Guest Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 It has been a busy month for Fly UK, and what a way to start this New Year off! With new style operations in the pipeline, a new codeshare agreement, a new low cost partner airline and a new ‘First Contact’ scheme, Fly UK continues to grow and expand. CEO, Chris Sutcliffe comments, “As I am sure the entire Fly UK community would agree, January has been both a very exciting and productive month, we've started as we mean to go on. Already our staff team are well ahead on completing a number of our corporate objectives which we created at the beginning of the month, to ensure we have a clear focus for the next 12 months and continue to maintain our reputation as one of the UK's leading virtual airlines. “Fly UK has a variety of items planned for the upcoming months, and we can assure the Fly UK community that things are only going to get better; and it is with the help of our pilots, as well as the dedication of all of our staff members that we can implement these plans and make them work. So, we look forward to another busy month of operations at Fly UK and look forward to speaking to you soon!” -----1. flyuno.com Joins Fly UK 2. Entertainment, In-Flight 3. Air Belgium Codeshare Agreement 4. Pilot Representatives - The ‘First Contact’ Scheme 5. Staff Team Recruitment 6. Skyways, The New Edition ----- After months of ongoing preparations, flyuno.com is now almost fully integrated with Fly UK. A lot has changed since the low cost airline joined us in November 2006. Jon Chambers the CEO of flyuno.com has given the low cost carrier a sophisticated and modern looking site, these ties in with the recent renewal of the Fly UK site which over-went a massive face lift at the end of last year. What does all this mean for Fly UK then? Well what it means is that Fly UK is now essentially made up of two airlines. We have the main Fly UK operations for the bulk of the flights, and now we have the flyuno brand for the low cost flights which operate out of Liverpool John Lennon airport to a selection of popular destinations, as well as operations out of both Amsterdam and out of Munich to a variety of European destinations. We believe that giving our pilots as much choice as possible when it comes to selecting their perfect flight is paramount, another reason why the two airlines have merged. The two combined airlines now offer 150 airports to fly to in 65 countries, in a fleet of modern aircraft including models from Airbus, Boeing and now Bombardier. What we expect FlyUno to achieve over the next few months will be to overhaul the airline as a whole. Within the next few months, all the aircraft will be given new paint jobs into the new ‘corporate design’ livery which can be seen in a dazzling blue colour. The 737-700’s will also be painted in this livery and will no longer wear the hybrid Fly2 and FlyUno livery. There will be new onboard features for flights and there is the possibility of looking into making the paint scheme compatible with Payware models of FlyUno aircraft. Finally the website will be given an even newer look, and will hold much more information concerning the operations of flyuno.com. This will be better for pilots and visitors alike, so that they can gain a new insight into the world of flyuno.com In the near future, there will also be the advertisement of some new staff positions within the low cost carrier, namely these will be hub managers. If you feel you are up to the job of being able to manage a hub then please keep an eye out on both the Fly UK and the flyuno.com websites for more information on these positions. ----- At the beginning of the month Fly UK released its new in-flight entertainment system, which replaced its previous vPAX in-flight entertainment service. Alike the vPAX system, the in-flight entertainment system can be accessed through the kneeboard included in Flight Sim. The system has a variety of options and entertainment features and the content is dependent on the route being flown, whether it is to the UK or from the UK. The featured entertainment includes TV programs, movies, music videos and a selection of TV and radio streams. The system has been updated for the upcoming month and this month’s featured content includes, from the UK: - Wedding Crashers - Father Ted - Leona Lewis – A Moment Like This (Music Video) …and to the UK: - Batman Begins - The IT Crowd - Mika – Grace Kelly (Music Video) Full details of February’s featured content can be found here. ----- After some lengthy discussions between Chris Sutcliffe, CEO of Fly UK and Danny Stes, CEO of Air Belgium, it was decided to initiate a codeshare agreement between both airlines. The agreement will see Fly UK initially add to its route network, up to 10 Air Belgium flights all of which will depart Brussels. Onward Air Belgium destinations will include Cairo, Tallinn, Llublijana and Damascus. Air Belgium will add up to 31 Fly UK flights to its network including many long haul destinations such as St. Lucia, Grenada, Bridgetown and Tobago. Danny Stes, CEO of Air Belgium comments, "I'm very pleased to be able to start a partnership with a very successful and professional company like Fly UK and I sincerely hope that it will benefit both our companies in the future". The CEO of Fly UK, Chris Sutcliffe comments, "Our main aim for the first quarter in 2007 is to drastically improve our operations to become much more realistic; we have been