This new slot pair has been reportedly purchased from Air France-KLM and will provide an early morning scheduling option for the Middle East carrier and allow it to introduce a second daily rotation on the Muscat – London city pair.
The airline’s current three times weekly Jakarta – London Gatwick operation, which acts as a continuation of flights from the Indonesian capital to Amsterdam, will grow to a five times weekly schedule when the move to Heathrow takes place from March 31, 2016 as it draws on SkyTeam alliance transfer flows via the hub airport to bring additional passenger flows onto the city pair.
Extra capacity has helped to grow passenger demand between Dublin and London by 9% over the last calendar year, with almost 4.5 million people flying between the two capital cities in 2015.
Garuda’s plans to introduce non-stop flights to Europe have been restricted by limited runway capacity at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, with the pavement classification number (PCN) of the runways and apron at Soekarno-Hatta Airport not meeting the required level of strength that is typically needed for the operation of a full capacity, heavy duty commercial airliner such as the Boeing 777-300ER.
Although flybe currently provides Inverness with a hub link via the KLM network from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the new London route will be particularly important for Scottish businesses looking for improved access to global markets and will open up new economic opportunities for the Highlands region and potential inward investment.
The arrival of additional Dreamliner aircraft has enabled Air Canada to grow its long-haul network directly with the modern generation airliner, while also redeploying older aircraft assets into its Air Canada rouge leisure division to bring further new routes. The airline will have a fleet of 21 aircraft by 2016 (it has 37 on order) and is accelerating the conversion of existing routes to Dreamliner service from Toronto to Asia, Europe and South America.
Irish flag carrier, Aer Lingus, a recent addition to the IAG portfolio, is to launch flights between Dublin and Los Angeles, Newark, and Hartford during the summer 2016 schedule, while British Airways will relaunch its New York operation from London Gatwick after a seven-year hiatus.
Air India is one of three airlines to serve the Delhi – London market alongside British Airways, Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways and which together will offer a total of seven daily flights from this winter – Air India three, British Airways two and Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways with single daily rotations.
The type is debuting from this month on the Incheon – Frankfurt route with a three times weekly rotation on the KE905/906 flight from September 2, 2015, replacing a 777-300ER. This will increase to a daily deployment from October 1, 2015.
Delta and Virgin Atlantic are showing that their anti-trust immune joint venture across the Atlantic is yielding new routes that previously may not have been viable.
The airline will replace a Boeing 777-300ER on the carrier’s EK011/012 between Dubai International and London Gatwick with a three-class A380 from January 1, 2016 meaning all three of its rotations to Gatwick and five daily flights to Heathrow will be flown with the SuperJumbo from the start of 2016.
While Vancouver will be the first Canadian destination to be served by British Airways (BA) with the A380, it will be the fourth destination in North America linked to London by the SuperJumbo after Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, and from October this year, Miami. BA also use the type on flights to Hong Kong, Johannesburg and Singapore.
British Airways has announced it will introduce its first Boeing 787-9 into its fleet in September 2015 and will initially deploy the larger Dreamliner variant on its route between London Heathrow and Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India from the start of the winter 2015/2016 schedule in late October.
The resumption of direct flights between Georgia and the UK should be among the main route development targets for the United Airports of Georgia team, according to a senior executive at Adjara Group Hospitality, the fastest growing, privately held owner and management company in the Georgian hospitality industry. It has been over two years since there were direct flights between Georgia and the UK.
The arrival of the first A330-200 marks the latest stage of a fleet-renewal programme which will eventually include the arrival of new A350s and Boeing 777-300ERs. In February 2014, Kuwait Airways announced the lease of 12 Airbus aircraft including seven A320ceo (with first deliveries commencing late last year) and five A330-200s in addition to the purchase of 25 aircraft including 10 A350-900 and 15 A320neo Family aircraft.
Icelandair has opened reservations for the return of the Boeing 767 to its scheduled operations. The airline will use the aircraft on a single flight to London Heathrow on April 1, 2016 and then on daily rotations to the UK capital and New York JFK International from April 15, 2016.
An additional ten airports worldwide have been added to the approved list of airports to offer preclearance facilities to passengers travelling to the US.
The route switch follows agreements earlier this year for SAS to dispose of two of its slot pairs at the heavily constrained Heathrow Airport for a combined positive earnings impact of $82 million. The first slot pair was sold to an unidentified carrier for $60 million, while the second was sold to Star Alliance partner, Turkish Airlines for $22 million.
According to the airport’s chief executive officer, John Holland-Kaye, there are more than 30 airlines currently seeking access to London Heathrow, an issue that will only be overcome with further expansion at the heavily slot constrained facility.
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.
The measures outlined by Heathrow’s management would boost the seven existing domestic routes served from the airport (Aberdeen, Belfast City, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle), offering the potential for better timed and more frequent flights, but also the introduction of direct flights from nine other domestic airports not currently served by Heathrow, meaning that a total of at least 16 regional airports will have the opportunity of direct links to the UK’s hub.
Equitable access for the UK's regions must be a key consideration when the case for future runway capacity in the South East is determined this summer, Lord John Shipley, Chair of the National Connectivity Task Force, will announce later today when its independent report is published.
