The new link will operate from May 29, 2015 until October 23, 2015 using a Boeing 737-700 and like the existing St John’s – Dublin transatlantic operation will provide a same-aircraft connection to and from Toronto with other connections available to Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and 16 other cities in WestJet's Canadian network.
Initially, British Airways will operate A380 service five times a week at Washington. The service will increase to daily by the end of October. It will supplement the daily 747 flights and the three weekly 777 flights out of the airport.
The new route marks only the sixth international route to be operated to the Brazilian capital and only the second from Europe – TAP Portugal has been serving the city from its Lisbon hub on an up to daily basis since July 2007. It also represents the first intercontinental network success since private consortium Inframérica took over the management of the airport in December 2012.
LOT has been in financial difficulties for several years, reporting significant losses and negative equity, but in 2013 it recorded for the first time in five years a net profit of PLN 26 million, instead of almost PLN 200 million loss envisaged in the Restructuring Plan presented to the European Commission. This was its first annual net profit since 2007.
Swiss regional carrier SkyWork Airlines will move its twice weekday link between its Berne base and London from City Airport to Southend Airport from the start of the winter 2014/2015 schedules at the end of October, although it believes the switch will not impact its strategy to provide an efficient offering to the business traveller.
The UK airport is growing quickly and the recent extension of its Runway has opened up additional long-haul opportunities for the airport. We spent a little time with Paul Kehoe during the recent World Routes in Chicago to learn more about the latest developments at Birmingham Airport and learnt that this year’s forum will probably prove to be its “best Routes ever”.
This year has seen the resurgence of Athens as an established international destination which has been measured in the significant increase in capacity being offered by airlines, particularly outside of Europe with the US, Middle East, and Asian markets recording the strongest development.
Budapest Airport continues to go from strength to strength and chief commercial officer Kam Jandu says the next target is a direct route to the US, writes Justin Burns for The HUB.
The lack of money invested in airport infrastructure in the US and Europe was bemoaned in session three of the World Routes Tourism Summit yesterday afternoon in Chicago, writes Justin Birns for The HUB.
Dublin Airport is continuing to dramatically grow its transfer traffic, and is solidifying its position as a significant transatlantic transfer hub. Transfer traffic at Dublin increased by 34% to more than half a million passengers in the first eight months of this year, and will set a new record this year.
Two international airports basking under 300-plus days of sunshine per year in the middle of the Eastern Mediterranean have cause to celebrate a banner year as Larnaka International Airport and Pafos International Airport together welcomed a record 11 new carriers to Cyprus in 2014 alone.
The new stores, many of which are the first of their kind to open in the UK, follow the enormous growth in long haul markets at Birmingham in the past twelve months, including direct charter flights to China and the popular Air India service to Delhi and Amritsar. These services are set to continue demand for high value retail and product innovation.
Cork Airport has entered into agreement with City Airport Bremen to launch a new FLYCORK initiative, based on the latter's successful FlyBremen model. The new portal will be a custom-built online solution for Cork Airport, its airlines and travel agent partners to generate sales and market tourism in the region.
Canada has long been a seasonal market from Dublin, but this winter the airport will boast two new year-round scheduled services to Toronto. Irish carrier Aer Lingus will operate Dublin-Toronto up to four times per week while Air Canada’s leisure brand Air Canada rouge will fly three times per week between the two cities.
The five times weekly service to Berlin Tegel and daily services to Hamburg and Oslo will commence from Sunday 26th October through to Friday 27th March, cementing Flybe’s position as Birmingham Airport’s biggest carrier.
Birmingham Airport has announced the completion of a new purpose-built transit and transfer facility, providing passengers with the UK’s fastest and most efficient option for onward connecting flights. The new facility delivers an airside connection that allows passengers to transit and transfer within the airside environment in under 45 minutes.
UK charter and airline sub-charter specialist, Titan Airways is tripling the size of its Airbus fleet with the introduction of two further Airbus A320 airliners, its commercial director, Alastair Kiernan confirmed to The HUB at World Routes in Chicago last night.
UK regional carrier Flybe had made a significant step towards resolving its legacy fleet commitmentswith a set of linked agreements with Republic Airways Holdings and Embraer, which will see it drop the majority of its outstanding orders for the E175 in favour of leasing additional Dash 8-Q400 turboprops.
The first European operator of the new Boeing 787-9, Virgin Atlantic will deploy its aircraft on routes from London Heathrow to Boston from October 28, 2014; Washington from December 17, 2014, Newark from January 19, 2015 and New York from February 28, 2015.
Shannon’s head of aviation development, Declan Power, has been attending World Routes for the past 20 years and says the event is a “must” for every airport.
Dublin Airport is celebrating its role in helping Ireland to win the right to host one of the world’s largest sporting events. Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) was one of the main supporters of Dublin’s successful bid to be a host for the Euro 2020 tournament.
Already the only UK airport to see passenger numbers grow every year since the height of the recession in 2009, Bristol is bucking the trend again by forecasting strong performance in 2015 after revealing passenger numbers are expected to hit an all time annual high of 6.3 million this calendar year.
BA will utilise a four-class Boeing 777-200ER on the route configured with 12 seats in First, 48 in Club World, 32 in World Traveller Plus and a further 127 in World Traveller. Its return to the city pair will boost capacity on the route by 22.2 per cent with weekly seats increasing to 8,449 in each direction.
This year’s route successes at Lisbon Airport are already having an impact on its traffic performance. In its latest traffic results for August 2014 passenger demand rose 15.2 per cent to 1.96 million to bring year to date numbers above the 12 million passenger threshold.
In an exclusive interview with The HUB ahead of World Routes, Aéroports de Lyon’s chief executive officer, Philippe Bernand, confirmed that international growth was the forefront of Lyon’s expectations for the year ahead as the facility seeks to grow both its short- and long-haul offering.
