Five For Friday

"L'Oiseau Blanc" ("The White Bird") Lands in Deauville.

CityJet's ceremony in Deauville to mark its first leisure service, which set off from London City yesterday (Thursday), was a private, but memorable affair, attended by select members of the press, a delegation of airport officials and the local Mayor, Philippe Augier.

It is Deauville's first scheduled service in the current network, which spans to 25 charter destinations. Speaking on the tarmac of this chic seaside resort in Normandy, airport director Desmond O'Flynn, who took part in the aircraft naming ceremony, is clearly ecstatic that his airport is inked into the paintwork of CityJet's London-city based aircraft. "There's been no route [from Deauville] to London for many years so this really is significant for us," he told our reporter.

The route will be offered four times a week from June 24 to September 27. Flown under the Air France code, CityJet crew will operate the route, but utilise VLM Airlines' Fokker 50 aircraft. In December 2007, VLM Airlines was acquired by the Air-France KLM Group and in early 2009, the carriers unveiled their new combined commercial organisation, with the CityJet brand being adopted across both carriers from May 2009.

Talking after the afternoon press conference held in Deauville's Terminal building, Jochen Van Maele, VLM's schedule planning & performance analyst told our reporter that he is hopeful that the route will also be extended to the winter [2010-2011] timetable. He added: "We have a lot of unused capacity during the summer off-peak and are using this [extra capacity] for our Deauville service."

CityJet's second leisure route to Brive in Dordogne will follow on June 25 until September 12. Both destinations are expected to be popular with second home-owners, corporate as well as leisure traffic.

Aboard the inaugural flight, CityJet's head of sales and marketing, Laurent Petitmangin told our

reporter about the importance of attracting two-way traffic, including tourists to London, to the route's success. But right now, which market is a high performer for Cityjet? "We are strong in the Netherlands and our best performing routes on the basis of traffic are to Amsterdam and Rotterdam," he said.

What's next for the combined carriers? VLM's Van Maele said: "Although we're testing a new strategy

with leisure traffic, going forward we want to ensure that our business routes are full first if possible. The focus will continue to maximise capacity here. If you want a year-round service, you have to sustain it with this traffic."

Virgin Arrives in Accra

Virgin Atlantic arrived in Ghana, Accra to a ceremonious welcome of its new three-times weekly service from London Heathrow.

Airline boss Branson signalled an end to a monopolistic sector, which has, until now, been dominated by British Airways.

The carrier is reportedly evaluating other African destinations, such as Uganda but a spokesperson told Routes News that no further routes here have been confirmed. For in-depth analysis of the London-Accra service, view our earlier coverage in The Hub

Delta to Launch Liberia Service

Delta Air Lines will fly from Atlanta to Monrovia, Liberia from September 4, the carrier announced this week.

The flight will be operated once weekly, with a 767-300ER and a scheduled stopover in Accra, Ghana. On the Accra-Monrovia sector, Delta Air Lines will compete against Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and Nigeria Eagle Airlines.

There are currently no scheduled services between the US and Liberia.

Delta is also preparing to begin a year-round three-times weekly service between Atlanta and Accra on June 1. The route was announced last year and will expand to four weekly on June 14, complementing its current five-times weekly between New York-JFK and Accra. Perry Cantarutti, Delta's senior vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa said: "Delta remains committed to expanding our presence into fast-growing African markets."

Florida's New Airport Welcomes Southwest

Southwest Airlines touched down at the newly opened Panama City beach (ECP) Airport in northwest Florida this week.

It's the first of eight daily non-stops now on Southwest's schedule, which comprises of two daily services to/from Nashville, as well as to Houston Hobby, Baltimore/Washington and Orlando using its fleet of 737s.

In Florida, Southwest serves six other destinations: Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers and Tampa.

Ryanair To Open Barcelona Base

Barcelona El Prat will be Ryanair's new base from September, with five based aircraft and 20 new destinations, linking bases from across Europe.

Planned services include daily services to Brussels Charleroi, Dublin, Milan Bergamo, Paris Beauvais and Rome Ciampino, as well as flights to Cagliari, Dusseldorf Weeze, Edinburgh, Oslo Rygge and Venice Treviso.

The carrier will serve domestic routes to Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Malaga, Palma, Santander, Santiago, Seville, Tenerife and Valencia.

The largest carrier in Barcelona is currently Spanish LCC Vueling, followed by Spanair. Easyjet is the fourth largest airline behind Iberia.