Buzz (airline)

Last updated

Buzz
IATA ICAO Callsign
UKBUZBUZZ
Founded1999
Commenced operationsJanuary 4, 2000 (2000-01-04)
Ceased operationsOctober 31, 2004 (2004-10-31)
Hubs London Stansted Airport
HeadquartersEndeavour House at London Stansted Airport, Uttlesford, Essex, United Kingdom [1]
Buzz BAe 146-300 Buzz BAe 146-300 Jonsson.jpg
Buzz BAe 146-300

Buzz (styled as buzz) was a British low-cost airline operating services within Europe. It was founded in 1999 as a subsidiary of Dutch national airline KLM and began operations on January 4, 2000. After being acquired by Ryanair in April 2003, it ceased operations at the end of October 2004. [2] In 2019, Ryanair revived the Buzz name by rebranding its Polish subsidiary Ryanair Sun.

Contents

History

Buzz was launched by KLM as a sub-brand of KLM uk to compete with other low-cost carriers such as EasyJet, Go Fly and Ryanair by taking over many of the point-to-point routes of the former AirUK/KLM uk network. [3] It started with 8 British Aerospace (BAe) 146-300 aircraft transferred from the KLM uk brand which retained the Amsterdam feeder routes (transferred to KLM Cityhopper in November 2002). This was shortly followed by two leased ex-Deutsche BA Boeing 737-300 aircraft [4] . In late 2002, buzz leased from ILFC another 6 737-300s previously operated by Continental Airlines and the first 2 737s were returned to lessor Shananda in early 2003. Buzz also was the first low-cost airline trying to attract the high yield business travel segment, especially by promoting its flights to/from London Stansted to Frankfurt (international airport) and Düsseldorf. Buzz had a local commercial manager in Germany (2000–2003) who established the first direct contacts to corporates, TMs (Travel Managers) and TMCs (Travel Management Companies). [5] [6]

On 31 January 2003 KLM announced its intention to sell Buzz to Ryanair for a price estimated to be in the region of €20.1 million. The sale was completed on 10 April 2003 following approval from the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT). In addition to acquiring Buzz slots at London Stansted Airport, Ryanair acquired the leases of all 6 of the Boeing 737s and sub-leased 4 of the BAe 146s from KLM. [3]

In order to capitalise on the acquisition and save costs, Ryanair restarted Buzz as a wholly owned subsidiary called Buzz Stansted, which retained the 10 aircraft on the UK register. Several of the original Buzz operations staff were transferred to the new organisation and an application was made for a new Air Operators Certificate (AOC). After route proving flights on 25 April 2003 an AOC was issued by the British Civil Aviation Authority on 28 April 2003 with the first revenue sectors being operated the same day. [7]

The aircraft fleet, the majority of which retained the Buzz livery, flew several of the original Buzz routes and some Ryanair routes that had been operated by 737-200s under the Ryanair call sign. However, the BAe 146 aircraft were returned to KLM in January 2004 and the 737s continued operating the remaining routes that were not dropped following the withdrawal of the 146s.

In September 2004, Ryanair decided to close Buzz Stansted and flying operations ceased on 31 October 2004. The 737 aircraft were returned to ILFC and the Ryanair 737-800s took over from the Buzz aircraft. Ryanair also discontinued some of the original Buzz routes and redirected others to other airports as they were considered nearby to where existing Ryanair services operated. [3]

2019 Revival

On 15 March 2019, Ryanair announced that they would revive the Buzz brand as the new name for Poland based Ryanair Sun. [8]

Fleet

Before ceasing operations, the Buzz fleet consisted of the following aircraft: [9]

Aircraft Total
Boeing 737-300 8
BAe 146-300 10
Total18

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Go (airline)</span> Airline

Go Fly was the name of a British low-cost airline, founded by British Airways in 1998. It operated flights between London Stansted Airport and destinations in Europe. The airline was purchased from BA in a management buyout backed by the private equity firm 3i in 2001. In 2002, it was bought by its rival EasyJet and was merged into that airline's operations by 2003.

