Archive for the ‘Air Routes’ Category

This month’s route news

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Here’s a round-up of August’s route news and announcements.

British Isles: South-east Airports

AIRBERLIN launches a four-times weekly Stansted-Salzburg service on 2nd December.

CSA CZECH AIRLINES in has announced that it is cancelling its services to the UK from 31st October, after 72 years’ operation.

EASYJET launches a twice-weekly Gatwick-Luxor service on 3rd November, and a four-times weekly service from Gatwick to Zagreb on 11th February.

MEXICANA has ceased operation, and with it its Gatwick service.

OLYMPIC AIR will now be operating its new Thessaloniki-London route into Gatwick rather than Heathrow. The thrice-weekly service starts at the end of October.

RYANAIR launches services Gatwick to Bergamo, Bologna, Faro, Oslo (Rygge), Porto, Rome (Ciampino) and Seville at the beginning of November. A Luton-Fuerteventura service is launched on 5th November. From Stansted, Verona is launched on 31st October, with Plovdiv following on 2nd November, Grenoble on 18th December, and Cuneo and Lourdes in early January.

SAS is launching a Saturday-only Lulea-Heathrow service on 6th November.

British Isles: Other Airports

AERLINGUS’ Cork-Manchester service will be replaced by a twice-daily AerLingus Express service on 31st October, operated by AerArann.

EASYJET will be launching four-times weekly services from Edinburgh to Cologne on 26th November. A twice-weekly Belfast-Malta service is launched on 11th February.

RYANAIR launches a twice-weekly service from Edinburgh to Fuerteventura on 31st October, and a thrice-weekly service to Gothenburg on 3rd November. A weekly Cork-Fuerteventura service is launched on 31st October.

Rest-of-World Developments

AEGEAN AIRLINES is cancelling several services this autumn from its Athens base. Internationally, Tirana ends on 13th September, and Belgrade, Venice and Vienna will cease on 31st October.

AEROLINEAS ARGENTINAS restarts its Buenos Aires-Mexico service on 11th December, on a daily basis.

AEROSVIT begins a four-times weekly Odessa-Milan service on 20th September.

AIR ASIA X launches a daily Kuala Lumpur-Seoul service on 1st November.

AIR CANADA is to maintain some of its new North American services through the coming winter. Routes from Toronto to Cincinnati, Portland and Syracuse were originally intended to be summer-only routes but will now be flown twice daily through to next year. The carrier launches a daily Vancouver-Tokyo Haneda service on 29th January.

AIR NIGERIA has launched a daily Lagos-Brazzaville service, operated via Cotonou and Douala.

ARMAVIA is introducing a twice-weekly Yerevan-Munich service on 2nd November.

CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES is resuming its service to Lagos on 31st October, with the extension of its Guangzhou-Dubai route to Nigeria’s commercial capital, three times a week.

COMAIR (British Airways franchisee) launches a five-times weekly Johannesburg-Dar es Salaam service on 2nd November.

DELTA launches a daily New York JFK-Reykjavik service on 1st June 2011.

EGYPTAIR has launched a twice-weekly service to Juba in southern Sudan, operated via Khartoum.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES is introducing its first Boeing 777 this winter on its Addis Ababa-Washington route. The service will continue to be flown via Rome westbound, but eastbound it will be operated non-stop. Frequency increases to daily.

EVA AIRWAYS is launching a twice-daily Taipei-Tokyo Haneda service on 31st October.

FLYDUBAI launches a twice-weekly Dubai-Ekaterinburg service on 31st October.

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES launches a four-times weekly Honolulu-Seoul service on 15th January.

ICELANDAIR has announced three summer-only services for next year, from Reykjavik to Billund, Gothenburg and Hamburg. Flights start in June 2011.

LAN ECUADOR launches a four-times weekly Guayaquil-Miami service on 4th October, to complement its daily service from Quito.

LAN PERU is launching a fiove-times weekly Lima-Montevideo service on 1st November.

OLYMPIC AIR is dropping its Athens-Milan Malpensa service from its winter schedule.

PACIFIC BLUE will be cancelling all its domestic services in New Zealand by 18th October.

TURKISH AIRLINES launches a four-times weekly service to Ho Chi Minh City via Bangkok on 29th December.

VUELING launches a four-times weekly Bilbao-Milan Malpensa service on 31st October.

YEMENIA is launching a thrice-weekly service to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam from Sana’a this December.

Czech Airlines Fly Off With Cash

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Czech Airlines are giving up their flights between Prague and Heathrow at the end of October, supposedly because they are not profitable. Maybe, but at one time, the airline regarded its Heathrow route as the jewel in its crown. We imagine the real reason is that the airline needs cash and can sell its prime slots for a large sum.

