Qatar Airways next year celebrates the tenth anniversary of its debut in the Hong Kong market having first launched flights from Doha in March 2006. The airline previously served the Doha – Hong Kong route on a twice daily basis introducing a second rotation in December 2011 and second daily service in September 2012, but scaled-back its own operations in 2014 at the time of Cathay Pacific’s entry to the market.
The introduction of a scheduled link from Manchester to China has been under discussion for a long time and there has been increased speculation over the past couple of years that an agreement is imminent. There was a suggestion that a route would have been launched this year, but issues with the crewing of its Airbus A330 fleet is understood to have delayed a final deal being agreed with Hainan Airlines.
At the launch of its summer 2016 schedule, Brussels Airlines confirms new routes will be introduced from Brussels to Belfast City, Crete, Jerez, while new winter routes to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria and Tenerife will be continued into the summer.
The Barcelona-headquartered carrier, established by the original founders of Vueling, has developed bases in France, Italy and Spain after first launching flights in April 2012 from Marco Polo Airport in Venice, Italy using a fleet of Boeing 717-200s. It arrived in the Bordeaux market in 2012 and based on this month’s schedules the city’s Mérignac Airport now the fifth largest point in its network and second largest in France after Nantes Atlantique Airport.
The return of Africa’s largest carrier to the southern city, its third destination in South Africa, can be directly linked to recent World Routes forums, and of course, the hosting of this year’s event in Durban.
Air India is one of three airlines to serve the Delhi – London market alongside British Airways, Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways and which together will offer a total of seven daily flights from this winter – Air India three, British Airways two and Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways with single daily rotations.
The granting of the ASL clears the way for fastjet Kenya to commence the application process for an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) which, once received, will allow the airline to operate domestic flights within Kenya. However, it will remain a long, and arduous journey before the budget airline begins flights.
Alan Joyce, Chief Executive Officer, Qantas has highlighted in a article has written in the Business Section of the Herald Times this week that while there’s no doubt that the switch from construction to production in the resources sector, and the big drop in commodity prices, represents a major shift for Australia's economy, he believes it provides a great opportunity for its tourism industry.
The arrival of the single 737-800 will facilitate the introduction of new links to Corfu from Birmingham, Bratislava, Budapest, Cologne, Rome, Katowice, Poznan, Pisa, Rzeszow, Venice and Warsaw Modlin as well as enable increased frequencies on its existing routes from Brussels Charleroi, East Midlands, London Stansted and Milan Bergamo.
The creators of the bestselling video game Minecraft are to start an airline, according to Swedish media reports. Markus Persson and Jakob Porser have registered a new company with the purpose of leasing aircraft.
United currently has 22 787s in its fleet and will receive three more before the end of this year. These include a mix of 787-8 and larger 787-9 variants which allow the carrier to fit the right-sized aircraft to its existing and new markets. The aircraft is being used at San Francisco International Airport to support the growth of United hub operation from where it provides nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
If the speculation is true, Aer Lingus will be the only airline offering a direct flight between Europe and Hartford Bradley International Airport, branded as the ‘Gateway to New England’. In fact the airline will be the sole carrier to serve the facility from outside North America with existing links limited to just domestic services in the US and flights into Canada.
Flight schedules for a new five times weekly link from Frankfurt have already been loaded into the GDS for launch in late April 2016, just a week before British Airways launches its new London - San José operation.
China Southern announced in August that it would commence a three times weekly link between Guangzhou and Christchurch from December 15, 2015 operated using a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. This was originally displaying just for the winter schedule, but last month reservations were opened for the route to continue through the summer 2016 schedule.
Optimised for non-stop flights to the US, the aircraft, designated A350-900ULR (Ultra-Long Range), will include a modified fuel system to increase the fuel carrying capacity, an increase in Maximum Take-Off Weight, plus aerodynamic improvements, enabling service to the US West Coast, as well as to New York.
The new Adelaide route will be flown using Qatar Airways’ new Airbus A350-900 and will boost its Australian capacity to 28 flights a week. The airline’s Gulf rival, Emirates Airline already serves Adelaide from Dubai International Airport with flights since November 2012; now operating daily using a Boeing 777-300ER.
The new air link will be introduced from December 18, 2015 and will be operated on a twice weekly basis using a mix of Boeing 737 and Embraer 190 equipment. The flights will operate from Kharkiv on Tuesdays and Fridays and from Kutaisi on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The Gulf carrier received its first aircraft from the US manufacturer on October 7, 2015 and the aircraft entered service in the early hours of October 11, 2015 on the WY901 rotation between Muscat and Salalah. It operated three return flights on the route that day and is scheduled to repeat that schedule today (October 12, 2015) and through to the end of the month.
Numerous new flights from Vienna have already been published for the summer 2016 schedule including expanded offerings from based carrier, Austrian Airlines, as well as NIKI, SunExpress, Transavia and Vueling. The airport has also attracted the return of two seasonal operators in the form of Aegean Airlines and Europe Airpost, the latter soon to be rebranded as ASL Airlines.
WATCH exclusive content from this year's World Routes Strategy Summit. Here we highlight how new aircraft technology is allowing airlines to differentiate their offerings and enhance their competitive edge from the 'Airline Challenges & Growth Concerns' panel session.
The low-fare airline will introduce new year-round scheduled holiday flights from Norwich to Alicante and Malaga from March 2016, with the addition of Geneva expected later in 2016. The partnership will see one of Flybe’s stored Embraer E195 jets return to the skies, and planning is already underway to maximise its use by the airport.
