JetMagic was an
Irish airline that operated between 2003 and 2004. It offered high-service flights aimed at business travelers, but at only a slight premium above the economy class rates. The average fares started at €75 and grew up to €250 based on demand. JetMagic sold itself on high quality and extra touches, like offering a free newspaper to all passengers, free catering, ice cream, etc.
JetMagic operated a fleet of 2
Embraer 145 aircraft and 1 Embraer 135 aircraft on it services to
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 Kingd ...
,
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 ...
and
London City.
After an initial period with poor load factors, JetMagic increased its market share and offered routes that no other airline offered at the time. The airline operated a mixture of business and leisure routes from
Cork Airport
The airline offered a schedule oriented toward business travellers on a number of routes, including a double daily service to
Brussels Airport on weekdays, with an additional Sunday evening service. A service to
Belfast City Airport was also operated double daily on weekdays, with an additional Saturday morning service.
The most frequent service was to London City Airport, which was served three times daily on weekdays, with an additional Saturday morning and Sunday evening service, partly owing to weekend restrictions at London City Airport. However, the airline had to lease in alternate aircraft types in its first few months as the Embraer 135 was not yet certified for London City Airport operations.
Additional services to
Liverpool Airport and
Edinburgh Airport were later added.
JetMagic also operated several leisure routes, including
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 th ...
,
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 ...
and
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
as well as
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4  ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, all of which were subsequently operated by Aer Lingus when JetMagic went out of business. Only
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 th ...
and
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
remain in operation today. All of these services were operated either two or three times weekly during JetMagic's operation. The airline also operated shorter leisure routes, 3 times weekly to Jersey and Nantes from 24 May 2003 until 17 August.
It was noted that during its first summer that the sun routes were performing very well with 90% load factors in some cases to Nice, Alicante and Barcelona.
JetMagic unexpectedly ceased operations 28 January 2004, after one of its planes was impounded by
Aer Rianta for failure to pay landing fees. The airline indefinitely suspended operations, and many passengers were left
out-of-pocket for the cost of their tickets. Indeed, JetMagic had still been accepting bookings up until around 30 minutes before the news of its folding broke.
After the demise of JetMagic, the services to
Belfast City Airport were taken up and subsequently cancelled by
Aer Arann. The service to
Liverpool Airport being operated by Ryanair and the route to
Edinburgh Airport being operated by
Aer Arann under the Aer Lingus regional franchise.
JetMagic's customer service desk at
Cork Airport remained unoccupied since then, and is absent from the new terminal.
References
JetMagic collapses due to financial difficulties
{{Portal bar, Ireland, Companies, Aviation
Defunct airlines of the Republic of Ireland
Airlines established in 2003
Airlines disestablished in 2004
Irish companies established in 2003
2004 disestablishments in Ireland