FlyBaboo - News from Geneva

For a long time, Julian Cook was thinking about plans for a regional airline. When Swiss International Air Lines dropped the air link between Geneva and Lugano, he took action, and FlyBaboo was born. A report by Michael Meier.

In July 2003, Swiss International Air Lines announced some drastic reductions in its network. Frequencies were reduced and some regional routes were completly withdrawn from the schedule. One of these cancelled routes was the flight between Geneva and Lugano. Those cities, both in Switzerland, are not far away from each other, but due to the mountains between them, the air link is the only possible way to do a trip from one city to the other in an aceptable time.

When Julian Cook heard about the news, he saw an open door for his newest project. A regional airline based in Geneva. Julian Cook has been tied up with the airline industry since he joined the Chase Manhattan Bank's Aerospace Group in 1995. He was involved in other start-up attempts and thinking about a Geneva-based airline project for a long time. And it looked like the time was ready to start the airline FlyBaboo.

Flybaboo's first aircraft. (Picture: Celway Group/Michael Meier)

The Lugano-Problem

But he wasn't the only one with that idea. Beside FlyBaboo, there were a number of other companies and persons which wanted to fill the same gap. Some of them did certainly have potential until another event, which had a massive impact to the airport of Lugano. After some new studies, the FOCA (Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation) released new regulations which make it almost impossible to operate a scheduled airline service to the airport in Southern Switzerland. The airport is surrounded by mountains, making the approach to Lugano quite difficult. There were a lot of discussions during the last months, as the integration of those new regulations came quite fast into effect, leaving almost no time for a reaction by the airlines and the airport authority of Lugano.

The announcement of the changed regulations came in late August. FlyBaboo wanted to start up in November and everything had to be done very quickly. FlyBaboo had the advantage that they were planning to fly in with a DHC-8, an aircraft that is certified for steep descends with an approach path of more than 6 degrees, unless other models of the same size. Moritz Suter, founder of Crossair did also have the intention to start a service between Geneva and Lugano with his new airline "Hello". But that project never came far. He wanted to use the Saab 2000, who cannot operate out of Lugano under the new rules.

In the Cockpit of the Dash-8. (Picture: Celway Group/Michael Meier)

Even without that political challenge, the time to set the airline up was quite short. To be able to start scheduled operations within just four months, FlyBaboo approached a few airlines across Europe about a wet lease agreement. They found a partner in the German carrier Cirrus Airways. Today, Cirrus Airways is flying a Bombardier DHC-8-314 exclusively for FlyBaboo, with Geneva based pilots and technical personnel. That gives FlyBaboo enough time to install their own operational organisation while the flights are already running. The cabin crew is already employed at FlyBaboo, and the first pilots are in training. Flybaboo plans to operate under its own Air Operator Certificate by the 27th March 2004.

The airlines aims to become a real regional carrier - step by step. It is currently flying between Geneva and Lugano, as well as Lugano and Venice. FlyBaboo is in discussions about adding a second aircraft to start flights out of Geneva to a number of destinations in Europe. St. Tropez is a likely target, other airports in the game are Florence, Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Olbia.

As Easyjet is quite dominant in Geneva, FlyBaboo has to look for niches. But that shouldn't be a problem with a 50-seater aircraft. Easyjet is flying Boeing 737s and Airbus A319s with 150 seats each. That leaves quite a few interesting destinations all over Europe which wouldn't justify a 150-seater service.

What is really special about this airline is the spirit. There's a very dynamic and nice atmosphere, not only in the cabin. The people behind this project are really enthusiastic and proud of their airline. They have a huge potential to expand their niche and become a more important player in the Geneva market by the time.

And for all of you who wonder about the name of FlyBaboo. In India, a Baboo is the leader of a family. We will find out whether Flybaboo will be a leader in the Geneva market one day. It will certainly be hard and take a lot of time, but the signs look promising.

Michael Meier

The DHC-8 in Lugano. (Picture: Celway Group/Michael Meier)

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