South African carrier Comair has been operating for over 70 years and has shown over the past two decades that you can successfully operate both a full service and budget operation in Africa, albeit under two very separate brands.
The independent Swiss regional carrier says the move to the "customer friendly” Southend Airport from October 26, 2014 at the start of the winter season will enable it to modify its schedule and provide better flight times for corporate travellers.
On the domestic front the carrier will introduce twice daily flights to San Antonio from October 2, 2014 and a daily link to Tampa from November 6, 2014, while a daily international service to Edmonton and twice daily offering to Vancouver, both in Canada, will also start on October 2, 2014.
KwaZulu-Natal is home to South Africa's second largest economy and, situated on the strategically important east coast, the Province boasts two of Africa's major seaports. The host region is an area that fully understands the important role aviation plays in economic development and how an airport can become a driver for growth through enhanced air connectivity.
The first European operator of the new Boeing 787-9, Virgin Atlantic will deploy its aircraft on routes from London Heathrow to Boston from October 28, 2014; Washington from December 17, 2014 and New York from February 28, 2015.
The launch of the route has been supported by aviation consultancy ASM, part of UBM Live, which highlighted the opportunity to serve the Guyana – New York market to the US operator and brokered the deal on behalf of Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
The airline plans to introduce a three times weekly link between Lima and the historical city of Ayacucho from October 1, 2014 and a daily link between Lima and the northern beach destination of Talara from November 1, 2014. Both routes will be served with Airbus A319 equipment.
VIDEO: After fastjet’s announcement at Routes Africa that it will introduce flights between Dar es Salaam and Harare, David Chawota, chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe CAA is confident more air services will follow.
Air New Zealand has accelerated the purchase of a 15th domestic Airbus A320 to allow improvements to its Dunedin-Auckland schedule from March 2015 with the operation of an earlier direct return service between the two cities.
Despite confirming its intention to establish a new Kenyan budget airline business following the disposal of Fly540 Kenya, fastjet remains quiet over its plans for the venture and simply confirms that further information on the airline’s conception will be announced in due course.
Alongside targeting the large diasporas that left the country almost a decade ago and its strongest markets of Europe and North America, Zimbabwe’s growth strategy will be underpinned by forays into markets such as China and India.
Equatorial Congo Airlines, which operates under the brand ECAir, is set to add to its medium- and long-haul network from 2015 as it prepares for the arrival of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the final quarter of next year.
The annual Routes awards are highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline network planning community.
