Latest data from the organisation’s membership shows global passenger traffic grew 7.3 per cent in December 2016 and 5.5 per cent for the year as a whole. All regions except Africa posted growth in passenger volumes for the year, ranging from 2.2 per cent in the recessionary Latin America-Caribbean region to over 9.0 per cent in the buoyant Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.
During the peak summer season in 2016, Dublin Airport had 48 flights per day to and from 12 cities in the United States and five Canadian destinations. Last year Aer Lingus launched three new transatlantic services - to Los Angeles, Hartford, Connecticut and Newark and Air Canada Rouge launched a new Vancouver service.
The growing interest in Budapest as a destination is certainly helping to put Ferenc Liszt International on an increasing number of airline network maps, but for Kam Jandu, chief commercial officer, Budapest Airport, a long-haul link to the US is seen as a route of strategic national importance to Hungary.
In our regular Routes News series we take a look at the people that attend Routes events and find out more about them, their jobs and the current industry issues impacting them.
The return of KLM into London City comes at a time that capacity on the Amsterdam route is at its highest level. Amsterdam continues to be a hugely popular route for the airport, last year seeing a six per cent of passenger growth and becoming the second busiest route in terms of passenger numbers.
After a record performance handling 24.7 million passengers in 2016, Swedavia has confirmed it will reduce airport charges at Sweden’s largest international air gateway by an average of one per cent as of April 1, 2017. As a result, the airlines’ charges at the Stockholm Arlanda hub will have been decreased by a total of 6.5 per cent over the past three years. Since 2005, Swedavia’s airport charges have been cut by more than 20 per cent.
The aircraft based in London and Spain will have the same customer offering and appearance as other airline operations at SAS and with corresponding requirements in terms of safety and standards. The airline says the aim is for the new operations to be up and running from winter 2017/2018, providing a smaller number of departures as a complement to SAS’s existing production.
As the chief executives of both Etihad Airways and Lufthansa spelled out this week, there are clear development plans to broaden the commercial partnership as they explore further cooperation in a number of areas, including freight operations, procurement and passenger services to improve their competitive offering globally and in the European market.
This latest growth from Ryanair for winter 2017/2018 and further connectivity gains will boost international capacity from Israel beyond ten million seats for the first time. This is a significant landmark as the five million figure was only surpassed less than ten years ago in 2008.
With a business model developed to appeal to hedge fund companies; the investment banking fraternity; senior executives; music, film and sport industries and others, Bliss Jet’s goal is to provide the closest offering to the halcyon days of Concorde - in terms of style and speed. It plans to launch flights between London Stansted and New York LaGuardia from the second quarter of 2017.
From May 2017, BA CityFlyer will begin summer-only direct flights from Manchester to the popular Spanish sunspots of Alicante, Malaga, Ibiza and Palma, the Greek island of Mykonos, Nice in the South of France and a weekly service to London City Airport, which will facilitate the transfer of the aircraft in and out of Manchester.
Eastern Airways adds three new routes from Rodez Aveyron Airport, in southwest France. The city is the capital of the Aveyron department, which is believed by many to be one of France’s best kept picturesque secrets, located in the north east of the Midi-Pyrenees region between the foothills of the Massif Central and the plains of the south west.
Growing from a fortified Viking settlement originally founded in the eighth century, to a small market town seven centuries later, Aarhus is now at the cultural and economic core of the region and the largest centre for trade, services and industry in mainland Denmark. The ‘Nordic Tiger’ is clearly roaring onto the international stage as European Capital of Culture and its airport hopes to gain from the destination's rise with improved international air connectivity.
The planned growth follows a formal request from the Greek Government and Athens International Airport to the UAE carrier to deliver an enhanced transatlantic offering for the Greek market. US carriers United Airlines and Delta Air Lines already serve the Newark – Athens and New York – Athens markets but only on a seasonal basis in the summer only.
Bergamo's Orio al Serio International Airport, or Il Caravaggio International Airport as it is alternatively known, has been a popular Milan alternative gateway for low-cost carriers. However, it is now developing a market in its own right and attracting a wide range of airlines.
bmi regional believes consumers are now looking for new experiences in more familiar regions and to meet this demand will introduce flights from Birmingham to Graz, Austria; Nuremburg, Germany; and resume a former link to Gothenburg, Sweden.
The arrival of four new Airbus A350-900 airliners during 2017 will enable Finnair to grow its long-haul winter 2017/2018 schedule and alongside growth in its existing markets, it will also introduce four popular leisure destinations to its network. These new routes to Goa, Havana, Puerto Plata and Puerto Vallarta will be launched in the final quarter of the year and will initially operate on a seasonal basis through to the end of March 2018.
A new four times weekly Delhi – Copenhagen route will commence from May 2017, according to Air India, and will be flown using a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. A Delhi – Washington flight will operate on a three times weekly basis and will be flown using a Boeing 777 from July 2017. These will be the only non-stop operation on the two routes
Irish regional carrier CityJet has secured a two-year wet-lease deal with Brussels Airlines to operate three Sukhoi SSJ100 Superjets for the Belgian flag carrier on routes from Brussels Airport from April 2017. The deal follows a formal tender from Brussels Airlines to support its network needs as it completes the retirement of its Avro RJ100 fleet from commercial operation.
According to reports, Croatia Airlines is selling its London Heathrow Airport mid-morning slots on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, retaining afternoon and evening slots on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The sold slots will pass to Delta Air Lines from April 1, 2017 and will enable the US major to grow its joint transatlantic network with Virgin Atlantic from London’s largest airport.
Cathay Pacific will offer a four times weekly service between its Hong Kong International Airport hub and Barcelona from July 2, 2017, subject to final government approval, continuing through the peak travel months until October 27, 2017. This will be the first ever non-stop offering between Hong Kong and Barcelona.
Dubbed the new ‘Silicon Valley’ owing to its reputation for being an incubator for tech start-ups thanks to a growing population of highly-educated young professionals, Zagreb is central to industry in this region of Europe. In addition to new technology and telecoms, many of the largest Croatian and Central European companies and conglomerates have their headquarters or regional offices in the city centre.
Not content with a 40+ per cent growth in passenger traffic in 2016, one week into the New Year Cornwall Airport Newquay has already confirmed the launch of a new summer link to the Republic of Ireland from Stobart Air and the return of Flybe services to London Stansted as part of an expanded summer 2017 programme that will also see increased frequencies on five existing domestic routes.
14 years after the final flight of the iconic Concorde, Boom is working to bring supersonic travel back to commercial networks. We spoke to founder and CEO Blake Scholl to hear what impact he believes his business’ aircraft can have on global route development.
