News From Around The EuroZone

Richard Maslen June 02, 2011

SAS ADDS WINTER CONNECTIONS

SAS Scandinavian Airlines is to introduce three new links this winter, using its Boeing 737-600s, the smallest member of the Next-Generation 737 family, to initially stimulate the market before it decides how to expand each of the routes. Its expansion will take it into direct competition with low-fare carrier Norwegian on two routes from Oslo and as well as adding the only current connection from Stockholm to the Polish city of Gdansk, which it will serve four times weekly. SAS will launch the first of these routes, including the flight from the Swedish capital, from the start of the Northern Winter 2011/2012 schedules at the end of October. At the same time it will open a three times weekly link between Oslo and Palanga in Lithuania, a route Norwegian offers two flights a week albeit using larger 737 models. An estimated 18,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two airports in the past year. The third new service will be added on January 21, 2012 and will be a single weekly rotation between Oslo and Geneva with a schedule targeted at holidaymakers in the ski market. Norwegian already serves this route on a three times weekly basis and transported around 30,000 O&D passengers over the past year, around two thirds of the total market. SAS will hope to attract a greater yield on its new flights than its rival, which has a much lower cost structure and therefore can absorb cheaper ticket prices. This will be a challenge for the carrier against a rival that has already established a strong position in these markets.

ASTRA AIRLINES FLIES TO MOSCOW

Greek carrier Astra Airlines has inaugurated flights between its Thessaloniki base and Moscow Domodedovo this summer using a newly acquired Boeing 737-800. The carrier will operate up to nine flights per week with twice daily rotations on Thursday through Sunday. The small regional carrier launched services in July 2008 and up until recently has operated just two BAe 146-300s. The airline has mainly focused on domestic flights and international ad hoc charters. However, the arrival of the 189-seat Boeing 737-800 wet-leased from AMC Airlines has enabled it to expand its network with new links to Kiev, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don and St Petersburg also being added. The Thessaloniki – Moscow route is already served by Aegean Airlines on a twice weekly seasonal basis and by Russian carrier Vim Airlines four times every week. An estimated 59,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, with average fares of $206 in each direction.

AIR EUROPA IMPROVES CONNECTIONS TO SKYTEAM HUBS

Spanish carrier Air Europa is to introduce twice daily flights on routes from Madrid to Amsterdam and Milan Malpensa, the main hubs of its fellow SkyTeam alliance members KLM and Alitalia. The new services will be inaugurated from the start of the winter schedules on November 1 and will be operated by Embraer 190 regional jets. Air Europa will compete with Iberia, KLM and low-cost carrier easyJet to the Dutch capital an O&D market of an estimated 578,000 passengers. Meanwhile, to Milan, an O&D market of around 436,000 passengers in the past year, it will compete with easyJet and Iberia.

TURKISH AIRLINES BOOSTS LINKS

As part of its goal to become one of the largest carriers in the world and develop its Istanbul Atatürk Airport base as a major hub, Turkish Airlines (THY) has announced frequency increases across a wide part of its network. From this month additional summer rotations are being introduced to Kuwait (from daily to ten a week from June 2), Rome (14 to 18 a week from June 10), Erbil (doubling from two to four a week from June 16 and up to daily from July 4), Sarajevo (five a week to a daily schedule from June 20), Doha (daily to ten a week from June 27), Malaga (three to four a week from June 28) and Damascus (eleven to 14 a week from June 30). From next month new flights will also be introduced on a number of city routes, including to Athens and Brussels (from 21 to 24 a week from July 1), Amsterdam (from 21 to 23 a week from July 3) and Lisbon (from five a week to a daily schedule from July 4). The airline is to also modify its schedules to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Sana’a in Yemen, increasing travel options to both destinations. THY currently offers four flights per week on the Istanbul – Sana’a route, but from June 23 will increase this to a weekly schedule, albeit the aircraft will operate via Riyadh in both directions. The airline already offers a daily flight to Riyadh, meaning the Saudi city will now be served twice every day. It will solely target O&D traffic to Yemen as it does not have traffic rights between Riyadh and Sana’a.

VUELING TO ADD FOURTH DAILY BARCELONA – MILAN ROTATION

Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling Airlines is to introduce a fourth daily flight between its Barcelona base and Milan Malpensa this winter. The carrier is to modify its existing schedule to accommodate the additional frequency, to be introduced from October 30, and will now offer great flexibility to business travellers and will enable it to better compete with rivals. Vueling is currently the fourth largest operator on the route with an eleven per cent share of the estimated 576,000 O&D passengers that flew between the two airports in the past year. Over that period easyJet has dominated the market with a 46 per cent share, followed by Iberia (25 per cent) and Lufthansa (17 per cent). Vueling has now replaced Iberia on the route completely, while the forthcoming closure of Lufthansa Italia will free some capacity for the low-cost carriers to develop their own market share.