The introduction of the second A380 into the Manchester market will mean that half of Emirates’ 16 daily flights to the UK will be operated by an A380 from the start of next month.
During the inauguration ceremony for the Qatar Airways A350XWB, the GCEO of the airline, Mr Akbar Al Baker responded to questions including those relating to future routes for the A350.
The SkyTeam alliance member initially planned to debut the aircraft on a weekly service to New York from April 12, 2015 and a three times weekly route to Montevideo from April 13, 2015. However, this week it has emerged that the aircraft will instead be used on the airline’s Madrid – Miami route from April 12, 2015, originally due to be served by an Airbus A330-200.
The carrier will introduce new scheduled services from Amsterdam to Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK; Krakow, Poland and Montpellier, France from May 18, 2015 with flights to be operated by its KLM cityhopper regional business.
With the addition of the city of Amsterdam, the total number of European destinations offered by Qatar Airways will grow to 34 – just under a quarter of the airline’s total route map. The carrier has witnessed rapid growth in its 17 years of operation and now operates a fleet of 146 aircraft to 146 business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.
Ryanair will be basing an additional Boeing 737-800 at Athens International Airport during summer 2015, increasing its based fleet to four aircraft and plans to double its Athens traffic to approximately 2.2 million passengers per annum.
Thomas Cook Airlines UK is part of the Thomas Cook Group and operates over from 20 airports across the UK, carrying 6.7 million passengers to over 50 short-, medium- and long haul airports with over 200 holiday destinations including North America, the Caribbean Sea and India, as well as resorts across Europe.
The airline alleges that the behaviour of Swiss followed the early 2014 announcement that it had concluded an agreement through which United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Etihad Airways would acquire a 33.3 per cent stake in its business, subject to regulatory approval, and its rebranding as Etihad Regional.
The additional flights to Las Vegas between July 28, 2015 and September 1, 2015 will be operating on a 308-seat Airbus A340-600. The additional flights to Las Vegas between September 8, 2015 and October 13, 2015 and all of the additional Orlando flights will be on a 455-seat Boeing 747-400.
The brand new link will enhance connectivity between Perugia and Germany. Over the past ten years only Ryanair has provided direct flights to the Italian city from the country with a short seasonal summer programme from Dusseldorf Weeze Airport between June and August this year.
The company’s inventory for its Thomson and all-inclusive First Choice businesses includes holiday packages from Bristol to Cape Verde, Cyprus and Egypt which will see Thomson Airways and its partners offer new links to Sal in Cape Verde, Hurghada in Egypt and Paphos in Cyprus.
The new service from Lufthansa’s hub in southern Germany will commence from January 1, 2015 and will provide fast and efficient access to the many nearby ski resorts. Whether it’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Zillertal, Kitzbühel, SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental or other resorts in the Alps – as long as there is a helipad on site, customers will be able to choose their own destination.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) national carrier Emirates Airline is to introduce a third daily rotation on its route between Dubai International Airport and Birmingham Airport in the UK. The new flight, operated by a Boeing 777-300ER will commence from August 1, 2015, and opened for reservations earlier today (December 22, 2015).
The four times weekly Naples – Madrid route, flown by an Air Italy Boeing 737, has joined Bologna, Genoa and Geneva as new destinations to be served by Meridiana from Naples International Airport in the winter 2014/2015 schedule.
This will mark the return of direct flights into Asia for the Scandinavian flag carrier from Sweden’s capital city. In the past ten years it has previously offered links from Stockholm to both Beijing and Bangkok, the latter on a seasonal winter basis, but these were both suspended from spring 2009.
The predominantly leisure markets will be served by the new ‘Jump’ business of the carrier which will see Lufthansa CityLine fly up to 14 Airbus A340-300s reconfigured in a higher-density, three-class, 298-seat arrangement under the Lufthansa brand.
The low-cost carrier has announced new services from its Budapest base to Hurghada on the East coast of Egypt and Alghero in Sardinia, Italy, for the summer 2015 season.
Vietnam Airlines has opened reservations for its first Airbus A350XWB services this week. The airline will be the second operator of the new generation widebody airliner after Qatar Airways and plans to deploy the aircraft on its route between Hanoi and Paris CDG from the end of the third quarter 2015.
The new link will be the only scheduled international link from Lorient to the Mediterranean and will see the Irish carrier generate an estimated 18,000 passengers per year to Lorient, a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.
