anna.aero - Airline network news & analysis

Beijing Treble: BCIA takes all three top route development prizes in 2nd Asian ANNIES

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:07:40 +0000

Award season is here. The time has come for the second annual Asian ANNIES, awarded to airports and airlines for their route development achievements in the Asia-Pacific region. But which airport takes the most awards? Which airline has launched the most long-haul routes? And which is the biggest new airline in the region? Award season is here. Worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as the Oscars, Grammy Awards and the Golden Globes is of course anna.aero’s ANNIE prizes. The time has come for the second annual Asian ANNIES, awarded to airports and airlines for their achievements in the [...]

Just a week after Malev’s demise, many airlines have already responded with new Budapest services

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:07:39 +0000

Just one week after Malev ceased operating we’ve compiled a list of some 44 new services that have already been announced. This includes 26 by Ryanair which at present are still not 100% confirmed. But which other carriers have stepped up and which country markets look set to benefit most? Just one week on from Malév’s collapse Budapest airport is already seeing promising signs of recovery as airlines have been quick to respond to the opportunities presented. anna.aero has compiled a handy summary table of those services that have been announced in the last seven days. There are likely to [...]

Panama: the one airport – one airline set up

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:07:37 +0000

With Spanair’s demise, Star Alliance might have lost its footing in Spain, but its Americas network is soon to be strengthened by Panama’s Copa joining in. But just how dominant is the flag carrier at its Hub Americas in Panama City? How big is the European market out of Panama and which alliance does not serve the country at all? And who moves the country’s domestic traffic if Copa doesn’t? Previous anna.aero analyses have looked at Panama’s remarkably profitable Copa Airlines at two occasions in 2008 and 2010, but with the carrier gearing up for Star Alliance accession later this [...]

Ryanair announces eight routes to Warsaw Modlin; seven of them compete directly or indirectly with Wizz Air

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:07:36 +0000

Finally it seems that Ryanair and Wizz Air are going to find themselves fighting for the same passengers. Ryanair’s just announced eight new routes to Warsaw Modlin place it on a collision course with Wizz Air. Which destinations will see direct competition and which cities are both airlines serving but from different airports? Let battle commence. It seems that Warsaw Modlin is to be location for the first major head-to-head confrontation between Ryanair and Wizz Air for the hearts and minds (and cash) of Polish travellers and those wanting to visit Warsaw. After Wizz Air last week announced a four [...]

New airline routes launched (31 January – 6 February 2012)

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:07:33 +0000

Over 30 new routes launched during the last week. But which six destinations have MEB3 carriers added to their global networks? Which two new markets has Azul entered in Brazil? Which airlines responded fastest to Malev’s collapse in Budapest by starting new routes this week, and which airline has switched airports in Moscow? The rest of this week’s new routes

AEA member airlines report passenger growth of 7.1% in 2011; load factors down from 77.9% to 77.3%

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:07:32 +0000

Europe’s flag carriers had a fairly decent 2011 in terms of passenger growth. But which geographic markets performed best and worst? Which airlines grew fastest in terms of passengers and ASKs? And which carriers improved their load factors the most? Which four carriers managed to achieve greater than 80% load factors for the whole year? Latest data from the 30 members of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) which report traffic data (this does not include airberlin and Olympic Air) shows that passenger numbers in 2011 were up 7.1% to almost 363 million. Capacity (ASKs) is up 8.9% while traffic [...]

Testing times at BER

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:07:29 +0000

The boss of Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt talked to us during the first day of operational readiness testing involving 250 volunteer ‘passengers’. We wanted to know how the new airport improves Berlin as a proposition for airlines – purely from a route development point of view. 30-second interview: Prof. Dr. Rainer Schwarz, CEO, Berlin Airports The first Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer (ORAT) testing involving 250 volunteer ‘passengers’ took place at Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt (BER) yesterday. The trial passengers checked-in for three ‘flights’ – one each for Berlin’s three biggest airlines: Lufthansa to Frankfurt, airberlin to Oslo [...]

flydubai makes Taif seventh destination in Saudi Arabia

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:58:11 +0000

flydubai launches three-weekly flights from Dubai to Taif, near Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. flydubai has launched services from Dubai (DXB) to Taif (TIF), located not far from Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the airline’s seventh destination in that country following Abha (November 2010), Dammam (July 2011), Gassim (January 2011), Jeddah (May 2011), Riyadh (May 2011) and Yanbu (January 2011). Flights will operate three times weekly (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) with the low-cost airline’s single fleet of 189-seat 737-800s. flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said: “We are grateful to the Saudi authorities for their continued support of flydubai. Taif marks our seventh [...]

