Tuesday's Route Development Briefs
Qantas Extends A380 Network to Hong Kong
Australian flag carrier Qantas has confirmed that it will introduce its Airbus A380s on to its flights to Hong Kong from January 2012. The airline will use the ‘Super Jumbos’ on four flights per week between Sydney and Hong Kong from January 15, 2012, describing the Asian city as a key market for both the business and leisure market. The network change will be made possible by the arrival of two additional A380s over the final two months of this year, the airline’s 11th and 12th examples. These deliveries will also mean A380 services between Melbourne and London (via Singapore) will increase from six flights per week to daily and services between Melbourne and Los Angeles will increase from four flights per week to daily. An estimated 566,000 O&D passengers travelled between Sydney and Hong Kong in the past year, (up 4.7 per cent on the previous 12 months), a route also served by Cathay Pacific Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Qantas currently has a 34 per cent share of the market.
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.
Viva Aerobus Launches First of Florida Links
This week Mexican low cost carrier VivaAerobus is to launch two new services to Florida with links to Miami and Orlando from the city of Monterrey in Nuevo León province. The twice weekly connection to Miami was launched on November 14, while the weekly flight to Orlando will start on November 19. With these new international routes, VivaAerobus now serves six destinations in the US (it already flies to Chicago Midway, Houston, Las Vegas and San Antonio) and offers the widest network into the US from Monterrey. "We are entering the last stretch of the year with new operations to the US and it is a pleasure for us to offer our low cost travel model to the Hispanic market interested in traveling to Mexico and visiting family members at reasonable fares," said Juan Carlos Zuazua, Chief Executive Officer, VivaAerobus. "We are looking to consolidate in the North American market extending our presence in the most important cities throughout the US, as is the case with Miami and Orlando." According to VivaAerobus, the new routes are important in connecting Northeastern Mexico with Miami, where the largest number of Latin American focused corporations in the US is concentrated; and Orlando, a city which offers a diverse variety of entertainment options.
Air Canada Confirms Calgary Developments
Air Canada is to boost capacity on its routes from Calgary to Tokyo and Frankfurt, replacing its Star Alliance partner on the latter European route. The airline confirms that from April 27, 2012 it will increase its Calgary – Tokyo non-stop summer service to a five times weekly schedule as it take steps towards continuing the non-stop service on a year-round basis, subject to obtaining necessary approvals in Japan. It already serves Tokyo on a year-round daily basis from Toronto and Vancouver using its Boeing 777-300ERs. The increased capacity to Frankfurt will come from an aircraft swap rather than a frequency change, with the existing Boeing 767-300ER being replaced by a larger 265-seat Airbus A330-300 on the daily service from February 4, 2012. This represents a 25 per cent increase in capacity. As The HUB reported last week, Lufthansa is terminating its own flights between Frankfurt and Calgary at the same time. "We are pleased to increase our international flights from Calgary reflecting worldwide demand to and from Alberta's energy centre," said Ben Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Air Canada.
Ethiopian Postpones Seychelles Launch
Ethiopian Airlines has cancelled the launch of its new flight between Addis Ababa and Mahe in the Seychelles. The carrier was due to launch flights today (November 15) but revealed last week that it was postponing the opening of services “until further notice”, due to “operational reasons”. In a statement, the airline said it “regrets the inconvenience caused” by the flight postponement and was taking “all steps to take care of its passengers and rebook alternative flights”. Ethiopian Airlines had first revealed its plans to launch the route in September and was scheduled to offer three flights per week using a mix of Boeing 737 Next-Generation variants. The airline has not confirmed a revised start date, although its GDS inventory has January 22, 2012 as the new potential launch date.
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