Jan. 27
Ryanair will return to Warsaw Chopin (WAW) after four years and launch five new routes during the summer 2023 season. The airline has scheduled the start of flights for March 26. Alicante (ALC) will see four flights per week; Vienna (VIE) will also be 4X-weekly; Brussels Charleroi (CRL) 3X-weekly; Palma de Mallorca (PMI) 2X-weekly; and Paphos (PFO) 1 X-weekly. The expansion will take place at the expense of low-cost airport Warsaw Modlin (WMI), where Ryanair is the dominant carrier. Michal Kaczmarzyk, CEO of Buzz, Ryanair’s Polish subsidiary, said: “For incomprehensible reasons, both the airport’s management and regional authorities are ignoring Ryanair and refusing to get involved in the development of Warsaw-Modlin Airport, unnecessarily risking the loss of jobs and connections in the region.”
Cebu Pacific has announced the resumption of three international services. Flights from Manila (MNL) to Melbourne (MEL) will be 3X-weekly from March 26; Shenzhen (SZX) will be weekly by Jan. 29; and Xiamen (XMN) will return in February operating weekly.
Jet2.com is introducing additional flights to Turkey during summer 2023 from seven of its UK bases. The expansion means the airline will operate up to 186 weekly flights to Turkey from the UK during the season. Antalya (AYT) will see increased service from Belfast (BFS), Edinburgh (EDI), Glasgow (GLA), Manchester (MAN), Leeds Bradford (LBA) and London Stansted (STN), while Dalaman (DLM) will gain an extra weekly frequency from Glasgow, Leeds Bradford and London Stansted.
Jan. 26
Spain’s Level plans to increase weekly capacity by 20% on routes to North America during the summer 2023 season, compared with summer 2022 levels. From Barcelona (BCN) service to New York John F Kennedy (JFK) will be daily, while Boston (BOS) increases from 3X to 4X-weekly. In addition, Barcelona-Santiago de Chile (SCL) will be 3X-weekly from June and operate year-round, while flights to Buenos Aries (EZE) will be 5X-weekly from May to August, and 6X-weekly during March, April and September.
Air Serbia has expanded interline partnership with American Airlines. The Serbian carrier plans to launch Belgrade (BEG)-Chicago O’Hare (ORD) flights on May 17 and said the agreement would allow passengers to connect via ORD to more than 70 destinations in the US on American’s network.
Jan. 25
Armenian carrier Flyone is adding flights to Milan at the start of the 2023 summer season. The airline plans to fly from Chisinau (KIV) in Moldova to Milan Malpensa (MXP) twice a week. The service will operate on Mondays and Fridays.
Ryanair has outlined plans to operate 56 routes from Budapest (BUD) this summer, including a new service from Belfast International (BFS). The ULCC will base eight aircraft in Hungary’s capital during the season, offering around 500 weekly flights. Ryanair said frequencies will also be increased on 15 routes, including operations to Berlin (BER), Copenhagen (CPH) and Corfu (CFU).
Kuwait Airways has scheduled the launch of two new European routes. Flights between Kuwait City (KWI) and Antalya (AYT) in Turkey are slated to begin on June 1, operating twice a week. A weekly route to Greece’s capital Athens (ATH) will then commence from June 16. Flights will be operated using Airbus A320 and A320neo aircraft.
Jan. 24
Cebu Pacific is set to resume its Manila (MNL)- Melbourne (MEL) route at the end of March. Flights will initially run three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting March 27 using Airbus A330 aircraft. “We know we have an expansive Filipino community in Melbourne and are pleased to be able to offer both of them, as well as local Australians looking for somewhere new exciting to explore, the opportunity to fly direct to Manila and explore the Philippines with our widest domestic network,” said Carmina Romero, Cebu Pacific director for corporate communications.
Ryanair has announced plans to offer seven routes from Kerry (KIR) in Ireland during the summer 2023 season. Destinations will include service to vacation destinations Alicante (ALC) and Palma de Mallorca (PMI), as well as London Luton (LTN), London Stansted (STN) and Manchester (MAN) in England. In total, Ryanair intends to provide 76 weekly flights from Kerry during the summer season, with capacity up by 7% on summer 2022.
Western Australia’s state government support has enabled Aviair to increase service between Broome (BME) and Derby (DRB) from four flights per week to potentially up to 35 per week. The flights are currently the only means of public transport in and out of Derby. Aviair has relocated pilots and aircraft from Kununurra and Adelaide to support the expanded air services. The Derby to Broome air route is subsidised by the state government, with flights first introduced in August 2021.
Jan. 23
AirAsia X has returned to Osaka (KIX) for the first time since April 2020. Service from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) will operate three times per week using Airbus A330-300 aircraft. The LCC said it expects to carry more than 116,000 travelers per month between Malaysia and Japan, providing a boost to both countries’ tourism sectors. “We have seen a strong passenger load factor for our inaugural flight of more than 95% and we are confident that this route will be very well received despite the competitive landscape,” AirAsia X Malaysia CEO Benyamin Ismail said. AirAsia X flies to three destinations in Japan namely Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo from Kuala Lumpur operated by AirAsia X Malaysia, and from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) operated by AirAsia X Thailand.
Meanwhile, AirAsia has said it plans to “aggressively” reopen direct flights to China. The airline will begin restarting eight routes from Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK) from Jan. 26 to Guangzhou, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Kunming, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Changsha and Macao. In addition, service from DMK to Hong Kong (HKG) will rise from 4X-weekly to daily, starting March 1.
Emirates is increasing capacity from Dubai (DXB) to Sydney (SYD) and Melbourne (MEL) in Australia. The airline will also restart services to Christchurch (CHC) in New Zealand via Sydney. From March 26, Melbourne will increase from two to three daily services via Singapore, with a third direct service to also begin to Sydney from May 1. The two additional services will operate on a three-class Boeing-777 300ER. The Christchurch service via Sydney also begins on March 26 using A380s. Emirates CCO Adnan Kazim said: “Adding a third daily service to Sydney and Melbourne will offer over 500,000 additional seats to and from Australia in a year. To have the two cities operating back at pre-pandemic frequencies is a phenomenal milestone in our restoration of Australia capacity and testament to our longstanding commitment to flying down under.”
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