Aircraft lessor ASL rebranding for growth

Ireland’s ASL Aviation Group is to launch a new European airline brand, ASL Airlines, as part of its strategy for “continued growth in passenger and cargo operations”.
ASL’s four European airlines, based in Ireland, France, Switzerland and Hungary, are to be renamed under the new brand.
Air Contractors will become ASL Airlines Ireland, Europe Airpost will become ASL Airlines France, Farnair Switzerland will become ASL Airlines Switzerland, and Farnair Hungary will become ASL Airlines Hungary
The four European airlines operate for express freight integrators and for postal services in France and the UK from hubs in France and Germany and between bases throughout the continent, from Norway to Greece.
The ASL Group will continue to be based at its corporate support office in Swords, County Dublin, and will be led by group chief executive Hugh Flynn.
The total ASL fleet is around 100 aircraft, depending on leasing arrangements, of which 75 aircraft are flying in Europe. Some of these aircraft will be painted in airline customer colours.
ASL’s strategy, named platform for growth, is aimed building on ASL’s role in the express integrator, passenger and postal markets in Europe.
ASL will also expand its global presence through its interest in Safair in South Africa and the cargo airlines K-Mile in Thailand and QuikJet in India where ASL announced last week that its shareholding is to increase to 72.6%.
Flynn said: “Our intent is to have a new strong single brand that will play a major role in helping us to achieve our vision and mission and reflect our corporate values in our business.
“This strong single brand will make it considerably easier to use the aircraft of the European fleet across the individual countries to meet customer demand and this increased fleet flexibility and consequent competitiveness will enable us to grow our business.”
A fifth operations centre in South Africa will oversee the continued growth in Safair, the specialist humanitarian Hercules operator, and FlySafair, the South African low cost airline launched in October 2014, plus the two Asian airlines.
ASL’s aircraft leasing platforms will also continue to be based in Dublin.
The ASL Group is being restructured into two divisions, European Airlines and Rest of the World Airlines and Leasing.
The current chief executive of Air Contractors, Colin Grant, will become chief executive of the new European Airline’s division and will be based in Dublin.
The current chief executive of Safair, Dave Andrew, will become chief executive of the new Rest of the World Airlines and Leasing Division and will be based between Johannesburg and Dublin.
The lessor said: “Platform for Growth will see ASL increase the number of aircraft in its combined cargo and passenger fleets."