Ciudad Real Airport, the secondary airport for Madrid, has got its first international scheduled passenger route to a non-Schengen country thanks to Ryanair's new three-times weekly flights to London Stansted, which starts on May 25.
CR Aeropuertos' general manager, Escolástico González says: "Ryanair's first service here is a great opportunity for us to keep on growing, especially at a time when airlines are closing down routes."
Ciudad Real airport is 55 minutes from Madrid via high-speed rail.
Qatar Airways to expand into South America
Buenos Aires in Argentina and Sao Paolo in Brazil are to become Qatar Airways' first South American destinations, although launch dates for the new flights have not yet been announced.
"By adding Brazil and Argentina, we can finally say Qatar Airways has become a truly global airline touching all parts of the world - and that only 13 years after we began operations as a small fledgling regional airline," said CEO, Akbar Al Baker at a press conference on March 10.
There are currently limited direct frequencies from the Middle East to South America. Emirates operates a daily service from Dubai to Sao Paolo and El Al offers a three-times weekly Tel Aviv to Sao Paolo service, each using B777s.
Source Flightbase 14-20 June 2010
However, IATA BSP data shows significant passenger flow from the Middle East to Latin America. In the period between December 2008 and 2009, over 368,000 passengers flew between the two regions. Qatar Airways will aim to capture this indirect traffic and establish Doha as the transit point for Middle East and European traffic and beyond.
Lufthansa heads to Moldova
Lufthansa is set to start daily flights from Munich to Chisinau in Moldova on April 22, marking the German carrier's first venture into the country.
The route will be operated by Lufthansa's Cologne-based subsidiary, Lufthansa Cityline using a CRJ900 aircraft. This will be replaced with an Airbus A319 from July 1.
The only scheduled non-stop service between Germany and Moldova is currently a five-times weekly service from Chisinau to Frankfurt operated by Air Moldova, which has a 42% share of the Chisinau market.
IATA BSP data (Airport IS) shows small passenger flows between Chisinau and Frankfurt, with Austrian Airlines' flights via Vienna being the most popular indirect routing.
Ukraine International adds European routes
Ukraine International (UIA) is adding a number of new routes to its summer schedule, including Kiev-Geneva, Donestsk-Rome and Donestsk-Dubrovnik.
The airline will be the carrier serving Geneva directly from Kiev and will operate the route three times a week with B737-500 aircraft. The route was negotiated at the 16th World Route Development Forum in Beijing, confirms Denis Antonyuk, Ukraine International's head of network development and alliances.
Donestsk to Rome will be operated twice weekly and Donestsk to Dubrovnik will operate once a week. Both services will use B737 equipment.
Donetsk is currently the fourth largest market on the basis of weekly flight departures from the Ukraine with a 6% market share. Kiev accounts for 56% of all scheduled flights in the Ukraine (domestic and international).
Source Flightbase 14-20 June 2010
Lacsa's new Columbia service
Costa Rica's national carrier, Lacsa (part of the TACA group), plans to start services to Medellin in Colombia.
This is intended to be an extension of its existing service from San Jose to Panama City and will be operated three-times a week using E-190 aircraft.
Lacsa will compete on the route with Panama's national carrier, Copa Airlines, which operates 21 weekly frequencies using B737s.
IATA BSP data shows that 92,938 passengers have flown on the Panama City to Medellin sector between December 2008 and 2009 and COPA has a 97% share of the market.
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