EUjet was a low-cost airline based at Shannon Airport,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It operated a network of services from its main base at Shannon Airport (SNN), with a hub at Kent International Airport (MSE), Manston, Kent, UK. The airline was sold to a British company, PlaneStation, which also owned Kent airport, for €10m. In July 2005, PlaneStation went out of business with €40m in debts, forcing EUjet to cease operations.

History

The airline was established in 2003 and started operations in May 2003. It was created by former

Trans Aer TransAer International Airlines was an Irish charter airline headquartered in the TransAer House, Dublin Airport, Dublin, Ireland. History The airline was previously known as Translift Airways. It was established in October 1991 and started ...

head PJ McGoldrick, who linked with Fokker 100 leasing specialist Debis AirFinance to offer wet leases and charters. In 2004, the company moved into scheduled services. Airport operator PlaneStation completed its takeover of EUjet in January 2005 by acquiring the remaining 70% of the shares. It had bought the first 30% in May 2004. On 26 July 2005, the airline went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

Services

EUjet operated the following services (at July 2005): * Ireland domestic destinations:

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and Shannon. * UK destinations:

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, Kent International Airport and Newcastle. * International scheduled destinations:

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, Faro,

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

(ski seasonal destination),

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in ...

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

, Murcia,

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

and

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

Fleet

The EuJet fleet consisted of the following aircraft (History):

Collapse

On 25 July 2005, trading in PlaneStation (EUjet's parent company) shares was suspended. Passenger numbers were far down on expected figures and the company suffered a £6.5 million loss in the last half of 2004. The company stated that discussions with the banks have "not been positive". On 26 July 2005, all flights were suspended along with the operations of Kent International Airport for all bar freight traffic. Later in the day, EUjet went into voluntary administration leaving up to 5,000 passengers stranded abroad and 500 jobs in the balance. Lack of passenger numbers are one reason cited for the failure of the airline, with only 330,000 out of the 500,000 passengers predicted for the first year of operation. In addition, the airline had been plagued with disruption and protest from people in

Thanet Thanet may refer to: *Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England *Thanet District, a local government district containing the island *Thanet College, former name of East Kent College *Thanet Canal, ...

, a significant proportion of whom were against any expansion of operations at Kent International Airport.

easyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...

, a rival airline, offered to fly home the thousands of stranded EUjet customers for a flat fee of £25.Sunday Business Post
/ref>

References

External links

Photos of EUjet aircraft
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eujet Defunct airlines of the Republic of Ireland Airlines established in 2003 Airlines disestablished in 2005 Irish companies established in 2003