New airline fills Globespan slots at Glasgow

A new airline is to operate out of Glasgow Airport following the collapse of Flyglobespan, it has been announced.

Kiss Flights, which operates from eight UK airports outside Scotland, will be offering 12 summer routes to Mediterranean destinations from April.

They include Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey.

A spokesman said flights will be operated on behalf of Kiss Flights by Swedish carrier Viking Airlines, using a Boeing 737 aircraft.

Kiss Flights director Paul Moss said: "Kiss Flights are enjoying a period of strong growth and we are delighted to be able to offer these flights from Glasgow.

We are determined to ensure that holidaymakers continue to have a wide choice of airlines and destinations from Glasgow

Amanda McMillan
Glasgow Airport
"Since the demise of Flyglobespan we have had unprecedented requests from the travel trade to offer increased capacity from Scotland."

Amanda McMillan, managing director of Glasgow Airport, said: "Kiss Flights has a great deal of past experience in the UK travel industry and they have made a significant commitment to Glasgow Airport this year, serving many of the destinations once served by the Globespan group.

"We are making good progress in our efforts to backfill the capacity lost by Globespan, and this latest announcement from Kiss Flights is further good news for passengers.

"We are determined to ensure that holidaymakers continue to have a wide choice of airlines and destinations from Glasgow. Competition equals lower prices for travellers."

'Several announcements'

She added: "This is the first of several announcements we hope to make in the coming weeks as we continue our work to backfill the capacity lost by Globespan, and secure new international routes for Glasgow."

Flyglobespan was grounded on 16 December when its Edinburgh-based parent company, Globespan, was put into administration.

Industry insiders said it took with it capacity of 700,000 return flights during this year from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports, only a fraction of which has been taken up by other operators.

However, last week Barrhead Travel, the Scottish travel agency, announced that it was chartering British Airways aircraft to carry Glasgow customers with cruise and package bookings in Majorca and Barcelona.