The FINANCIAL — For the first time in the history of Georgian aviation GASA, the official representative of Pegasus, one of the largest low cost Turkish airlines, has started regular flights to Antalya.
Three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 18.00 Pegasus planes will be transporting passengers to the popular Turkish resort town.
A flight to Antalia now costs 100 EUR.
“Since we value the interests of our clients we have started this flight direction. A direct flight to such a destination is interesting and important for Georgian tourists especially during the summer season,” Levan Elizbarashvili, CEO of GASA, told The FINANCIAL.
Pegasus was recently named the world’s 19th lowest costing airline company according to the research of international magazine Air-line Business. The magazine named Pegasus the 8th lowest costing airline company in all of Europe taking in to account its size and the number of its flights and passengers.
“The data shows that in spite of the competence of all the other airline companies, Pegasus isn’t an ordinary company anymore,” Elizbarashvili believes. Pegasus became a very successful company because of its size, service quality and the number of its passengers.
“The statistic becomes twice as significant if we consider the fact that Pegasus as an airline only started to implement international flights in 2005. Our Tbilisi destination was opened in 2010, on October 10th.”
Parallel to the opening of the new destination GASA became a representative of Deutsche Bahn. Passengers from Georgia will now have the opportunity to plan how they are to continue their travel after their flight’s arrival. They can travel via train to cities which direct flights aren’t available to, such as in East Germany. Deutsche Bahn, which is a very successful German railway company, represents a European transit artery. It’s equipped with the absolute newest technology and is accessible to everyone.
Q. What distinguishes Pegasus from other low cost airline companies?
A. Pegasus is in a lead position in terms of the statistic of its flight accuracy. The company implements flights with 90% accuracy not only in Georgia but in Turkey as well. A survey was done on this during the winter season. As a rule, due to weather conditions during the winter it is very hard to keep up flight accuracy. We only cancelled 2 flights this winter. Both of them were because of bad weather, fog specifically.
When we cancel flights the only reason is for the protection of passengers’ safety. Besides, in regards to that there is an international standard. It is forbidden to implement a flight when the vision index is less than 600 metres.”
Q. GASA has added a new destination, but what changes are expected in the international flight connections of Pegasus?
A. In order to make the journeys of our customers more convenient we plan to shorten waiting times. Whereas our passengers might have had to wait 3-5 hours before, they will have to wait maximum 2 hours now. At the same time we will open a daytime flight for the route Tbilisi-Istanbul. We think that will be also very convenient for our clients.
Q. You were expecting there to be a price increase at airline companies. How would you evaluate the aviation market this summer?
A. Of course prices have increased. I would say that in spite of the attempts of some companies, we don’t have any competitors in terms of price policy. Specially for the summer season we implemented a 10% discount for low cost economy class seats. Corresponding to the increase of demand, cheaper seats are easily sold and the prices of the remaining places are always more expensive. In spite of this, our prices are still lower than others, whose starting prices are much higher than ours.
In addition we have a special price policy for auto dealers. Though the cost of fuel has increased, our passengers are always assured that we have the most acceptable prices.
Q. As well as a low-cost price policy and high quality service what are the priorities of Pegasus?
A. To implement safe flights is very important for us. In order to improve security terms Pegasus installed a virtual remoter for pilots in Turkey. Thereby pilots have the opportunity to improve their flying qualifications.
Q. Since its launch in Georgia Pegasus served over 5,000 passengers in one month. What is the current status of the passenger amount and load factor of GASA?
A. In 2011 the number of GASA customers increased by 40%. As for the load factor, GASA has reached 87%. That means that the plane is always 87% full. About 165 passengers use our airline every day. The numbers show that our entrance to the Georgian market has been very successful. We are in first place out of all low cost companies which fly from Tbilisi.
As well as the success in Georgia in the last three months, the flow of international passengers of Pegasus increased by 26%. As for internal flights the number of passengers increased by 46%. In spite of this we are constantly continuing to improve the quality of our service. Pegasus plans to increase the number of its passengers to 11 million by 2011. According to the data of 2010 the number was 9 million. Our target is to reach 100% load factor for all destinations.
Q. Which new destinations are planned to be added this year?
A. In 2011 Pegasus plans to add the following new destinations: Almaty, Baku and Budapest. We also plan to start flying to the destinations of Tel Aviv, Damascus, Jordan, Kiev and Odessa. In 2011 Pegasus started to expand its air fleet. By the end of the year the number of planes will have increased to 40.
Usually companies add on average 2 planes annually. The cost of a plane is significantly high and it’s not easy to expand a fleet in a short period of time. Our passengers are served with a Boeing 737-800 type liner. Their average age is 3 years. Our company is the owner of the youngest air fleet.
In spite of the fact that the company has already started to expand its air fleet and the number of its destinations, next year will be decisive for us. By the end of 2012 we will accomplish our aim of adding several new destinations. We will cross borders and be in 5th place among all low cost airline companies in Europe.
These days GASA implements flights to 46 destinations. 27 of the flights are international and 18 are internal. We have to remark on the fact that internal flights are very popular among Georgian passengers. They regularly fly to Izmir and other internal destinations via our airline.
Last year Pegasus added 9 new destinations: Stockholm, Milan, Rome, Kharkov, Beirut, Sofia, Tbilisi, Bucharest and Tehran.
Q. The number of your passengers is constantly increasing throughout Georgia. How accessible is your service in the regions of the country?
A. Corresponding to our success we are permanently increasing the number of our offices. We plan to open 2 branches, in Batumi and Kutaisi. We are in the process of looking for spaces for this purpose.
We recently opened a new office at the station of Ortachala in Tbilisi. In the nearest future we will add new offices in Karvasla and Goodwill of Vake as well. The most convenient thing for customers is that GASA has a universal service. So if a passenger doesn’t like our offer our representative makes an alternative offer. The passenger can choose a preferable ticket from any other airline company.
Q. What special offers do you have for corporate clients or groups?
A. We plan to make a Frequency Line Programme. Our corporate clients and auto dealers will get points after each flight. They can use the accumulated points according to their wishes.
Parallel to the points we will make Pegasus Cards. With the help of a very simple and convenient system, our passengers will have the opportunity to trade the points for a certain amount of money. They will then be able to use the money at any time without any terms.
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