You book a ticket for one of Wizz Air's flights from Sofia to Rome, Paris, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Bari or Catania. You go to the airport and the familiar purple branding on the plane is missing. Instead, it's white and bears the mall logo of another airline. If this sounds familiar - you probably traveled on a plane belonging to Bulgarian airline company Fly2Sky.
After just 3 years the Sofia-based company, which is owned by a Greek and a Ukrainian, has become 1 of the 3 biggest Bulgarian airlines in the sector in terms of sales. It already has 10 aircraft and plans to increase its fleet this year.
In addition to operating some of the flights of the famous low-cost airline Wizz Air, it works with many other carriers worldwide. These include Miami-based World Atlantic Airlines, Air Serbia, airBaltic, and TUI Airways.
The Bulgarian airline positions itself in the ACMI segment. That is, it leases its aircraft along with crews, maintenance, and insurance. These services are greatly in demand due to the rise of the aviation sector, which is expected to continue expanding for at least a few more years. The segment is driven by the shortage of aircraft, and the slow deliveries of new aircraft from factories, among others.
Fly2Sky's goal for the next few years is to be on the list of preferred partners when the aviation sector normalizes. And it now has a new CEO, Lee Jones, the first foreigner with extensive international experience in a management position in a Bulgarian air carrier - appointed just a few weeks ago.
Fleet of 10
In 2022, the company entered the ranking of the fastest-growing companies with a revenue jump of 397%, reaching 75.2 million levs. Fly2Sky now has a fleet of 10 aircraft - eight Airbus A320s and two Airbus A321s. The ten aircraft rank the airline in the top 3 after Bulgaria Air, with second place shared with the competitor in the ACMI segment - Electra Airways.
The fleet has doubled over the last 18 months, and revenues for 2023 rose to 92 million levs. The airline's latest, tenth aircraft arrived in October last year. It is also the newest in its fleet - 12 years old. For ACMI operators, new aircraft are rather rare.
Against the backdrop of the shortage of aircraft in the industry, a serious bonus for ACMI companies is that they do not wait for deliveries of new aircraft, which sometimes have technical problems. Instead, ACMI companies, just like Fly2Sky, ensure their own technical maintenance. This makes them highly competitive because they have aircraft available that can be arranged to take off together with the crews within 6 hours.
Another big jump in revenue comes from the growth in the ACMI segment, as well as from the company's specific opportunities to conclude long-term contracts. The duration of the contracts varies - they can last 6 months or a year. Longer-term contracts are preferred, but ad hoc orders are also accepted. Indeed it may be necessary to react within hours to the need for an aircraft in any part of the world.
Currently, the airline's aircraft are located in six bases worldwide - Miami, Paris, Lagos, two bases in Egypt, in Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, and one aircraft in Sofia, which currently operates flights for Wizz Air to their destinations.
New CEO
The company's recently appointed CEO Lee Jones has over 20 years of international experience and a view of the other side of the ACMI business. Before Fly2Sky, he founded the consultancy Alcor Reliance and worked as a responsible director of the Maltese charter company Maleth Aero, commercial director of the aircraft engine leasing company AELF (Aircraft Engine Lease Finance), managed projects at Qatar Airways and held positions at the now-defunct Thomas Cook Airlines. The airline's new COO is also an international name.
It has nearly 250 employee contracts in Bulgaria, and the team has people from more than 18 nationalities. The company's plans for 2025 include expanding the fleet by two more aircraft. How and when they will arrive depends on the emergence of a good deal - i.e. the right machine has to appear on the market.
The rise of the niche cannot be endless, i.e. when new aircraft start to leave the factories and the grounded ones rise into the air, there could be a glut, but the company is prepared for this.
"There will be stagnation and by then we must have become a partner of choice - a preferred partner. We must have proven ourselves on a global scale to be chosen for the quality of the service we offer. Realizing this, our focus for this year is operational excellence," explains Fly2Sky's Marketing Director Emilia Andreeva.
You book a ticket for one of Wizz Air's flights from Sofia to Rome, Paris, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Bari or Catania. You go to the airport and the familiar purple branding on the plane is missing. Instead, it's white and bears the mall logo of another airline. If this sounds familiar - you probably traveled on a plane belonging to Bulgarian airline company Fly2Sky.
After just 3 years the Sofia-based company, which is owned by a Greek and a Ukrainian, has become 1 of the 3 biggest Bulgarian airlines in the sector in terms of sales. It already has 10 aircraft and plans to increase its fleet this year.
