Air Canada continues to strategically grow its international network at Vancouver. This new seasonal route follows the recent announcement of several enhancements at the airline's Vancouver International Airport hub for 2016, including new Transborder services to Chicago, San Jose and San Diego, double daily flights to London Heathrow, and the only flights linking Canada to Brisbane, Australia.
From the start of the Summer 2016 schedules on March 27, 2016, easyJet will introduce a new six times weekly domestic connection between Bordeaux and Marseille and a four times weekly link between Bordeaux and Berlin. A couple of weeks later a new four times weekly link from Bordeaux to Barcelona will be introduced from April 15, 2016, while a three times weekly service to Venice will follow on April 17, 2016.
The new flight will be operated by an Airbus A319 and its introduction follows a recent revision to the previously heavily restrictive bilateral between Austria and Iran following the official state visit of Austria’s President Heinz Fischer to Iran in September this year. A link to Shiraz is also understood to be under consideration by Austrian Airlines.
The low-fare carrier will introduce a three times weekly link between Bristol and its Keflavik International Airport hub from May 13, 2016 using an A320. This flight will connect via a short stopover in Reykjavik to the carrier’s long-haul flights to Baltimore, Boston and new routes starting in 2016 to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States and Montreal and Toronto in Canada.
Under its revised schedule, Oman Air will introduce second daily rotations between Muscat and Bangalore and Kochi; will boost weekly frequencies between Muscat and Lucknow from seven to eleven; will increase flights between Muscat and Jaipur to ten weekly from the current daily offering; and will add one additional weekly flight on the Muscat – Goa route to offer a daily schedule.
Under the terms of the revised agreement, designated Australian and UAE airlines will be able to operate an extra 14 weekly frequencies between the two countries from October 2016, up from the seven offered as part of a previous deal. Alongside the fast-expanding UAE national entities, this will permit Qantas and Virgin Australia to also boost its flights to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, markets its currently serves in partnership with the two Gulf carriers.
Subject to final approval and the green light from North Korean authorities, Spring Airlines will be one of only a handful of carriers to provide international flights into the North Korean market. This market has been mainly served by national carrier Air Koryo, although the likes of Air China, China Southern Airlines have offered scheduled programmes into the country with Air China currently linking Pyongyang to Beijing.
The next big event in the route development calendar is Routes Americas in February. With attention turning to the host island, Puerto Rico, it’s an opportune moment to explore how the local market is performing.
As the Official Carrier for Routes Americas 2016, Copa Airlines are offering a discount on all flights to San Juan, exclusive to Routes Americas delegates.
Denver International Airport has had a strong year post hosting Routes Americas and recently announced the return of an important European hub link to Munich with Lufthansa. Earlier this month it announced record traffic with the busiest September in Denver aviation history.
In one of the most significant brand expansion in the history of luxury travel and hospitality, Crystal Cruises will not only introduce new ships to its fleet effectively establishing three brand new classes of cruising, but also induct two commercial airliners to launch Crystal Luxury Air in 2017.
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.
The new flight will bring additional capacity into a market now controlled by British Airways after Virgin Atlantic Airways ended its own non-stop flights earlier this year. Sabre data shows an annual O&D demand of over 375,000 two-way passengers between the UK and Cape Town (around 1,030 passengers per day).
The return of the second weekly frequency, which was previously operated between April 2010 and August 2011, will be partly facilitated by funding support from the national government to the tune of K5 million ($1.7 million), which will go a long way to assist the airline in implementing the second Japan service, according to Air Niugini’s Chief Executive Officer, Simon Foo.
The announcement marks the return of the Spanish flag carrier to Puerto Rico after a three-year hiatus following a restructuring of its long-haul operations to support its business transformation programme and return to profitability. The airline ended its previous flights between Madrid and San Juan in March 2013 but the void was quickly filled by Air Europa which introduced its own twice weekly operation on the route from January 2014.
China is Sydney Airport’s fastest growing inbound visitor market and this new link will bring even more Chinese visitors to Sydney and NSW, with associated tourism and economic benefits. Hainan Airlines will be the sixth Chinese mainland airline serving destinations across mainland China, making Sydney Airport the world’s leading airport for long-haul Chinese airlines.
The new flight will be an eleven hour sector and will be operated using a Boeing 767-300ER. The Vietnamese market will initially be served on a seasonal schedule with flights planned between June and October 2016, but the carrier said there is the potential to expand the season in subsequent years.
The flight will be operated as part of American's joint business with Qantas, which remains subject to regulatory approvals. Through their enhanced relationship, American and Qantas intend to provide increased connectivity to markets beyond their key gateways.
The Supervisory Board of Austrian Airlines first approved the purchase of 17 Embraer aircraft in June 2015 with the first example being transferred across to Austrian Airlines in mid-August this year and redelivered to the carrier at the end of last month following modification work and repainting into the Austrian livery. The aircraft was originally delivered to Lufthansa CityLine in March 2011.
The introduction of the two additional return flights increases to nearly 4,200 the total number of seats available to passengers travelling by Etihad between the UAE and Morocco each week and comes as the carrier prepares to celebrate ten years of operations into the North African country.
The new flight will be the first direct offering between Singapore and the South Pacific Islands and will be operated using a 273-seat Airbus A330 configured with a two-class arrangement. The flight time of ten hours will save travellers at least three hours compared to current flight options which require a transfer stop in Australia or New Zealand.
airBaltic holds firm orders for 13 CS300s and options for a further seven aircraft and sees the CSeries as not just an efficient replacement for its older Boeing 737s, but also providing the right capacity and range to support the wider development of the business.