Each year, some well-established names are leaving Heathrow because they can generate more profit by selling the slots than by flying the route. Of course, that is market economics at its most basic but, every time it happens, it leaves Heathrow just a little poorer.

IN THE AIR – THIS MONTH’S NEWS

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Here’s a round-up of July’s route news and announcements.

British Isles: South-east Airports

AIR NEW ZEALAND is increasing its Auckland–Hong Kong–Heathrow service to daily over the coming Christmas and New Year period, between 19th December and 11th January.

BA CITYFLYER is launching an 11 times-weekly London City–Copenhagen service on 12th September.

BRITISH AIRWAYS is launching a twice-daily Heathrow–Gothenburg service on 28th November. The airline is also restoring its seventh daily Heathrow-New York JFK service on 1st December. Including its from London City, the airline will be operating nine daily services to JFK and three to Newark from this date.

British Isles: Other Airports

EASYJET will be launching a four-times weekly Edinburgh–Basel seasonal service on 3rd December, and a Liverpool–Lyon service on 18th December.

FLYBE has launched a seasonal service between Humberside and Malaga.

JET2.COM will be launching a Newcastle–Prague service on 5th November. Next year, services from Newcastle to Krakow, Alicante, Faro and Toulouse will follow. As in previous years, the airline will be operating limited-time only services to Newark from Leeds/Bradford and Newcastle in the first half of December.

RYANAIR will be operating new services from Leeds/Bradford  this winter, to Barcelona, Dusseldorf (Weeze), Gdansk and Fuerteventura. The airline’s Bournemouth services will temporarily cease at the end of October and resume on 1st February, as part of Ryanair’s spring schedule. The airline has also announced its 44th base – at Seville, opening in November. Ten new routes include a service to Gatwick.

Rest-of-World Developments

1TIME is launching a Johannesburg–Maputo service five times weekly from 12th August.

ADRIA has launched a four-times weekly Ljubljana–Banja Luka service.

AMERICAN AIRLINES launches a New York JFK–Tokyo Haneda service on 20th January.

AUSTRIAN is relaunching its Vienna–Baghdad service on 31st October, after nearly 20 years’ suspension.

CONTINENTAL AIRLINES is launching a daily Newark–Cairo service on 18th May 2011.

DELTA launches a daily Honolulu–Nagoya service on 22nd December. New services from Detroit and Los Angeles to Tokyo Haneda will be launched on 29th January .

JETSTAR is launching a daily Auckland-Melbourne service on 13th December. Twice weekly services from Melbourne and Gold Coast to Queenstown follow on 16th December.

KENYA AIRWAYS launches a twice-weekly Nairobi–Luanda service on 17th August.

LOT POLISH AIRLINES planned thrice-weekly Warsaw–Hanoi service has been postponed four weeks until 13th November.

MEXICANA is restructuring its US operation from the end of August. The carrier will be concentrating US services on its main hubs Mexico City, Cancun and Guadalajara, resulting in the cancellation of 13 routes.

OMAN AIR adds a service to Milan Malpensa on 1st November, operated four times a week via Munich.

ROYAL AIR MAROC is starting a twice-weekly service to Yaounde on 2nd November.

SATA has launched a twice-weekly Ponta Delgada–Funchal–Las Palmas service.

THAI launches a daily Bangkok–Tokyo Haneda service on 31st October.

TURKISH AIRLINES launches a five-times weekly Istanbul–Washington Dulles service on 7th November, and a four-times weekly Istanbul–Los Angeles service next March.

This month’s route news

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Here’s a round-up of June’s route news and announcements.

British Isles: South-east Airports

BRITISH AIRWAYS is cancelling its four-times weekly Gatwick-Paphos service at the end of October. Its daily Heathrow–Larnaca service will remain. On 3rd November, it launches a twice-weekly Gatwick-Cancun service.

EASYJET is launching its first route to Sweden, flying daily between Gatwick and Gothenberg from 6th September.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS has introduced a second daily service between Abu Dhabi and Heathrow.

OLYMPIC AIR is launching a daily Thessaloniki-London service on 31st October. Three flights each will fly to Heathrow, the rest landing at Gatwick. With this introduction, services from Athens will reduce from three to two daily.

TAM is operating a thrice-weekly Rio de Janeiro-Heathrow service this summer.

British Isles: Other Airports

AER LINGUS EXPRESS is launching four new services from Shannon on 1st July – to  Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol. All flights will be operated by AerArann aircraft.

