The new route will launch from July 28, 2014 and will be flown on a five times weekly basis using a two-class Airbus A330-200 configured with 30 Premier Business Class seats and 187 Economy Class seats.
IATA’s director general and chief executive officer, Tony Tyler, likens aviation taxes to “killing the goose that lays the golden egg,” warning that eight million jobs in Africa depend on aviation, an industry that also delivers an $80.5 billion contribution to the African economy.
Afriqiyah Airways and Libyan Airlines have suspended plans for a merger as the two flag carriers' home market struggles to contain a simmering civil war as worsening violence across the North African country steadily encroaches into the aviation sector in 2014.
The confirmation of the Boeing order is part of the Mozambique flag-carrier and the country's Ministry of Transport and Communication's long-term strategy to increase flight frequency and provide greater route flexibility to and from the southern African nation.
In its latest annual results the carrier posted a net profit of €7.3 million, while the wider Air Mauritius Group posted a €8.5 million profit. The positive results mark the return to profit of the national airline over a full financial year after two consecutive loss making years.
In 2004, airlines offered 7.7 million seats from Lisbon Airport but this rose to just under ten million seats last year, a 27.7 per cent rise. This year, based on existing published schedules, the airport will surpass the ten million figure for the first time with capacity set to rise 7.8 per cent.
The company, which made a formal licence application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in April 2014, will follow in the footsteps of L’Avion and Open Skies in offering a product tailored to the premium market from the Parisian capital using Boeing 757-200 equipment.
This month Air China has added its latest US destination to its network after inaugurating flights between Beijing and Washington, its seventh destination in North America. The airline already offers flights from the Chinese capital to Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in the US and Vancouver in Canada.
The sale of the slot pair for the carrier’s daily Larnaca service - flights CY346 and CY347 - will result in Cyprus Airways switching its London operations to Stansted Airport from September 14, 2014.
The airline, like many other low-cost carriers, has been actively studying the launch of long-haul services across the Atlantic and this route is seen as WestJet testing the water before expanding its activities further.
The two destinations join Dubai in the network of Cebu Pacific Air's long-haul division which flies Airbus A330-300s configured in an all-Economy, 436 seat arrangement.
With a focus on strengthening existing relationships with airlines and building new relationships with the broader business market and consumers, BAC’s Asian push signals a new era in the development of the airport as one of the growth gateways into Australia.
The two new routes stretch from the north of Scotland with a new daily Inverness – Dublin service, to the south of England with a daily Southampton – Hamburg link, both of which will launch from October 26, 2014 at the start of the winter schedules.