Skymark Airlines adds Fukuoka link from Tokyo Narita

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:58:05 +0000

Skymark Airlines starts double-daily Narita – Fukuoka service to compete with ANA and JAL’s three daily flights. Complements existing Haneda – Fukuoka service. Skymark Airlines continues to expand its Japanese domestic network with the introduction from 1 February of double daily flights between Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Fukuoka (FUK) with its 737-800s. Direct competition is provided by ANA and JAL who both operate the route with each three daily flights. This becomes Skymark’s fifth domestic route from Narita in addition to the eight domestic destinations it serves non-stop from Tokyo Haneda, including Fukuoka. Competition between Tokyo Haneda and Fukuoka is [...]

OLT Jetair steps in to replace Cirrus Airlines on Zurich – Dresden route

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:57:43 +0000

OLT Jetair launches triple daily flights between Zurich and Dresden using Saab 2000. Route was previously served by now grounded Cirrus Airlines. OLT Jetair, the German-Polish regional airline, has introduced service between Zurich (ZRH) and Dresden (DRS), following the collapse of Cirrus Airlines, which had been operating the route until late-January. OLT Jetair will offer three daily flights on weekdays as well as a single Sunday service providing a total of 16 weekly departures in each direction on the 80 minute journey using 50-seat Saab 2000 aircraft. This represents a significant increase in capacity on the route as Cirrus Airlines [...]

MASwings launches international flights within the island of Borneo

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:57:29 +0000

MASwings adds three new regional services using ATR72s. MASwings, the regional subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines that launched in October 2007, has introduced new international services from Kota Kinabalu (BKI) and Kuching (KCH) to Bandar Seri Begawan (BWN), the capital of Brunei. The Kota Kinabalu route is less than 200 kilometres and is served twice-daily with the airline’s ATR72s. The Kuching service operates three times weekly. Brunei is also connected to Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, by AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines and Royal Brunei Airlines. MASwings’ third new route this week is between Kuching (KCH) and Pontianak (PNK) on the Indonesian side of [...]

LAN Peru links Lima with Havana

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:57:23 +0000

LAN Peru starts three times weekly service between Lima and Cuba with A319s. Will compete with TACA. LAN Peru joined TACA in connecting Lima (LIM) with Havana (HAV), the capital of Cuba, on 2 February. LAN Peru will operate the route three times weekly (TACA offers six weekly flights) using an A319. LAN previously operated flights to Havana from Santiago in Chile, but dropped the route in April last year, having been operated continuously since 1999.

LAN Colombia links Bogota to Miami with four weekly flights

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:57:17 +0000

LAN Colombia becomes fifth LAN carrier to serve Miami. LAN Colombia launched non-stop flights between Bogotá (BOG) and Miami (MIA) on 1 February. The route will be served four times weekly with A320 aircraft and will face competition from American Airlines (three daily flights) and Avianca (two daily flights). The airline is the newest affiliate of the growing LAN family of passenger airlines serving Miami that also includes LAN Chile, LAN Ecuador, LAN Argentina and LAN Peru. Miami is the only US airport with service by all five carriers within the LAN group.

IndiGo adds new routes from Ahmedabad and Bangalore

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:56:58 +0000

IndiGo launches two new domestic routes to help maintain domestic market share growth. IndiGo, the low-cost airline that had a 20.4% share of the Indian domestic market in December, has introduced two new non-stop routes with its A320s. It now offers daily flights between Ahmedabad (AMD) and Goa (GOI), competing directly with SpiceJet. The other new route is between Bangalore (BLR) and Lucknow (LKO), two airports that were not previously connected with non-stop flights. Lucknow is one of India’s fastest-growing airports. In the period April to November, passenger numbers were up 39.1% compared with the same period in 2010.

AirAsia increases KL network to 55 destinations

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:56:40 +0000

AirAsia’s latest destinations from its Kuala Lumpur hub are Semarang in Indonesia (daily) and Surat Thani in Thailand (three flights per week). AirAsia has added two new destinations from its Kuala Lumpur (KUL) hub. From Monday 6 February, Asia’s biggest low-cost carrier has added daily flights to Semarang (SRG) in Indonesia, and three weekly flights to Surat Thani (URT) in Thailand. The airline group already serves Surat Thani double-daily from Bangkok, but this is the airport’s only scheduled international destinations. Semarang is a new destination for AirAsia. Both routes will be operated by the airline’s growing fleet of A320s. This [...]

airberlin returns to Budapest after Malév collapse

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:56:33 +0000

airberlin resumes daily Berlin – Budapest service with just three days notice. Has served Budapest from six German airports in the last 10 years. airberlin has responded quickly to the demise of its former codeshare partner Malév by launching daily flights from Berlin Tegel (TXL) to Budapest (BUD) from Monday 6 February using A320s. Malév was operating daily flights between the two airports before it ceased operations last week. airberlin has previously operated non-stop flights to Budapest from Berlin (2004-05), Düsseldorf (2004-06), Hamburg (2004-06), Hannover (2005-09), Munich (2004) and Nuremberg (2004-2009). Lufthansa has also started Berlin – Budapest services this [...]

