With COVID-19 travel restrictions easing in parts of the world, airlines are gradually rebuilding their networks. Routes analyzes some of the services returning as well as new routes being launched. This week we look at new services from Loganair, Eastern Airlines and Air Astana.
London City Airport will reopen for passenger services toward the end of June. Like most airports, it will initially face a reduced level of service, but this will be compounded without the presence of two airlines that played a significant role prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
British Airways offered more than 4 million departure seats from London Gatwick last year, but the airline has raised the possibility of leaving the airport as it grapples with the COVID-19 crisis.
London City Airport handled a record 5.1 million passengers in 2019, a 6.3% rise over 2018 and contributing to a 42% jump in passenger throughput over the previous five years.
In the first of a two-part feature, Routesonline takes a closer look at the airports shortlisted in two categories of the Routes Europe 2019 Marketing Awards.
bmi Regional is planning to spread its wings with an expanding repertoire of routes in niche European destinations. The airline's Jochen Schnadt talks possible future partnerships, aircraft orders and avoiding Brexit chaos.
The return of KLM into London City comes at a time that capacity on the Amsterdam route is at its highest level. Amsterdam continues to be a hugely popular route for the airport, last year seeing a six per cent of passenger growth and becoming the second busiest route in terms of passenger numbers.
London’s hub airport has been given the green light for a third runway. This will be the first runway laid in the South East since the 1940s. The decision comes just three months after London City Airport was given approval for a £344 million expansion.
Following an overwhelming response from the business community, Flybe has taken the commercial decision to extend its limited series between Cardiff and London City Airport into a regular operation from this winter.
Flybe has shown its regional model and the use of efficient 78-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprops can provide sustainable air services in many UK domestic markets. It stepped in quickly earlier in the year to announce links between Cardiff and London during the six week closure of the Severn Tunnel.
Sun-Air will inaugurate an eleven-times weekly link between Bremen and Manchester and ten-times weekly operation to London City from October 31, 2016 and in the process will open a new operational base in Bremen to service the network.
With as many as 305 flights a day scheduled between UK and USA this summer, the two nations remain well connected. However, there are growing signs that the UK’s referendum vote to leave the European Union in around two years is dampening business demand and creating an uncertainty that is forcing airlines on both sides of the Atlantic to reconsider their network plans.
The inner-city London airport has been given planning permission for an extension. The £344 million investment programme includes plans for seven new aircraft stands.
The growth will be supported through the arrival of an additional 98-seat aircraft, arriving in June, will be the 20th Embraer to join the British Airways fleet at London City. The extra routes mean that BA will have its busiest ever summer at London City Airport where it will operate over half the flights, despite speculation that it could cut its operations related to a change in ownership and charges at the Docklands facility.
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.
SkyWork is initially offering a single morning weekday rotation between London City and EuroAirport (plus a Sunday rotation) from July 19, 2015, but from September 1, 2015 it will add an evening rotation and a Saturday service to boost its schedule to 12 flights per week. All flights offer a continuation service from EuroAirport to Bern.
CityJet will offer 18 flights a week on the route with three rotations every weekday, one flight on Saturdays and two every Sunday from October 1, 2015. It will be the only link between Cork and the Docklands airport and will complement the flights of Aer Lingus to Heathrow and Ryanair to Gatwick and Stansted, in the UK capital.
This ‘start up aid’ will be made available from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund which was announced by the UK government in June 2013 and is open to airports with fewer than five million passengers per year. This fund has already been partly distributed to support strategic routes to London from Newquay and Dundee but is now being extended to bids for more routes.
A recent social media report by ACI Europe shows the ways in which European airports are using social media to communicate with their customers. We’ve broken the report down to analyse each social media platform, and add some of our own insights.
