Norwegian to Open Base at Oslo’s Sandefjord Torp Airport
Budget carrier Norwegian is to further expand its presence in the Nordic region by opening a new base at Sandefjord Torp Airport, to the south of Oslo. It will station a single Boeing 737-800 at the facility, which is a popular low-cost alternative for the Norwegian capital and wider geographic region. The aircraft will facilitate a major expansion of its route network from Torp adding eight new routes to the two already served from the airport. "Norwegian sees a considerable potential both in the business and leisure segments in the greater Torp area, with its approximate population of 650,000. That’s why we will base one aircraft at Torp from March 2012 and launch eight new routes,” said Bjørn Kjos, Chief Executive Officer, Norwegian. The airline already offers flights from Torp to Alicante and Malaga, both routes also operated by Ryanair. It carried an estimated 12,000 O&D passengers on the Alicante route in the past year, giving it a 20 per cent share of this market. From the start of the Northern Summer schedules in March 2012 it will add domestic links links to Bergen and Evenes and Trondheim; and international services to the German capital, Berlin, the Spanish destinations of Las Palmas and Palma de Mallorca; Antalya in Turkey and the southern French city of Nice. Norwegian will compete directly with regional carrier Wideroe on two of the domestic routes but will be the sole operator in the other markets. The airline is currently the smallest of the five airlines that serve Torp with its two weekly flights providing just 2.0 per cent of the weekly seat capacity. Wideroe, with its strong domestic network and frequent flights is the largest operator at Torp (48.4 per cent of the seat capacity), followed by Ryanair (25.2 per cent), Wizz Air (17.5 per cent) and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (6.9 per cent).
SATA to Offer Links to Portugal and Azores for Danish Market
Portuguese carrier SATA Internacional is to open a new year-round service between Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, and the Danish capital Copenhagen. The weekly flight will be launched from April 12, 2012 and will offer onward connections from Porto to Ponta Delgada on the Azores, which is a popular destination for many people in Denmark. “The new service marks the first time Porto will be served directly from the Nordic Region, which gives not only Danish passengers, but travellers from the entire Nordic Region, better access to the Portuguese mainland,” said Ole Wieth Christensen, Director of Airline Sales & Route Development for Copenhagen Airport. The route will be served with a 161-seat Airbus A320.
Iberia Boosts Madrid – Miami Capacity
At the start of this month Spanish national carrier Iberia, part of the expanding International Consolidated Airline Group (IAG), alongside British Airways, increased its flights between Madrid and Miami. Previously served on a daily basis, the airline is now offering ten flights per week on the route and has confirmed plans to introduce an eleventh weekly frequency from April 2012. The three extra flights add 100,000 seats per year, for a 2012 total offer of 345,000 seats on the route, a 37 per cent increase over the 2011 total. The addition flight will help consolidate Iberia's position in the US market, where it has grown steadily in recent years. The airline is now offering more than a million seats between Europe and the United States, up 13 per cent from the preceding year, with flights to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.
London City Airport Appoints New CEO
London City Airport (LCY) has announced that Declan Collier, currently CEO of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), will replace Richard Gooding OBE as Chief Executive Officer from early next year. Mr Gooding, who has served the executive position for the past 15 years will join the airport’ Board as a non-executive director. “We are delighted to have secured as our new CEO somebody of Declan Collier’s calibre and experience,” said Roy Griffins, Chairman of LCY. “Declan has led DAA through a transformational period in terms of its infrastructure and business culture. He is a respected voice within the aviation industry through his involvement with Airports Council International (ACI), where he is currently President, ACI Europe.” Declan Collier became Chief Executive of DAA in 2005, following a career with ExxonMobil, during which he held various senior managerial and executive positions in Ireland and abroad. Under his stewardship, DAA delivered a €1.2 billion capital investment programme at Dublin Airport including the flagship new Terminal 2, which opened successfully in late 2010 and which moved Dublin airport into the top five airports within its peer group of 5-25 million passenger airports.
bmibaby Adds Mediterranean Routes
bmibaby has announced it will launch two new sunshine routes for summer 2012 and increase frequencies to some of its other destinations. The low-cost airline will offer new flights from East Midlands Airport to Catania, Sicily and from Belfast City Airport to Mahon, Menorca as part of its enhanced summer 2012 flying programme. The new route from Belfast City to Mahon will commence on June 15, 2012 and will operate up to twice a week through to September 24, 2012. Flights to Catania in Sicily will operate once a week on a Sunday from May 27, 2012 until September 30, 2012. There is currently no direct competition on either route although Jet2.com and Thomson Airways serve Menorca from Belfast International and Thomson Airways will introduce flights to Catania from Birmingham from May 6, 2012. In addition, bmibaby will also increase frequencies to some of its most popular routes. From Belfast City Airport, flights to Palma and Faro will now operate up to three times a week and flights to Alicante will operate up to four times a week. bmibaby will also increase flights from East Midlands to Barcelona, Murcia and Malta during the summer season. “The new flights from Belfast City Airport to Mahon, Menorca, are a welcome addition to our sunshine flights to Malaga, Alicante, Palma, Faro and Ibiza for summer 2012,” said Julian Carr, Managing Director, bmibaby. “Our new route to Catania, Sicily, also perfectly complements our existing Italian destinations from East Midlands Airport, including Naples, Venice, Alghero and Verona.”
Ryanair Offers Links to Turku
Irish budget carrier Ryanair is to expand its activities in the Finnish market by introducing four routes and ten weekly flights to the Southwestern city of Turku. The airline claims the new services will deliver around 100,000 passengers per year increasing traffic at Turku Airport by between a quarter and a third. Ryanair will offer twice weekly flights from Girona and Malaga and three times weekly services from Brussels Charleroi and London Stansted from the start of the Northern Summer 2012 schedules at the end of March. Operations at Turku are currently limited to domestic routes and destinations across the Baltic and Scandinavian regions, although budget carrier Wizz Air does offer flights to Gdansk in Poland and Orbest Orizonia Airlines seasonal charter links to Las Palmas.
easyJet Trails Allocated Seating
The dividing line between the traditional low-cost and legacy airlines has become even more blurred after easyJet revealed this week that it will trial allocated seating onboard its flights. This is seen as a further tool from the airline to attract further business travellers and to enhance its average yield per passenger. easyJet currently operates an unreserved system whereby passengers simply choose which seats to occupy when they board the aircraft with the option of purchasing speedy boarding at a cost of between £5 and £13 per sector to be among the first to board the aircraft. The trial flights, which will commence in spring 2012 will see all passengers allocated a specific seat, although as there is expected demand for certain seats such as the front row seats and seats with extra leg room like those on the over wing exit rows passengers who wish to guarantee one of these seats will be able to purchase them in advance. “We will roll it out further only if it works operationally, from a revenue perspective and increases passenger satisfaction,” said Carolyn McCall, Chief Executive Officer, easyJet. “If it doesn’t, we won’t.”
Wizz Air to Base Sixth A320 at Bucharest
Central and Eastern European low-cost airline specialist Wizz Air is to introduce a sixth Airbus A320 at its base at Bucharest’s Baneasa Airport from June next year. The aircraft will enable a new three times weekly route to Verona to be launched and frequencies to be increased to existing destinations, including Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Catania, Cuneo, Dortmund, Forli, Madrid and Pisa. Wizz Air currently serves 19 destinations from the airport, one of four bases it now has in Romania (the others are Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Tirgu Mures). This year, it expects to carry over 2.5 million passengers to/from Romania on its ten based aircraft, making one of the most significant players in this Eastern European market.
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