World Routes 2015 is the first opportunity for the international aviation and travel communities to experience the value of the ‘day-of-travel’ data, provided by the product. FlightView delivers flight status updates, air traffic and weather maps, APIs, historical reports via digital displays, web and mobile content, data feeds and alerts.
Gulf carrier Qatar Airways confirmed in February this year that it would introduce flights to this year’s World Routes host city as part of an expansion of its network in South Africa. The four times weekly service, as an extension of an expanded schedule between Doha and Johannesburg, will be launched from December 17, 2015, just three months after World Routes, providing an important new hub connection offering to the coastal city.
The expanding airline already operates into Zimbabwe from the Dar Es Salaam base of its original Tanzania business, but the arrival of the new aircraft represents a significant step forward in its activities in southern Africa. It will initially use the aircraft to launch domestic flights between Harare and Victoria Falls.
August 2015 represented a year-on-year increase of four per cent in the total number of passengers travelling through the airport underpinned by increase in frequency on a number of domestic routes.
The Star Alliance member has been serving the Cameroon market since the early 1970s after first introducing flights to Douala in 1971 and has been offering uninterrupted service since 2003.
The new service will commence from March 28, 2016 and will be operated on a four times weekly schedule using a 180-seat Airbus A320 with both Business and Economy offerings. Alongside supporting the point-to-point local flows on the city pair, the route will also offer connections with another 34 destinations in Spain, Portugal, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America via Iberia’s mainline network.
Europe Airpost has been operating at Dublin Airport since 2010 and is the only charter airline that has an aircraft based year-round in Ireland. The scheduled service to Nova Scotia will again operate weekly from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Dublin and then continue to Halifax, Nova Scotia with a 130-seat Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
Dublin Airport’s significant growth in transatlantic connectivity has been a major factor in the growing number of passengers who are choosing to ‘hub at DUB'. Between 2010 and 2014, Dublin Airport’s transatlantic traffic has grown by 42 per cent.
Wizz Air introduced a twice weekly Birmingham – Warsaw route from September 14, 2015 and a twice weekly Budapest – Birmingham service from September 15, 2015 becoming the seventh new carrier to arrive at Birmingham in 2015.
First time World Routes attendee, Momondo has been recognised by respected travel advice provider Frommer’s as being the world’s leading price comparison site for flights. The Danish company was selected ahead of a number of respected platforms as offering the best place to find the cheapest airfares across 28 search scenarios.
Since attending last year’s event in Chicago, Bristol Airport has secured services to 17 new destinations, contributing towards record passenger figures this summer. European low-cost specialist Wizz Air has also commenced operations at Bristol – the first time the airline has served the South West market.
The new rules require that any child arriving in South Africa must carry an unabridged birth certificate, or have submitted this earlier when applying for a visa. The change has been introduced by the South African government as a security measure against child smuggling.
The new business, JG Aviation Consultants, will specialise in market intelligence, data analysis and strategy. It will harness Grant’s extensive experience of air service development, transaction due diligence and business turnarounds, serving a diverse client group including airlines, airports, travel organisations, financial institutions and government.
The Transportation Department’s Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection approved the recommendation saying that “if safe and secure,” the department could let airlines make their own decision on mobile phone use inflight. This could mean the end of the ban of inflight connectivity over US airspace, leaving airlines with the freedom to listen to their passengers if they wish to.
July 2015 was the first time that more than 2.3 million passengers travelled through BWI Marshall in one month. The previous monthly record for passenger traffic at BWI Marshall was July 2012 with 2.22 million passengers.
The aircraft will now enter the final production phase including further ground checks and flight tests before being officially handed-over to the Nordic carrier. Finnair has acquired a total of 19 A350 XWBs and will operate its fleet on premium long haul routes to Asia, beginning with services between Helsinki and Shanghai.
In an official statement to the media, the airport describes the event as “the meeting place” for the world's airport/airline route development industry and confirmed it “has been successful at generating new business as a direct consequence of attending this and its European equivalent event in the past”.
In recent months a number of international airlines have outlined plans to expand into the Durban market, although local officials remain tight-lipped on this subject until final contracts are agreed and formally signed.
In recent years the Province of KwaZulu-Natal has positioned Durban as a world-class African city, having successfully hosted high profile events like COP17, BRICS Summit, Top Gear, Volvo World Championships, MTV Awards and just last week the World Forestry Congress made its debut on the African continent. It was also recently announced as the host for 2022 Commonwealth Games.
A Boeing 737 landed on the streets in Bolton this week surprising the local community. The English town in Greater Manchester, approximately ten miles north of the Routes HQ in central Manchester, is best known as the hometown of sportswear manufacturer Reebok, comedian Peter Kay and Boxing champion Amir Khan, certainly not for the arrival of civilian aircraft.
To understand first-hand how Australia aligns their tourism and aviation strategies and specifically Tourism Australia’s involvement with the route development aviation community, Routesonline spoke to Tim Jones, Tourism Australia’s General Manager Asian Markets and Strategic Partnerships, before he left for Durban to learn more about its strategy and the role World Routes plays in helping it achieve its goals.
Philippines low-cost carrier (LCC) Cebu Pacific will introduce three new international schedules to its Asian network in December 2015, flying to Japan, Singapore and Taiwan.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines will close its Stavanger-Houston, aka oil route, on Oct. 23 due to decreased demand and passenger loads resulting from reduced activity in the oil industry.
