Spain’s UEP! Fly to launch in early 3Q21

UEP! Fly has announced during a press conference it will launch scheduled services between Palma de Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza on July 15, 2021, initially using three ATR72-500s.

The start-up plans to connect Palma with Ibiza four times daily and with Menorca twice daily. Although it would use Palma as its main airport, the corporate headquarters is located in Ibiza. Director Javier Taibo said that the start-up had plans to increase the frequency of inter-island flights going forward. In the next months, UEP! Fly will also seek to begin operations from the Balearic Islands to the Spanish mainland. In the third phase, it will also venture into the international markets with flights to secondary and underserved destinations in other European countries. However, Taibo underlined that the timeline of the international expansion was highly contingent on the development of demand after the COVID-19 pandemic.

UEP! Fly (originally known as UEP Airways) will initially charter three ATR72-500s from its parent company, Swiftair (WT, Madrid Barajas), which has eight of the type in its fleet.

Swiftair’s Chief Executive and UEP Fly! founder Salvador Moreno has confirmed to ch-aviation that the Balearic start-up will remain only a virtual carrier using Swift Air’s AOC.