Travellers flying with VLM from London City (LCY) next month could be in for faster and smoother flights.
The Belgian airline is rumoured to be adding a couple of BAe146 jet aircraft to its fleet by mid-May and they are likely to enter service on the Luxembourg run.
Until now this niche airline whose hub is at London City has specialised in operating a fleet of Dutch-made F-50 turbo-props over its route network which, besides Luxembourg, covers domestic UK cities along with Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels. This made sense because VLM has few direct rivals, the F-50s are economical to operate and they also meet the noise restrictions at LCY. But the planes are beginning to show their age when compared against more modern turbo-props and jets.
But it is Luxair (who flies with swish Embraer 135 jets) on the popular business LCY-Luxembourg route which seems to have prompted VLM to consider the switch.
For travel on and after May 15, VLM's website is showing all three daily flights between LCY and Luxembourg operated by BAe146s. These are the services at 0800, 1500 and 1850 from London which return at 0705, 1400 and 1755.
A spokesperson for VLM would neither confirm nor deny the addition of the BAe146s. In a statement VLM says, "We are currently reviewing our fleet and the type of aircraft we operate on certain routes. At this stage no final decisions have been made but current passenger numbers and the fact that load factors are constantly increasing do require us to look at alternative aircraft. Since VLM operates at several slot-constrained airports, increasing the size of its aircraft is the only option to increase capacity further."
For more information go to flyvlm.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