Airphil Express adds Butuan and Pagadian to Manila network

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:56:24 +0000

Airphil Express expands domestic network from Manila to 26 destinations; Butuan and Pagadian routes already served by Cebu Pacific. Airphil Express, the fast-growing Filipino low-cost carrier, added two new domestic destinations from its Manila (MNL) base during the last week. It has begun flying four times weekly to Butuan (BXU) and also three times weekly to Pagadian (PAG), both routes operated by its A320s. The Pagadian route (flight numbers 2P010 and 2P011) operates on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and competes directly with Cebu Pacific’s daily flights. The Butuan route (flight numbers 2P967 and 2P968) operates Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, [...]

China Eastern links Kunming to Chiang Rai

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:56:10 +0000

China Eastern adds new service to Thailand from Kunming. China Eastern has launched flights between Kunming (KMG) and Chiang Rai (CEI) in northern Thailand. Flights operate three times weekly using CRJ200 aircraft. This is currently Chiang Rai’s only regular scheduled international service. Last year, passenger numbers at Chiang Rai Airport grew by 12.7% to 818,163 passengers of which less than 10,000 were on international services.

SpiceJet connects Surat non-stop to Delhi and Mumbai with daily flights

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:48:27 +0000

SpiceJet has launched daily flights to Surat in the state of Gujarat from both Delhi and Mumbai using 737. Air India competes on Delhi route. SpiceJet has added Surat (STV) in the Western state of Gujarat to its network with the introduction of daily non-stop flights from 1 February to both Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM). The airline claims that it has thus become the first to start a destination ‘on demand’ as a result of the many requests it has received via its Facebook page. “We have been getting many messages from our fans on our Facebook page to [...]

Vladivostok Air moves Abakan, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok flights from Moscow Vnukovo to Moscow Sheremetyevo

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:48:23 +0000

Vladivostok Air moves its three Moscow routes from Vnukovo to Sheremetyevo. Vladivostok Air has, from 1 February, moved its three Moscow routes from Abakan (ABA), Khabarovsk (KHV) and Vladivostok (VVO), from Moscow Vnukovo Airport to Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO). The Abakan route faces no direct competition, but Aeroflot offers daily flights to Khabarovsk and double-daily flights to Vladivostok. Vladivostok Air serves Abakan with three weekly flights, and Khabarovsk and Vladivostok each with five weekly flights.

Azul launches three new domestic routes in Brazil

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:47:44 +0000

Azul adds Bauru and Londrina to its network, as well as linking the capital (Brasilia) with Belo Horizonte. Azul, Brazil’s third-biggest domestic airline, has launched three new routes in the last week, adding two new destinations to its network. From its main base at Campinas-Viracopos (VCP) it has introduced double-daily flights to Bauru (JTC) using ATR72s, and double-daily flights to Londrina (LDB) using E-190s. The Londrina route is already served by Trip with two daily flights. Last year passenger numbers at Londrina airport rose by 31.3% to 961,902 making it one of the fastest-growing airports in Latin America. Azul has [...]

Lufthansa responds to Malév’s demise by starting daily Berlin and Hamburg flights to Budapest

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:47:39 +0000

Lufthansa launches new routes within three days of Malév’s collapse. New Berlin service will compete directly with airberlin and indirectly with easyJet. Lufthansa has responded quickly to the collapse of Malév by launching daily flights from Berlin Tegel (TXL) and Hamburg (HAM) to Budapest (BUD), both of which started on Monday. The Hamburg route, on which Malév was the only carrier, will see frequency double to twice-daily from the start of the summer season. On the Berlin route Lufthansa will be competing directly with airberlin, which also rapidly introduced a daily flight from Monday, and indirectly with easyJet which has [...]

