The new route will be operated by the group’s Air Iceland subsidiary and will run four-times-weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, operated by Bombardier Q400 aircraft in two-class configuration.
After the merger of Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga Airports last year, the Lithuanian air gateways have witnessed a significant increase in passenger and flight volumes, sales and overall net profit over a year-long period.
Located on the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Georgia is a historical and hospitable country, which is a gateway connecting several important economic regions including Europe, the Newly Independent States (NIS), Turkey, the Caucasus as well as Central Asia. As a geographical centre of gravity, air traffic has been consistently moving towards east and south, and this trend is expected to continue into the future.
Speaking at the Routes Strategy Summit in Aberdeen, Jochen Schnadt, Principal and Managing Director, Latitude Aviation, put the UK aviation landscape under the microscope, and highlighted what he thought was wrong with the UK aviation strategy.
The rise of the Gulf Carriers has become a major talking point in the aviation industry, with many arguments that the big three have an unfair advantage on the European market.
Speaking at the Routes Europe Strategy Summit in Aberdeen, a panel including representatives from Transavia France and Vueling as well as Budapest Airport and OAG, discussed low-cost carriers and their position in the European market.
Vagar Airport was originally a military installation, built by British forces during World War II. In the early 1960s the need and popular demand in the Faroe Islands for civil aviation grew to the point of modernising the runway to facilitate passenger traffic. It became operational for civil aviation in 1963, initially restricted to just propeller aircraft, but since 1977 jet aircraft have been able to use the airport.
The destination is investing in attracting more airlines into the city and over the past year completed 450 activities in cooperation with airlines, airports and the whole tourism industry to promote Valencia destination, as a summer and winter destination. Additionally this year, it is working with airlines on achieving and sharing new additional ancillary revenues, by selling tourism services.
Working with Routes Europe 2015 host partners, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire, along with the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre and Aberdeen International Airport, the Routes team chose to support Somebody Cares as the Official Charity partner for the event.
In the last five years, Europe has lost a total of 73 scheduled airlines, meaning that if the trend continues - there will be no European-based airlines in 25 years, according to John Grant, Executive Vice President of OAG.
The company part of the independent Jota Group, which also comprises Jota Sport, Jota Design and Jota Historic was set up four years ago to cater for the travel and cargo demands of the motorsports industry, but has grown to be a leading air charter specialist across the UK and Europe, introducing the larger BAe 146-200 jet in October last year.
OAG’s Analyser suite provides detailed and comprehensive insight into traffic flows, schedules, connections, route planning and network analysis for all parts of the aviation industry, providing the tools analysts need to identify trends, spot commercial opportunities and monitor competitor activity.
UK start-up carrier Anglia Airways hopes to launch scheduled operation before the end of the year once a final evaluation of aircraft and funding is secured. The airline plans to offer a network of domestic and European services from East Anglia with a fleet of up to five turboprop aircraft and continues to talk to both Cambridge and Norwich airports as a base for its operations.
The airport saw a 6.1 percent increase in passenger numbers for 2014, and after coming first in the category for airport’s under four million passengers at the Routes Marketing Awards, the airport has a lot to celebrate.
This year the airport will welcome six new airlines and 23 new destinations and has already seen an extra 670,000 passengers fly in and out of the airport during the first quarter of the year, up 17 per cent on 2014. As it celebrates its 75th anniversary it has boosted transatlantic capacity to North America to 328 flights per week by ten airlines serving eleven destinations in the US and four in Canada.
Latest data for March 2015 shows the airport handled 804,300 passengers during the month, a 10.5 per cent growth year-on-year. It was the first March in its history that the Warsaw airport broke the 800,000 passenger mark and the sixth straight month of record-breaking figures for Warsaw Chopin Airport, continuing a trend started in October 2014.
Delegates at this year's Routes Europe were able to take advantage of down time ahead of the event to take the opportunity to discover more about our host city and its surroundings. One visit within Aberdeenshire that proved popular with delegates was a tour to Balmoral Castle and the Royal Lochnagar Distillery.
The annual Routes Marketing Awards are highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline network planning community. They provide the airline community with the chance to have their say as to which airport or tourism authority has provided the best overall marketing services to them in relation to route development and marketing over the past year.
Following a highly successful Routes Europe 2015 in Aberdeen, Scotland, attended by around 1,200 delegates from the aviation and tourism industries, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire councils will later today officially hand over to Kraków Airport and its partners, the Małopolska Kraków Region and the City of Kraków for the 2016 event.