AER LINGUS is suspending all its trans-Atlantic services out of Shannon between 5th January and 27th March 2011. It currently operates four services weekly to both Boston and New York JFK from the airport.

MANX2 is cancelling its Isle of Man–East Midlands service on 4th July.

SPANAIR has cancelled its plans to serve Birmingham this summer from Madrid and Barcelona.

Rest-of-World Developments

AEROMEXICO is launching a daily Mexico City-Bogota service on 5th July.

AIR FRANCE has not proceeded with its planned service to Bata, but will be continuing with its Paris CDG – Malabo service.

AIR INDIA launches a four-times weekly service to Seoul from Delhi on 1st August, via Hong Kong. The airline is returning to Australian skies on 1st November when it launches a daily Delhi-Melbourne service to Melbourne. It last served the market in 1997.

AMERICAN AIRLINES is suspending its daily Chicago-Frankfurt service this winter. This will be the first time the airline operates this route seasonally.

ANA has announced details of its planned International services out of Tokyo’s Haneda airport. From 31st October, the airline will launch daily services  to Bangkok, Honolulu, Los Angeles and Singapore, and a twice-daily service to Taipei. It also plans to convert existing international scheduled charter services to Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul  and Shanghai to scheduled operation on that date.

BELAVIA launches a thrice-weekly Minsk-Stockholm service on 3rd August.

CEBU PACIFIC launches a twice-weekly Manila-Bandar Seri Begawan service on 21st August.

CONVIASA has launched a twice-weekly Caracas-Buenos Aires service.

DELTA AIR LINES Is launching a daily service between Minneapolis-St Paul and Mexico City on 18th December. Also, the airline’s Minneapolis-St Paul-Paris CDG summer service will become a year-round operation this winter.

FINNAIR is launching a daily Helsinki-Singapore service on 30th May 2011.

GARUDA INDONESIA is resuming its daily Jakarta-Perth service on 23rd July.

IBERIA launches twice-weekly Madrid-Oran service in September,

KLM launches a thrice-daily Amsterdam-Budapest service on 31st October. It will replace the current four-times daily codeshare service operated by Malev.

LUFTHANSA is launching a Munich-Baghdad service on 30th September, and is resuming its Frankfurt-Bogota service on 31st October, to be operated five times weekly.

LOT POLISH AIRLINES launches a thrice-weekly Warsaw-Hanoi service on 18th October (as reported previously here).

OMAN AIR is launching its four-times weekly Muscat-Kathmandu service on 2nd September,

ROYAL BRUNEI AIRLINES plans to  launch a four-times weekly service from Banda Seri Begawan to Melbourne in December.

SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES has launched a twice-weekly Jeddah-Aden service, its second destination in Yemen.

TAM launches a five-times weekly Rio de Janeiro-Frankfurt service on 10th August.

TUNISAIR launches a thrice-weekly Tunis-Venice service on 31st October.

TURKISH AIRLINES will launch a four-times weekly service to Accra on 15th July, from Istanbul via Lagos.

UKRAINE INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES has cancelled its five-times weekly service to Brussels.

Esoteric route watch – 1988 redux

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

LOT Polish Airlines is re-entering the Far East market with a three-time-a-week service from Warsaw to Hanoi – the service launches on 19th October. This will be the carrier’s only destination in East Asia. So why this route? This Cold War blow-back seems a curious choice, particularly as Vietnam is at least nominally still a communist state. Why not Bangkok, Soeul, Osaka or Taipei?

Well, the new service does make some sense, even though it may still prove a foolhardy move. LOT has a less than stellar history in the region with its Beijing service being stymied a couple of years ago by lack of overflight rights with Russia. It currently serves no destination west of Beirut. In the meantime,  the competition – virtually every European long-haul airline – is already flying to Singapore, Bangkok, plus a destination or two in China or Japan. Also, Poland, itself twice the size of any other eastern EU country,  hosts Europe’s third largest Vietnamese community with a population of around 50,000. What’s more, LOT has a fleet of under-utilised Boeing 767s. All this makes Hanoi seem a less eccentric way back into the far-eastern market. So, however unlikely, Hanoi presents a niche opportunity that may yet prove a success for LOT.

Garuda back to Europe

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Garuda Indonesia restarted flights to Europe at the beginning of June after a six-year hiatus. Garuda hit the skids financially in 2004 and had to cut its European destinations.  And then in 2005 all Indonesian carriers were banned by the EU after a Mandala Airlines crash in September of that year. The ban was lifted in 2009.

