Taking The Blue Wave

Zoom Airlines, “The Blue Wave”, a low-cost carrier, will commence non-stop scheduled service between the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and London’s Gatwick Airport starting May 22nd. No longer will we or visitors coming to our area be forced to either drive back and forth to Miami or connect through New York. Traveling across “The Pond” has never been this easy. Hotspots Publisher Peter Clark and I sat down to talk to representatives of Zoom Airlines at the recent PrideFest in Holiday Park.

“It seemed like an untapped market that would be perfect for us. This [Ft. Lauderdale] is a great place and seemed like a good opportunity for us,” said Leanne Dempster of Zoom Airlines.

Though you’ve probably never heard of it before, Ottawa, Canada-based Zoom Airlines has been flying for seven years mainly between Canada and Europe. Zoom Airlines prides itself on offering the lowest scheduled airfares across the Atlantic. Roundtrip fares between Ft. Lauderdale and London will be as low as $600 (including taxes), but this does not mean that service will be sacrificed. Zoom is a full-service airline offering larger leg room, designated seating, in-flight entertainment, a more comfortable seat pitch and includes free meals, snacks and soft drinks along with a cash bar and other amenities.

In addition to Zoom’s “Economy Standard” class, they will also offer “Premium Economy” class, which provides a larger seat, more inclusive meal menus and free alcoholic drinks. However, instead of a separate fare structure like the other airlines, it’s simply a supplemental add-on fee to their economy class, which makes the airfare still as low as only $750 round trip — or about $700 less than on British Airways for the same route. This service upgrade can be booked online along with the initial reservations or, depending on availability, it can be done at the gate or on the aircraft itself. “People can get on board and see the seats and decide right on the aircraft,” said David Clemins, Zoom’s Marketing Director. “As long as we’ve got the available seats, we’ll do it. Zoom offers the best value for the dollar over any other trans-Atlantic carrier.”

Zoom will be using modern Boeing 767 aircraft on the route. The 767 is known for a comfortable, quiet and reliable flying experience. The wide-body cabin configuration offers improved legroom and personal space for every passenger, regardless of service class, and is ideal for trans-Atlantic flights.

According to the Gay & Lesbian Almanac, Fort Lauderdale is the number-two destination for gay men in the United States and Zoom’s target market is the gay community. “It’s one of the most important markets you can get. There are a lot of gay people in the airline industry. A lot of the airlines take the gay market for granted. We don’t want to do that. It’s an important market, it’s certainly a very [lucrative] market and they like to travel. We want to be there for them,” said David.

Zoom Airlines is also working closely with The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau to market Ft. Lauderdale to the gay community in the United Kingdom. “Though you do get gay visitors from London, it’s still basically an unknown. If you were to say to someone in the U.K., ‘What’s the gayest place in America?’ they would probably still answer San Francisco. I don’t think people realize what opportunities there are here for leisure,” David said.

According to Leanne, “London has a very diverse gay community. Everything you’ve got here and more can be found there. The gay community, especially in central London, is growing and growing. We have a lot of the gay community from Eastern Europe coming now to London. We have new bars, restaurants, and clubs.”

At the recent PrideFest, Zoom Airlines introduced themselves to their target market, the gay community, with a large, impressive booth and display. While at the festival and in town they have been able to introduce themselves to gay travel agencies where they are hoping to put together vacation packages for the gay travelers both in Fort Lauderdale and Great Britain. They also are starting to work with cruise operators to provide flights for cruises that leave from Port Everglades. “We need to get the gay travel agencies interested [in us] to see what we can do together,” David added.

Currently, most of Zoom’s flight bookings are done online at their website at flyzoom.com, but they are starting to work with travel agencies as well.

Currently, the airline industry is in turmoil. Northwest and Delta have announced a merger. United and Continental are in merger talks. Other carriers have had equipment inspection problems with their MD-80 fleets. And all the carriers are hurting because of rapidly rising fuel costs. Zoom’s business model already includes the higher fuel costs so while other carriers have to keep raising fares, Zoom’s can remain the same.

The addition of Zoom Airlines to this area means bringing more gay visitors to this area which, of course, will be a boost to all gay and gay-friendly businesses where many of us depend on our livelihood or entertainment. But Zoom also means an affordable way for the gay community to travel to London where they have easy connections to the rest of Europe.

“We really want to improve the links between gay Fort Lauderdale and gay United Kingdom,” according to David, and with their new scheduled service, high standards, and fares that make it less expensive to travel to London than Los Angeles, it looks like they will be doing just that.