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A new start up carrier for the North East, Excelsis, has launched its website:
www.excelsisairways.com/press.php
Planning to link Durham with London, using Dash 8-Q400s.
I am always a bit suspicious about start ups which spend lots on slick websites and invite you to design their livery; smacks a bit of a schoolboy project.
Sadly, given the real desire and demand to re-link MME with LON, this would appear to be a not-all-that-fancy fake. Sorry :-(.
The website is a cut-and-paste job from Porter in Canada. Compare:
http://www.excelsisairways.com/fly-smart.php
with
http://www.flyporter.com/en/experience.aspx
Durham Tees Valley's silence on the subject is deafening, and even the local newspaper now realises that it was probably sold a pup.
Whatever transpires, it remains the case that the only commercially viable route between LON and MME is into LHR for (interline) onward connections; for O&D traffic, the train service from Darlington will almost always be quicker and more convenient.
So, this 'project' could be a particular shame as it may have diverted attention away from the real need, albeit accepting that neither BA nor BD are ever likely to relink MME with LHR.
I agree the train service is fast and generally hassle free - and surely can only get better once Nationalised Express relinquishes the route.
How interesting about the duplicated website - thought it looked rather too good to be true; though it was confirmed they were in formal talks with the airport operator...
And meanwhile, their "Corporate HQ" remains empty, no lease on any aircraft announced, no AOC granted, and no airport authority willing to 100% confirm that this is happening... I'm in the camp of not believing this is a real project - esp. when large tracts of websites are copied from another carriers website. Poor show. I would no more buy a ticket on this sham carrier than buy a bridge to Brooklyn!
And now, finally though not at all unexpectedly, the police have been called in to investigate alleged fraud and the lack of any substance whatsoever to the reported plans.
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/4679281.Excelsis_Airlines___fraud_squad_called_in/
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