Brussels will be Emirates’ 147th destination. The non-stop service will be operated by a Boeing 777 in a three-class configuration. Emirates will be the first international airline to offer a First Class product from Brussels to the Middle East and Asia.
The move to introduce these routes is part of the UK’s largest tour operator’s strategy to ensure customers across the UK can fly from their local airport. There are also frequency increases enabling customers more choice and the ability to book a mix of seven, ten, eleven or 14 night holidays rather than the existing week and fortnight options.
Cambridge is one of the UK’s fastest growing economic cities but its close vicinity to Stansted Airport means it has previously found it difficult to secure and sustain regular air services.
The first of 13 aircraft it has on order, Qatar Airways is set to receive three A380 aircraft in quick succession this summer and the new aircraft will commence operations on the ‘QR003’ and ‘QR004’ rotations to and from London Heathrow.
In its formal application for an Exemption and Foreign Air Carrier Permit, Dreamjet confirms it plans to offer an all-Business Class service between Paris and Newark from the second half of June 2014 but has plans to expand its transatlantic network and “possibly add flights” from other European cities in the future.
The majority of the eleven widebodies will be sourced from International Lease Finance Coporation (ILFC) and will enable earlier delivery slots than if they had been acquired directly from the manufacturer. The lessor will supply three A330-200s from 2014 and the five A350-900s in 2017.
The number of Northern Ireland residents using Dublin Airport increased by eleven per cent to more than 570,000 last year, growing about twice as fast as average passenger numbers at the airport.
As first revealed by The HUB at the end of last month, UK low-fare carrier Flybe is to inaugurate five new routes from London City Airport from the start of the winter schedules in late October 2014.
With this expansion Wizz Air will grow its Polish fleet to 16 Airbus A320 aircraft in the summer peak of 2014: five based aircraft in Gdansk and Katowice, four in Warsaw Chopin Airport and one aircraft in Poznan and Wroclaw.
European regional carrier Etihad Regional has launched a twice-weekly service linking Geneva in Switzerland, and Toulouse in southwestern France, its first year-round route to France from its Swiss base. The inaugural service, operated using a 50-seat Saab 2000 touched down at Toulouse’s Blagnac Airport at 4:40pm on April 17, 2014.
Irish budget carrier Ryanair has announced a new link between Paris Beauvais and Figari Corsica operating from June 2, 2014 to October 24, 2014, initially operating four times weekly, increasing to six times weekly in August.
The new links to Ibiza, Palma and Reykjavik will depart Birmingham late at night and return in the early hours of the morning, supporting the carrier’s plans to enhance fleet utilisation.
Qatar Airways is to introduce a non-stop link to the popular Indonesian leisure destination of Bali this summer. The direct link to Denpasar will reduce journey times to a destination that has seen growing demand from across the Qatar Airways network over the past couple of years.
The resumed Gulf Air service between Athens and Bahrain will offer passengers improved connections between Greece and Bahrain. When the route was previously flown by the carrier up to 11,000 annual bi-directional O&D passengers flew between the two countries.
Every year almost two million passengers fly between Kazakhstan and Europe, a market that the airline sees a good potential for further growth in the years ahead having grown 51.3 per cent in the past five years.
As part of a commercial cooperation agreement between Cargolux and HNCA, the freight carrier intends to develop a dual-hub strategy centered on Luxembourg’s Findel airport in Europe and on Zhengzhou’s Xinzheng International Airport in Asia.
During the 2014/2015 winter schedule from October 26, 2014 until March 28, 2015, Air France will deploy the A380 on three weekly rotations between its Paris hub and Abdijan.
Since commencing operations at Glasgow Airport on April 10, 2004, Emirates has carried over 2.4 million passengers across its global network, which now covers 141 destinations. Emirates currently offers over 43,000 passenger seats per month to and from Glasgow, following the upgrade of its second daily service to a Boeing 777 in 2012.
