Japan’s national carrier may be flying on empty reserves, but its newly appointed chairman-in-office, Kazuo Inamori, has announced that JAL will soon be making that all-important decision: whether it will align its large network with Delta’s SkyTeam or with American Airlines and its oneworld partners. Routes News examines in which areas the respective alliances stand to gain from JAL’s high yielding domestic, as well as its US–Japan and Japan–Far East routings.
Post-war Iraq has seen a resurgence of interest from foreign carriers, who are tapping in to a high net worth business market and the Iraqi expat community living in the UK. This week, Swedish charter carrier Viking Airlines became the latest to show confidence in Iraq, launching its scheduled offshoot – Viking Hellas – and flights from Manchester to Athens, with onward connections to Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Baghdad.
Blue Air’s decision to set up a permanent base at Larnaca is a natural step given the lack of LCC traffic in Cyprus. With this new opportunity, is this the first stage for the airport in becoming low-cost? Routes News puts the question to Ken Hassard, marketing manager at Hermes Airports.
AirAsia X pulled its Middle East connection this week by announcing that it has “temporarily” dropped its Kuala Lumpur to Abu Dhabi service – a route it served for just three months. Routes News offers a perspective on why it failed and analyses on to which markets AirAsia X is instead shifting focus.
