Tuesday's Route Development Briefs

Air China is planning to launch flights between Beijing and Saipan, the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean. The Chinese flag carrier is looking to introduce a twice weekly rotation from December 22 using a Boeing 777-200, although reservations for this flights has not yet been opened and the proposed start could slip to a later date.

Air Nigeria is to boost frequency on its flights to Ghana and the Ivory Coast from this month with the introduction of a new three times weekly service on the Lagos – Accra – Abidjan route. The airline will use a Boeing 737-300 on the link from November 16. The African carrier already serves both markets with an existing double daily service to the Ghanaian capital and two flights per week to Abidjan, via Cotonou. An estimated 248,000 O&D passengers travelled between Lagos and Accra in the last year with around 25,000 flying between the Nigerian city and Abidjan.

Alaska Airlines has revealed it will fly 75 commercial passenger flights in the US powered by biofuel, starting this Wednesday. Two maiden biofuel-powered flights will leave Seattle on November 9 for Washington, D.C., and Portland, Ore and Alaska Airlines and its sister carrier, Horizon Air, will continue to operate select flights between Seattle and the two cities over the next few weeks using a 20 per cent blend of sustainable biofuel made from used cooking oil. Alaska Air Group estimates the blend will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 10 per cent, or 134 metric tons, the equivalent of taking 26 cars off the road for a year. If the company powered all of its flights with a 20 per cent biofuel blend for one year, the annual emissions savings would represent the equivalent of taking nearly 64,000 cars off the road or providing electricity to 28,000 homes.

UK budget carrier easyJet has revealed it has carried more than 215,000 passengers on its route between London Luton and Tel Aviv since it was launched two years ago in November 2009. The airline initially operated this route four times daily but increased the frequency to a daily schedule earlier this year. easyJet is the only low-fare carrier on the route and says its ‘affordable’ fares are the reason for its success. In the past year an estimated 710,000 O&D passengers have travelled between the UK and Tel Aviv, with easyJet holding a 16.5 per cent share of this traffic.

European carriers Air One and Germanwings have both announced plans to expand their network into North Africa with flights to the Tunisian capital Tunis. Air One is to add links from Milan Maplensa, while Germanwings will introduce a twice weekly service from Cologne/Bonn from March 30, 2012. This will be only the second link into the region by Germanwings, adding to its existing seasonal service to Marrakech in Morocco.

Swiss carrier Helvetic Airways is to expand its activities at Bern Belp Airport in Switzerland. The airline that flies under an ACMI contract with Swiss International Air Lines and on its own charter basis will launch scheduled flights during summer 2012 to Catania as well as charter services for local tour operators to Saïdia (Morocco); Djerba and Enfidha (Tunisia); Corfu, Heraklion, Kos and Zakynthos (Greece); Brindisi and Olbia (Italy) and Palma de Mallorca (Spain). Elsewhere, Helvetic will offer a three times weekly Zurich – Bristol link between December 5 and March 19, 2012.

The JetLite budget subsidiary of Indian carrier Jet Airways is to inaugurate new flights to Ahmedabad this month. The airline will offer direct services from Bangalore and New Delhi and connecting flights from Coimbatore, Kolkata and Lucknow from November 15. According to Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways, the additional flights are to meet increased traffic demand to and from the city. "With the increased flow of tourist and business traffic to and from Ahmedabad, along with the growing demand for connectivity with metros and cities, we are pleased to provide direct connections," he said.

Southern Air Holdings has confirmed that it has placed a Boeing 747-200F freighter on a multiple year ACMI contract with Centurion Air Cargo to enable the latter to support its expanding network across the US, South America, Europe and Asia. The aircraft entered service with the Miami International-based carrier in October and will operate alongside six McDonnell Douglas MD-11Fs, which are used on cargo services to South America, Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe, as well as worldwide charters.