Lufthansa is likely to receive the green light from Indian authorities to fly the A380 into Mumbai, but without the strong transfer traffic its current operating slot affords, it is unlikely to want to move the service to accommodate the utilisation of the larger aircraft and may have to wait up to 15 months until the airport completes work to support simultaneous A380 operations.
UK carrier Virgin Atlantic Airways is to suspend flights to Cape Town, Mumbai, Tokyo and Vancouver as it instead looks to strengthen its transatlantic partnership with shareholder Delta Air Lines. The latest network changes are part of an ongoing network review and business recovery plan to return the carrier to long-term profitability.
Our data analysis shows that bi-directional O&D demand between Nigeria and India has seen an average annual growth of 25.3 per cent over the past ten years as traffic has more than trebled from around 46,000 passengers in 2004 to just under 150,000 in 2013.
The Abu Dhabi-based airline’s first Airbus A380 will operate commercially to London Heathrow from December 2014, while its first Boeing 787-9s will debut on routes to Düsseldorf from December this year and then to Washington DC and Mumbai from January 2015.
