Kiss a viking?

[Phil]

http://www.manchester-to.co.uk/manch...anchester.html

The timetable on the Manchester Airport website is showing the departure time for Kiss/Viking flights to Kefalonia as 05:15 - I'll believe it when I see it! That has a familiar ring to it!

I also note that the scheduled Viking Service from Manchester to Athens started yesterday and the Easyjet service commences on 10 February.

[Phil]

Why am I not surprised that KISS/Viking have cancelled most of their flights to Kef in May? ....................

I like to give companies the benefit of the doubt in the hope that they will keep their promise/contract and deliver the goods.

Some of you might have read that Viking have cancelled a lot (all?) of their May flights to Kef

The cancelled flights are still displayed on the Viking website .................................
And Viking flights from Manchester are still scheduled to depart at 5:15 am ......................

Please draw your own conclusions. I know who I WOULDN'T book a flight with, but I couldn't possibly comment

[kefallon]

The naive question is why??
Lack of uptake??

[Phil]

No established major tour operator buying seat allocation?

[john]

I yhink you may be right there Phil. There aren't many operators offering package deals until mid to late May but then again, you would have thought the bosses at Viking would have established that BEFORE offering flights. Lets face it, contracts with the tour operators are drawn up very many months in advance.

[kefallon]

Yes but i thought there would be a a market for independent travellers if the flight prices were right. there is certainly plenty of vacant accommodation that can be snapped up at a good price. There appears to be a cartel going on that is deliberately inflating holiday prices to kefalonia !!

[Phil]

Yes but i thought there would be a a market for independent travellers if the flight prices were right. there is certainly plenty of vacant accommodation that can be snapped up at a good price. There appears to be a cartel going on that is deliberately inflating holiday prices to kefalonia !!

I suspect that most independent travellers to Kef are already aware of the reputation of Viking/KISS ............... their prices weren't/aren't particularly cheap either.

I note that their flights to Kef from one major UK airport are still scheduled to depart 45 minutes before morning flights are permitted!! - The same thing was advertised last year and didn't materialise !! ...........................

Also, flights from some regional airports, that have already been cancelled, are still available on their website ....................................

I normally give businesses the benefit of the doubt, but.............. ..................

[john]

Yes but i thought there would be a a market for independent travellers if the flight prices were right. there is certainly plenty of vacant accommodation that can be snapped up at a good price. There appears to be a cartel going on that is deliberately inflating holiday prices to kefalonia !!

I think there is a market out there for independant travellers Martin, but as Phil says, Vikings previous incarnations will haunt them for a long time. I for one would not touch them with a barge pole and i know a lot of other people who wouldn't either.
Another problem they may well have too is the lack of smaller operators. Nowadays you really only have Thomson, Thomas Cook and Olympic doing packages into Kefalonia and with the exception of Olympic, they all have their own aircraft. In the past, Olympic used to charter Excels' aircraft for it's own holidays and then sell on seats to the likes of Thomas Cook with a few seats being sold on to independant travellers.
Those days are gone now and i think that may be a big part of Vikings problem................as well as its previous reputation.

[Janey]

We are booked with them so fingers crossed!