After resuming a daily Jakarta-Dubai-Amsterdam service this month, Garuda plans to launch services to Rome, London, Paris and Frankfurt from February 2011. According to some sources, Garuda is rated the world’s most-improved airline. Soon we shall be able to judge for ourselves.

This month’s route news

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Here’s a round-up of May’s route news and announcements.

British Isles: South-east Airports

AIR SOUTHWEST operated its last Newquay-Plymouth-London City service on 21st May. Its service to Gatwick continues.

DELTA launches a third daily New York JFK-Heathrow service on 19th September.

ICELAND EXPRESS has delayed the introduction of its weekly summer service between Akureyri and Gatwick until next year.

IRAQI AIRWAYS has NOT launched a twice-weekly Baghdad-Gatwick service, via Malmo westbound, as previously announced.

RYANAIR launched a daily Kaunas-Gatwick service in May, and also launched services from Stansted to Fez, Figari and Fuerteventura.

TUNISAIR has launched twice-weekly services to Gatwick from Monastir and Djerba.

WIZZAIR has cancelled the launch of its Luton-Trieste service, which had been scheduled to start on 19th June.

British Isles: Other Airports

AER ARANN has launched a four-times weekly Manchester-Kerry service.

AER LINGUS started flying twice weekly between Dublin and Rennes in mid-May, until the end of August.

AMERICAN AIRLINES has launched a daily New York JFK-Manchester service.

EASYJET has launched a thrice-weekly Edinburgh-Lisbon service.

ICELAND EXPRESS has cancelled the launch of its weekly Birmingham-Reykjavik summer service.

JET2.COM launched twice-weekly services from Newcastle to Paphos and Dalaman, and from Manchester to Split, all in early May.

MANX2.COM has been appointed as the new operator of Wales’ North-South air link, and the service between Cardiff and Anglesey restarted on 10th May.

RYANAIR launched a thrice-weekly Reus-Knock service and a twice-weekly Kaunas-Edinburgh service in May.

WIZZAIR has cancelled the launch of its twice-weekly Bristol-Warsaw service, originally slated to commence on19th September.

Rest-of-World Developments

AIR ASTANA launches a thrice-weekly Almaty-Urumqi service on 2nd July.

AIR CANADA has launched four new services to the US, from Toronto to Portland ME, Syracuse, Cincinnati and Memphis.

AIR INDIA has cancelled its service to Washington DC.

AIR MALTA has launched a five-times weekly Malta-Moscow (Domodedovo) service – it already operates a weekly service to Moscow (Sheremetyevo). A twice-weekly Malta Turin service was also launched in May. A thrice-weekly summer service to Damascus starts on 7th June.

AIRBALTIC launches a twice-weekly Riga-Arkhangelsk service on 3rd July.

ARMAVIA is adding four destinations this summer, to Larnaca, Tehran, Thessaloniki and Warsaw, and also resuming its service to Tbilisi.

AUSTRIAN AIRLINES resumes its Vienna-Mumbai service on 31st October, operated five times weekly.

CONTINENTAL AIRLINES has announced its first new service using Boeing 787 aircraft –  between Houston and Auckland, starting in November 2011.

EGYPTAIR launches a thrice-weekly Cairo-Copenhagen service on 1st October.

FINNAIR launches a ten-times weekly Helsinki-Stuttgart service on 16th August, operated by Finncomm Airlines.

GARUDA INDONESIA is resuming a daily Jakarta–Perth service on 23rd July.

IBERIA launches a thrice-weekly Madrid-Cordoba service on 1st October. This is the first non-stop service from Europe to the Argentinian city.

KENYA AIRWAYS launches a daily service from to Juba in southern Sudan on 7th June.

LAN ARGENTINA has moved three of its eight daily Buenos Aires-Santiago services from Ministro Pistarini to Jorge Newbury airport.

LOT POLISH AIRLINES launches a twice-weekly Warsaw-Yerevan service on 1st July.

ROYAL AIR MAROC launches a twice-weekly Casablanca-Moscow (Sheremetyevo) service on 2nd November.

TAP PORTUGAL launches a thrice-weekly Lisbon-Sao Paulo (Viracopos) service on 3rd July. It already operates 11 weekly flights to Sao Paulo (Guarulhos).

TURKISH AIRLINES is launching a thrice-weekly Istanbul-Entebbe-Dar es Salaam service and a four-times weekly Istanbul-Alexandria service on in mid-June.

US AIRWAYS launched a daily Charlotte-Rome (Fiumicino) service in May.

