BBC NEWS Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific
BBCi NEWS   SPORT   WEATHER   WORLD SERVICE   A-Z INDEX     

BBC News World Edition
    You are in: UK: Scotland  
News Front Page
Africa
Americas
Asia-Pacific
Europe
Middle East
South Asia
UK
England
N Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Politics
Education
Business
Entertainment
Science/Nature
Technology
Health
-------------
Talking Point
-------------
Country Profiles
In Depth
-------------
Programmes
-------------
BBC Sport
BBC Weather
SERVICES
-------------
EDITIONS
 Friday, 17 January, 2003, 13:16 GMT
Demand causes air website turbulence
Air-Scotland.com operates two Boeings
Air-Scotland.com will fly to six destinations in Spain
A new Scottish low-cost airline had to take its website off-line after receiving 30,000 hits within five minutes of its launch.

Air-Scotland.com was launched this week by an Egyptian entrepreneur to offer flights to six destinations in Spain.

Dhia Al-Ani, who also runs the Glasgow-based tour operator Discount Holidays, wants to turn the low-budget operation into Scotland's national flag carrier.

Dhia Al-Ani
Dhia Al-Ani has launched the company
But the company admitted it had been surprised by the initial level of demand when the website went live.

"We had 30,000 hits in the first five minutes, which was quite unexpected," said a spokeswoman.

"We are delighted with that level of interest.

"There was a backlog with the booking system so they took it off-line to clear that backlog."

She said engineers had worked through the night and hoped to have the site up and running again on Friday.

In the meantime, the company has also been taking telephone bookings.

Low-cost service

Air-Scotland.com was set up by Mr Al-Ani in partnership with Electra Airlines, a Greek charter company privately owned by a Belgian businessman.

Two Boeings 757-200 are scheduled to start operating in March, flying from Edinburgh to Barcelona, Palma, Alicante, Malaga and Fuerteventura and from Glasgow airport to Barcelona, Palma and Tenerife.

The following month another Scottish low-cost service starts flying to mainland Europe.

Flyglobespan, a tour operator, will charter planes to fly from Glasgow Prestwick International airport to destinations in France, Italy and Spain.

See also:

11 Jun 02 | Business
10 Jun 02 | Scotland
Internet links:


The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Links to more Scotland stories are at the foot of the page.


 E-mail this story to a friend

Links to more Scotland stories

© BBC ^^ Back to top

News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East |
South Asia | UK | Business | Entertainment | Science/Nature |
Technology | Health | Talking Point | Country Profiles | In Depth |
Programmes