The growing interest in Budapest as a destination is certainly helping to put Ferenc Liszt International on an increasing number of airline network maps, but for Kam Jandu, chief commercial officer, Budapest Airport, a long-haul link to the US is seen as a route of strategic national importance to Hungary.
“The United States is in danger of taking the same path it took after the 9/11 terror attacks, which led to a decade of economic stagnation in the Travel & Tourism sector,” were the powerful warning words from David Scowsill, president and chief executive officer, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), while speaking at the Routes Americas air service development forum in Las Vegas.
Since United’s E175 program launched in June 2014, Mesa has added 48 E-Jets to its United Express hub in Houston, with every aircraft in service on time or ahead of schedule. The delivery of these 12 additional E175s is scheduled to begin in May 2017 and will be configured in a 76-seat dual-class arrangement with 12 First-Class, 16 Premium Economy and 48 Economy seats.
In 2013, Nassau Airport Development Company concluded a $410 million redevelopment, transforming the airport into a modern, efficient and culturally reflective facility. The airport increased in size by 24 per cent and is now capable of accommodating 50 per cent more passengers – more than five million.
Having successfully hosted World Routes back in October 2013, the first time the event had taken place in the United States of America, the fruits of that event mean the air service development community is back in the city for this year’s Routes Americas, which is taking place at the Aria Resort and Casino on February 14–16, 2017.
Air Canada provided an insight into its future thinking following the simultaneous unveiling of its new corporate livery at ceremonies in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver on February 9, 2017 as the carrier prepares to enter its 80th anniversary year. The brand refresh continues a recent evolution at the Canadian flag carrier that has helped better position in the global market serving both business and leisure demands through its mainline and Air Canada rouge operations.
Last year Vantage's airports served more than 25 million passengers in 2016, travelling on 99 different airlines. Ahead of his address at Routes Americas 2017, we spoke to Jeremy Pennington, Director, Air Service Development at the group.
The sudden but short-lived travel ban that President Donald Trump imposed on nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries entering the USA appears to be deterring travellers from other countries around the world too, according to analysis by intelligence provider ForwardKeys. The Valencia-based company’s analysis has discovered a 6.5 per cent negative variation in bookings compared with the equivalent eight-day period the year before.
With a business model developed to appeal to hedge fund companies; the investment banking fraternity; senior executives; music, film and sport industries and others, Bliss Jet’s goal is to provide the closest offering to the halcyon days of Concorde - in terms of style and speed. It plans to launch flights between London Stansted and New York LaGuardia from the second quarter of 2017.
American Airlines had originally proposed a December 16, 2016 start date for its new daily Los Angeles - Beijing flight, but a late DOT decision meant it had until this quarter, 90 days since the DOT’s final order to commence services. It now reveals that on January 18, 2017, the CAAC rejected American’s request for slots at Beijing Capital International Airport, putting its plans into disarray.
The announcement late last month by American Airlines that it is to significantly grow capacity into Evansville Regional Airport in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, highlights the successful (and essential) role that connectivity plays in supporting smaller airports across the United States of America and the world.
Spirit Airlines will introduce its low-fare offering into Hartford at the start of the second quarter with daily flights from Orlando and a summer seasonal four times weekly link from Myrtle Beach launching on April 27, 2017. A daily link to Fort Lauderdale will follow from June 15, 2017.
The US DOT formally instituted a slot assignment proceeding earlier this month to allocate a total of 28 slot pairs at the two airports. These are being released in a two phase process for operations from summer 2017 and summer 2018 and will be provided exclusively to low-cost carriers, which it believes exert the greatest competitive impact when entering slot-constrained markets.
The approval from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) allows AirAsia X to operate services to any destination within the US market and it will now formalise its development plans to serve the market to coincide with the future delivery of new widebodied equipment. The airline is known to have been considering flights to several US states including Hawaii as part of its route expansion plans.
The planned growth follows a formal request from the Greek Government and Athens International Airport to the UAE carrier to deliver an enhanced transatlantic offering for the Greek market. US carriers United Airlines and Delta Air Lines already serve the Newark – Athens and New York – Athens markets but only on a seasonal basis in the summer only.
The arrival of four new Airbus A350-900 airliners during 2017 will enable Finnair to grow its long-haul winter 2017/2018 schedule and alongside growth in its existing markets, it will also introduce four popular leisure destinations to its network. These new routes to Goa, Havana, Puerto Plata and Puerto Vallarta will be launched in the final quarter of the year and will initially operate on a seasonal basis through to the end of March 2018.
In the first of a new series of personal interviews with some of the leading figures in aviation, we spoke to Aeromar CEO Andres Fabre. He shared with us the group's future plans and some of the highlights of his career so far.
A new four times weekly Delhi – Copenhagen route will commence from May 2017, according to Air India, and will be flown using a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. A Delhi – Washington flight will operate on a three times weekly basis and will be flown using a Boeing 777 from July 2017. These will be the only non-stop operation on the two routes
After five decades and over 45 years flying variants of the Boeing 747 since the type’s debut in United Airlines operation on flights between California and Hawaii in 1970, the carrier says new technology, and notably the arrival of the 777-300ER into its fleet means now is the right time to retire the iconic airliner.
Peter Cerdá, the regional vice president in the Americas for IATA, discusses the future of Latin America, infrastructure concerns and trends throughout the region.
As it celebrates the tenth anniversary of its debut in the US market, Qatar Airways has said the new four times weekly link between Hamad International Airport and McCarran International Airport will commence from January 8, 2018. It will be flown using a Boeing 777-200LR.
Analysis of schedule data from intelligence provider OAG shows that Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines had a combined 27.8 per cent share of seat capacity out of New York's John F Kennedy International Airport last summer and a 42.2 per cent share at Mexico City's Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez. The two airlines are the largest individual operators at the airports in their home markets.
In the last year an estimated 240,000 bi-directional O&D passengers flew between Canada and Israel, approximately 325 PPDEW (Passengers Per-Day Each-Way). This is dominated by the direct Toronto – Tel Aviv operations which account for over half of the traffic (135,000 passengers), but there is already sizeable indirect flows from Montreal and Vancouver.
