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.
Saudi Arabian low-cost carrier flynas has an ambitious long-haul expansion strategy, underpinned by new flights to the UK, writes Justin Burns for our sister magazine Routes News.
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.
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.
El Al has responded to the opening of the skies between Israel and the European Union with newly launched low-cost brand UP, reports Martin Rivers for our sister magazine, Routes News.
The independent Swiss regional carrier says the move to the "customer friendly” Southend Airport from October 26, 2014 at the start of the winter season will enable it to modify its schedule and provide better flight times for corporate travellers.
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 and New York from February 28, 2015.
Afriqiyah Airways and Libyan Airlines have suspended plans for a merger as the two flag carriers' home market struggles to contain a simmering civil war as worsening violence across the North African country steadily encroaches into the aviation sector in 2014.
In 2004, airlines offered 7.7 million seats from Lisbon Airport but this rose to just under ten million seats last year, a 27.7 per cent rise. This year, based on existing published schedules, the airport will surpass the ten million figure for the first time with capacity set to rise 7.8 per cent.
The company, which made a formal licence application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in April 2014, will follow in the footsteps of L’Avion and Open Skies in offering a product tailored to the premium market from the Parisian capital using Boeing 757-200 equipment.
The sale of the slot pair for the carrier’s daily Larnaca service - flights CY346 and CY347 - will result in Cyprus Airways switching its London operations to Stansted Airport from September 14, 2014.
The airline, like many other low-cost carriers, has been actively studying the launch of long-haul services across the Atlantic and this route is seen as WestJet testing the water before expanding its activities further.
The two new routes stretch from the north of Scotland with a new daily Inverness – Dublin service, to the south of England with a daily Southampton – Hamburg link, both of which will launch from October 26, 2014 at the start of the winter schedules.
Under the revised timetable, Qatar Airways will continue to operate four rotations per week on the Doha – Budapest – Zagreb linked flight routing using an Airbus A321, but every Monday, Friday and Saturday will operate separate flights to both Budapest and Zagreb.
The Star Alliance member will offer a three times weekly service on the route during the winter 2014/2015 schedule serving Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 2, also known as The Queen's Terminal, where it will take up residency from June 18, 2014.
The new flight between Helsinki and Nizhny Novgorod International Airport will commence from July 25, 2014, while Samara’s Kurumoch International Airport will be served from the Finnish capital from August 7, 2014 and the Kazan International Airport flight will follow from August 18, 2014.
United Airlines operates 34 flight arrivals and departures from new Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport on opening day (june 4, 2014) linking the London gateway with six destinations in the United States: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington Dulles.
The oneworld alliance member will launch a daily service between Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi from December 1, 2014 using an Airbus A320 configured with 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy Class. The service, which remains subject to government and regulatory approvals will be airberlin’s sole medium-haul link from Stuttgart, a market it currently mainly links to Mediterranean leisure destinations.
