debonair From Germany, joined Jan 2004, 2098 posts, RR: 4 Posted (10 months 2 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 5185 times:
Hi to you all,
Pullmantur Air/Madrid offered scheduled flights to Cancun and Punta Cana until the 30th of October 2012- but now all flights after 16th of September 2012 are zeroed out.
Pullmantur Vacation holiday-packages (flight + hotel) offered for travel until the 30th of October; are now available only with "latest return flight on September 16th 2012"...
spqr From Canada, joined Jun 2011, 45 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (10 months 2 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 4991 times:
Pullmantur is owned by Royal Caribbean. I haven't heard anything about them pulling the plug, maybe they decided to get out of the air business and focus on cruise ships
Summa767 From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2004, 2387 posts, RR: 7 Reply 3, posted (10 months 2 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 4376 times:
Air Pullmantur is currently flying a MAD-CUN flight on EC-KQC. I know that the airline has also done some flights for Monarch out of Gatwick.
The question of no flights bookable on their website beyond 16th Sep is indeed worrying. 4 747s do seem a bit much for Air Pullmantur's 2 scheduled destinations from MAD, and they don't seem to be doing much else to warrant having them.
Either they will stop selling their own tickets from 16th Sep, or there is something else going on.
clydenairways From Ireland, joined Jan 2007, 1001 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (10 months 2 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 4206 times:
Quoting RobK (Reply 1): Doesn't look good. I just checked SBS reports for their 4x 747s and nothing has flown for nearly 24 hours now. Have they gone bankrupt?
Thomas_Jaeger From Switzerland, joined Apr 2002, 2266 posts, RR: 31 Reply 6, posted (10 months 2 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 4175 times:
Hajj sounds like a reasonable explanation as Pullmantur has regularly had most of its B747-400s sent on Hajj charters. This might be a fairly profitable Hajj season for them as it starts too early for most European operators this year, but maybe is less of an issue for a Spanish long-haul carrier given the economic situation in Spain and more demand for long-haul flights during the winter? So that means same demand but less supply this year.
Swiss aviation news junkie living all over the place
Mortyman From Norway, joined Aug 2006, 3228 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (10 months 2 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 4116 times:
Pullmantur is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruiselines and the company uses the 747's to ferry cruisepassengers to their cruiseships. A month ago, 3 of their 747's came to Trondheim, Norway to do exchange of cruisepassengers between ships and aircrafts. Pullmantur came with their 3 747's on several occasions doing the same exchange this summer:
If anything thats the most likely explanation. They have been regularly leasing out two planes to Garuda for the Hadj over the last few years. And the Hadj isnt too far away. If the flight schedule has been reduced very lately, maybe some planes are being prepared for Garuda or else.
debonair From Germany, joined Jan 2004, 2098 posts, RR: 4 Reply 10, posted (10 months 2 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 2440 times:
Quoting Summa767 (Reply 3): The question of no flights bookable on their website beyond 16th Sep is indeed worrying.
On top, Pullmantur offered 99,00€ plus Tax one-way fares from MAD to the Caribbean this spring/summer. Not a good sign at all!
I tried today to call their booking-hotline in MAD to grab some 99€ plus tax tickets- but unfortunately, nobody was answering the phone- very strange! On the other hand, according to the MAD airport-webpage, all EB flights are "on time"!
GCT64 From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2007, 1104 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (10 months 2 weeks 21 hours ago) and read 2314 times:
Quoting RobK (Reply 1): checked SBS reports for their 4x 747s and nothing has flown for nearly 24 hours now
Done a quick check and EC-KQC operated PLM4003 to CUN today (12 Jul), so they are still operating. Couldn't see any of the other aircraft flying today but I'm not sure they have a high utilisation normally.
rfields5421 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 6150 posts, RR: 25 Reply 12, posted (10 months 2 weeks 21 hours ago) and read 2254 times:
Quoting debonair (Reply 10): On top, Pullmantur offered 99,00€ plus Tax one-way fares from MAD to the Caribbean this spring/summer. Not a good sign at all!
I tried today to call their booking-hotline in MAD to grab some 99€ plus tax tickets- but unfortunately, nobody was answering the phone- very strange! On the other hand, according to the MAD airport-webpage, all EB flights are "on time"!
I would not call that a bad sign.
If they operate like other cruise line focused carriers - the 99 euro fare are 'left over seats'.
i.e. They have 500 cruise ship passengers booked for a flight to a Caribbean desitnation - and 30 empty seats. Selling those for 99 euros pays the cost of supporting the non-cruise pax, and makes a little extra money.
Since the vast majority of their seats are booked through the cruise booking process, they have a very minimal staff to do the left over bookings. And until they schedule the cruise flight, they don't know how many 99 euro tickets they can sell.
bmibaby737 From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2005, 1636 posts, RR: 10 Reply 13, posted (10 months 2 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 1566 times:
Quoting GCT64 (Reply 11): Done a quick check and EC-KQC operated PLM4003 to CUN today (12 Jul), so they are still operating. Couldn't see any of the other aircraft flying today but I'm not sure they have a high utilisation normally.
EC-LNA is operating for Royal Air Maroc today, too.
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