its stake in

1722-462: Was not allowed to fly to Israel under its own name, as a matter of Egyptian government policy. Hence Egyptian flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv were operated by Air Sinai , which wet-leased from EgyptAir to circumvent the political issue. In 2021, Egypt changed its policy and EgyptAir started operating flights to Israel under its own banner. The global wet lease market is projected to grow from US$ 7.35 billion in 2019 to US$ 10.9 billion in 2029,

Lauda (airline) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1764-579: Was reported to be worth an initial €50m plus €50m for first year start up and operating costs. The intention was to reach profitability by the third year of operations with a fleet of 30 aircraft. On 29 March 2018, the airline announced it would open seven bases in Germany in addition to the bases at Vienna and Zürich . However, in May 2018 Laudamotion announced it would not go ahead with proposed routes to and from Zurich Airport owing to unavailability of leased aircraft. In April 2018, Condor announced it

#21978