Wizz Air will transfer its flights to Gdansk, Skopje and Kiev from next month and at the same time end its flights to Riga. It will continue to connect Hamburg to Gdansk with four flights a week and Skopje and Kiev with twice-weekly flights from April 17, 2016.
The budget carrier has served the Lithuanian market for over ten years, initially with a London Stansted – Kaunus operation. It first introduced flights into Vilnius in May 2011 when it debuted services from Bergamo, Bremen, Dublin, Girona, London Stansted and Rome Ciampino. Its expanded offering will mean it will be providing over 3,000 seats per day into the Lithuanian market from the coming winter schedule.
This will be Delta’s fifth daily nonstop flight to the Asia-Pacific region and will add to existing links to Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo; the latter being served by flights to both Haneda and Narita airports. The Shanghai service was only added in July 2015, and Delta will be the only carrier to offer service to both of China’s biggest cities from Los Angeles.
The aircraft, which is configured with 86 seats and will be leased between the busy summer months of June and September 2016, will allow Air Serbia to expand its flight network with non-stop flights to Hamburg in Germany and Kiev in Ukraine being introduced from its Belgrade base. In addition, the aircraft will be deployed on the carrier’s existing Belgrade – Sofia route.
The growth will be supported through the arrival of an additional 98-seat aircraft, arriving in June, will be the 20th Embraer to join the British Airways fleet at London City. The extra routes mean that BA will have its busiest ever summer at London City Airport where it will operate over half the flights, despite speculation that it could cut its operations related to a change in ownership and charges at the Docklands facility.
This month easyJet will launch its first flights to Montenegro, its 32nd country in its network and an emerging destination with limited current international connectivity. The country was a well-known tourist spot in the 1980s and has both a picturesque coast and a mountainous northern region. Yet, the Yugoslav wars that were fought in neighbouring countries during the 1990s crippled the tourist industry and damaged the image of Montenegro for years.
JetBlue has more than doubled its activities from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International over the past ten years and has grown capacity 78.3 per cent since the start of the decade, an average annual rise of 15.7 per cent. Its departure capacity was up 15.1 percent last year as Albany, Baltimore, Charleston, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Providenciales were all added as new destinations.
When it comes to Europe, particularly across the East, low cost carriers have dominated the industry. But the boom certainly isn’t over just yet. Last year, we witnessed Ryanair become the number one airline operating from Poland, after overtaking the national carrier LOT Polish Airlines and with predictions that European low-cost carriers (LCCs) will continue to outgrow their full service airline rivals, what can we now expect from the region?
The major US carrier is making strides in one of the fastest growing markets in the world, with a third secondary Chinese city route in their schedule. United will serve routes to Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu and now Hangzhou.
Already this year, Europe has seen a significant increase on passenger traffic across its airport networks, with figures showing January 2016 grew by an average of +6.3%. With passenger growth expected to be a continuing trend, airport hubs across the continent must now adapt to meet these new demands.
The year round, four times weekly service to Aberdeen is Icelandair’s second gateway in Scotland, and sixth in the UK. The new route was announced after the city successfully hosted last year's Routes Europe.
The Gulf carrier will be able to hold claim to the world’s longest commercial flight, as well as beginning new services in Europe, Africa and South West Pacific / Southeast Asia
Emirates cannot hold claim to the world’s longest route – a service from their hub in Dubai to Auckland, New Zealand – for much longer. Fellow Gulf carrier, Qatar Airways have announced their service from Doha to Auckland to begin in December.
Last night’s Networking Evening at this year’s Routes Asia forum certainly supported the Department of Tourism's marketing message that "it is more fun in the Philippines". Our host and its partners have made tremendous efforts to showcase the hospitality and variety of the Philippines archipelago.
The award comes after exciting news last week, that Brisbane will host the prominent Routes Asia conference in 2018. The conference will see more than 1,000 airline, airport and tourism delegates from 100 countries gather in the Queensland capital for Asia’s leading aviation route development forum.
As air service development professionals were debating the impact of ASEAN open skies during Routes Asia and the general potential hailing from the rising middle class in Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand and a thriving economy with an overall community of over 630 million people, Tony Fernandes, founder and head of the AirAsia Group was firmly placing his support behind the regional economic integration.
New Zealand's Auckland Airport was announced as the overall winner of the Routes Asia edition of the Routes 2016 Marketing Awards which were formally announced last night during the Networking Evening event which took place at The Blue Leaf Filipinas in Manila, Philippines.
Okinawa Prefecture is located roughly halfway between Japan and East Asia with flight times between the main islands of Japan and various Asian cities being within four hours. Okinawa, surrounded by crystal clear sea and beautiful natural landscapes, is Japan’s subtropical landscape it is at the crossroads of Asian nations and has developed its own unique culture, integrating aspects of Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian cultures with its own indigenous spirit.
Mactan-Cebu International Airport is setting its sights on the Chinese, Australian and European markets as it seeks to consolidate its reputation as an international airport and is using this year’s Routes Asia forum in Manila, Philippines to showcase its potential.
Senior representatives from Guam’s Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport and Guam Visitors Bureau joined forces with Cebu Pacific Air to celebrate the low-cost carrier’s new link between Manila and the US island territory in Micronesia, in the Western Pacific during Routes Asia. The new route, Cebu Pacific’s first to the United States, will commence on March 15, 2016 and will be flown four times weekly using an Airbus A320.
The brand will pay homage to Oman’s deeply-rooted culture and long-standing history as an ambassador of peace was among eight names that were initially shortlisted from the poll following internal discussions by ASAAS Board Members and key government entities. A subsequent poll of around 3,000 then voted on the final selection.
The new airport will be located within 20km from the city’s business centre and will initially have two runways, but eventually will be expand into an up to four runway operation. However, it could be a couple of decades until the new facility becomes operational.
The growth in passenger numbers is expected to continue in 2016, as eleven new scheduled services have already been announced for this year, including new direct transatlantic services to Hartford Connecticut, Los Angeles, Newark and Vancouver. There are also new long-haul charter services to Cancun in Mexico and Montego Bay in Jamaica.
Routes Asia kicked-off in style yesterday with an engaging and thought-provoking Strategy Summit that debated some of the key topics impacting the aviation business across the region.
Routes Asia has opened in Manila, Philippines with renewed calls for regulators and airports to address infrastructure issues in the region with senior executives of some of the region’s fastest-growing airlines highlighting it as one of the biggest issues still impacting growth and development in the region.
