The revised Amsterdam operation and agreement with KLM will enable Jet Airways to increase its coverage of the European market, albeit on a codeshare basis. Alongside its existing Brussels services the carrier currently only serves two other European points: London Heathrow (daily from Delhi and twice daily from Mumbai) and Paris Charles De Gaulle (daily from Mumbai).
The growth of Edinburgh as a destination is an example of how air travel is evolving. Scotland's capital is now served by some of world’s largest airlines with direct connectivity across Europe, the Middle East and North America. Its network next summer will encompass 174 routes serving 122 destinations.
South African low-cost carrier Mango will help launch a new Connecting Partner Model from global airline grouping Star Alliance as it seeks to further expand its network reach. The South African Airways (SAA) subsidiary will be the first ‘low-cost’ or ‘hybrid’ carrier to introduce its network into that of the wider grouping.
KLM will introduce a daily service to Valencia from its Amsterdam Schiphol hub, its first flights on the city pair since May 1993. These will initially operate on a twice weekly schedule from April 23, 2016 but will revert to a daily operation from May 16, 2016. The route will be flown using mainline Boeing 737-800 equipment.
Cathay Pacific is already the largest operator in the Hong Kong – London market by capacity, according to data from schedules provider, OAG. The airline has a 58.7 per cent share of the available non-stop capacity in this market ahead of British Airways (29.9 per cent share) and Virgin Atlantic Airways (11.4 per cent share).
This will be the first regular flight between Munich and Debrecen since former German carrier OLT Ostfriesische Lufttransport ended its up to four times weekly operation at the end of the 2005 summer schedules. According to schedules provider, OAG, Debrecen is also linked on a weekly seasonal basis to the German cities of Dresden, Erfurt and Leipzig by Germania.
Aviation is a strong driver of economic growth, jobs, trade and mobility for the European Union and plays a crucial role in the EU economy. The sector employs almost two million people in the EU and is worth €110 billion to Europe's economy. Over the last 20 years, the EU's liberalisation of the internal market for air services and the substantial growth of demand in air transport within the EU and worldwide, have resulted in the significant development of the European aviation sector. The aviation traffic in Europe is predicted to reach 14.4 million flights in 2035, 50 per cent more than in 2012.
This will be the only regular flight between the UK and Oakland International Airport, which is growing in popularity as an alternative gateway into the San Francisco Bay Area and certainly an ideal destination for low-cost, long-haul operators.
Around 14 million annual seats are available between Ireland and the UK with this year’s offering the largest this decade and up 4.8 per cent on last year. Ryanair is the dominant carrier with a 53.7 per cent capacity share, ahead of Aer Lingus (including its Aer Lingus Regional operation) with a 32.4 per cent share.
The latest expansion and the flights to two new European capitals will increase the Wizz Air network to 116 airports across 38 countries as it continues its rapid growth. Its departure capacity has grown at an average annual rate of 64.4 per cent between 2005 and 2104 from just over 2.5 million seats to almost 17.5 million last year. This year capacity will grow by an estimated 24.0 per cent to over 21.5 million departure seats.
IATA projects that passenger numbers are expected to reach seven billion by 2034 with a 3.8 per cent average annual growth in demand (2014 baseline year). That is more than double the 3.3 billion who flew in 2014 and exactly twice as many as the 3.5 billion expected in 2015.
The new flying for Brussels Airlines is being made possible by the positioning of one of its Embraer ERJ-145s into the Belgian capital. This aircraft will enable it to offer an improved flight schedule on its existing East Midlands – Brussels route and enable UK business travellers to spend a full day in Brussels and return in the evening, without having to overnight in the city.
Alongside Schiphol, Rotterdam/The Hague and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and Paris Orly, Nantes and Lyon in France, Munich Airport will now be the seventh operational home base for Transavia. The airport in Bavaria serves close to 40 million passengers annually and is the second largest airport in Germany after Frankfurt, both being major hubs for Lufthansa and the Star Alliance.
Flybe revealed its intentions after last week’s government spending review did not include its proposal to operate from Northolt. It claims the plan, which is independent of any decision on the Airports Commission's recommendations on airport capacity in the South East, would bring additional runway capacity to serve UK passengers in the immediate term and without requiring any taxpayer funding.
Over the past four years easyJet has grown its capacity in Scotland by 20 per cent and following this year’s network in Scotland it now operates 62 routes from the country to points across Europe. Its Edinburgh network is its largest in Scotland and now stands at 36 routes.
MIDT data from Sabre shows an estimated market of around 135,000 O&D passengers a year between Manchester and China, although the real market size will be notably higher when you include ground leakage to London for the existing non-stop flights to the Chinese cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai. When you add the obvious stimulation a new direct flight can add then you could realistically see a market of around 200,000 passengers, which will grow year-on-year.
Despite the Czech Republic capital, Prague being on Birmingham Airport’s radar for many years, a scheduled meeting in Durban, South Africa in September brought contact and paved the way for the formal announcement of the regular service just five weeks later.
Air Canada continues to strategically grow its international network at Vancouver. This new seasonal route follows the recent announcement of several enhancements at the airline's Vancouver International Airport hub for 2016, including new Transborder services to Chicago, San Jose and San Diego, double daily flights to London Heathrow, and the only flights linking Canada to Brisbane, Australia.
From the start of the Summer 2016 schedules on March 27, 2016, easyJet will introduce a new six times weekly domestic connection between Bordeaux and Marseille and a four times weekly link between Bordeaux and Berlin. A couple of weeks later a new four times weekly link from Bordeaux to Barcelona will be introduced from April 15, 2016, while a three times weekly service to Venice will follow on April 17, 2016.
The new flight will be operated by an Airbus A319 and its introduction follows a recent revision to the previously heavily restrictive bilateral between Austria and Iran following the official state visit of Austria’s President Heinz Fischer to Iran in September this year. A link to Shiraz is also understood to be under consideration by Austrian Airlines.
The low-fare carrier will introduce a three times weekly link between Bristol and its Keflavik International Airport hub from May 13, 2016 using an A320. This flight will connect via a short stopover in Reykjavik to the carrier’s long-haul flights to Baltimore, Boston and new routes starting in 2016 to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States and Montreal and Toronto in Canada.
Garuda’s plans to introduce non-stop flights to Europe have been restricted by limited runway capacity at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, with the pavement classification number (PCN) of the runways and apron at Soekarno-Hatta Airport not meeting the required level of strength that is typically needed for the operation of a full capacity, heavy duty commercial airliner such as the Boeing 777-300ER.
The new flight will bring additional capacity into a market now controlled by British Airways after Virgin Atlantic Airways ended its own non-stop flights earlier this year. Sabre data shows an annual O&D demand of over 375,000 two-way passengers between the UK and Cape Town (around 1,030 passengers per day).
The announcement marks the return of the Spanish flag carrier to Puerto Rico after a three-year hiatus following a restructuring of its long-haul operations to support its business transformation programme and return to profitability. The airline ended its previous flights between Madrid and San Juan in March 2013 but the void was quickly filled by Air Europa which introduced its own twice weekly operation on the route from January 2014.
The Supervisory Board of Austrian Airlines first approved the purchase of 17 Embraer aircraft in June 2015 with the first example being transferred across to Austrian Airlines in mid-August this year and redelivered to the carrier at the end of last month following modification work and repainting into the Austrian livery. The aircraft was originally delivered to Lufthansa CityLine in March 2011.
