The connecting passenger flows at either end of the route will be key to the success of this route. The local demand between Santiago and Melbourne is around 16,000 bi-directional O&D passengers per year, but when you expand to Chile to Australia that grows five-fold to around 100,000 passengers and up to 585,000 passengers when you consider the whole of Central and South America and the Pacific region.
This will be the first time Cartagena will be linked non-stop to Europe in around ten years since AirMadrid offered flights from to the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Madrid back in the mid-2000s. Cartagena also successfully attracted flights from Italy with Blue Panorama Airlines at the start of this decade but these were purely on a charter basis.
European low-cost carrier Norwegian is set to open four new operational bases – two in the US and two in Europe – in 2017 to support the growth of its long-haul transatlantic network. The internal go-ahead for the expansion follows the final approval late last week by the US Department of Transportation for a foreign carrier permit for the airline’s Norwegian Air International business.
The new Belfast City route will commence from June 1, 2017 and will be operated using a 72-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop. It will operate from Keflavik International Airport in Iceland, providing extensive connection options to the Transatlantic network of Icelandair from the mid-Atlantic island as well as support growing business and leisure flows into Iceland which is becoming an increasingly popular leisure destination.
The carrier, part of the HNA Group, will offer a daily flight between Hong Kong and Vancouver from June 30, 2017, initially using a 283-seat Airbus A330-200 but likely to be switched to the A350-900 once the first of its aircraft are delivered towards the end of next year.
Data from air service development consultants, Airport Strategy & Marketing (ASM) suggests that British Airways is initially taking tentative steps into the New Orleans when it launches flights between London Heathrow and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport next year. A demand forecast from the consultancy on the route shows expected demand outweighing available capacity from the day of launch.
The eight ‘new’ markets comprise Canberra, the airline’s fifth destination in Australia; Dublin, Ireland; Las Vegas, the airline’s eleventh destination in the United States; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Medan’s Kualanamu International Airport, the airline’s third destination in Indonesia; and Tabuk and Yanbu, its ninth and tenth destinations in Saudi Arabia.
As Airbus celebrates the milestone inaugural test flight of the new A350-1000, the largest variant of the A350XWB family, Routesonline looks at approaching two years of commercial operations with the smaller A350-900.
Lufthansa has confirmed it will base its first ten A350-900s at Munich and will enter commercial operation on the Munich – Delhi route from February 10, 2017. Alongside the Delhi route the type will also initially be used on flights from the Bavarian hub to Boston, USA.
Subject to final Governmental approval, Tropic Air will inaugurate non-stop service between Belize City International Airport and Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico (CTM) from January 16, 2017. This will be the only scheduled international flight into Chetumal and a first link between these two historically close cities.
Condor, part of Thomas Cook Group Airlines, will inaugurate a twice weekly link between its home base at Frankfurt Airport and Pittsburgh International Airport from June 23, 2017, growing its long-haul. The new route will complement new flights to San Diego and New Orleans in an expanded summer 2017 schedule and will operate through to September 1, 2017, a total of 21 return rotations.
Southwest Airlines will launch a daily flight between Kansas City and Austin from March 13, 2017 using a Boeing 737. Ranked by daily passengers, Austin is the largest destination from Kansas City without non-stop air service, with 98 passengers per day each way.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to work with industry to make infrastructure a priority in unlocking aviation’s economic and social benefits. Passenger demand in Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to more than double from 298 million in 2015 to 658 million in 2035.
New flights from WOW air and Condor will boost connectivity between Europe and Pittsburgh next summer adding to Delta Air Lines seasonal flight to Paris which has operated each summer since 2009. The flights to Reykjavik and Frankfurt will commence in June 2017 and will allow Pittsburgh International Airport to continue its recent international growth.
Speaking in Washington at the International Aviation Club on November 9 following the announcement of Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign, IAG CEO Willie Walsh has urged the man who will be the 45th President of the United States to support a new UK-US Open Skies agreement.
Destinations around the world welcomed 956 million international tourists between January and September 2016, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. This is 34 million more than in the same period of 2015, a four percent increase.
Icelandair will launch a new route to Philadelphia on May 30, 2017, initially as a summer-only route through to September 20, 2017, although it is planned to grow to a year-round operation. The twice weekly Tampa service, adding to an existing Florida link into Orlando, will launch from September 7, 2017, growing the airline’s Florida offer to a daily rotation.
Ghanaian start-up carrier Goldstar Air is confident that next year will mark the end of many years of planning and will finally see it launch short-and long-haul operations from Kotaka International Airport in Accra.
It has been revealed that an ultra low-cost carrier could be making its way into Argentina. Flybondi, should it be approved, hopes to serve as many as 12 destinations within the country by the third quarter of 2017.
JetBlue currently has a strong focus on the US East Coast and had shown its own interest in acquiring Virgin America ahead of its merger with Alaska Airlines to expand on the West Coast. Only two of its top ten markets by capacity this past summer were on the US West Coast.
Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) began operations of the Dreamliner on October 26, 2011. The airline currently has the largest 787 fleet with 52 aircraft, receiving their 50th in mid-August.
The point-to-point business model of the start-up will be supported with a simple organisational structure to maintain low operating costs and deliver low fares and a customised offering to consumers with ancillary charges for hold baggage, seating selection and boarding as well as food and drinks.
The latest update to the association’s 20-Year Air Passenger Forecast suggests that the developing Asia-Pacific region will be the source of more than half the new passengers over the next 20 years. China will displace the US as the world’s largest aviation market (defined by traffic to, from and within the country) around 2029, while rapid growth in India will see it displace the UK for third place in 2026, while Indonesia will enter the top ten at the expense of Italy.