EasyJet plc is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airlines EasyJet UK, EasyJet Switzerland, and EasyJet Europe. EasyJet plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. EasyGroup Holdings Ltd, the investment vehicle of the airline's founder, Greek-Cypriot businessman Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is the largest shareholder with a 15.27% stake. It employs circa 13,000 people, based throughout Europe but mainly in the UK.

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, trading as Norwegian, is a Norwegian low-cost airline and Scandinavia's second-largest airline, behind Scandinavian Airlines. It is the fourth largest low-cost carrier in Europe behind Wizz Air, easyJet and Ryanair, the largest airline in Norway, and the ninth-largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers. It offers a high-frequency domestic flight schedule within Scandinavia and Finland, and to business destinations such as London, as well as to holiday destinations in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands, transporting over 30 million people in 2016. The airline is known for its distinctive livery of white with a red nose, with portraits of high achievers on the tail fins of its aircraft.

RyanairDAC is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland, and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family of airlines and has Ryanair UK, Buzz, Lauda Europe, and Malta Air as sister airlines. It is Ireland's biggest airline and in 2016 became the world's largest airline by scheduled international passengers.

KLM uk was the brand name of a British airline subsidiary of the Dutch KLM, which operated services within the UK and between the UK and the Netherlands using ATR-72, Fokker 50 and Fokker 100 aircraft. KLM uk had its headquarters in the Stansted House on the grounds of London Stansted Airport in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex.

KLM Cityhopper is the regional airline subsidiary of KLM, headquartered in Haarlemmermeer, North Holland, Netherlands. It is based at nearby Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. As a subsidiary of Air France–KLM, it is an affiliate of SkyTeam. The airline operates scheduled European feeder services on behalf of KLM.

CityJet is an Irish regional airline with headquarters at Dublin Airport. It was founded in 1992 and has gone through a series of corporate structures. The airline was sold to Air France in 2000 and then by Air France to Intro Aviation in May 2014; in March 2016 the airline was bought by founder Pat Byrne and other investors. CityJet ended its own-brand scheduled services in 2018 and is now a major provider of wet leasing to European airlines. As of Summer 2023, CityJet operates wet lease services on behalf of Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and Scandinavian Airlines.

Jet2.com Limited is a British low-cost leisure airline offering scheduled and charter flights from the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is the third-largest scheduled airline in the UK, behind easyJet and British Airways. Jet2 is also officially the largest tour operator in the UK after overtaking TUI in 2023. Its headquarters are located at Leeds Bradford Airport. Further bases are at Belfast–International, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London–Stansted, Manchester and Newcastle airports, with a base opening at Liverpool In March 2024. The company holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats. Jet2 also offers a charter service through its Jet2charters brand.

AirUK was a wholly privately owned, independent regional British airline formed in 1980 as a result of a merger involving four rival UK-based regional airlines. British and Commonwealth (B&C)-owned British Island Airways (BIA) and Air Anglia were the two dominant merger partners. The merged entity's corporate headquarters were originally located at Redhill, Surrey, the location of the old BIA head office. It subsequently relocated to Crawley, West Sussex. In addition to the main maintenance base at Norwich Airport, there also used to be a second major maintenance base at Blackpool Airport. This was closed down following Air UK's major retrenchment during Britain's severe recession of the early 1980s. In 1987, Air UK established Air UK Leisure as a charter subsidiary. The following year, Air UK shifted its headquarters to London Stansted Airport. When Stansted's new Norman Foster-designed terminal opened in 1991, the airline became its first and subsequently main tenant.

Transavia Airlines C.V., trading as Transavia and formerly branded as transavia.com, is a Dutch low-cost airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of KLM and therefore part of the Air France–KLM group. Its main base is Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and it has other bases at Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Eindhoven Airport. Transavia maintains Transavia France as its French subsidiary.

Air Astana is an airline and the flag carrier of Kazakhstan. The airline group is headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It operates scheduled international and domestic services across 64 routes from its two hubs; Almaty International Airport, and Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport.

