Gulf Air Reveals Additional Network Cuts
Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air has revealed it will close its routes to four additional destinations; Damascus, Athens, Milan and Kuala Lumpur this summer due to the current operating environment and falling demand. The announcement follows just weeks after the airline also confirmed the closure of its services to Entebbe and Geneva. Gulf Air confirms that flights from Bahrain to Damascus will be suspended from March 2, 2012, services to Athens and Milan will crease from March 12, 2012, while its Kuala Lumpur route will close from March 25, 2012. The significant decision comes as the airline seeks to address current economic challenges and in particular the local and regional political situation. “It is currently a challenging business environment for airlines around the world. These closures are pragmatic commercial decisions aimed at focusing services on routes with higher passenger traffic,” said Samer Majali, Chief Executive Officer, Gulf Air. “Our commercial strategy, developed in 2009, delivered significant gains in 2010 but last year has been challenging. Therefore, we are now adapting our approach to address the challenges on an urgent basis.” Gulf Air says it plans to “use its fleet and resources in the most efficient way” and will now concentrate on offering flights on “high-demand, high-yield routes”.
Safi Airways Adds Capacity to Dubai
Afghanistan operator Safi Airways is to increase capacity between Kabul and Dubai during the Northern Summer 2012 schedule to support strong demand on the route. The airline currently offers two flights per day between the two cities but from March 28, 2012 will introduce a third rotation on four individual days, increasing weekly flights to 18. “Safi Airways’ additional flights from and to Kabul and Dubai will meet the requirements of travellers constantly flying between the two cities,” said Lloyd Carswell, Chief Commercial Officer, Safi Airways. “Flights will be operated by our Airbus 320 and Boeing 767 on key days between the two cities effective March 28, thus providing our customers a convenient and frequent travel option targeting the busier days of the week.” In the past year an estimated 439,000 O&D passengers travelled between Kabul and Dubai, up 33.7 per cent on the previous 12 month period. Safi Airways is the largest operator on the route with a 41 per cent share of the traffic, although UAE-based low-cost carrier flydubai has seen its share of traffic grow significantly over the past year and it now holds a 17 per cent share of the demand. Flydubai’s growth in this market and the arrival of Pamir Airlines on the route has increased competition and although this has had only a minimal impact on Safi Airways, both Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air. Alongside its flights to Dubai, Safi Airways also offers a four times weekly link between Kabul and New Delhi. From February 22, 2012, around six weeks later than originally planned, the airline will inaugurate a four times weekly Kabul – Abu Dhabi service, while it has revealed it will also introduce flights from the Afghan capital to Bahrain in the coming months. This latter route is already served by Gulf Air on a three times weekly schedule.
Royal Jordanian Cuts Network
Royal Jordanian has confirmed the closure of five of its routes from Amman and a reduction in capacity across a number of additional markets as it attempts to reduce costs due, it says, to soaring fuel prices and to offset the decline in tourism to the region, the fall in demand during the Arab spring and the political unrest in the Middle East. The airline will suspend its services to Al Ain, Brussels and Munich from dates in March and April, while two further locations in the Gulf area will see the loss of direct flights, although the routes concerned have not been publicly announced by Royal Jordanian. The carrier says these destinations were selected based on a recent performance and economic feasibility study. Alongside the route closures, frequency cuts will take place on flights between Amman and Amsterdam, Colombo, Geneva, Khartoum, Rome, Vienna and Zurich. “The Arab spring and the political unrest that swept the Arab region last year is having a significant impact on Royal Jordanian,” the airline said in a statement and it is expecting visitor numbers to Jordan and the wider Middle East market to much reduced during the first quarter of this year. Further cuts may also be necessary and the company says it will cancel more flights during the year with the decision to be based on forward bookings over the coming months. It is also considering reducing the size of its fleet to take into account its reduced network scale. Although the airline does not detail the possible destinations concerned it does highlight that its flights to destinations including Aden, Aleppo, Alexandria, Bahrain, Cairo, Damascus, Sharm El Sheikh and Tunis have all seen notable declines in traffic during the past year, translating into the loss of hundreds of thousands of passengers. Similarly, there has been a decline in tourist arrivals from Europe that resulted in 1,300 flight cancellations last year and over 460 more in the first three months of this year. In the past year an estimated 4.8 million O&D passengers travelled between Jordan and the rest of the world, with the largest traffic flows being to Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Beirut (Lebanon), Cairo (Egypt) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). Despite the route cuts and negative outlook from Royal Jordanian the carrier says it has still been able to achieve a positive operational result in 2011 with passengers up 6.5 per cent and revenues up 6 per cent. However, costs have increased by an approximate 20 per cent during this period resulting in financial losses.
Anadolujet Makes Moscow Airport Switch
Turkish carrier Anadolujet will transfer its daily Ankara – Moscow service from Domodedovo Airport to Vnukovo Airport in the Russian capital this summer, the latest airline to announce its intention to switch its flights in the city. The link, operated by a mix of Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800 equipment, will move airports from March 25, 2012, the same date that parent company Turkish Airlines (THY) transfers its own four times daily Istanbul route and daily Antalya link from Sheremetyevo. It appears that Star Alliance could be moving towards establishing Vnukovo as an alternative gateway into Moscow as Lufthansa has also announced a major revision to its Russian strategy. From March 25, 2012 it too will start serving Vnukovo with a twice daily link from Frankfurt, while links to the Russian capital from Berlin, Dusseldorf and Hamburg will also be switched to Vnukovo from June 3, 2012. However, the German flag carrier will retain a presence at Domodedovo, which will be served four times daily from Frankfurt and three times daily from Munich. Moscow is also currently served by ten other Star Alliance members, all of which currently serve Domodedovo: Aegean Airlines from Athens and Thessaloniki; Austrian Airlines from Innsbruck and Vienna; bmi from London; Brussels Airlines from Brussels; EgyptAir from Cairo; Singapore Airlines from Houston and Singapore; Swiss International Air Lines from Geneva; TAP Portugal from Lisbon; Thai Airways International from Bangkok and United Airlines from Washington. Along with the current services of Anadolujet, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, these flights account for 11.3 per cent of the total available seat capacity at the airport.
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