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
LAN 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 Australia
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
Low-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 Route
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.
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