British Airways Charter Flights to Bodrum Start
A new sight at the Milas-Bodrum airport on Saturday, May 7, was British Airways Flight 244C taxiing up to the international terminal with 200 passengers. The many young families onboard were the first holidaymakers to arrive for the summer season with the 36-year-old quality holiday brand, British activity holidays’ specialist Mark Warner, who has started chartering British Airways planes.
While waiting for the passengers to clear customs controls, Matt Davies, the new manager for Mark Warner in Turkey, said the level of service already exhibited by British Airways charters, their confirmation e-mails and pre-flight passenger details checks, were, “quite refreshing to work with. I have never experienced that with any other charter flights.” He has moved a short way over the Aegean Sea from working seven years in Kos resorts.
Davies was organizing the Mark Warner staff and the buses with Gözde Gürsel, the representative of the local Bodrum handling agent, Akustik Travel. She showed their new Mercedes bus saying it was the first of a new standard in tourist buses on the Aegean coast, with seatbelts for all passengers and individual seatback video/music screens. The new technology buses have been in use only by the national intercity bus companies up until recently.
On a beautiful bright, clear day, the northerly wind was kicking up white tops off the waves and one of the men on board the transfer bus from the airport was overheard saying, “This is exactly the sort of weather I want to see.” The signature of the beach resorts holidays- childcare “second-to-none,” sailing and windsurfing lessons and tennis academies, are part of the new look Mark Warner. They attract very loyal clients to chosen locations, in this case on the southwestern coast of Turkey, for their particular kind of holiday.
On board the bus was Laura Malroney, who said she had first come to Bodrum on a Mark Warner holiday 23 years ago and was looking out the window to see what area she might recognize. She said she and her husband and two children took a Mark Warner holiday every two years and wouldn’t consider going with any other operator.
Malroney had not been to Sea Garden, the original total inclusive concept hotel resort 18 kilometers from Bodrum center, set on a still forested small peninsula near the village of Yalıçiftlik. It has always been the ideal setting for water sports, be it windsurfing, dinghy and hobicat sailing, scuba diving or water skiing. Mark Warner has contracted there, while not being the only tour operator with guests in the hotel, it has committed itself to maintaining its own standards with its own childcare center for age groups 2- 17, and for the water sports. The high number of families with small pre-school children in the arrival group showed a keen interest in meeting Kirsty, the childcare manager who said she had six staff working with her.
The resort is served by the two chartered British Airways planes that arrive in Bodrum on a Saturday from Heathrow and Thursday from Manchester.
One of the few independent niche tour operators left in the British market, Mark Warner withdrew from the Turkish market at the end of 2006 to “take a break” from the market. They changed their operations’ concept from a whole hotel resort operating company to being a tour operator offering activity-based holidays. Mark Warner, a privately owned company, had a winning formula from the early 1990s and was recognized first for their ski chalet holidays and then the sole operated beach club resorts that they chose through the Mediterranean. The company returned to Turkey in 2010 working with two large resorts in Bodrum and Marmaris areas with the new model of operating holidays.
May 16, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News
