Rising political tensions between the US and Iran threaten to the growing relationships which were promising to bring Iranian aviation into the global community
While its rivals Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways are looking closely at the sustainability of their business models, Qatar Airways shows no signs of slowing its incredible network growth and surprised guests at this year’s Arabian Travel Market in Dubai this week by revealing an additional 12 new markets that should see the airline service in 2018.
Long-haul arrivals in Western Europe are on the increase – showing its resilience in the face of last year’s terror attacks. It has taken over a year to recover, but long-haul arrivals are starting to surge again, reaching visitor numbers higher than those seen before the Paris attack in November 2015, reports ForwardKeys.
Gulf carrier Emirates Airline is cutting back on its schedules to the United States of America, blaming policies introduced by President Trump's administration for hurting bookings. Daily flights from Dubai to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando will be cut to five a week. Flights to Seattle, Boston and Los Angeles will now be once a day, instead of twice.
In one of the most significant brand expansion in the history of luxury travel and hospitality, Crystal Cruises is not only introducing new ships to its fleet effectively establishing three brand new classes of cruising, but also inducting two commercial airliners to launch Crystal Luxury Air in 2017.
Emirates has announced that it will introduce a second daily service to the island of Bali in Indonesia from July 2, 2017. The new service will be added to meet the growing demand for travel to and from Bali, offering travellers more convenience and connectivity options.
February international passenger demand rose 5.8 per cent compared to February 2016, which was down compared to the 9.1 per cent yearly increase recorded in January. Adjusting for the leap year, however, growth actually accelerated slightly compared to January. Total capacity climbed 3.4 per cent, and load factor rose 1.8 percentage points to 78.4 per cent.
In the international market IndiGo is currently ranked as India’s sixth largest carrier behind local operators Jet Airways, Air India, low-cost carrier Air India Express and Gulf giants Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways. It will this year hold a 4.1 per cent share of international capacity from India, based on published schedules, up from 3.2 per cent in 2016.
Etihad Airways will introduce the Airbus A380 on its route between Abu Dhabi and Paris this summer. The deployment is part of seasonal adjustments to the airline’s fleet plan and will result in a notable capacity growth in the market as the A380 substitutes for a smaller Boeing 777-300ER.
As first revealed by our Airlineroute news stream in the middle of last month, Qatar Airways is deploying the first LATAM aircraft on one of its two daily flights between Doha and Munich. It debuted on the QR059/060 rotation from March 2, 2017 and another of the LATAM airframes will be used on the second QR057/058 service from April 1, 2017. The additional two LATAM A350-900s will be used on Qatar Airways’ Doha – Madrid route.
The spectre of terrorism has haunted Egypt’s aviation industry over recent years but Air Cairo is determined to press on with plans for innovation and growth. Martin Rivers writes for Routes News.
airBaltic will inaugurate the Riga – Abu Dhabi service from the start of the winter schedules on October 29, 2017 and will operate four weekly return flights using its CS300. The Etihad Airways ‘EY’ code will also be displayed on the flight under a full codeshare partnership.
Phnom Penh, located in the south-central region of Cambodia, is the most populous city in Cambodia and is a gateway to World Heritage Site Angkor Wat, near Siem Reap. Recent growth and infrastructure development has led to Phnom Penh becoming a significant economic and tourism destination.
Latest data from the organisation’s membership shows global passenger traffic grew 7.3 per cent in December 2016 and 5.5 per cent for the year as a whole. All regions except Africa posted growth in passenger volumes for the year, ranging from 2.2 per cent in the recessionary Latin America-Caribbean region to over 9.0 per cent in the buoyant Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.
The new Montreal – Tel Aviv route will operate twice weekly from June 22, 2017 to October 16, 2017 and flown with a 292-seat Airbus A330-300. It is part of Air Canada’s strategy to strengthen its hub at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and follows last month’s announcement by leisure carrier Air Transat of its own plans to serve the Montreal – Tel Aviv market.
As the chief executives of both Etihad Airways and Lufthansa spelled out this week, there are clear development plans to broaden the commercial partnership as they explore further cooperation in a number of areas, including freight operations, procurement and passenger services to improve their competitive offering globally and in the European market.
This latest growth from Ryanair for winter 2017/2018 and further connectivity gains will boost international capacity from Israel beyond ten million seats for the first time. This is a significant landmark as the five million figure was only surpassed less than ten years ago in 2008.
The Iranian aviation industry is also undergoing significant change and earlier this month Iran Air took delivery of its first new Airbus A321. The airline has concluded deals with both Airbus and Boeing for more than 180 aircraft and is currently in the final stages of agreeing a deal with ATR for regional turboprops, albeit the first half dozen aircraft are already completed and ready for delivery.
The planned growth follows a formal request from the Greek Government and Athens International Airport to the UAE carrier to deliver an enhanced transatlantic offering for the Greek market. US carriers United Airlines and Delta Air Lines already serve the Newark – Athens and New York – Athens markets but only on a seasonal basis in the summer only.
The new flight will, according to Emirates, give customers “greater flexibility and choice” when planning their travel and also underscores Emirates’ “commitment to Kenya and confidence in the route”. The airline first launched services in October 1995 and this has become one of its busiest air corridors in and out of Africa over the past 20 years.
After restructuring its operations Gulf Air has been able to better control its future growth after successfully eradicating legacy debts reducing annual losses from BHD62.7 million in 2014 to BHD24.1 million in 2015. Ahead of this, its annual debts were as high as BHD196 million in 2012.