Azzurra Air was a scheduled and charter airline based in Milan, Italy and flying to Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal and other Mediterranean destinations.

Centralwings was a charter airline based in Warsaw, Poland. The airline operated as a low-cost airline and then became a charter-only operation in October 2008. It was a subsidiary of LOT Polish Airlines, operating international services in Europe, using Boeing 737 aircraft. Its main base was Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport, with hubs at Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport and John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice. On 26 March 2009 the board of LOT Polish Airlines decided to close Centralwings with no information about what was to happen to its employees.

West Atlantic UK Limited, formerly Atlantic Airlines Ltd is a British cargo airline based at East Midlands Airport. It operates contract and ad hoc cargo flights worldwide, especially within Europe as part of the West Atlantic Group. The company's fleet is composed of Boeing 737 and ATR72 aircraft. The airline specialises in the transport of dangerous goods and radioactive products and other specialist aerial work, including oil spill response, dispersant spraying and icing trials. The prime activity of the business is the supply and operating of aircraft to night-time freight integrators and consolidators and the operation of ad hoc air charters on behalf of other airlines, freight brokers and forwarders. Atlantic Airlines merged with the Swedish airline "West Air Europe" in 2008 to establish the West Atlantic Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titan Airways</span> British charter airline

Titan Airways is a British charter airline founded in 1988 and based at London Stansted Airport. The carrier specialises in short-notice ACMI and wet lease operations as well as ad-hoc passenger and cargo charter services to tour operators, corporations, governments and the sports and entertainment sectors. The company holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TransNusa</span> Indonesian domestic airline

PT TransNusa Aviation Mandiri, operating as TransNusa, is an Indonesian low-cost carrier based in Jakarta Soekarno–Hatta International Airport. It was launched in August 2005, serving various destinations from Kupang, Timor, using aircraft chartered from Pelita Air and Trigana Air Service. In August 2011, TransNusa received its own air operator's certificate (AOC) and scheduled commercial airline permit, operating as a regional carrier. The airline relaunched as a low-cost carrier in 2022 after briefly ceasing operations in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Buzz is a Polish airline headquartered in Warsaw. Formerly called Ryanair Sun, it is a subsidiary of the Irish airline company Ryanair Holdings and a sister airline to Ryanair, Ryanair UK, Malta Air and Lauda Europe.

Ryanair UK is a British low-cost airline with a second base at Stansted Airport. The airline is the UK subsidiary of the low-cost Irish airline group Ryanair Holdings and a sister airline to Ryanair, Buzz, and Malta Air. It commenced operations in March 2019.

Fly Play hf. is an Icelandic low-cost airline headquartered in the country's capital of Reykjavík. It operates a fleet of Airbus A320neo family aircraft with a hub at Keflavík International Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauda Europe</span> Maltese airline

Lauda Europe Limited is a Maltese low-cost airline operating on behalf of its parent company Ryanair. The airline performs wet-lease flights for Ryanair and charter services.

References

  1. ↑ "Contact Us." Buzz. Retrieved on 2 September 2009.
  2. ↑ "Buzz (2004) Airline Profile | CAPA". centreforaviation.com. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 "KLM's Low-Cost Subsidiary: What Happened To Buzz?". Simple Flying. 27 November 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  4. ↑ tmd123.tm@gmail.com. "Review of Buzz (Ryanair) flight from Bournemouth to Kraków in Economy". Flight-report. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  5. ↑ Schlappig, Ben (15 March 2019). "Meet Buzz, Ryanair's New Airline". One Mile at a Time. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  6. ↑ "Buzz (2nd)(Poland)". World Airline News. 24 August 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  7. ↑ "New airline in Europe – Ryanair launches Buzz - AeroTime". 14 March 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  8. ↑ "Ryanair to rebrand Polish subsidiary Ryanair Sun as Buzz". TTG. Retrieved 10 January 2020. operating both charter and scheduled flights on behalf of their parent company
  9. ↑ "Buzz Fleet | Airfleets aviation". www.airfleets.net. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.