News From Around The EuroZone

Richard Maslen March 03, 2011

SUNEXPRESS TO LAUNCH IZMIR – BREMEN AS IT CONTINUES GERMAN FOCUS

Antalya-based SunExpress, a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, is to inaugurate a weekly flight between Izmir and the German city of Bremen from March 30. The carrier has built up its operations by providing links between the countries of its parent companies, although it does also serve destinations outside of these markets. These currently comprise links to Amsterdam, Euroairport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, Vienna and Zurich, but account for just over nine per cent of its weekly seat capacity.

FLYBE LAUNCHES SEASONAL MANCHESTER - DERRY LINK

UK low-fare airline Flybe is to inaugurate flights between Manchester and Derry, a route not served since British Airways suspended flights in January 2006. Flybe will operate a five-times weekly link between May 19 and September 25. “We’re delighted to be adding this service to the city of Derry from Manchester and to bring back a route that has been absent for so many years," said Mike Rutter, Chief Commercial officer, Flybe. " We continually look to see where we can help make travelling more convenient for our passengers and bringing back this route is a great example of this." This will be Flybe’s first link to the Northern Irish city although Aer Arann and Ryanair currently provide scheduled links to Birmingham, Dublin, Glasgow Prestwick, Liverpool John Lennon and London Stansted. The new route could impact Ryanair’s daily service from Liverpool, a route on which it handled approximately 72,000 passengers during 2010, according to UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data.

BA CITYFLYER INCREASES LINKS TO NICE

BA CityFlyer, the London City-based regional subsidiary of British Airways, is to increase frequencies on its flights to Nice during the months of July and August. The airline offered seven flights per week last summer but will offer nine per week between May 1 and September 30, increasing to 12 in July and August 2011, using a mix of Embraer 170 and 190 jets. BA CityFlyer is the only company offering flights to the southern French city from the Docklands’ airport but its parent has 35 flights per week from London Heathrow, and easyJet 14 a week from London Gatwick, six a week from London Luton and three per week from London Stansted. BA CityFlyer is likely to attract a higher yield passenger on its flights but a growing number of leisure travellers, including businessmen on holidays, are now using London City Airport.

WIZZ AIR OPENS FOURTH ROMANIAN BASE

Central and Eastern European low-fare carrier Wizz Air has confirmed the opening of a fourth base in Romania in the north central city of Târgu Mureş. It will initially deploy a single Airbus A320 at Târgu Mureş International Airport, approximately 8.7miles (14km) southwest of the city, from June to open seven new routes. Wizz already provides flights to Budapest and will add a three-times weekly London Luton link from March 29, but from June 18-20 it will add three weekly flights to Barcelona and Dortmund and two weekly links to Bologna Forli, Madrid, Milan Bergamo, Paris Beauvais and Rome Fiumicino. At the same time it will increase frequencies to London with an extra weekly rotation. “This development will further strengthen our market leadership positions in Romania,” declared József Váradi, Chief Executive Officer, Wizz Air. The low-fare carrier is by far the largest operator at Târgu Mureş with the only competition from Tarom to Bucharest, Malev to Budapest and seasonal charters to Billund and Copenhagen from Cimber Sterling.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC TO BOOST ITS LEISURE NETWORK FOR WINTER 2011/2012

The imminent arrival of the first of its Airbus A330-300s will enable Virgin Atlantic Airways to boost its network and add frequencies on existing routes. It is already planning upgrades on some of its leisure routes for the Northern Winter 2011/2012 schedules and further changes are expected during the year. However, for now it plans to offer a third weekly flight on the London Gatwick - Havana route, a second London Gatwick - Tobago - Grenada rotation (from December 12), a second weekly Manchester - Barbados service (from December 16) and a tenth weekly Manchester - Orlando link.

TUIFLY EXPANDS SUMMER PROGRAMME TO INCLUDE IBIZA AND TEL AVIV

German carrier TUIfly, part of the TUI Travel Group, is to launch flights to the Balearic island of Ibiza from Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. The airline will offer a twice weekly service from each city from May 28, competing with airberlin and Condor on all three routes as well as Germanwings from Stuttgart. TUIfly will also introduce a weekly Munich - Tel Aviv service from Jun 20, increasing to twice weekly from October 1. Arkia, El Al, airberlin and Lufthansa will also serve the market which registered 169,000 O&D passengers in 2010.

SKYWORK ADDS LONDON CITY IN EUROPEAN EXPANSION

Swiss regional carrier SkyWork is to significantly expand its network in Europe this summer, with additional frequencies on some of its key routes from Berne and the launch of a new service to London City. The airline will launch a six-times weekly Berne - London City route from March 27 using a Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 as well as boosting its links to Berlin (from six to 11 weekly services), Hamburg (four to six flights) and Barcelona (from six weekly to a daily schedule). It has also revealed ambitions to add connections to Amsterdam, Belgrade, Budapest, Madrid, Milan, Rome and Vienna from the Northern Winter schedules. SkyWork is the largest operator at Berne, a city also currently served by Air France from Paris Orly, Cirrus Airlines from Munich and Flybe from Southampton.

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