A World2Fly, new airline of the W2M Group (World 2 Meet), will put an A-330 in Lisbon, com capacidade para 388 lugares, for an operation that will link the Portuguese capital to Varadero, Cancun and Punta Cana, between July and September this year, was announced this Wednesday at an online press conference.
The operation will have the seal of the new tour operator Newblue, that belongs to W2M present in the Portuguese market since 2016 as receptive and bed bank, owned by the Spanish group Iberostar.
Duarte Correia, group administrator in Portugal, explained that the Lisbon operation, once a week for each of the Caribbean destinations, will start 11 de Julho para Cancun, de 17 July to Varadero and from 19 de Julho to Punta Cana.
Although two tour operators have already announced these destinations in the summer, from the Portuguese capital, and that TAP intends to fly, in particular, to Cancun, both Duarte Correia, as the CEO of W2M, Gabriel Subías, expect a good result in this first operation, despite some uncertainties still regarding the resumption of travel, but fundamentally they believe in the product, that they consider transversal.
– Our expectation is difficult because things change every month, we are more dependent on health regulation than on demand. When the situation normalizes, when we can leave the house, when we are vaccinated, the desire to travel is great and there will be a great demand, is what we hope, stressed Subías.
The plane will have unique class, but the programs will be marketed in three different categories, namely Essence, Quality e Absolut, corresponding to a series of extra services.
Those responsible also left good news for the distribution sector in Portugal, since travel agencies will receive commissions for airline tickets, for additional services and experiences purchased by customers at destination, preferred hotel chains, how are Iberostar, RIU and Catalonia. According to Duarte Correia, we rely heavily on the distribution sector. We want support and we want to support distribution.
– In addition to these remunerations, we will give an extra commission to the distribution due to the current situation in which we live due to the Covid-19 pandemic, indicated Duarte Correia, adding that the agencies will have an immediate direct rappel from the first sale.
– Portuguese travel agencies can count on total transparency, honesty, long-term stability, a professional team and competitive prices and unique pricing policy, said yet.
No entanto, although Portugal's operation is only for W2M, the two managers told journalists that they are open to partnerships with other operators in this market. They also said that the Portuguese team will be strengthened both at the commercial level, of product and operation. Suffice it to say that the entire crew of the A-330 comes to Lisbon was part of Orbest / Iberojet, also portuguese.
But this is only the first phase of this operator that belongs to the Iberostar Group, who already has a plane, A-350, that will operate from Spain. A third device is expected, another A-350 with a capacity for 432 passageiros, to Lisbon from May next year, when you expect to have your operations on sale as scheduled flights, The second phase of expansion in our country will pass, possibly from autumn, with operations for the Spanish islands, Cape Verde and Azores, explained.
In addition to the tour operator Newblue, W2M also intends to launch its major travel tour operator in Portugal in September, Icarion, already launched in Spain.
