ERITREAN AIRLINES ADDS TO NETWORK FOLLOWING A320 LEASE
Eritrean Airlines relaunched flights between Asmara and Dubai International last weekend after taking delivery of an Airbus A320 on lease. The aircraft joins a single Boeing 767 in the carrier’s fleet and has enabled regional flights to once more be offered from the Eritrean capital to destinations in Africa and the Middle East. The airline is offering four flights every week between Asmara – Dubai with flights continuing on to the Pakistani city of Lahore. “It’s a significant development for the airline as well as for the thousands of passengers whose travel for business and leisure will now be more comfortable, quicker and economical,” said Arif Uddin Qadri, UAE Country Manager, Eritrean Airlines. “The resumption of flights to Dubai will further bolster bilateral relations between the two countries and bring immense benefit to the economies.” The African carrier’s revised schedule will also include services to Cairo, Jeddah, Khartoum and Rome, the latter the airline’s only link to Europe. These flights will all be operated using the recently acquired A320, which is configured with a ten-seat Business Class cabin alongside 126 Economy seats. However, the airline’s single 767 is still scheduled to operate a weekly Asmara – Khartoum rotation.
CHINA SOUTHERN TO USE E190S FROM URUMQI
China Southern Airlines will start utilising Embraer 190 equipment on some of its flights from Urumqi during August, according to the latest update of its flight schedule. The carrier is expected to use the Brazilian-built aircraft on some flights to Altay, Korla and Yining between August 15 and August 31 but the schedule is expected to be extended later in the year. The Chinese carrier currently uses Boeing 737 models on these routes but will take delivery of the first of 20 E190s it has on order from CDB Leasing in August. Tianjin Airlines also serves all three of these markets using Embraer models. China Southern’s E190s will be configured in a two-class arrangement with six Business and 92 Economy seats. China Southern currently dominates traffic on all three routes with a 91 per cent share of the 208,000 O&D passengers travelled between Urumqi and Altay; 66 per cent of the 343,000 O&D passengers between Urumqi and Korla and 80 per cent of the 493,000 O&D passengers between Urumqi and Yining.
AIR FRANCE SWITCHES LYON – NANTES ROUTE TO REGIONAL PARTNER
Air France is to transfer the operation of its Lyon – Nantes route from its mainline fleet to its regional partner BritAir from the start of the Northern Winter schedules. The airline currently operates 35 flights per week with up to six daily rotations every weekday and uses a mix of Airbus A318, A319 and A320s on the route. However, from October 30, BritAir will take responsibility for its operation and will use its new Bombardier CRJ1000s. This will represent a 25-to-50 per cent reduction in seat capacity on each flight. Air France dominates the traffic on this domestic route with a 65 per cent share of the 325,000 O&D passengers during the past year. Its only direct rival is low-cost carrier easyJet which carried an estimated 105,000 O&D passengers on its own daily flight during the period, after short-time operator Transavia France suspended its own flights on the route. The arrival of easyJet on a route that was previously monopoly controlled by Air France has certainly changed the dynamics of the market. The low-cost carrier has stimulated demand with traffic increasing 53.5 per cent over the past two years, but its low fares have also eaten into the French national carrier’s market share. In the past 12 months easyJet’s slice of the cake has increased from 20 to 32 per cent, while Air France’s has slipped from 77 to 65 per cent during the same period. Air France’s yield on Lyon – Nantes has remained relatively strong and although it is down by around two per cent since easyJet launched flights on the route, the national carrier has not been hit too hard. easyJet’s average fares are around a third of those being offered by Air France and therefore as the low-cost carrier has increased its own traffic the average fare on the route has fallen; down $45 per sector when compared to the figures prior to easyJet’s debut.
AIR GREENLAND INTRODUCES NEXT-GENERATION 737
Air Greenland is utilising a leased Boeing 737-800 on five weekly flights from Kangerlussuaq and Narsarsuaq to Copenhagen this summer to support demand on these key routes. The aircraft will operate three days per week to the Danish capital from Kangerlussuaq, supplementing an existing daily service flown by an Airbus A330-200 widebody, and twice weekly from Narsarsuaq. The airline is the sole operator on these two routes carrying 95,000 O&D passengers on the Kangerlussuaq flight and 5,000 O&D passengers on the Narsarsuaq link in the past year. These are two of the highest yielding flights in Europe with average fares of $1,063 and $1,359 each way, respectively.
SKYWORK TO BOOST BERN – LONDON CITY WITH THIRD Q400
Independent Swiss regional carrier SkyWork Airlines is to introduce a third Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 into its fleet in September to boost frequencies on its Bern – London City link, a route its Chief Executive Officer, Tomislav Lang describes as a “star performer”. The airline launched the six times weekly route at the end of March using a 30-seat Dornier 328, but quickly upgraded to the 70-seat Q400 due to strong demand. It will now add a second flight every weekday from September 5. “London City-Bern has become a star performer in our route network,” said Tomislav Lang, Chief Executive Officer, SkyWork Airlines. “We are very much looking forward to building on that success by offering morning and evening departures, affording the business traveller a full day in the cities of Bern and London.” In addition to its enhanced London schedule, seven additional cities from Bern are being added in the coming winter timetable, boosting the number of destinations served by SkyWork to 12. Rome, Vienna and Milan come on line on September 5, followed by Madrid, Belgrade, Budapest and Amsterdam in October.
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