The new link will not only support better aircraft utilisation of Alitalia’s short-haul fleet through the sector’s night hour operation, but will also bring increased connectivity options in and out of Cyprus via its Fiumicino hub.
Alitalia will offer a four times weekly service between Rome and Beijing from July 18, 2016 using a three-class, 250-seat Airbus A330-200. The Rome – Beijing city pair market has grown over the past ten years from around 50,000 O&D passengers to over 130,000 passengers last year.
The Dutch flag carrier is understood to have already held discussions with the Ministry of Roads and Urban Developments in Iran and is closely liaising with sister carrier Air France ahead of its own return to Tehran.
Rome is the airline’s largest destination in an Italian network that also includes Catania, Milan, Olbia, Palermo, Pisa and Venice. During the summer 2016 schedule it will account for 64.7 per cent of the airline’s total departure capacity in Italy, according to OAG data, offering around 520,000 seats in and out of Rome.
Air Canada will use its leisure airline, Air Canada rouge to add flights to Budapest, Glasgow and Warsaw and resume a link to Prague last served in the 1970s, while Air Transat will offer new flights from Canada to Glasgow, Nice, Pisa, Rome and Zagreb.
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.
easyJet will open the new base at Venice Marco Polo Airport from April 2016 with four Airbus aircraft stationed at the airport. The Italian city has for some time been a key network point for easyJet, having operated flights into and out of the city since 1998. It will also introduce three more aircraft at Milan Malpensa and a fourth jet at Naples.
The start-up will inaugurate flights on April 2, 2015 with a three times weekly links to Budapest and Prague, while three times weekly flights to the Italian destinations of Milan and Rome will follow from April 3, 2015.
Turkish airline, SunExpress has recently announced its plans for a total of 21 new routes for the summer 2015 season, with departures mainly from Antalya, Dalaman, Izmir and Konya.
Over a twelve-month period, preliminary data shows a growth rate of 5.1 percent year over year, with both international and domestic traffic posting strong growth rates of 5.8 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.
The new route strategy into Italy will see airberlin introduce a new daily service from Stuttgart to Rome from March 29, 2015, operated by an Airbus A320, as well as a 17 times weekly, up to three times daily link from Stuttgart to Milan Linate from May 2015, flown by a Bombardier Dash 8-Q400. In addition, starting the same month, airberlin will expand its service on the existing Stuttgart to Venice route to a daily summer schedule.
The introduction of the second A380 into the Manchester market will mean that half of Emirates’ 16 daily flights to the UK will be operated by an A380 from the start of next month.
The low-cost Spanish airline has announced 31 new routes for its summer schedule, mainly departing from Barcelona and Rome. The airline has also announced its first destination to Northern Ireland, to operate twice weekly.
The total traffic for the four days is an increase of 36 per cent over the same period at the end of Eid Al Fitr in 2013, when 133,007 passengers took an Etihad Airways flight.
The Spanish capital city will be linked to its Addis Ababa Bole International Airport hub through Rome using a Boeing 767-300ER and will increase Ethiopian’s international network to 83 destinations covering five continents.
