jetonly.com (TUI Belgium) to sue Virgin Express

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 31 Mar 2005, 20:50

Next Tuesday, TUB will sue VEX in court, because VEX announces Murcia as "Alicante-South".

I haven't found an English or French translation of this story yet, but for those who are not familiar with Belgian stories: Belgium is a very small country, and Virgin Express and jetonly.com (= Jetair = TUI Airlines Belgium) are competitors on several routes...

Belga-text removed for copyright reasons

Jense · Post by **Jense** » 31 Mar 2005, 20:56

Article in Dutch: https://www.aviation24.be/posts10007-highlightrechter.html

waldova · Post by **waldova** » 31 Mar 2005, 21:30

I think jetair is right! If you are flying to Murcia you should call it Murcia and not Alicante South! Even from Murcia it is still a long way to Alicante. So this would indeed be confusing for the passengers. A passenger will think it is booking a ticket to Alicante while he will be arriving in Murcia. I hope jetair wins in court.

Ozzie1969 · Post by **Ozzie1969** » 31 Mar 2005, 22:58

Will SN Brussels Airlines now sue Ryanair, Wizz Air et al for using an airport called Brussels South?

Post by **luchtzak** » 01 Apr 2005, 00:04

Ozzie1969 wrote:Will SN Brussels Airlines now sue Ryanair, Wizz Air et al for using an airport called Brussels South?

Indeed, if Charleroi can be name Brussels South then why not Alicante South?

waldova · Post by **waldova** » 01 Apr 2005, 10:01

Yes, but the difference is that the name of the airport in Charleroi is officially Brussels South! And the airport in Murcia is not alicante south!

FlightSimCrew · Post by **FlightSimCrew** » 01 Apr 2005, 10:04

waldova wrote:I think jetair is right! If you are flying to Murcia you should call it Murcia and not Alicante South! Even from Murcia it is still a long way to Alicante. So this would indeed be confusing for the passengers. A passenger will think it is booking a ticket to Alicante while he will be arriving in Murcia. I hope jetair wins in court.

Thats complete crap waldova, lets see what JetONly is going to do with their so called Murcia flights. I'll bet that they will continue selling it as Murcia and fly only to ALC anyway.. They will inform the passenger 14 days in advance that their final destination will be ALC and not MJV to avoid the EU compensation. They just put Murcia on sales to harass Virgin.

ByTheWay VIrgin sells it as Murcia also but calls it also Alicante South. No reason why they shouldn't post it .

Finally I also hope that TV loses, than they will fly to ALC i.s.o. MJV and kick the hell out of those JetONly people.

waldova · Post by **waldova** » 01 Apr 2005, 11:00

Well, I don't think it is crap. Ryanair doesn't do this. They want to avoid these kind of situations. They don't call girona Barcelona North. No they call it Girona.

Humberside · Post by **Humberside** » 01 Apr 2005, 12:37

I dont see whats wrong with calling Murcia Alicante South because thats what it is

FlightSimCrew · Post by **FlightSimCrew** » 01 Apr 2005, 13:22

waldova wrote:Well, I don't think it is crap. Ryanair doesn't do this. They want to avoid these kind of situations. They don't call girona Barcelona North. No they call it Girona.

Again wrong what you say they call it Gerona (Barcelona), like as Glasgow (Prestwick) Rome (Ciampino) and Venice (Treviso). They dont even dare to call Stockholm (Skavsta), they just call it (NYO) as if it really is stockholm city..

Virgin Express calls it Murcia (Alicante South) which is in my view the same..

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 01 Apr 2005, 13:55

Virgin Express could do like Ryanair is doing: ask the local authorities to change the name of the airport. Ostend became Bruges International, Charleroi Brussels South, ...

Ozzie1969 · Post by **Ozzie1969** » 01 Apr 2005, 22:18

I don't really see the problem. After all, even Brussels International Airport isn't located in Brussels. You can't expect every airport to be located in the middle of the city centre. I flew to Skavsta last year. I knew it wasn't Stockholm. I knew I still had an hour on the bus ahead of me when I got there. I didn't feel cheated, though : I only paid 35 euro's to get there and back.

Post by **sn26567** » 03 Apr 2005, 10:28

LX-LGX wrote:Next Tuesday, TUB will sue VEX in court, because VEX announces Murcia as "Alicante-South".

I haven't found an English or French translation of this story yet

I did. English on Luchtzak: https://www.aviation24.be/article8221.html

snowbird · Post by **snowbird** » 03 Apr 2005, 13:29

Can someone tell me why Virgin is not operating to ALC in stead of Murcia. ALC is a big market (from AMS en RTM 28 scheduled flights a week and 5 charters).
Or do they have an agreement with Jetair en TC that VEX will not operate to ALC (for whatever reason).
I think so. Why is Jetair is going to court to protect the alicante name? Because they are afraid for less direct sales on their own flights to ALC.
Who knows something more?

tolipanebas · Post by **tolipanebas** » 03 Apr 2005, 13:40

Jet only is particularly pissed off, not so much because of that Murcia (aka Alicante-South) thing, but because VEX (now controlled by SN) opened up a 3 weekly route to TLN (aka Saint Tropez).

Last year, Jet only had SN fly this route and had included a clause in the contract forbidding SN to operate scheduled flights to TLN for the next 2 years. This year, Jet only (TUI) plans to serve the route itself with a F-100 especially acuired for this kind of missions and they were reportedly furious when they found out last month SN found a way around the lock-out clause in the contract by having the very lucrative route to TLN operated by VEX (by then a 100% subsidiary of SN).

sab319 · Post by **sab319** » 03 Apr 2005, 15:08

smart SN...

Humberside · Post by **Humberside** » 03 Apr 2005, 15:18

What is it about TLN that makes it so lucrative?

tolipanebas · Post by **tolipanebas** » 03 Apr 2005, 17:06

TLN is a very cheap airport to fly to (in fact it's an old French Naval Air Base recently opened up to international flights) and the amount of Belgian tourists at the French Riviera has always been enormous, so as Jet Only (and SN as the operating carrier) found out last year, TLN is an ideal low fare summer destination on the French Riviera for many Belgians.

Now, for many years there has been a clear difference in Belgium between the charter airlines (flying package holiday makers) and scheduled airlines (used by people in need of a flight only). However, the numbers of holiday makers setting out without a pre-booked package to France, Spain and Italy is growing by the year, and the tour operators have understood they are missing out on an ever growing number of potential customers, so in an effort to win (back) a share of this new booming market, they have pushed their own airlines to come up with a flight only concept.

Last year, Thomas Cook Airlines actively promoted it's charter flights as if they were scheduled flights, thus filling up the remaining seats on their planes and this year Jet Only (controlled by TUI) has even gone a step further by offering all new destinations to places like TLN or CAI, to which you can't even book a full package holiday aymore, thus becoming just like a scheduled low fare airline.

Needless to say SN sees these new initiatives of the charter airlines as an outright attack on its traditional market and feels they have to react before it it too late, certainly because they intend to transform VEX into a kind of "SN Sun Express"; a low cost airline serving the tourist destinations just like TUI plans to do with Jet Only...

Hence the aggressive confrontation through VEX with Jet Only's modest initiative at TLN and hence the subsequent law suit of Jet Only against VEX for their Alicante South route....

Humberside · Post by **Humberside** » 03 Apr 2005, 18:56

Thanks for that

Aviation24.be

jetonly.com (TUI Belgium) to sue Virgin Express

jetonly.com (TUI Belgium) to sue Virgin Express

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