The lack of money invested in airport infrastructure in the US and Europe was bemoaned in session three of the World Routes Tourism Summit yesterday afternoon in Chicago, writes Justin Birns for The HUB.
Dublin Airport is continuing to dramatically grow its transfer traffic, and is solidifying its position as a significant transatlantic transfer hub. Transfer traffic at Dublin increased by 34% to more than half a million passengers in the first eight months of this year, and will set a new record this year.
Two international airports basking under 300-plus days of sunshine per year in the middle of the Eastern Mediterranean have cause to celebrate a banner year as Larnaka International Airport and Pafos International Airport together welcomed a record 11 new carriers to Cyprus in 2014 alone.
The new stores, many of which are the first of their kind to open in the UK, follow the enormous growth in long haul markets at Birmingham in the past twelve months, including direct charter flights to China and the popular Air India service to Delhi and Amritsar. These services are set to continue demand for high value retail and product innovation.
Budapest Airport continues to go from strength to strength and chief commercial officer Kam Jandu says the next target is a direct route to the US, writes Justin Burns for The HUB.
Cork Airport has entered into agreement with City Airport Bremen to launch a new FLYCORK initiative, based on the latter's successful FlyBremen model. The new portal will be a custom-built online solution for Cork Airport, its airlines and travel agent partners to generate sales and market tourism in the region.
Canada has long been a seasonal market from Dublin, but this winter the airport will boast two new year-round scheduled services to Toronto. Irish carrier Aer Lingus will operate Dublin-Toronto up to four times per week while Air Canada’s leisure brand Air Canada rouge will fly three times per week between the two cities.
The five times weekly service to Berlin Tegel and daily services to Hamburg and Oslo will commence from Sunday 26th October through to Friday 27th March, cementing Flybe’s position as Birmingham Airport’s biggest carrier.
Birmingham Airport has announced the completion of a new purpose-built transit and transfer facility, providing passengers with the UK’s fastest and most efficient option for onward connecting flights. The new facility delivers an airside connection that allows passengers to transit and transfer within the airside environment in under 45 minutes.
UK charter and airline sub-charter specialist, Titan Airways is tripling the size of its Airbus fleet with the introduction of two further Airbus A320 airliners, its commercial director, Alastair Kiernan confirmed to The HUB at World Routes in Chicago last night.
UK regional carrier Flybe had made a significant step towards resolving its legacy fleet commitmentswith a set of linked agreements with Republic Airways Holdings and Embraer, which will see it drop the majority of its outstanding orders for the E175 in favour of leasing additional Dash 8-Q400 turboprops.
The first European operator of the new Boeing 787-9, Virgin Atlantic will deploy its aircraft on routes from London Heathrow to Boston from October 28, 2014; Washington from December 17, 2014, Newark from January 19, 2015 and New York from February 28, 2015.
Dublin Airport is celebrating its role in helping Ireland to win the right to host one of the world’s largest sporting events. Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) was one of the main supporters of Dublin’s successful bid to be a host for the Euro 2020 tournament.
Already the only UK airport to see passenger numbers grow every year since the height of the recession in 2009, Bristol is bucking the trend again by forecasting strong performance in 2015 after revealing passenger numbers are expected to hit an all time annual high of 6.3 million this calendar year.
Shannon’s head of aviation development, Declan Power, has been attending World Routes for the past 20 years and says the event is a “must” for every airport.
BA will utilise a four-class Boeing 777-200ER on the route configured with 12 seats in First, 48 in Club World, 32 in World Traveller Plus and a further 127 in World Traveller. Its return to the city pair will boost capacity on the route by 22.2 per cent with weekly seats increasing to 8,449 in each direction.
This year’s route successes at Lisbon Airport are already having an impact on its traffic performance. In its latest traffic results for August 2014 passenger demand rose 15.2 per cent to 1.96 million to bring year to date numbers above the 12 million passenger threshold.
In an exclusive interview with The HUB ahead of World Routes, Aéroports de Lyon’s chief executive officer, Philippe Bernand, confirmed that international growth was the forefront of Lyon’s expectations for the year ahead as the facility seeks to grow both its short- and long-haul offering.
Lufthansa is likely to receive the green light from Indian authorities to fly the A380 into Mumbai, but without the strong transfer traffic its current operating slot affords, it is unlikely to want to move the service to accommodate the utilisation of the larger aircraft and may have to wait up to 15 months until the airport completes work to support simultaneous A380 operations.
Like much of Icelandair’s existing North American network the destination will be served to support business and leisure demand in and out of Iceland as well as to provide new connectivity options for US travellers into the wider European market via the carrier’s Keflavik International Airport hub.
The 469-seat A380 will substitute a smaller Boeing 747-400 on the five London – San Francisco services boosting weekly capacity by just under 20 per cent. All nine other weekly rotations will continue to be served using the smaller Jumbos which are configured in either 299- or 337-seat arrangements.
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.
Basel has one of the highest concentrations of successful life sciences businesses in the world, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical technology organisations and this new link will provide a fast and reliable link into Russia and Asia for customers in the industry as well as the other industries that have grown up to support the healthcare market in Switzerland.
UK carrier Virgin Atlantic Airways is to suspend flights to Cape Town, Mumbai, Tokyo and Vancouver as it instead looks to strengthen its transatlantic partnership with shareholder Delta Air Lines. The latest network changes are part of an ongoing network review and business recovery plan to return the carrier to long-term profitability.
Condor will provide 518 seats per week to Portland and Providence including a Business Class offering using a Boeing 767-300 configured in three-class with 18 Business Class, 35 Premium Economy and 206 Economy seats. The Portland service will mark the return of flights to Oregon’s largest city from Frankfurt, a route previously served by Lufthansa up until September 2009.
