LUFTHANSA GOES DIRECT TO DOHA
German national carrier Lufthansa is to introduce a direct flight between Frankfurt and Doha from October 30, eliminating an existing stopover in the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh for passengers travelling on the route. The non-stop link will bring down the travel time between the two cities from 7 hours 30 minutes to five hours 45 minutes on the outbound leg and from eight hours 25 minutes to six hours fifty minutes on the return service. Lufthansa confirms that it will offer six flights per week between Frankfurt and Doha, a market of an estimated 59,000 O&D passengers in the past year. The traffic on the route is currently dominated by Qatar Airways (90 per cent), which offers a twice daily service, although Lufthansa does already codeshare on this flight. The German carrier carried just over 2,500 O&D passengers between the two cities, just 4 per cent of the total traffic. "Qatar is one of the most dynamic growth markets in the Gulf region and it has long been on our wish list to bring a non-stop Lufthansa service to the Doha-Frankfurt route," said Peter Pollak, General Manager UAE and Director Gulf, Afghanistan & Iraq, Lufthansa. "We are pleased to offer the superior travel comfort of a six weekly non-stop flight to our customers soon," he added, expressing his joy over the recent announcement. According to the airline’s revised schedule, the flight will operated from Frankfurt during daylight hours and will return overnight. It is scheduled to be operated by either an Airbus A330 or A340 depending upon passenger demand. These are configured in a three class arrangement with a First, Business and Economy cabin.
SKYWORK AIRLINES EXPANDS REGIONAL NETWORK
Independent regional carrier SkyWork Airlines will complete the next stage of its network expansion at the end of October when it inaugurates flights from its Bern base to Amsterdam, Belgrade, Budapest and Madrid. In the space of just a year the airline has established itself in the market, establishing the small Swiss airport, previously heavily under-served into a convenient gateway to Bern and the wider Bernese Oberland Region or the canton of Wallis. One of its most successful routes has been its new link to London, which serves the Docklands’ City Airport. Only launched earlier this year, the airline has already upped capacity initially by replacing the original 31-seat Dornier 328 with a 72-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 but earlier this month introducing a second weekday rotation, increasing from six to eleven weekly flights. “We have been delighted with the early success of our direct flights from London City Airport to the Swiss capital,” said Tomislav Lang, Chief Executive Officer, SkyWork Airlines. “We recognised at the outset that this important route requires a minimum of two flights a day to meet the needs of both business and leisure markets and are confident the extra six weekly flights will further strengthen the route and attract more passengers.” Alongside the London expansion, SkyWork Airlines also introduced new flights to Rome and Vienna on September 5 increasing its network to ten destinations. It is currently offering a weekday connection to the Italian capital and six flights per week to its Austrian counterpart. The airline’s fleet, which began with a single Cessna 340, now comprises of two Dornier 328 and two Dash 8-Q400s. Three additional aircraft – two 328s and one Q400 will be added to the fleet in 2012 to facilitate new routes and increased frequencies on existing services.
KLM AND OLYMPIC AIR CONFIRM CODESHARE ARRANGEMENT
European carriers KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Olympic Air confirmed last week that they have been offering a codeshare arrangement on flights between Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos and offering onward connection options at each airport. The partnership came into force on September 1 and has enabled Olympic Air to increase its weekly offering from ten to 17 flights per week, while KLM is increasing from two to three daily flights. The codeshare was deepened from September 12 to allow KLM passengers to fly on the ‘KL’ code to eight domestic Greek destinations - Alexandroupoli, Chania, Heraklion, Ioannina, Kos, Rhodes, Santorini and Thessaloniki – and for Olympic Air passengers to connect via Amsterdam to Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Manchester, Oslo and Stockholm under the Olympic Air code.
VUELING BOOSTS CAPACITY ON BILBAO – LONDON HEATHROW
Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling Airlines is to increase the frequency of its flights between Bilbao and London Heathrow during the Northern Winter. The carrier will introduce a second daily rotation on the route from October 30, although to support this expansion and most notably the slots at the UK airport, it is to cancel its Seville – London Heathrow route from the same date. The increase in frequency follows a successful seven years on the route. “We are responding to increased demand from passengers in both the leisure and business markets. The new schedule enables business executives to make convenient day return trips, and leisure visitors can enjoy comfortable long weekend breaks,” said Alex Cruz Chief Executive Officer, Vueling. The carrier has noted a growing demand from regular business travellers for the route to the burgeoning economic centre. “This sector is increasingly important for Vueling and we plan to create additional business focused products to join our existing portfolios of services,” commented Cruz on the significance of the market sector. Vueling already offers a variety of business focused products including Go which enables passengers to check in for an earlier flight than booked if required; Duo allows clients to buy the middle seat of three for extra space; business travel arrangers can also purchase Vueling seats through travel agents and business travellers can earn points on their Iberia Punto scheme. But it is not all about the premium market. The modern city of Bilbao, with its major tourist attraction the Guggenheim museum, is well positioned for leisure visitors. The Basque city is rapidly becoming known as Spain's ‘capital of gastronomy’ and it is nearby San Sebastian, which has the finest city beaches in Spain. Meanwhile, Spanish tourists are also taking advantage of competitive rates and the weak pound to Euro exchange rate to visit London and further afield. Vueling is currently the only airline to offer a link from Bilbao to London Heathrow, but easyJet also offers flights to London Stansted and Manchester. An estimated 237,000 O&D passengers travelled between Bilabo and the UK in the last year with around 127,000 (54 per cent) using easyJet’s flight to London Stansted and 4,000 (two per cent) its link to Manchester. Interestingly, of the 90,000 O&D passengers that used the Vueling service to London Heathrow (38 per cent of total UK market), only 24,000 of these flew on the ‘VY’ code; the rest using the ‘IB’ code of codeshare partner Iberia.
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