airBaltic holds firm orders for 13 CS300s and options for a further seven aircraft and sees the CSeries as not just an efficient replacement for its older Boeing 737s, but also providing the right capacity and range to support the wider development of the business.
Jet Airways currently offers a mini hub operation at Brussels Airport with daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai in India connecting in the Belgian capital to daily continuation flights to Newark, USA and Toronto, Canada, but changes to its business strategy after United Arab Emirates (UAE) national carrier, Etihad Airways became an equity partner mean this demand is not being more efficiently handled via Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The five times weekly Belgrade - New York JFK link will be operated using a leased two-class Airbus A330-200 and Air Serbia is currently considering lease options with Etihad Airways Partner airlines as well as with other external companies. The airline currently operates a fleet of 14 narrow-bodied and six turboprop aircraft.
Subject to regulatory approval, the new ‘SQ338’ will depart Singapore on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 23:30 (local time), with the return sector, operated as flight ‘SQ337’, departing Düsseldorf on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 11:30 (local time). Although launching with a three times weekly schedule, the carrier says it intends to increase frequency at a later date.
Emirates said it was attracted to the split operation in Istanbul and the added investment required by the carrier as it offers customers “a fresher travel experience, with shorter processing times”, but also “easier access” to the city’s new financial centre as well as to popular outlet malls and thermal spas in the vicinity.
At EU airports, the average passenger traffic growth was +6.3 per cent (+6.3 per cent also for Q3), while passenger traffic at Non-EU airports reported growth of +5.8 per cent (+6.4 per cent for Q3). Meanwhile, freight traffic at Europe’s airports was essentially flat in September at +0.2 per cent (+0.5 per cent for Q3). Finally, aircraft movements increased by +3.3 per cent (+2.9 per cent for Q3).
The new arrangement will initially debut in the final quarter and will enter service from December 1, 2015 on both the Dubai – Bangkok and Dubai – Copenhagen routes, and will also serve Dubai – Kuala Lumpur and Dubai – Manchester from January 1, 2016.
The airline will bring the return of flights between Munich and Brno, Czech Republic with a new six times weekly service from November 16, 2015, adding to its existing routes to Liege (Belgium), Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Bern (Switzerland) and Bristol (United Kingdom).
The UK-Nigeria market is currently served on a daily basis by Arik Air, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways. There is an O&D demand of an estimated 2,500 passengers a day between the UK and Nigeria before you even start looking at connection options, and this has grown at an average annual rate of 9.2 per cent since 2010.
This milestone announcement, the biggest of its kind since the Yorkshire airport opened its doors in 2005, will boost traffic with an additional 500,000 seats on offer from the facility. Doncaster Sheffield is already among the fastest growing airports in the UK outside London and will now benefit from Flybe delivering up to 44 new flight departures per week, a 70 per cent increase in departures.
The airline became a pioneer of ultra-low-cost travel between Europe and North America when it debuted its flights into the US market earlier this year and will replicate this in Canada with its new flights to Montreal and Toronto from May 2016. This latest growth is described by the carrier’s chief executive officer, Skúli Mogensen as a “game changer for WOW air” as it seeks to cement itself as the “industry leader” in the ultra-low-cost long haul category.
The airline, part of the HNA Group, has requested rights to introduce weekly services from Beijing and the first direct link to the UK from the Hangzhou, the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China.
The arrival of additional Dreamliner aircraft has enabled Air Canada to grow its long-haul network directly with the modern generation airliner, while also redeploying older aircraft assets into its Air Canada rouge leisure division to bring further new routes. The airline will have a fleet of 21 aircraft by 2016 (it has 37 on order) and is accelerating the conversion of existing routes to Dreamliner service from Toronto to Asia, Europe and South America.
The market from Europe to Puerto Rico is currently massively underserved, with a significant percentage of indirect passengers already flying between the two markets. In the past 12 months this market size was an estimated 150,000 passengers, with 87 per cent having to travel indirect due to the current limited direct offering across the Atlantic.
Irish budget carrier, Ryanair is to significantly grow its activities from Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle airports in the UK next year, introducing a total of ten new routes from the three facilities as part of an expanded offering from the summer schedule.
A recent attack from the newly appointed Odessa governor and former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili on the State Aviation Service Administration of Ukraine blaming its chief for using his flight assignment powers to preserve a near-monopolistic grip on the market, while protecting interests of individual oligarchs has resulted in immediate action which could finally bring open skies to Ukraine.
Located around 20 kilometres south of Bergen city centre, the airport handles more than six million passengers each year, but existing facilities are operating above capacity and many of the airport’s subsystems are heavily congested during peak periods.
The eight times weekly link will be flown using a 254-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and will increase the Gulf carrier’s offering between Doha and the UK to 71 flights per week, further strengthening connections to Africa, Asia and beyond.
The Manchester-Beijing route is reported to be worth at least £250 million in economic benefits to the UK over the next decade, with two-thirds being felt directly in the Northern economy in terms of increased jobs, economic activity and tourism. By providing a non-stop service, the new route will also generate journey time savings worth £5 million every year for business passengers and avoid the inconvenience of changing planes at another airport.
The additional aircraft will arrive ahead of a July 22, 2016 launch of the four new routes and will also facilitate frequency growth in some of its existing markets. Wizz Air will offer new twice weekly links between Cluj-Napoca and Alicante, Berlin Schoenefeld, Billund and Doncaster Sheffield, with the German capital become the newest destination in its network of 113 airports.
The hosting of this year’s Routes Americas forum helped support Denver International Airport in securing the return of the German carrier’s Munich link. It was the first time that the German carrier had attended the regional event with delegates Daniel Pauli, Manager Network Planning Hub Munich and Stephan Vinson, Hub Development Frankfurt providing representation for its growth strategy at its two hub airports.
Norwegian is known to be studying a number of new markets for growth as it starts planning for the arrival of its new 787-9s. Although further growth in the US is among the scenarios under consideration, a number of other markets are also under evaluation, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Delhi, Mumbai, Cape Town and Durban.
Irish flag carrier, Aer Lingus, a recent addition to the IAG portfolio, is to launch flights between Dublin and Los Angeles, Newark, and Hartford during the summer 2016 schedule, while British Airways will relaunch its New York operation from London Gatwick after a seven-year hiatus.
Lufthansa is to launch a new three times weekly link between its Munich hub and Tehran from April 14, 2016 using an Airbus A330-300, while also boosting capacity on its existing Frankfurt – Tehran service by switching from an A340-600 to a Boeing 747-400. Meanwhile, Austrian Airlines is to introduce a second daily rotation on its Vienna – Tehran route from March 11, 2016 with a new day flight complementing its existing night operation.
Although first formed as a charter business in 1990, Pegasus has taken-off in the scheduled market since it was acquired by ESAS Holding in 2005 and over recent years has been among the fastest-growing major scheduled airlines in Europe, even out-performing its local rival Turkish Airlines in terms of capacity growth.
