ON TOUR: Hans Airways gets ready

Alison Chambers previews Britain's newest airline.

Our regular contributor Alison Chambers tells the tale of Hans Airways, Britain’s newest airline.  It has been a long but steady journey which Business Travel News has covered extensively over the last few years.  #####
 
Last week was memorable for Hans.  On Tuesday 30 August the airline flew what was termed a familiarisation test flight with its newly re-registered Airbus A330-200.  Fifty special guests were invited.  The following day just over twice that number were guests for the formal Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulatory proving flight.

Alison started her aviation career at Flight International, in its time the ‘must read’ weekly printed publication, available every Friday morning.  She went on to produce the weekly airline title Commuter Regional Airline News International after serving as Editor of Commuter World and then branched out into airline PR acting for amongst others Moritz Suter, whose Crossair operation flew the first jet into London City Airport; Brad Burgess, founder of what is now British Airways CityFlyer and Jim French, who turned British European to Flybe. She helped Alex Cruz with the start of Clickair, which became Vueling, who advanced to become CE) and Chairman of British Airways.  Alison has been advising Hans since January 2022 on press and public image matters.

She writes:
 
“There was something special on a sunny morning in Birmingham last week.  This wasn’t an airline launch. Rather, I was supporting Hans Airways on a very special day.  Travelling up the escalator at the airport I encountered 20 or so cabin crew adjusting their new uniforms, chatting excitedly to their new colleagues.  The happiness, nervousness and thrill to see it was infectious.  I was not the only one to have a little tear.  So many of them were known to me.  I’d been with them on their journey these past nine months – visited them in training in Crawley and Birmingham had become part of the family.  That is the ethos that defines CEO and founder Satnam Saini’s vision – which started in 2019.  It has brought together a new airline family.
 
Creating a new airline is no mean achievement.  Founding one in the teeth of a pandemic, when so many peers shut down, is brave.
 
Since the outset, Hans has planned its strategy carefully.  Its strength is its people and a remarkable CEO steering his team.  Satnam started out in aviation in travel agency and sold Monarch Airlines flights into India.  The pandemic was almost a perfect storm for Hans Airways as it was able to call on some of the most experienced pilots and cabin crew.  It had already garnered a remarkable, experienced Board of Advisors.  Dr Barry Humphreys, once of Virgin Atlantic and Jane Middleton, former Chair of Airlines UK, are among the stellar line up. This month Baroness Usha Prashar joined them.

COO Nathan Burkitt, Satnam’s right hand man, has been on board since 2019, initially as Director of Flight Ops and Crew Training.  He joined from Virgin Australia, where he was Manager, Flight Standards.  He brings 18 years’ senior operational experience with a flying career advanced from ATR turboprops and Avro RJ100s at CityFlyer Express, Britannia Airways on the B757/B767, followed by Thomson/TUI and ThomsonFly.  At Virgin he was introduced to the A330.  He also supported Fastjet as Head of Flight Operations and Training (Group), Wow Air in Iceland and Norwegian UK as Chief Pilot and Deputy Head of Training.
 
Burkitt’s parents were among the guests on the company’s familiarisation flight on 30 August.  They, along with others, beamed when he announced from the flight deck “what a privilege and honour it is to take the controls of our first Airbus A330."  On the first leg, to Glasgow Prestwick, he was joined by Senior Captain Graham Ness (ex-Oman Air, easyJet) one of the first pilots to join the company.

Satnam Saini proudly welcomed 55 guests made up of family, friends and airline partners, for this test flight replicating a full-service offering.  Our journey was from Birmingham Airport to Glasgow Prestwick – to Doncaster – back to Prestwick – Birmingham. This was a real-life airline environment test run for the crew and ground operations teams led by Director Ground Services Simon Prower and Neeru Prabhakar, Manager Safety and Cabin Training, who joined the airline after 30 years with British Airways.   It involved a multitude of checks, paperwork including weights and balances, serving guests with drinks and refreshments.  The Airbus A330 is a big aircraft and the 55 guests were widely spread out in the Premium and Economy   cabins.  

Doncaster Sheffield Airport has its own problems and the visit by Hans can only be said as a mark of confidence for its future.  It proved how easy it was for a large aircraft to operate at the Yorkshire one time RAF Vulcan squadron base.
 
Prestwick is used for many route proving flights – quiet compared with Glasgow and because each flight must replicate the whole experience including deboarding on buses and reboarding – it can accommodate visiting aircraft with ease.  I have not been to Prestwick since the days of Jetstream Aircraft and it does attract interesting aircraft.  A DC-8 came in on our second leg.

The flight was an important precursor to the UK CAA’s proving sectors which took place a day later.  

The formal CAA flight on Wednesday involved two hours' flying time with no stops, flying over the west coast towards the North Atlantic and back to Birmingham Airport. Some 100 guests involved with Hans Airways served as 'passengers' for the day.

The aircraft will likely attract much charter interest, ahead of Hans Airways’ proposed scheduled flights to India, because there are not so many wide-bodied aircraft with such capacity on the UK register available for charter / Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI).

Hans Airways’ aircraft, now G-KJAS, is all white.  It plans to get the aircraft painted or decaled  when it gets its operating licence.  In the meantime, it will live with maintenance partner STS Aviation Services.  

Satnam Saini thanked STS at Birmingham Airport for working swiftly and enthusiastically over weekends to ready the aircraft for first flight – and praised all his team – who have, collectively, “contributed so much to making this day happen,  a culmination of four years’ planning and shaping.”
 
Its route proving flight for the CAA is the penultimate regulatory milestone in being able to start commercial revenue operations.  On the award of its UK Air Operator’s Certificate, Hans Airways will apply to India’s equivalent regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for its licence to fly from India.
 
It has ambitions to be the UK’s now third dedicated long-haul scheduled carrier, operating a hybrid, affordable, full-service model.
 
Hans Airways, with its community airline mission, intends to make Amritsar in Northern India its first destination from Birmingham Airport, and expects to be able to start flying in October (subject to licence approval).

“This week was a very significant one in the Hans Airways’ journey,”   commented Chief Commercial Officer Martin Dunn, adding, “we are now really looking forward to pro-active engagement with the travel trade community.”
 
The company is currently recruiting and looking to add 20 more cabin crew from its Birmingham, UK base.  And if you want to take 300 fans to a football match somewhere in Europe it’s the ideal aircraft.”

Photo credit: Stewart Writtle Photography

www.hansairways.com

www.emeraldmedia.co.uk

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