Monarch will introduce flights to Lisbon from the start of May with a three times weekly link from London Gatwick from May 3, 2016 and a three times weekly service from Manchester from May 5, 2016. Madrid will be added to its network from June 17, 2016 with the start of a four times flight from Birmingham, which will be followed just days later by a new four times weekly link between Birmingham and Lisbon.
Belgian regional carrier VLM has taken over routes from Friedrichshafen Airport in south Germany after Austrian regional carrier InterSky ceased operations in early November.
The Philippines Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) has granted Filipino low-cost carrier (LCC) Cebu Pacific Air new schedule allocations to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Taiwan and Russia.
The signing of this important agreement by US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and his Mexican counterpart Gerardo Ruiz Esparza took place at Mexico’s embassy in Washington last week. Although the exact details of the agreement have not been revealed, it is likely to end all restrictions on the number of carriers allowed to operate on routes between the two countries ending the current restriction to just two carriers from each country.
India’s Jet Airways, which recently announced a strategic codeshare program with SkyTeam alliance partners Delta Air Lines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, will close its hub in Brussels and move to Amsterdam Schiphol.
Star Alliance partners Brussels Airlines and United Airlines have moved quickly to partly fill the void left following Jet Airways’ decision to close its scissor hub at Brussels Airport from spring next year. The main gateway to the Belgian capital city is a key European gateway for the airline grouping and accounts for around 52 per cent of the departure capacity.
The introduction of flights to Amsterdam is a logical growth for Aeromexico. Alongside the strong trading relationship between Mexico and the Netherlands, the route will feed into the SkyTeam hub of KLM providing additional connections within Europe and complement its existing offer with fellow alliance partner Air France via Paris.
In a move that will boost capacity in all three markets, the A380s will replace Boeing 777-300ERs during the first half of next year. Emirates will use a two-class A380 on one of its three daily flights between Dubai and Birmingham (EK039/040), while three-class examples will be deployed on its routes from Dubai to Prague and Taipei from May 1, 2016.
Air France’s decision to introduce services from Glasgow Airport is in response to a strong business case put forward by the airport and the decision to strengthen its links in the UK market as well as position Air France as a key intercontinental airline for Scotland. The research showed significant support for business and leisure sectors for the commencement of the route as well as a growing demand for connectivity due to Glasgow’s diverse economy across a variety of sectors.
Etihad currently operates five 787-9s serving the markets of Brisbane, Washington, Singapore and Zurich from its Abu Dhabi International Airport hub. The type will become the UAE national carrier’s flagship long-haul aircraft in the coming years with a further 66 aircraft due to be delivered.
The team at Routesonline and all Routes and UBM staff would like to wish season's greetings to all our colleagues and friends in the aviation business.
The US government said it has signed a liberalized air transport agreement with Mexico that will go into effect “following internal ratification procedures in Mexico.”
US President Barack Obama would very much like to go to Cuba, he told media in December, one year after the US announced it was starting to re-establish diplomatic relations with Havana.
A historic deal has been reached this week after three days of talks in Washington that opens the way for US airlines to negotiate with Cuba's government to operate up to 20 routes a day to Havana and ten too each of Cuba's other nine major airports, according to State Department officials. These will be in addition to the current limited charter programmes that have been serving the countries while hefty sanctions have been in place.
The arrival of Vueling at Luton, its third London airport, will see it grow its UK route map next year to 12 airports as part of a significant growth in the UK market over the past couple of years. In fact, Vueling will offer a total of 1,854,500 seats in the UK and Ireland in summer 2016, a 99 per cent increase from the past summer.
Japan’s two major carriers have seen demand drop dramatically on their routes to Paris in the wake of November’s terrorist attacks, prompting Japan Airlines (JAL) to pull one of its flights from the market.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways will introduce five additional Boeing 787-9 routes to Düsseldorf, Perth, Shanghai Pudong, Istanbul Ataturk and Johannesburg from May 2016.
Emirates has confirmed it will introduce a four times weekly link between its Dubai International Airport hub and Yinchuan’s Hedong International Airport from May 3, 2016, with an additional onward leg to Zhengzhou’s Xinzheng International Airport. The flight will be operated by a 266-seat Boeing 777-200LR and will bring its offering mainland China to five points, adding to existing flights to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Dubai-based Emirates Airline has announced it will begin A380 service from Dubai to Birmingham starting March 27, and to Prague (Czech Republic) and Taipei from May 1, 2016.
