TUI UK’s summer 2016 growth continues the UK’s largest holiday company’s strategy to ensure customers across the UK can fly from their local airport and stay at the best hotels in some of the most exciting destinations.
Speaking at the Routes Europe Strategy Summit in Aberdeen, a panel including representatives from Transavia France and Vueling as well as Budapest Airport and OAG, discussed low-cost carriers and their position in the European market.
Cork Airport’s level of connectivity, which is the highest outside of Dublin, the country’s largest air gateway, is crucial in generating more trade, drawing more foreign direct investment as well as attracting more tourists. And, given the airport’s significant role in the local economy, its managing director, Niall MacCarthy has called for more local support.
Although low-cost carrier Wizz Air has a major base in Budapest it believes there is sufficient demand to offer schedules from Debrecen, despite being just two hours away from the capital city by road.
Niki said at the time the flights were announced that it believed there would be sufficient demand for the short flights, which despite a 25 minute block time were estimated to be just ten minutes in length. The majority of this demand would have been to feed its wider network from Vienna International Airport, according to the carrier.
Ryanair opened the Copenhagen base at the end of last month as it continues to develop its network offering from primary airports to support business as well as leisure demand. It is initially stationing a single Boeing 737-800 at the airport but expects a further three aircraft to arrive over the course of the year to support its network expansion.
The decision of three major European operators to depart the AEA shows the dispute between Europe and the Gulf carriers is clearly heating up. It is a very rare move that a key member of an EU trade association withdraws, but for three of its membership to leave shows significant concern at its abilities to fulfil its role.
The market from Europe to Puerto Rico is currently massively underserved, with a significant percentage of indirect passengers already flying between the two markets. In the past 12 months this market size was an estimated 150,000 passengers, with 87 per cent having to travel indirect due to the current limited direct offering across the Atlantic.
Although Belgium represents the 6th source market for Tenerife with 2.7 per cent of the total tourists travelling each year to the island, they also represent the 4th source market and account for 4.7 per cent of tourists staying in 5-Star hotels, according to visitor information.
The arrival of the second A380 on the Doha- London route from July 1, 2015 reinforces Qatar Airways’ presence in the United Kingdom, with six flights a day between the two cities in addition to daily direct services from Doha to Edinburgh from May and double daily services to Manchester. The three-class aircraft will be operated on the ‘QR001/002’ flight.
Ethiopian Airlines is moving its European hub to Dublin Airport from next month which will see the airline transit 10 transatlantic flights per week through the airport to destinations in the US and Canada.
In the last five years, Europe has lost a total of 73 scheduled airlines, meaning that if the trend continues - there will be no European-based airlines in 25 years, according to John Grant, Executive Vice President of OAG.
The company part of the independent Jota Group, which also comprises Jota Sport, Jota Design and Jota Historic was set up four years ago to cater for the travel and cargo demands of the motorsports industry, but has grown to be a leading air charter specialist across the UK and Europe, introducing the larger BAe 146-200 jet in October last year.
OAG’s Analyser suite provides detailed and comprehensive insight into traffic flows, schedules, connections, route planning and network analysis for all parts of the aviation industry, providing the tools analysts need to identify trends, spot commercial opportunities and monitor competitor activity.
UK start-up carrier Anglia Airways hopes to launch scheduled operation before the end of the year once a final evaluation of aircraft and funding is secured. The airline plans to offer a network of domestic and European services from East Anglia with a fleet of up to five turboprop aircraft and continues to talk to both Cambridge and Norwich airports as a base for its operations.
The airport saw a 6.1 percent increase in passenger numbers for 2014, and after coming first in the category for airport’s under four million passengers at the Routes Marketing Awards, the airport has a lot to celebrate.
This year the airport will welcome six new airlines and 23 new destinations and has already seen an extra 670,000 passengers fly in and out of the airport during the first quarter of the year, up 17 per cent on 2014. As it celebrates its 75th anniversary it has boosted transatlantic capacity to North America to 328 flights per week by ten airlines serving eleven destinations in the US and four in Canada.
Latest data for March 2015 shows the airport handled 804,300 passengers during the month, a 10.5 per cent growth year-on-year. It was the first March in its history that the Warsaw airport broke the 800,000 passenger mark and the sixth straight month of record-breaking figures for Warsaw Chopin Airport, continuing a trend started in October 2014.
The annual Routes Marketing Awards are highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline network planning community. They provide the airline community with the chance to have their say as to which airport or tourism authority has provided the best overall marketing services to them in relation to route development and marketing over the past year.
Following a highly successful Routes Europe 2015 in Aberdeen, Scotland, attended by around 1,200 delegates from the aviation and tourism industries, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire councils will later today officially hand over to Kraków Airport and its partners, the Małopolska Kraków Region and the City of Kraków for the 2016 event.
