With practically 12,000 having been constructed since the commence of manufacturing in the slack 1960s, the Boeing 737’s reputation and functionality comprise made the acquisition of every body a milestone for any airline. The skill to cruise 189 passengers at speeds as high as 827 km/h for a differ of 5,185 km makes these narrowbody plane a high-price asset. AirExplore, Slovakia’s premier airline, has expanded and up thus a ways its expeditiously hugely since its acquisition by Avia Solutions Community final June. As AirExplore CEO Martin Stulajter explains, the capabilities and price which comprise been added to the airline are serving to to create a expeditiously that is in a position to global enlargement.
In October 2024, 14 years after the airline’s founding, AirExplore’s expeditiously includes 17 plane, at the side of both passenger and cargo variants of Boeing’s 737-800. These next-expertise plane are upgrades of the 737-400s that had been to starting up with in the airline’s expeditiously at originate. Stulajter says that the first difference between these two variants is the capability.
“The most capability of the 737-400 is 168-170 financial system class seats, whereas the 737-800 has a most of 189 financial system class seats,” he says. “It will also now not appear so, but those additional dozen seats form a mountainous difference in revenues given the scale of operations of every plane.”
In step with Stulajter, the additional seats of the following-expertise 737 would possibly well consequence in millions of additional earnings.
“As an instance, a tight yearly utilization of such plane is set 3,000 flight hours. If the standard flight length is 3 hours, it manner an airline does about 1,000 flights per year,” he explains. “If the standard stamp stamp of €250 for those 20 additional seats is achieved all over those 1,000 flights, the addition of 20,000 passengers amounts to €5 million of earnings.”
Other than the earnings attend of the additional seating capability, the 737-800 also provides the airline an elevated differ. In step with Stulajter, the style can cruise an additional 1.5 hours when compared to the 737-400, which will enhance the functionality routes and buyer infamous the jet can assist. With the retirement of the 5 737 Classics in the airline’s expeditiously achieved in 2015, the 737-800 modified into as soon as a straightforward transition for AirExplore.
Both additional earnings and elevated differ had been very major for the transition to the plane kind, as these parts would possibly well well be very major to paying for the enlargement. Stulajter remembers when the price of the 737-800 modified into as soon as double that of the Classics.
“A truly powerful replace needed to happen in the mindset of the of us guilty for the airline’s economics, as we needed to veil the payment by the utilization of the plane more than the Classics,” he says. “We paid for the adaptation by flying more, and this required us to order more workers to the corporate, which then intended we needed to grow bigger than ahead of.”
AirExplore did precisely that. The airline changed into the finest in Slovakia and has added a complete of eight 737s in 2024 whereas increasing its regulatory approvals and security certifications. One space of development for AirExplore has been cargo, with the carrier adding seven more 737 freighters, with primarily the most stylish addition as most stylish as June 2024. After these additions, the expeditiously now includes eight 737-800 freighter plane that beforehand flew passengers ahead of conversion by both Boeing and US-based fully mostly Aeronautical Engineers Inc.
“The reworked 737-800 freighter flies the identical as its passenger model and has the identical avionics, but our pilots battle by additional coaching for operation of the cargo door and cargo distribution,” Stulajter says. “We feature these cargo plane in the EU market for most most considerable integrators adore DHL and UPS, and we’re also very active in the advert-hoc market the set we reduction to transfer cargo of all kinds to many diversified locations.”
Changing trusty into a narrowbody freighter operator comes with unfamiliar challenges, as the cargo market skilled several shocks at some stage in the COVID-19 pandemic that to at the sleek time comprise immense impacts on the economics of the logistics industry. To change into ready for this airline market segment, AirExplore elevated its capabilities to address every process.
“It has practically been three years since we began working cargo plane. It is a ways a shrimp of a clear industry because it doesn’t require as heavy utilization of the plane as with the passenger ones, but on the replacement hand, it’s extremely at risk of the GDP performance of the worldwide financial system with fewer seasonal fluctuations than pax ops,” Stulajter says. “To change trusty into a carrier, we needed to dig deeper into the compliance, handling of harmful items and cargo administration from the attitude of flight operations engineering.”
Equipped with both 737-800 passenger and cargo variants, AirExplore benefits from the simplicity of single-kind operations, as smartly as the distinctiveness of that kind in the ACMI market.
“Fewer ACMI operators are offering the Boeing product in the European ACMI segment when compared to Airbus plane, which affords us a little competitive advantage,” Stulajter says.
With the 737 offering a clear functionality, and the elevated capability compounding more earnings, the airline is mulling the addition of the 737 MAX, per reporting by Ch-Aviation. Whereas a name on future plane kinds would possibly well presumably be on the horizon, AirExplore continues to construct the wanted regulatory approvals to additional extend its operations spherical the arena.
