Waltzing Matilda Aviation Sees Faster Rebound In Traffic With Unprecedented Pricing On Flights To Florida

Waltzing Matilda Aviation LLC (WMA) has seen a substantial pick up in business in the past week after, much like all in the industry, experiencing a quiet April, first half of May.

WMA CEO John Thomas said: "We are now fielding up to 50 jet charter enquiries a day up from 5-10 only 2 weeks ago.  Further with a massive imbalance in clients wanting to fly from Florida to the North East we are seeing unbelievably low pricing for one way southbound flights for as low as $6,500.  But we don't expect this imbalance will last for more than a couple of weeks after which southbound pricing will rise to their more normal levels."

Based on WMA's level of activity at its home base at Bedford (BED), MA, it believes its business is coming back faster than some of the bigger national players who were forced to furlough crews during the downturn.  WMA was able to maintain its full staffing levels throughout the downturn and is therefore better able to respond faster to the recovery than many operators – some of whom have had aircraft idle for the past 2 months.  WMA has used some of this idle time to invest in new systems and further enhance its website www.waltzingmatildaaviation.org with a new online booking portal.

Thomas added: "With the FET holiday through to the end of December as well as low fuel prices, now is one of the cheapest times to fly privately.  Further we have picked up a number of new corporate customers who have already made the decision not to allow their staff to fly commercially for the foreseeable future and therefore see private aviation as the only viable option."