euroZone

CROATIA AIRLINES INTRODUCES FIRST INTERNATIONAL SERVICE FROM ZADAR

Croatia Airlines is to launch international flights from the Central coastal city of Zadar. The national carrier currently operates daily domestic flights there from Pula and Zagreb, but between June 3 and September 30 will offer a twice weekly service to Zurich using a Bombardier Dash 8-Q400. Croatian already serves Zurich from its Zagreb base carrying over 46,000 passengers in the year ending November 2010, around six per cent of which is believed to originate or end its journey in Zadar.

CIRRUS AIRLINES TO START DRESDEN - VIENNA

German regional carrier Cirrus Airlines is to introduce a daily, except Saturdays, Dresden – Vienna link from March 28 using a Dornier 328 turboprop. There are no airlines currently serving the route. Cirrus already offers flights from Dresden to Hamburg and Zürich and is the second largest airline there by scheduled network. Approximately 23,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two airports in the year ending November 2010 using Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa.

ATHENS AIRPORT INCREASES ITS CONNECTIONS WITH NEW FLIGHTS

Athens Airport is to see increased services on a number of key European routes. Belgian carrier Brussels Airlines is to increase its services with the introduction of an additional daily flight from Brussels. The new rotation will be introduced from March 30 with a mix of Airbus A319s and Boeing 737-400s operating the schedules. The Star Alliance member and Lufthansa subsidiary, currently has a 29 per cent share of the O&D passenger traffic on the route and will hope to boost its share and stimulate traffic growth. Meanwhile, Belgian budget carrier Jetairfly has plans to gain a slice of this market, launching a link from Brussels Charleroi on April 8. The airline is to offer three flights per week with the addition of a fourth flight during the high summer season. Elsewhere, Dutch budget carrier Transavia.com is to launch a daily Amsterdam – Athens service from April 1, scheduling the flight between the existing links of its parent company KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

EASYJET REACHES 50 MILLION PASSENGER MILESTONE

UK budget carrier easyJet has welcomed its 50 millionth passenger in a 12 month period, the first time it has reached this milestone in its 15-year history. Between February 2010 and January 2011, the company flew 50,320,074 passengers. The UK budget carrier is continuing its expansion and will open a twice-weekly Geneva – Santiago de Compostela service from May 15. easyJet will be the only airline to offer services on this route, although Vueling Airlines already offers a seasonal link from the Spanish Galicia region to Zurich.

AIR BERLIN CONTINUES ITS RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

German carrier airberlin is to further expand its links into Russia with the introduction of flights from Stuttgart to Moscow and St Petersburg. The airline will inaugurate a four-times weekly Stuttgart – Moscow Domodedovo link from May 1 and will operate three flights every week on the Stuttgart – St Petersburg route from May 3. airberlin already serves Moscow from Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hanover and Munich; while links to St Petersburg are offered from Berlin and Düsseldorf. Approximately 2.2 million O&D passengers travelled between Germany and the Russian federation (Europe) in the year ending November 2010 with airberlin accounting for a round a fifth of this traffic.

NORWEGIAN’S ARCTIC ADVENTURE

European low-cost carrier Norwegian is to introduce a summer-only Oslo – Lakselv route; its first service to the town, the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Porsanger municipality in Arctic Norway. The three-times weekly service will operate between June 27 and August 12. Lakselv is currently only served by regional carrier Widerøe which offers 25 flights per week from Tromso using a mix of Dash 8-100 and Q300 turboprops.

RYANAIR’S NETWORK EXPANSION CONTINUES

Irish budget carrier Ryanair is continuing its network growth across Continental Europe. It is to introduce eleven new routes from Marseille (Agadir, Brest, Eindhoven, Fez, Gothenburg, Lille, Marrakesh, Nador, Nantes, Palermo, Tangier), despite closing its base at the southern French airport last year. Further expansion into the Mediterranean will see new flights to the Greek holiday destinations of Kos and Rhodes, adding to the links to Thessaloniki outlined last week. Kos will be served from Bari, Bologna, Brussels Charleroi, Kaunas, Liverpool, Oslo Rygge; while Rhodes will have rotations from Bologna, Bremen, Cagliari, Dusseldorf Weeze, Frankfurt Hahn, Kaunas, Liverpool, London Stansted and Stockholm Skavsta. The budget carrier has also announced the launch of a sixth route from Manchester, just a couple of weeks after revealing its initial summer expansion at the UK airport. The new Palma route will be operated five-times weekly while frequencies on its recently announced Alicante service will be boosted from three to nine flights per week due to “unprecedented demand”. The airline’s rapid expansion over the first four months of this year has been driven by new aircraft arrivals. In January it took delivery of eight Boeing 737-800s, with six arriving in the space of four days at the end of the month.

BE THE FIRST WITH THE NEWS…

To keep up to date on a daily basis with the latest new route announcements and changes to airline flight schedules please bookmark our Breaking News page.

NOTE: Schedule data extracted from Flightbase for week commencing February 14, 2011; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending November 2010.