News From CIS and The Middle East

Richard Maslen February 17, 2011

QATAR AIRWAYS LAUNCHES DAILY LINK TO VENICE

Qatar Airways has announced the latest stage of its network expansion with the Italian city of Venice to become its next new destination from June 15. Venice, the city world famous for being built on water and its beautiful canals, will become the airline’s third gateway in Italy after Milan and Rome to where the airline already operates daily flights. The new route, non-stop from Qatar Airways’ Doha hub, will be operated daily by an Airbus A320, featuring seat-back TV screens offering a choice of over 700 interactive audio and video entertainment programming. The aircraft has 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy. “Venice is a vibrant city with incredible appeal among leisure and business travellers, and we are confident that our new daily flights will be equally successful as our daily services to Rome and Milan,” said Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways. Marco Polo Airport in Venice serves one of the largest and most dynamic regions in Italy, home too many shoe, textile and eyeglass manufacturing companies with high export activity. The region is also well-known for its jewellery, as well as Murano glassworks and ceramics. Leading international fashion brands such as Diesel, Replay, Geox and United Colors of Benetton reside in close proximity, making Venice a vibrant commercial centre with also great potential cargo business. While Venice has a relatively small population of around 270,000 inhabitants, the nearby cities of Bologna, Verona and Trieste collectively have a catchment area of over six million people, representing over 10 per cent of Italy’s total population.

OMAN AIR BOOSTS CAPACITY IN EUROPE AND ASIA

Oman Air is to boost weekly capacity to both Milan and Munich by splitting its existing Muscat – Munich – Milan flight to serve both European cities directly. From June 1 the Omani flag carrier will operates both routes four-times every week, using a mix of Airbus A330-200s and -300s to Milan Malpensa and A330-300s to Munich. Meanwhile, the airline plans to increase frequencies to both Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur from the same date by adding a tenth weekly Muscat – Bangkok link and two further Muscat – Kuala Lumpur rotations, bring weekly frequencies to seven.

TRANSAERO RESUMES MOSCOW - HONG KONG ROUTE

Independent Russian carrier Transaero Airlines is to resume its Moscow Domodedovo – Hong Kong route this summer, albeit only on a weekly basis. The link will be relaunched from April 24 and will be operated by a Boeing 777-200ER. Transaero had flown the route three-times every week during the Summer 2010 schedules but faces strong competition from Cathay Pacific Airways at Domodedovo and Aeroflot Russian Airlines and Hong Kong Airlines from Moscow Sheremetyevo. Approximately 90,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two Moscow airports and Hong Kong in the year ending November 2010, with Transaero securing just over a five per cent share of this traffic.

AEROSVIT OPENS LINKS TO 12 NEW DESTINATIONS

Ukrainian carrier Aerosvit Airlines is to significantly expand its summer activities dropping plans to serve a number of proposed routes and instead launching flights on others. According to the latest GDS data, Aerosvit will not now offer proposed flights from Kiev to Ankara, Cairo, Ekaterinburg, Milan Bergamo, Murmansk, Oslo and Tallinn; or from Odessa to Baku, Batumi and Berlin Tegel or from Donetsk to Baku. However, it will now launch services to 12 new destinations, comprising Dubrovnik, Karlovy Vary, Krakow, Krasnodar, Kustanay, London Gatwick, Nakchivan, Novosibirsk, Pula, Samara, Split and Stuttgart. Meanwhile, AeroSvit’s sister carrier Dniproavia has agreed terms to acquire ten Embraer E190s. These aircraft will be used on Dniproavia’s own domestic and international flights as well as those of AeroSvit and Donbassaero, fellow members of the Ukrainian Aviation Group (UAG). Their arrival will enable the carriers to expand their activities and according to Vadim Shvitay, Executive Secretary, UAG will allow them “to substantially expand [its] domestic and intra-European network.”

AIR ARABIA MAROC ADDS TURIN CONNECTION

Budget carrier Air Arabia Maroc is to launch flights from its Casablanca hub to the Italian city of Turin, its fourth new destination to be opened up in the country this year. The twice-weekly service will be inaugurated from July 1 and will serve the city’s secondary airport Cuneo. Turin is the capital of the Piedmont region, where there is an estimated 80,000 Moroccan’s resident.

NORDAVIA RETURNS TO KOTLASS

Nordavia, the Arkhangelsk-based subsidiary of Aeroflot Russian Airlines, is to relaunch flights to Kotlass after signing an operational agreement for the regional administration to partly subsidise the route. The carrier had previously offered connections between the two cities up until June 2010. It will operate an Antonov An-24 on the three-times weekly schedule.

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