AZAL plans to launch a twice weekly service between Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport and New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport using a 237-seat Airbus A340-500 but will likely deploy its Boeing 787 Dreamliners on the route; the first of two is due for delivery towards the end of this year.
During the past couple of days we have been in conversation with many delegates during Routes Silk Road in Tbilisi, Georgia and here are some of the snippets of information we picked up from our discussions.
The start-up is expected to initially launch operations with two 737-300s. It has not yet formalised its network plans but highlights Almaty, Kazakhstan; Baku, Azerbaijan; Istanbul, Turkey; Kiev, Ukraine; Minsk, Belarus; Moscow, Russia; Prague, Czech Republic and Tehran, Iran as likely destinations.
According to Dr Arman Khachaturyan, chief executive officer, NCFA, the aviation landscape has completely changed following the adoption of the revised strategy and Armenia can now better compete on a stronger footing in the international market and attract more airlines into the country, boosting inbound and outbound travel.
The Central Asian region is experiencing a demand for modern aircraft as older, less efficient designs present ongoing challenges to airlines given high fuel costs and heightened environmental concerns.
Runway renovation work will fully close Russia’s Rostov-on-Don Airport for a two week period in September 2014, while operations will be disrupted for a further month until the completion of the $17.2 million project in late October 2014.
Speaking to The HUB Daily at the Routes Silk Road forum in Tbilisi, Georgia, Vueling’s international sales manager, Jesus Blanco said the airline was seriously considering other capitals and major cities in the region accessible with its current fleet.
TAV Georgia started its operation in Georgia in 2005 and has made an investment worth over $100 million in the country with new passengers terminals at both Tbilisi and Batumi international airports opening in 2007.
The growth was dominated by an expansion in the domestic market where traffic grew 11.8 per cent to 1,055,579 passengers, with international demand growing at a lesser rate of 4.3 per cent to 720,591 passengers.
Sponsored by the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, the Routes Silk Road Strategy Summit brings together leading industry experts to debate air service and route development issues affecting commercial aviation across Silk Road area in a series of addresses, presentations and moderator led panel discussions.
While the sun was shining on Tbilisi this morning Routes Silk Road delegates were given the opportunity to enjoy an escorted walking tour around the Georgian capital to learn more about its history and recent development.
Wizz Air made its debut in the Romanian market in July 2006 when it introduced flights to Tirgu Mures from Budapest and now offers flights from seven Romanian destinations comprising, Bucharest Baneasa, Bucharest Henri Coanda, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Sibiu, Tirgu Mures and Timisoara covering 87 routes and offering 220,000 seats from the country this month.
It is symbolic that the established Routes CIS event has transformed this year into Routes Silk Road to include a wider community that is very interlinked historically, culturally and commercially and that it is hosted in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Pearl of Caucuses, which lies on the crossroad between Asia and Europe.
Delegates who arrived early in Tbilisi for Routes Silk Road were able to enjoy a complimentary tour to the ancient town of Mtskheta yesterday, a location of extraordinary importance to the Georgian nation, located about 20km out of the capital city.
The hosting of Routes Silk Road is a clear endorsement of the ambitions of airport operator, United Airports of Georgia to attract new airlines into the country and improve connectivity across the Silk Road as well as into other markets.
This will be the first scheduled air link between Baku and Geneva and in fact the only non-stop flight offering between Azerbaijan and Switzerland. According to MIDT data there is a small but growing demand between the two cities.
Georgia is an ancient gateway between Asia and Europe. United Airports of Georgia’s CEO, Ketevan Aleksidze, spoke with Jonny Williamson of our sister publication, Routes News, about the growth taking place in the country’s aviation sector.
The carrier is planning to widen its European network with the addition of regular flights to Paris from autumn 2014 and to Prague in spring 2015, complementing established European routes from Frankfurt to Astana (daily) and Atyrau to Amsterdam, six times per week.
