The carrier will launch service to four new markets during the first quarter of 2015 with daily direct flights from Miami International Airport to Austin-Bergstrom, Kansas City, Salt Lake City and San Antonio. These flights will commence on March 5, 2015 and will be flown by a Boeing 737-800.
Virgin Atlantic will end the Little Red flights, operated on its behalf by Aer Lingus, during summer 2015. The London Heathrow – Manchester route will close at the end of March 2015 and the links from the UK capital to Aberdeen and Edinburgh at the end of September 2015.
The new link will operate from May 29, 2015 until October 23, 2015 using a Boeing 737-700 and like the existing St John’s – Dublin transatlantic operation will provide a same-aircraft connection to and from Toronto with other connections available to Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and 16 other cities in WestJet's Canadian network.
Initially, British Airways will operate A380 service five times a week at Washington. The service will increase to daily by the end of October. It will supplement the daily 747 flights and the three weekly 777 flights out of the airport.
The new route marks only the sixth international route to be operated to the Brazilian capital and only the second from Europe – TAP Portugal has been serving the city from its Lisbon hub on an up to daily basis since July 2007. It also represents the first intercontinental network success since private consortium Inframérica took over the management of the airport in December 2012.
LOT has been in financial difficulties for several years, reporting significant losses and negative equity, but in 2013 it recorded for the first time in five years a net profit of PLN 26 million, instead of almost PLN 200 million loss envisaged in the Restructuring Plan presented to the European Commission. This was its first annual net profit since 2007.
Swiss regional carrier SkyWork Airlines will move its twice weekday link between its Berne base and London from City Airport to Southend Airport from the start of the winter 2014/2015 schedules at the end of October, although it believes the switch will not impact its strategy to provide an efficient offering to the business traveller.
Bahrain, which is located in the Arabian Gulf, has a history of aviation that dates back to the early 1920's. Historically it has acted as a gateway between the East and West providing a natural transit destination for early trade routes and a strategic hub for the Northern Gulf.
The HUB spoke to MEC Michael Mabuyakhulu during this year’s World Routes in Chicago to learn more about next year’s World Routes when he described the event as the aviation equivalent of the Football World Cup, which was hosted by South Africa in 2010. In terms of hosting the event, he added: “Durban is ready, KwaZulu-Natal is ready and Africa is ready.”
The UK airport is growing quickly and the recent extension of its Runway has opened up additional long-haul opportunities for the airport. We spent a little time with Paul Kehoe during the recent World Routes in Chicago to learn more about the latest developments at Birmingham Airport and learnt that this year’s forum will probably prove to be its “best Routes ever”.
The carrier’s entry into Tanzania is no real surprise as the country is a regional hub for tourism in East Africa and in 2013 the country welcomed over one million tourists. According to the Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB), this figure looks set with to double with two million tourists forecast by 2017.
At this year’s World Routes, the South American country of Ecuador was a great example of how airlines, airports and tourism authorities are working together to strengthen their exposure and promotion in international markets.
A number of hosted stands within the networking village offered delegates the opportunity to win prizes during their time at World Routes. Here is a selection of some of the winners with their prizes.
The Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) has invested in new technology to partly automate the arrivals process into the city’s two airports and reduce processing time for arriving international passengers. The airports are already reaping the rewards of the $2.2 million investment, the first of its kind in the USA.
This year has seen the resurgence of Athens as an established international destination which has been measured in the significant increase in capacity being offered by airlines, particularly outside of Europe with the US, Middle East, and Asian markets recording the strongest development.
In the last 18 months, O'Hare and Midway International Airports welcomed six new international airlines and added dozens of new destinations and Chicago Department of Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino is confident talks during World Routes will result in more arrivals into the Chicago aviation network.
Dr Charles E Schlumberger, Lead Air Transport Specialist at the World Bank and moderator of the “sustainability in aviation” panel during the Strategy Summit, didn’t mince his word, writes Oliver Aust for The HUB.
Sir Tim Clark, president, Emirates Airline spoke with us at the World Routes Strategy Summit during a candid fireside chat discussing all things aviation and Emirates.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans to double pre-clearance capacity at Airports over the next decade, CBP acting deputy commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, revealed at the start of the second day of the Strategy Summit at the 20th World Routes Development Forum in Chicago yesterday, writes Jutin Burns for The HUB.
Transaero Airlines is set to launch a new route between Moscow and Prague next summer if it can secure the traffic rights next month. The Russian carrier revealed the news at the 20th World Route Development Forum in Chicago yesterday, writes Justin Birns for The HUB.
