Latin American airline holding company Grupo Viva is to formally launch its first Viva Airlines business next month, its Chief Executive Officer Joe Mohan revealed to Routesonline at this year’s Routes Americas forum in San Juan, Puerto Rico ahead of his keynote address to delegates. The start-up will commence operations in the third quarter of 2016 using leased Airbus A320 equipment, but will not be domiciled in Costa Rica as had been previously suggested.
There’s a new political landscape for Latin America, but their remains plenty of challenges ahead. That was the view of David Appleby, Director, Latin America & the Caribbean Routes and ASM at UBM EMEA when Routesonline spoke to him on the opening day of this year’s Routes Americas forum in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Air France's two locally domiciled Airbus A320s fly between Pointe à Pitre, Fort de France, Cayenne, Port au Prince and Miami, operating more than 30 weekly flights between these regional economic centers.
The airlines that are members of ALTA are some of the biggest players in Latin America – including the flag carriers of Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. Of the ten reporting members, many have either increased capacity on existing routes or have expanded their networks within the last 12 months.
Initially developed under the working title ‘Sunline’, the long-haul operator is expected to be officially launched next month and is likely to serve a network on leisure markets from Paris Orly, including destinations in Canada, USA, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
The project, led by CAAi, will be delivered in partnership with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and over its 13-month contract period will see the UK CAA support the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Tourism (MTCT) of Suriname in the implementation of a modernised legal and institutional framework for civil aviation.
This Routes Americas edition of our occasional ‘Flashback’ series has been produced by our Airline Route blog to highlight the transition of air services at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the largest airport in the Caribbean region and gateway to San Juan, Puerto Rico and host of this year’s forum.
The memorandum of understanding, signed on February 16, 2016, allows airlines of each country to operate up to 20 daily scheduled frequencies between the US and Havana and up to ten daily frequencies to any other airport in the country (Camaguey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba). It also permits unlimited charter services to and from any point in Cuba in accordance with the regulations of each country.
San Juan is unlike any other Caribbean market because it has significant outbound travel. With an estimated five million Puerto Ricans living on the US mainland, there is a thriving ‘visiting friends and family’ market. Puerto Rico has the most competitive economy in Latin America and the pharmaceutical and aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industries generate substantial outbound traffic. A strong cruise industry means that Puerto Rico benefits from a year-round aviation market with very little seasonal variation.
Should Southwest be granted permission to serve the Long Beach route, it would be the fifth airport in Greater Los Angeles on the airline’s route map. It currently flies to Los Angeles International, Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, John Wayne Airport in Orange County and Ontario International Airport.
One company that has airport investment and management at the heart of its business is Vantage Airport Group. We recently spoke to Lee Lipton, Director of Air Service and Cargo Development, who leads growth of passenger and cargo traffic at eight airports, to discuss the industry and this year’s aviation trends.
SeaPort said that after much consideration, its Board of Directors determined that reorganisation was the best path forward for the carrier, allowing the company to achieve long-term viability while maintaining its ability to provide air service to customers and communities. It will continue to provide service without interruption to its reduced network, while also maintaining its interline agreements with Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines.
Alaska Airlines, which has been in operation since 1932, has announced a rebranding of its aircraft, livery, website and mobile app. It comes at a time of immense growth for the carrier, which has added 90 markets and begun services to 26 new cities in just the past five years.
Delta plans to use the type to replace older less-efficient domestic Boeing 757 aircraft that are being retired from Delta's fleet and, according to its flight schedule inventory will configure them in a two-class arrangement with 20 First Class seats and 169 Economy seats, including extra-legroom seats in its Economy Comfort cabin.
Hainan Airlines filed an application with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in November last year for rights to introduce the first regular flight between China and Alberta. There are already direct links between Beijing and Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver; Guangzhou and Vancouver; Shanghai and Toronto and Vancouver and Shenyang and Vancouver.
The modern generation airliner will substitute for older 767-300ER equipment for a five month period this summer in the Chicago - Manchester market, but could become a permanent addition in this market.
Copa already has more than 20 years of experience in the Cuban market and now offers seven daily flights between Panama City and Havana and since 2014 also a four times weekly link to Santa Clara. According to schedule data, the airline has grown its annual capacity into Cuba by 77.1 per cent since the start of the decade, an average annual rise of 15.4 per cent.
The current longest route in the world is the Qantas operation between Sydney and Dallas Fort Worth. For a long time, Singapore Airlines had held the position of operating the world's longest scheduled flight, however, the closure of its non-stop links from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York after its retirement of its Airbus A340-500 fleet earlier this decade, has meant the Pacific connection of Qantas Airways between Sydney and Dallas, a 16 hour 55 minute, 8,500+ mile journey, took over as the longest commercial passenger route.
Have you wondered what enticed an airline to a certain destination? What the data says about demand on the city pair and connecting markets? What external factors may have influenced the airline in selecting a specific city pair? How this business case differs from others?
The latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer highlights that growth in advanced economy destinations (up five per cent) exceeded that of emerging economies (up four per cent) in 2015, boosted by the solid results of Europe (up five per cent). By region, Europe, the Americas and Asia and the Pacific all recorded around five per cent growth in international arrivals in 2015, while the Middle East increased by three per cent while Africa saw an estimated three per cent decrease, mostly due to weak results in North Africa, which accounts for over one third of arrivals in the region.
South America’s LATAM Airlines Group is applying for regulatory approval to enter into joint business arrangements with US major, American Airlines and IAG members, British Airways and Iberia to offer a coordinated network between markets in South America and North America and Europe, respectively.
According to OAG schedule data, ANA has accounted for more than a quarter (25.1 per cent) of all 787 flights since the aircraft’s debut offering almost 30 million Dreamliner seats (29,435,351 as of January 13, 2016).
US major, United Airlines will introduce a daily service on the route from April 5, 2016 using a 76-seat Embraer E175 configured with United First, Economy Plus, and Economy seating options. This will be the longest route (1,482 miles) and most westerly flight originating from Richmond International Airport, the busiest airport in central Virginia.
Emirates launched operations between its Dubai International Airport hub and Washington’s Dulles International Airport in September 2012 initially utilising a 777-200LR, but switching to the larger 777-300ER from February 2013. Analysis of MIDT data shows just 16.1 per cent of demand during this six month period was local traffic, with transfer traffic via Dubai accounting for a massive 81.9 per cent of passengers (including 1.2 per cent in bridge traffic also connecting via Washington).
NewLeaf will offer an unbundled travel service for leisure travellers with low base fares and numerous add-ons for passengers to tailor their itineraries depending upon what extras such as checked baggage allowance, inflight meals etc, that they require.
