In a challenging week for the airline industry, new routes continue to be announced, the highlights of which include.
ETIHAD OPENS TWO NEW ROUTES TO IRAQ
Etihad has announced new services from its Abu Dhabi base to Baghdad and Erbil. It will commence Baghdad from April 26th on a five times weekly rotation. And from June 1st it will launch a twice weekly service to Erbil, both services to operated with A320 equipment. There is no carrier currently operating these routes.
ISTANBUL IS NEW DESTINATION FOR SPANAIR
Barcelona based Spanair has announced that it will operate new non-stop services between Barcelona El Prat Airport to Istanbul Ataturk Airport.
The new daily rotation will begin from May4th and Spanair will go head to head on the route with Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines which operates a double daily service with a mix of A320 and B737-800 equipment.
IATA BSP data shows O+D two way traffic between the city pairs of over 120,000 pax, with Turkish Airlines having an 81% share.
Spanair will hope to capture some of this traffic and stimulate new traffic with low fares as the carrier moves nearer a low cost model.
FRONTIER EXPANDS IN DENVER
Frontier Airlines, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Republic Airways has commenced a wave of new routes from its Denver base. The carrier has commenced non-stop scheduled services to Louisville and Green Bay, which started April 19th, adding services to Branson on April 20th.
It is plans to increase frequencies in key markets, starting with a third daily rotation to La Guardia, New York. Frontier is now the second largest carrier in Denver with a 19% market share.
BULGARIA AIR FLIES TO MACEDONIAN CAPITAL
Bulgaria Air has announced its intention to start non-stop flying from its Sofia base to the Macedonian capital of Skopje. It will begin twice weekly operations in June, which will increase to a third weekly in July. Since the demise of MAT, the national carrier of Macedonia, there are currently underserved routes to London Heathrow, over 17,000 O+D passengers and Amsterdam over 15,000 O+D passengers who have flown in the last 12 months and several other European markets with no existing service.
SAUDI LOW COST ADDS SUDAN LINKS
Nasair the low cost Saudi Arabian carrier will add non-stop links to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum from Jeddah and Riyadh. By July 1st, both routes will be operated on a daily basis with A320 equipment. On the Jeddah sector, Nasair competes with Sudan Airways (6x weekly) and Saudi Arabian Airlines (3x weekly). On the Riyadh sector Nasar competes with both carriers which offer a twice weekly rotation respectively.
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