Hifly airline

scruffyone

This is new to me. Does anyone have any feedback on them. Their website is not very useful. All I know is that they are a Portugese airline.

Any news regarding them would be helpful.

Many thanks.

SW17

I've never flown with them, but Hifly is a charter/wet lease airline. They provide aircraft (sometimes with crew/maintenance etc included - this is "wet leasing") to other airlines, governments, tour operators etc. Think of them as a wholesaler of commercial aircraft, a B2B operation. They don't sell seats to the public themselves.

These types of companies are often used by other airlines to get aircraft at short notice when they have technical problems with their fleet (especially smaller airlines) or to expand into new routes without taking the risk of buying planes, taking staff, maintenance contracts etc themselves.

Hifly have been used by airlines such as Norwegian, Saudia, SAS, Oman Air and La Compagnie, no doubt several others, as well as govts, charter tour operators etc. They specialise in mid/long-haul aircraft (mostly A330/340).

scruffyone

Thank you this explains why I can't find extensive information and our tour company have allocated this airline to us for our return journey (long haul) next year.

Don't feel very confident about it.

Your reply is much appreciated.

callum9999

scruffyone wrote: »

Thank you this explains why I can't find extensive information and our tour company have allocated this airline to us for our return journey (long haul) next year.

Don't feel very confident about it.

Your reply is much appreciated.

You don't feel confident about what? That they'll show up on time? That it will be comfortable onboard?

Which tour operator is it? Assuming it's one of the operators with their own airline, the service/reliability should be about the same.

SW17

scruffyone wrote: »

Thank you this explains why I can't find extensive information and our tour company have allocated this airline to us for our return journey (long haul) next year.

Don't feel very confident about it.

Your reply is much appreciated.

You shouldn't worry unduly. To my knowledge they have all the appropriate licences as a carrier in the EU, and as I mentioned, they have supplied aircraft to some well known airlines.

Wet leasing is quite common in the aviation world, often the passengers cannot tell because the aircraft and/or crew are in the colours of the company hiring the aircraft (usually for longer leases). Another example would be the (unfortunately soon to be no more) Virgin Little Red domestic service, which is actually operated by Aer Lingus aircraft and crew in Virgin colours. Hifly is not a "branded" airline, but they are recognised within the industry.

richardw

I found this http://www.seatmaestro.com/airlines-seating-maps/hi-fly-airplane-reviews.html