Charter broking specialist Air Charter Service says it has arranged huge numbers of flights to this year's Six Nations rugby tournament. At the Ireland versus France match at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, more than 10 per cent of the fans in the stadium had flown from France on aircraft chartered by Air Charter Service.
Group commercial jets director Matthew Purton says: “We've had more than 10,000 passengers flying on more than 50 flights over the past six weeks, with the majority from England and France. Unfortunately, between the English and French teams they have only won one away game between them – England's victory in Ireland in the first round of matches.
“A recent UEFA study summarised that the Six Nations has the highest average attendance per match of any tournament in world sport. That is certainly backed up by the amount of flights we have arranged for the championship, more than 200 in the past three years.
“Each year the same problems arise due to the capacity of scheduled flights; they are simply unable to carry the thousands of away fans to the ties that the nations face abroad. A huge benefit of chartering an aircraft for the matches is that fans can complete a round trip in a weekend and be back home ready for Monday morning, which few can on scheduled flights.
“Chartering aircraft for sports events is on the rise as more and more people realise the benefits it offers. Last year saw our busiest ever year for sports charters, as we arranged more than 350 flights over the course of the World Cup in Russia.”