United currently has 22 787s in its fleet and will receive three more before the end of this year. These include a mix of 787-8 and larger 787-9 variants which allow the carrier to fit the right-sized aircraft to its existing and new markets. The aircraft is being used at San Francisco International Airport to support the growth of United hub operation from where it provides nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
The “TAG Athens” project, which is a collaboration between AIA, Singapore Airlines and Aegean Airlines aims to promote Athens Airport as an intermediate point on a traveller’s route by highlighting the connecting opportunities at an “attractive price”.
With five based aircraft, Berlin will become the airlines’ 73rd base, and will see the launch of sixteen new routes, bringing the total number of destinations to 22.
Over a twelve-month period, preliminary data shows a growth rate of 5.1 percent year over year, with both international and domestic traffic posting strong growth rates of 5.8 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.
Greek start-up, SkyGreece will launch services to Canada, with new routes between Athens, Thessaloniki, Zagreb and Budapest to Toronto, following approval from the Greek and Canadian authorities.
CSA Czech Airlines is introducing five additional European destinations for its 2015 summer schedule, in addition to another five which were announced last autumn.
Ryanair will be basing an additional Boeing 737-800 at Athens International Airport during summer 2015, increasing its based fleet to four aircraft and plans to double its Athens traffic to approximately 2.2 million passengers per annum.
The Greek airline has released its summer 2015 schedule to include a total of 38 new routes. The Star alliance carrier initially released 23 new routes in September, followed by a further three at the beginning of October and an additional 12 today (October 20, 2014).
This year has seen the resurgence of Athens as an established international destination which has been measured in the significant increase in capacity being offered by airlines, particularly outside of Europe with the US, Middle East, and Asian markets recording the strongest development.
All three markets have previously been served by Finnair with flights to Athens and Malta last operating in summer 2010 and services to Dublin last being flown in summer 2007. The flights will operate through the summer months only but strong performance could result in them being extended to year-round services in the future.
The economic woes in Greece have had a profound effect on the aviation business in the country but passenger numbers at Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (AIA) have remained relatively robust and during the last quarter of 2013 the facility returned to growth.
The confirmation of the return of the route will now place the carrier in direct competition with its local rival Air Europa which inaugurated its own operations between Madrid and Montevideo in June 2013 just three months after Iberia ended its flights.
The resumed Gulf Air service between Athens and Bahrain will offer passengers improved connections between Greece and Bahrain. When the route was previously flown by the carrier up to 11,000 annual bi-directional O&D passengers flew between the two countries.
