News

TOUR operator CT2 has scrapped plans for its charter airline AV8 only months after describing it as “central to the company’s growth”.

The Manchester-based operator is in the process of terminating its lease with Icelandair for a Boeing 757 and will not be reclaiming a B767 sublet to TUI. It has also helped 31 out of 38 AV8 staff find jobs with other airlines.

Group director Brian Murfin said: “AV8 has been put to bed. The business case for starting your own charter airline has changed since we first came up with the idea.

“There is a lot of excess capacity in the charter market at the moment and there has been no problem getting peak capacity.”

Entrepreneur Nigel Warr had described the airline as a “key priority” when he invested £6 million in CT2 in May (Travel Weekly May 10). 

The airline was set up last year to operate CT2’s South Africa programme as well as a range of short-haul beach destinations, but wasn’t the success the company had hoped for.

The wet-leased B767 was due to return to CT2 to operate this year’s South Africa programme, but the company is now in negotiations with another charter company to secure seats.

As a result, the start of the Cape Town and Durban programme has been put back until November 20.