News From Europe

Austrian Airlines to Close Mumbai Route and Redeploy 767 in Existing Markets

Austrian Airlines has confirmed it will close its Vienna – Mumbai route from the start of the Northern Summer 2012 schedule at the end of March, although the carrier will continue to serve the Indian market with a six times weekly flight to New Delhi. The Star Alliance member currently offers five flights per week between Vienna and Mumbai, a market of around 16,000 O&D passengers a year. According to Austrian, the Boeing 767 aircraft currently allocated to the Mumbai route will now be used to boost capacity on flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran, replacing smaller narrowbodied jets on some of the flights. The European carrier faces competition on both of these routes; from El Al Israel Airlines and Niki on the link to Tel Aviv and from Iran Air on its services to Tehran. The latest network changes are part of Austrian’s 2012 Work Programme, a revised corporate strategy to meet the current operating environment. “From the summer of 2012 onwards, we shall be sharply increasing flight frequencies to our core markets in Eastern Europe, and building up capacity to the Middle East in a trade-off with the destination of Mumbai,” said Andreas Bierwirth, a member of Austrian Airlines’ Executive Board. Other notable changes include a reinforcement of the carrier’s long-term Focus East plan and growth in some western European and domestic markets and, of course, its previously announced plan to resume flights to Tripoli, Libya. The airline will increase links from Vienna to Bucharest, Romania from three to five a week and to Sofia, Bulgaria from four to five a week, following up on its winter capacity growth to Belgrade, Serbia. This summer it will also take over the operation of an additional Vienna – London rotation from bmi, increasing its own schedule to four flights per day, while a third rotation per day will be added between Vienna and Barcelona from March 25, 2012. However, to facilitate its network changes the airline will drop its evening rotation between Vienna and Stockholm this summer, cutting capacity from four to three flights a day. In the domestic market Austrian will introduce an extra morning rotation between Klagenfurt and Vienna from March 1, 2012, increasing the route to five times daily, while the fourth daily flight introduced between Vienna and Linz during the winter schedule will be maintained through the summer.

Flybe Nordic Adds to Stockholm Bromma Network

European low-fare carrier, Flybe Nordic, is to expand its network from Bromma Airport in downtown Stockholm with a new link to the Norwegian capital Oslo. Having established a presence in the Nordic and Baltic markets through the joint acquisition with Finnair of the former Finnish Commuter Airlines (Finncomm) in August last year, the venture is now further expanding its network into Scandinavia. The regional carrier will offer up to eleven flights per week between Stockholm and Oslo from May 2, 2012, its third route from Stockholm Bromma, which is becoming a focus airport for the company. It first launched flights from the facility last year, initially serving just the Estonian capital Tallinn, but last month added a second link to the Danish capital Copenhagen. With the introduction of the new route, Flybe Nordic will become the largest operator from Stockholm Bromma, a convenient access point into the Swedish capital city, but a facility that had been threatened with closure for many years: it is located just nine kilometres from the city centre and offers much quicker access. “Today, people’s time is their most valued commodity and that plays a key role in driving travel decisions. Our goal is to encourage more people to fly to and from their local airports such as Bromma Stockholm, which now offers fast and direct access to important international destinations,” said Mike Rutter, Managing Director of Flybe Nordic’s parent company Flybe Europe. “Our long term plan is to make Bromma a key regional Flybe base from where we intend to offer an even greater selection of key business and leisure destinations in the coming months.” There are already more than 120 weekly flights between Stockholm and Oslo offering almost 20 weekly seats in each direction flown by Norwegian and SAS Scandinavian Airlines with operations currently exclusively operated between Arlanda and Gardermoen airports, the principal international air gateways into the cities. An estimated 812,000 O&D passengers travelled between Stockholm and Oslo last year with SAS Scandinavian Airlines holding a 55 per cent share of this traffic.

Wizz Air Introduces Flight from Debrecen and Expands Lithuanian Offering

Central and Eastern European low-cost specialist Wizz Air is to launch flights from the Eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen this summer becoming the only scheduled air carrier to offer flights from Debrecen International Airport. The airline will introduce a three times weekly service to London Luton from June 18, 2012 to contribute to tourism development in Eastern Hungarian and to drive economic growth in the region. The airline says it expects to carry approximately 50,000 passengers in its first year of operations. “Wizz Air is bringing the excitement of air travel at affordable prices directly to Debrecen. Instead of driving several hours to the capital, those living in Eastern Hungary can now fly from Debrecen and access London for a great value,” said József Váradi, Chief Executive Officer, Wizz Air. “We are committed to the region and envisage offering more destinations from Debrecen in the future.” Debrecen is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest and is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county. The city has an estimated population of 208,000 residents and although it was previously famous for its handicraft and food industry, it is developing as an economic and trade centre in north-eastern Hungary. Although Wizz Air is the only carrier planning to offer scheduled flights from the city, there is also a small charter programme supporting leisure links to Bourgas in Bulgaria (operated by Bulgarian Air Charter) and Antalya in Turkey (operated by Freebird Airlines). Wizz Air has also revealed plans to launch a new twice weekly link from Vilnius to the Norwegian city of Stavanger from May 27, 2012. The new service will position the budget venture as the largest operator between the two countries, adding to its existing links to Bergen and Oslo. “Wizz Air is committed to growing its route network in Lithuania. By deploying a second aircraft to Vilnius this May, we are able to add even more destinations, and now offer access to 13 major European cities,” said John Stephenson, Executive Vice President, Wizz Air. “This new route gives Lithuanians access to one of the most important industrial hubs in Norway while introducing a great tourist destination for those living in the Stavanger area.” Wizz Air is attempting to take advantage of the lack of a local rival to establish itself as one of the leading operators in Lithuania. The positioning of a second aircraft in the Baltic state from May will see it significantly strengthen its capacity share in a market where many other operators have failed to succeed.

Finnair Looks for Partner Airlines Across Nordic Markets

European flag carrier Finnair has confirmed that it has begun discussions with potential cooperation partners on forming a joint venture that will enable a cost effective expansion of the company’s presence in the Nordic countries. The potential joint venture, it says, would accelerate Finnair’s “Nordic Champion strategy” and enable it to establish new bases and expand the company’s network across the Nordic Countries. “The potential joint venture would expand our home base to cover the entire Nordic region”, said Mika Vehviläinen, Chief Executive Officer, Finnair. “This requires a more cost competitive business model for our short-haul traffic, and this is what the potential partnership aims at. For our customers, this would mean better connections and more opportunities to fly with Finnair. This would also support our Asian strategy through increased feeder traffic for our Asian destinations and better presence in key cities throughout the Nordic region.” Finnair is undergoing a major restructuring program aimed at improving competitiveness and restoring profitability. In addition to strengthening its position in the Nordic countries, the company also seeks to improve the profitability of its loss-making European traffic and has recently revealed plans to reduce its fleet discontinuing the leases of four Airbus 320s and sub-leasing four Embraer 170s to Estonian Air. The formation of a joint venture model, as Finnair has already established with Flybe Europe in the regional market, would allow Finnair to operate some or all of its European traffic at a significantly lower cost, and will enable the carrier to concentrate more on long-haul flying. “We continue to discuss with our own personnel the alternatives for considerably lowering the costs of our European traffic. At the same time, we will also assess whether the joint venture could operate a part of or our entire existing European network”, added Mika Vehviläinen.