Wednesday's Route Development Briefs
Manchester Airport Appoints Ryanair Director as Commercial Chief
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has appointed former Ryanair Commercial Director Ken O’Toole as its Chief Commercial Officer. He will take up his position later this year. The Irishman will be responsible for all of MAG’s commercial activities, including overseeing negotiations with airline partners, and will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Charlie Cornish. The announcement was made just weeks ahead of Ryanair’s opening of a new base at Manchester Airport, one of four airports controlled by MAG. The others are Bournemouth, East Midlands and Humberside. "Ken is an experienced, senior commercial and aviation professional and as such is a key appointment for this business,” said Charlie Cornish. “His knowledge of the low cost sector in particular is an important strength given the future growth potential of this sector.” A Ryanair executive confirmed to The HUB that the airline were “sorry to see him go” but “wish him every success in his new role”.
SAS Adds Baltic Link to Palanga
SAS Scandinavian Airlines is to launch a three times weekly service to the Lithuanian seaside resort town of Palanga from its Oslo hub. The carrier will introduce the flight at the start of the Northern Winter schedules on October 31 and will use a Boeing 737-600 on the route. SAS already offers a twice daily Bombardier CRJ900 service to Palanga from Copenhagen, also serving Vilnius three times daily from the Danish capital. An estimated 18,000 O&D passengers travelled between Oslo and Palanga in the past year, a route also flown by low-cost carrier Norwegian twice a week.
Alaska Airlines to Offer Seasonal Palm Springs – San Jose Link
Alaska Airlines is to introduce a seasonal Californian link between Palm Springs and San Jose from February 17, 2012. The daily flight will originate in Portland, Oregon and will operate throughout the year except for a four month period between June 3 and October 4. The carrier already offers links from both cities to destinations across the US. There are currently no direct links between Palm Springs and San Jose, although an estimated 2,500 O&D passengers travelled in the past year on the indirect flights of United Airlines via Los Angeles and US Airways via Phoenix. The new service will be operated by partner carrier Horizon Air using a Bombardier Dash 8-Q400.
Bahrain Air to Boost Dubai Links
Bahrain Air is planning to increase links between Bahrain and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates by around a third to boost its position on the route. According to the airline’s Managing Director, Captain Ebrahim Al Hamer, the plan is to introduce a third daily service next spring. The carrier reported a 65 per cent drop in sales between February and June this year due to the political turmoil in the kingdom, according to local reports. There are already more than 110 weekly flights on the route offering more than 20,000 seats in each direction. In the last year an estimated 674,000 O&D passengers used the route, down 0.4 per cent on the previous 12 month period. Bahrian Air holds a 16 per cent share of the traffic on a route dominated by local rival Gulf Air but also served by Emirates Airline and flydubai.
Ryanair Celebrates Six Million Passenger Milestone at Manchester
Irish budget carrier Ryanair celebrated carrying its six millionth passenger through Manchester Airport yesterday. The lucky passenger travelled on the airline’s evening flight to Dublin. The Irish budget carrier first launched flights from Manchester in 1994 and in the summer of 2009 offered flights to ten destinations in six countries. However, the failure to agree a new long-term deal with the airport’s executives led it to cancel all but one of its routes; a multiple daily rotation to Dublin. From October 1, 2009 the budget carrier operated just that single route, however, earlier this year it took its first steps back into the market launching new flights in April to Alicante, Faro, Madrid, Palma and Tenerife. The airline is opening a two aircraft base at Manchester Airport this winter, expanding its winter network to 17 destinations with links to Alicante, Bergamo, Bremen, Brussels Charleroi, Dublin, Faro, Frankfurt Hahn, Girona, Katowice, Madrid, Malaga, Memmingen, Oslo, Paris Beauvais, Rome, Rzeszow and Tenerife. An additional two aircraft are due to be stationed at the airport for summer 2012 for flights to Beziers, Biarritz, Ibiza, Murcia, Reus, Tallinn, Tours and Valencia. Speaking to The HUB yesterday, Ryanair’s Sales and Marketing Manager UK and Ireland, Maria Macken said: “It has taken 17 years to reach the six million milestone but the next six million passengers will be carried much quicker after we open our base later this month and then expand still further in 2012.”
Related Content