some what 'lagging' behind other VA's in our operational realism, however the hard work of our staff, careful research and planning of our new operations should hopefully resolve this. The new codeshare agreement with Air Belgium will also play a contributing factor in achieving our aims for the first quarter of 2007. We are very excited about this new mutually beneficial partnership and are looking to establish further relations with more airlines throughout the year." It is anticipated that the codeshare agreement will be operational in the next few weeks. Further information will be released once the codeshare is brought into operation. ----- At Fly UK, we believe that it is only necessary to build up a strong relationship between pilots and hence create a more active and friendly community. Following this, Fly UK has released a new scheme, in which we can offer a ‘First Contact’ for new and existing members – this is the Pilot Representative Scheme. The Pilot Representative Scheme consists of a team of 23 people, both pilots and staff. These particular members that decided to take part in the scheme joined of their own will so that they could help other pilots and offer their support as they knew how stressful and confusing it can be at times. Each Pilot Representative is allocated to represent specific band numbers of pilots and it is the Pilot Representatives responsibility to contact their pilots on a regular basis. Steve Miles, one of Fly UK’s representatives comments, “Fly UK’s pilot representative scheme has been running for a number of weeks now. Although still early, the scheme has the hallmarks of being another successful first for Fly UK Virtual Airways. The pilot representatives have enthusiastically and professionally taken up their role, and so far the scheme is going well, although pilots do need to reply to mails from their reps. Once the scheme moves from being new to the norm it will go from strength to strength.” Our Pilot Representatives are here to help pilots from the start, offering help and support wherever and whenever needed and by offering this ‘First Contact’ for members, we aim to create a first port of call for all of our pilots in which pilots will be able to direct any questions or queries directly to their Pilot Representative. This will help to reduce delays in answering these questions as Pilot Representatives are able to offer a one2one service. If the Pilot Representative is unable to help the pilot with their question, then their query can be fielded to the correct department that will be able to help them. Brandon Longworth, Senior Manager of the Human Resources Department whom manage the Pilot Representative Team comments, “The Pilot Representative scheme is as far as we know, a first for the VA community, being a definitive way for some of our more experienced pilots, who wish to pass on their knowledge, and help Fly UK become a more personal and caring virtual airline. We urge all pilot’s to contact their Pilot Representative and ask them any questions or to request help.” ----- With an ever-growing virtual airline, it is essential for an on-going restructure and recruitment for the staff team. Over the month of January, a variety of staff position vacancies were advertised by the Human Resources department. Staff positions were available within several of the departments including the Training Academy, Flight Operations and Marketing Departments. Although the closing date for applications has now passed, an excellent response was had and a large number of applications for the positions were received. The Senior Management, in co-ordination with the Human Resources Department, are now reviewing these applications and will contact each applicant in due course. We would like to thank all applicants for their applications and we appreciate how they are further trying to involve themselves with the virtual airline. ----- As you may be aware, the Marketing Department at Fly UK, create and publish an in-flight e-magazine every two months. This bi-monthly magazine contains information about the airline, how it runs, statistics and a brief department update from each of the departments Senior Managers. However it is expected that in next edition, we will be seeing a variety of additions and improvements and some more sections to the magazine; but we won’t spoil anything by telling you what content you can expect to find, you will have to wait and see. The next edition will be released on the 1st March 2007; we look forward to releasing it and also look forward to hearing your comments from it as well. Each edition has a section for screenshots, the ‘Screenshot Corner’, where screenshots from pilots within the Fly UK community are featured. If you are a member of the Fly UK community, and would like your screenshots featured in the next edition, then please post them in our newly re-branded ‘Highflyer forums’ or e-mail them to the Marketing Department directly via marketing.department@flyukva.com For the current edition of Skyways, please click here.--- ENDS --- For further information, why not visit us on the web:Fly UK Virtual Airways: www.flyukva.comFlyUno: www.flyuno.com For general questions or enquiries, please send them to: general.enquiries@flyukva.com For marketing related enquiries, please send them to: marketing.department@flyukva.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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