It has been a busy first quarter for Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport in the UK with new flights announced by Wizz Air to Bucharest and Riga and from Links Air to Belfast and the Isle of Man.
easyJet has agreed a new seven year deal with London Gatwick Airport from April 2014 which will incentivise the airline to grow at the airport under the new ‘commitments’ framework which replaces the current regulatory regime.
The airline, backed by businessman Ovidiu Tender, who runs a group of geological, oil and gas exploration and tourism companies, recently revealed plans to launch its own scheduled operations in Romania under the Fly Romania operational brand and this African contract further diversifies and expands its product offering.
Canadian leisure carrier Air Canada rouge is to expand its operations into Western Canada to serve a number of predominantly leisure markets from Vancouver and Calgary to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Anchorage.
Epic Air aims to bring low-cost travel to the country and will launch services with an initial fleet of two Boeing 737-800s, according to sources close to the carrier. The launch of the new business, which is reportedly headed by former Regent Airways’ chief executive, Imran Asif, comes at a time of significant change in the Bangladesh aviation market.
UK low-fare carrier Flybe is to open six new routes to destinations across Benelux and Northern Europe from Southend Airport after agreeing a franchising agreement with Stobart Air, the new corporate name for Irish regional carrier Aer Arann.
Winter 2014/2015 network growth at London Stansted and Dublin clearly illustrates how Ryanair is adapting its business model and alongside new routes is building frequencies across its network to better serve the business market while also attracting stronger leisure flows.
Bordered by Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, Djibouti has an economy that is largely concentrated in the service sector and the country has limited international air services – a void Qatar Airways hopes to fill with its expanding international network of routes via its Doha hub.
South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines will launch regional passenger operations with the Airbus A380 in the middle of June and will then deploy the aircraft on its scheduled route between Seoul Incheon and Los Angeles from August this year.
Jetstar Airways will close its Singapore – Auckland flight from July 21, 2014 because the service is not performing as the carrier would have liked and it believes its capacity could be better deployed on other routes.
Marseille Provence Airport is eyeing destinations across the UK and Scandinavia and an expansion of flights to long-haul leisure markets as potential targets for discussions with airlines at the forthcoming Routes Europe, which is being hosted in the southern French city at the start of next month.
Air traffic between the EU and ASEAN has been growing steadily in recent years and has nearly doubled over the last 15 years to reach more than 10 million passengers in 2012.
