Air Antwerp on track

On 9th September 2019, the Fokker 50 from Air Antwerp took off for the first time from Antwerp to London City Airport. Four months later, nearly 15,000 passengers have already used the scheduled services of the new, regional airline. 

“The link with London City Airport is by far the most important business route from Antwerp Airport. Early September we announced that we were aiming for approximately 50,000 passengers per year. The traffic figures so far are fully in line with this forecast,” says Johan Maertens, CEO of Air Antwerp. “Our December performance was outstanding. Last month, we transported 4,179 passengers, i.e. 90 more than the previous record set by our predecessor VLM. That is a great achievement, especially if one knows that we offered 700 seats less last month than VLM did in the previous years. One of the reasons for this success is the excellent cooperation with our codeshare partner KLM. ”
 

He added: “At the operational level everything went smoothly as well. Of the more than 500 flights so far, only one had to be cancelled due to a technical problem. Various tests, conducted by journalists, also have shown that our services are by far the best to travel between Antwerp and London. The reliability and speed of our schedules services are the most important reasons why our clients – who mainly travel for business purposes – choose to fly with us.”

The regional airline operates its flights with a Fokker 50, which can carry up to 50 passengers. Air Antwerp flies 16 times a week from London City Airport to Antwerp and offers three daily return flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Sundays, there are two frequencies daily.

The first scheduled flight took place on 9 September 2019. With only 15 employees on the payroll, Air Antwerp is one of Europe’s smallest airlines.