Five For Friday

It has been a busy week in the aviation industry, this week five for Friday reports on easyJet new Scandanavian services, Jetstar long haul flights, Openskies to Canada, Vivaaerobus launching Houston and Air Arabia adds its latest subsidiary.

110610-FFF-easyNEW SCANDANAVIAN LINKS FOR EASYJET

easyJet will begin new services from the UK to Sweden from September 6th with the inauguration of a new daily service from its London Gatwick base to Gothenburg. The route will be operated on a daily basis and will be the only scheduled service between the two airports, Star Alliance member SAS does, however, operate 13x weekly flights to London Heathrow.

easyJet's only other current service into Sweden is a 7x weekly operation from its Milan Malpensa base to Stockholm Arlanda. Elsewhere, the low cost operator has announced that it will add a new daily service from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Copenhagen from September 10th.

The carrier will enter a market that is dominated by the respective flag carriers SAS and Air France, which operates 60x weekly services combined. On this sector Air France and SAS has carried over 379,000 O+D pax between March 09-10, whilst it should be noted that fellow low cost carrier, Norwegian operates a 6x weekly service from Paris Orly to Copenhagen.


JETSTAR TO START FLIGHTS FROM SINGAPORE TO AUCKLAND AND 110610-FFF-jetstarMELBOURNE

Jetstar Asia has announced that it will begin long haul services from Singapore with daily frequencies to Melbourne beginning December 16th and to Auckland, beginning March 17th. Both routes will be operated with A330-200 equipment. The new routes will connect Singapore with Jetstars main base of Melbourne, and Auckland where it operates over 70 weekly flights.


110610-FFF-montrealOPENSKIES TO MONTREAL

Rumours persist that BA franchise, Openskies will begin W2010 services to Montreal from its operating base at Paris Orly. It currently operates a double daily into Newark and a 5x weekly to Washington Dulles (IAD) with B757-200 equipment. TUI member Corsairfly currently operates a 3x weekly leisure service to Montreal, whereas Openskies would fight for the corporate market with Air Canada and Air France which both operate from Charles de Gaulle.


110610-FFF-vivaaerobusVIVAAEROBUS SET FOR HOUSTON DEBUT

Mexican low cost carrier Vivaaerobus, will begin its new 2x weekly non-stop service from Monterrey to Houston (IAH) from July 1st. It will compete with Star Alliance member Continental Airlines which operates 7x daily frequencies on the route. Its only other current routes to the US, consists of 6 weekly flights to Las Vegas from Monterrey and Hermosillo.


A BUSY WEEK FOR AIR ARABIA110610-FFF-airarabia

Low cost operator Air Arabia has announced plans to create a fourth carrier in its group, following on from its operations in Morocco and Egypt, to complement its main Sharjah operation.

Air Arabia has signed a JV with Jordanian Tantash group, similar to its deal it struck with Travco in Egypt and has cited routes in Europe, The Middle East and North Africa from Queen Alia International Airport.

Air Arabia Jordan will enter a market that is dominated by Royal Jordanian with the flag carrier operating 60% of all scheduled flights.

The carrier also launched a new 2x weekly service from its Sharjah base to Najaf in Iraq, its first operations to the country.

Richard Maslen

Richard Maslen has travelled across the globe to report on developments in the aviation sector as airlines and airports have continued to evolve and…