Camair-Co makes Lyon second French destination

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:47:05 +0000

Camair-Co launches three weekly flights from Douala to Lyon using a 737-700. Camair-Co, the new national airline of Cameroon which began operations at the end of March 2011, has launched non-stop flights from Douala (DLA) to Lyon (LYS). The new service, operated by a 737-700 in a two-class configuration, departs Douala at midnight on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and departs Lyon at 22:00 on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Lyon thus becomes the airline’s second destination in France after Paris CDG which is served with four weekly flights. The airline’s fleet currently comprises two 737-700s and a single 767 which is [...]

Emirates now flies to Dallas/Fort Worth, Harare and Lusaka

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:46:12 +0000

Emirates launches new routes to USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Route of the Week: Emirates’ Dubai to Dallas/Fort Worth Emirates has added three new destinations to its global network out of Dubai (DXB) during the last week. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) becomes the airline’s fifth US destination (after Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, with Seattle starting in March) with daily flights being operated by a long-range, three-class 777-200. “Emirates’ newest US destination is a thriving and dynamic metroplex, which is home to one of the highest concentrations of Fortune 500 companies in the country,” said Nigel Page, SVP Commercial [...]

Qatar Airways now flies to Baku, Tbilisi and Tripoli (again)

anna.aero — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:45:17 +0000

Qatar Airways launches new routes to Azerbaijan and Georgia, and returns to Libyan capital. Cake of the Week: Qatar Airways’ Doha-Baku-Tbilisi Qatar Airways has added two new destinations to its Doha (DOH) based global network during the last week, and also resumed service to Tripoli (TIP) in Libya. The new destinations are Baku (GYD) in Azerbaijan and Tbilisi (TBS) in Georgia, which will both be served daily. Tbilisi is served non-stop while Baku, which will host the annual Eurovision Song Contest in May, is served via Tbilisi. Addressing guests in Baku, Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar Al Baker said Azerbaijan’s developing [...]

Malév shuts down, but which carriers might be interested in the 27 monopoly routes from Budapest?

anna.aero — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:07:06 +0000

This morning’s announcement that Malév ceased operations leads us to analyse how a Malév sized ‘hole’ at Budapest Airport might be filled. Which destinations did Malév have a monopoly on? What proportion of the airline’s capacity did that represent, and which carriers might be interested in taking over these routes? Malév’s cessation of operations today begs the question of what the route network implications are for Budapest Airport. During the current winter season, Malév has accounted for just over 42% of Budapest’s scheduled traffic, operating to 43 destinations non-stop. On 21 of these routes (accounting for 65% of Malév’s weekly [...]

Here’s something you won’t see anywhere else: Wizz Air’s rotation plans for Modlin (moving from Warsaw in July)

anna.aero — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:06:37 +0000

Wizz Air has become the first airline to confirm that it will use the new ‘secondary’ airport serving Warsaw, starting in July. But which are the leading country markets it will serve? How early do the flights to Forli and Madrid depart and by what time are all the aircraft back at base? And how do you squeeze four return flights out of one aircraft in a day? Wizz Air has become the first airline to confirm that it will operate from the new Warsaw Modlin Airport when it opens later this year. The Budapest-based carrier will shift all of [...]

Alitalia + Blue Panorama + Wind Jet = 30m passenger airline

anna.aero — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:06:10 +0000

So Alitalia has proposed in principle to merge with two smaller Italian airlines. At which airports will Alitalia grow its market share the most? And which major domestic route might cause competition authorities to worry as the current choice of three carriers (each with at least three daily flights) would be replaced by a monopoly? The recent announcement that Alitalia plans to absorb fellow Italian carriers Blue Panorama and Wind Jet will help the national carrier to gain market share, while at the same time removing two domestic competitors. Last year saw Alitalia’s fleet of 144 aircraft transport almost 25 [...]

New airline routes launched (24 – 30 January 2012)

anna.aero — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:24:28 +0000

It has been a slow week for new route launches, but which national carrier launched a new route where the airports at both sides are outside its home country? Which airline launched its fourth route to Iraq? And which is South African Airways’ next destination as the airline expands its African network? The rest of this week’s new routes

London Luton: easyJet cuts back, Wizz Air expands; Ryanair undecided

anna.aero — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:24:26 +0000

London Luton has greatly benefited from the low-cost boom across Europe, but is easyJet soon to be replaced as the airport’s biggest airline? Which full-service carrier will shortly be moving to London Luton? And how does the airport’s network change with the seasons? At just above 9.5 million passengers in 2011, London Luton Airport is the fourth busiest “London” airport and, although traffic stands at half that of its closest rival, Stansted (which is still declining), last year it managed to grow by 8.9%. Historically a low-cost stronghold among London’s airports, the airport has long been trying to shake this [...]