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 European Commission has found that public funding granted by Austria to Klagenfurt airport is in line with European Union (EU) state aid rules, but as ruled that certain airport services and marketing agreements concluded between the airport operator and airlines Ryanair, Hapag-Lloyd Express and TUIfly gave the latter “an undue advantage”, which cannot be justified under state aid rules.
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 World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) have joined forces and called on the UK government to lift the current ban on UK-based airlines flying to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt. The move follows the successful reintroduction of regular flights to the Black Sea resort from other countries, including Germany and Russia.
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.
Ethiopian Airlines' new five times weekly link to Oslo from its Addis Ababa hub will operate via Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport from March 26, 2017 using a two-class, 270-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner equipment.
Located on the Mediterranean coast in South-East France, Marseille-Provence Airport has firmly positioned itself in the minds of the air service development community through its regular attendance of World Routes and regional events and its successful hosting of Routes Europe back in 2014. The airport has taken advantage of its location at the intersection of French rail and road networks to become a key gateway to the South of France, to Marseille and, of course, the famous Provence region.
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.
The link into this year’s World Routes host city will commence from April 28, 2017 and will be operated using a Boeing 777-200ER configured with 248 seats. The airline has been a major target for Aeroports de Catalunya as it seeks to boost connectivity into Northeast Asia, one of the fastest growing regions of the world and a major outbound market.
Loganair’s current schedule will provide over 1,000 flights each week across 46 routes, offering unrivalled connectivity for Scotland and with operations stretching as far afield as London, Norwich, Manchester, Dublin, and Bergen in Norway using a fleet of 28 aircraft. It has almost 300 flights each week to and from Glasgow, and is the largest operator at key airports throughout the Highlands & Islands including Inverness, Sumburgh, Kirkwall and Stornoway.
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.
The bosses of Emirates Airline and International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), the parent of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, have hit out at what they describe as the over-inflated cost to deliver a possible new Runway at London’s Heathrow Airport.
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.
One of Ireland’s three primary airports, Shannon Airport, will see a new Lufthansa service that will give passengers a whole heap of connecting options. The German carrier will serve Shannon once a week next summer.
The airport serving the British Overseas Territory has experienced an influx of passengers during the summer months, mainly due to increased services from existing carriers. A new record was set in August, with 60,360 passengers handled.
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.
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.
IAG chief executive officer Willie Walsh has revealed that alongside the operations of the Airbus A380 within the fleet of British Airways (BA), he could also present a business case for the Super Jumbo to fly with both Iberia and Aer Lingus.
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.
Although flying relatively under the radar for 30 years, Germania actually carries more than 2.8 million passengers per year from 20 departure airports in Europe to over 40 destinations within the continent, North Africa and the Middle East on a mix of charter and scheduled routes.
Tianjin currently has limited connectivity outside of Asia from Binhai International Airport, but is increasingly being seen as an alternative access point into China’s capital city, Beijing, which is just 120km away and a journey of just 35 minutes by high-speed train.
The East African carrier recently introduced its first widebodied jet, an A330-200, into its fleet and a larger A330-300 is due to arrive to complement this. The aircraft will be used to launch flights into London from January 2017, serving Gatwick Airport in the UK capital.
The Nordic flag carrier will temporarily suspend its flights between Helsinki and Chongqing from January 11, 2017 to May 2, 2017, as part of the airline's measures to create adequate room for pilot training for its Airbus A350 operations.
