Routes Middle East & Africa will see route development professionals from across the Middle East and Africa gather to discuss air service development to, from, and within the region.
Nigerian carrier Arik Air, is to begin scheduled flight operations next week from Lagos, Nigeria to the Ivoirian city, Abidjan via Cotonou, Benin Republic. The new service will operate four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Emirates Airline president Tim Clark has given a strong endorsement for continuing US Open Skies policy and said his airline has never received financial subsidies or bailouts.
According to SAS, currently the fifth largest holder of slots at London Heathow, the transaction will generate positive earnings of $60 million. Following the closure of this deal, SAS will now hold 20 daily slots at London Heathrow which it uses to offer non-stop flights to Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Oslo, Stockholm and Stavanger.
The airline plans to introduce a twice weekly service on the route from June 11, 2015 with Airbus A320 rotations every Thursday and Sunday. Grenada will be JetBlue's 90th destination and its 32nd destination in the Caribbean and Latin America.
After the success of its first six direct return flights in January 2015 between Sydney and Vancouver, Qantas has made the decision to resume service for the busy summer and winter holidays. The direct service proved to be popular with both Australian and Canadian passengers and this upcoming schedule will offer greater flexibility with a switch from two to three flights per week.
The likely move into regional Brazilian operations comes as the Government looks to roll-out a new incentive scheme which will partly-subsidise flights in this market. The regional aviation development program Programa de Desenvolvimento da Aviação Regional (PDAR) was launched last month.
The Swedish government has announced its decision to look into the possibility of introducing US preclearance at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, meaning that Sweden could become the second country in Europe, after Ireland to offer the service.
Mexican low-cost carrier (LCC) Volaris is “very focused” on the visiting friends and family (VFR) market, although it will not “say no” to more business traffic, Manuel Ambriz Lopez, manager of commercial strategy and network planning, said in an interview at the Routes Americas conference in Denver, Colorado.
Apple Computer may soon get better flights to sell more iPhones in a China after Hainan Airlines filed an application for an exemption and ammended foreign air carrier permit with the US Department of Transportation to serve San Jose, California, which elicited wide smiles from San Jose International Airport's Olgierd Hinz at Routes Americas in Denver.
Building on the success of this year’s event, which provisional figures suggest welcomed over 650 delegates, 45 per cent growth year-on-year, Routes Americas 2016 will take place between February 7-9, 2016 in San Juan. The event, which is the route development forum for the entire Americas region, will be hosted by Puerto Rico Tourism Company with the support of their partners Aerostar Airport Holdings LLC and MeetPuertoRico.
An ongoing call by US mainline carriers for the country's government to re-look at its Open Skies deals with certain Gulf nations has stirred up strong reactions in the industry, even as some parties choose to stay out of the controversial issue altogether.
The service will be operated three-times weekly, increasing to a daily service by the end of the year, using a B757-200 aircraft with 74 lie-flat seats in a 2x2 configuration.
Beginning September 1, 2015 and subject to government approval, the service will operate four-times weekly to Dusseldorf - the international business and financial centre in Germany.