Volcanic ash fallout close to source

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Ironically, over the last six weeks or so Iceland has got off remarkably lightly from the disruption caused by its temperamental volcano Eyjafjall. Now, however, the fallout begins to settle. Icelandair’s forward bookings are a staggering 75% DOWN on previous years and Iceland Express has delayed its new Gatwick-Akureyri service until 2011. The airline also appears to have pulled its Birmingham-Reykjavik service, due for launch 6th June.

However, for the intrepid traveller tempted to visit Ultima Thule, there is a silver lining to this dire situation: 1) Iceland remains comparatively affordable since the 2008 crash, 2) there is a conveniently accessible world-class volcano belching in the background, and 3) you’ll have the place to yourself. In other words, there’s never been a better time to visit!

By the way, there are some great pix here.

Airbus A380 Sampler

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

This summer, anyone wanting to experience Airbus’ mega jumbo, the A380, won’t have to travel Dubai, Singapore or Sydney to try it out. Air France plans to fly the doubledecker at least three times a week between Paris CDG and Heathrow, starting on 12th June until the end of August. The reason given is crew training – make of that what you will.

This month’s route news

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Here’s a round-up of April’s route news and announcements.

British Isles: South-east Airports

AIR FRANCE is launching two seasonal services from London City this summer, to Deauville from 24th June, operated four times a week, and to Brive thrice weekly from 25th June. Services are operated by Cityjet.

FLYBE launched a thrice-weekly Gatwick-Limoges service at the end of March. A six-times weekly Gatwick-Nantes service will start on 15th July.

British Isles: Other Airports

CONTINENTAL AIRLINES will be cancelling its daily Newark–Bristol service on 7th November.

FLYBE’s summer schedule offers many new routes (some previously mentioned), all were launched on 28th March unless otherwise stated. The new services are from Birmingham to Avignon, Limoges, Perpignan, and Rennes, all thrice weekly, and Bordeaux (four times weekly); Edinburgh to Manston (daily), and Limoges (twice weekly); Exeter to Hannover (thrice weekly); Guernsey to Belfast (twice weekly from 14th July to 28th August), Edinburgh (thrice weekly from 13th July to 31st August), Newcastle (twice weekly) and Norwich (weekly); Humberside to Belfast (four times weekly) and Malaga (weekly), Isle of Man to Bristol (four times weekly); Jersey to Prestwick (weekly from 19th June to 18th September) and Durham Tees Valley (weekly from 29th May to 18th September; Manchester to Avignon (twice weekly), Bournemouth (six times weekly), Bergerac (thrice weekly) and Limoges (thrice weekly); Newcastle to Hannover (thrice weekly); and from Southampton to Verona once a week.

MANX2.COM has been appointed as the new operator of the Cardiff-Angelsey service for seven months. It will commence flying the route on 10th May.  The Welsh Assembly Government will shortly be undertaking a further tendering exercise at the European level to appoint an operator for a four-year contract. the service had been provided by Highland Airways until earlier this year.

SPANAIR launches a five-times weekly Barcelona-Edinburgh service on 21st May.

VUELING starts a thrice-weekly Barcelona–Edinburgh service on 24th June, in direct competition to Spanair (see above).

Rest-of-World Developments

AIRBALTIC launches a twice weekly Riga–Arkhangelsk service on 3rd July.

AVIANCA launches a twice-weekly Bogotá–Medellin–Madrid service on 3rd July, which will increase overall frequency between Bogotá and Madrid to 15 weekly.

CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES is to launch a Guangzhou–Brisbane–Auckland service this autumn.

KENYA AIRWAYS will launch a thrice-weekly Nairobi–Muscat service on 3rd June, extending onward to Dubai.

KLM will launch a thrice-weekly Amsterdam-Hangzhou service on 8th May.

LAN ARGENTINA is moving three of its eight daily Buenos Aires–Santiago de Chile services from Ministro Pistarini airport (EZE) to Jorge Newbury (AEP) from 10th May.

LAN CHILE launches a thrice-weekly service to Paris CDG on 2nd September, operated via Madrid.

LUFTHANSA launched a four-times weekly Frankfurt-Erbil route at the end of April, marking the resumption of service to Iraq after 20 years’ suspension.

PIA PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES has cancelled its planned twice-weekly Lahore–Dhaka–Guangzhou service, that had been due to start on 28th April.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES launches a twice-daily Singapore-Tokyo (Haneda) service on 31st October.

WATANIYA AIRWAYS launches its first two routes to Europe this spring. A thrice-weekly Kuwait-Rome service is launched on 31st May, followed on 2nd June by a thrice-weekly Kuwait-Vienna service.