Five For Friday

The hottest route developments this week include flydubai's decision to serve Istanbul, LAN's interest in Paris; AirAsia X's doubling of flights to Australia; Jazeera Airways' new Lahore service and Flybe's new regional link to Humberside.

flydubai to serve Istanbul

Emirates' low-cost subsidiary, flydubai will offer five non-stops a week from its Dubai base to Istanbul Ataturk International from June 11th.

The route will be served using B737-800s.

Parent company Emirates operates an eleven-times weekly schedule, while Turkish Airlines offers a double daily. Singapore Airlines operates six times a week between Dubai and Istanbul, an extension of its Singapore originating service.

IATA BSP data (Airport IS) shows that between January 2009 and 2010, 238,645 O&D passengers flew between Dubai and Istanbul. Emirates currently has a 56% market share.

LAN's Plans for Paris

160410-fffLAN Airlines plans to add a service from its Santiago hub to Paris Charles de Gaulle in the final quarter of this year. The planned route would be an extension of its current seven-times weekly service to Madrid , operating three times a week using A340s.

The oneworld member also flies to Frankfurt as an extension of its Madrid flights, which are operated from Santiago, Lima and Guayaquil.


AirAsia X goes double daily to Australia160410-fff

AirAsia X -low-cost long-haul operator is to double its daily services to Perth and Melbourne from Kuala Lumpur. Both markets are operated using widebodies (A330s). The Kuala Lumpur-Perth sector has seen over 244,000 O&D passengers travel between January 2009 and 2010, while during the same period, over 300,000 passengers have flown the KL-Melbourne sector.



Jazeera Airways Heads for Lahore

160410-fffLow-cost operator Jazeera Airways will start the first of three flights a week from Kuwait City to the Pakistani city of Lahore on May 12th.

It will compete with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which operates a twice-weekly service and Kuwait International, which serves the route three times a week.

IATA BSP data (Airport IS) shows that over 80,000 O&D passengers flew the route. PIA currently has greater than 40% of the market share.

Jazeera Airways currently operates 348 weekly flights to 24 destinations.


Flybe's New Regional Route160410-fff

Flybe will launch a regional service from Belfast City Airport (BHD) to Humberside (HUY) from May. The schedule consists of four flights a week.

Flybe is the largest operator at Belfast, with 247 weekly flights and a 58% market share. Flybe is one of three scheduled carriers at Humberside serving Malaga and Jersey. The other scheduled carriers are KLM and Eastern Airways.

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…