Five For Friday

QATAR AIRWAYS HEADS TO STUTTGART081010-qatar

Qatar Airways has announced that it will open new scheduled services from its Doha base to Stuttgart, Germany. The route will begin March 9th and will be operated thrice-weekly with narrowbody A319 equipment. Qatar also operates services to Germany with flights to Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich.

IATA BSP data shows that between June 2009 and 2010 Qatar transported over 58,000 passengers from Doha to Germany.

AEROSVIT TO LAUNCH COPENHGEN SERVICE

From October 31st, the national airline of the Ukraine, Aerosvit will launch a new non-stop service from its Kiev hub to Copenhagen. The route will be operated on a daily rotation with ERJ145 equipment. Aerosvit will compete on the route with SAS, which operates four-weekly flights. SAS currently has a 65% of the O+D market. The majority of leakage is through Riga with Air Baltic.

VIKING HELLAS HEADS TO FRANKFURT

Viking Hellas Airlines will launch a new weekly service from its base in Athens to Frankfurt. The route will be operated on a weekly basis with MD-83 equipment effective, November 2nd. At the same time, Viking Hellas will reduce its four-times weekly service into Manchester to a twice-weekly service. Viking Hellas will compete on the Frankfurt route with Lufthansa and Aegean. Lufthansa operates a triple daily with Aegean a single daily rotation.

SWISS ON A ROLL INTO SPAIN

Star Alliance member, Swiss will increase existing capacity and add a new route to Spain this winter from its Geneva hub. Effective December 17th, the carrier will inaugurate a twice-daily Geneva to Madrid service, competing with easyJet which operates the route daily, and oneworld member, Iberia which operates a four-times weekly flight.

On the same day, it will add a daily service to Barcelona taking its capacity to a three-times daily flight. easyJet offers 20 weekly services between these city pairs.

AMSTERDAM GAINS SARAJEVO LINK

The national airline of Bosnia and Herzegovina, B+H Airlines has announced that it will introduce a new non-stop service from its Sarajevo base to Amsterdam. The new service will begin on December 2nd and will be operated thrice-weekly with A319 equipment. At the same time, B+H Airlines will begin services from the second largest city in Bosnia, Banja Luka. Consequently, two of four weekly flights to Frankfurt and Vienna will now operate via Banja Luka.

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…