American Airlines Increases Flights to Venezuela
Oneworld alliance member American Airlines is to boost flights to Venezuela this week when it increases the frequency of its New York – Caracas route. The US carrier currently offers two weekly rotations between John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York and Simon Bolivar International Airport (CCS) in Caracas but from November 18 will boost its services to five times weekly. The route is served by a 188-seat Boeing 757-200. American first launched flights to Venezuela, its first destination in South and Central America, on August 1, 1987 with flights between San Juan, Puerto Rico and Caracas. The airline currently has 48 weekly flights into and out of Venezuela, serving Caracas from Miami, San Juan, Dallas/Fort Worth and New York/JFK, and Maracaibo from Miami. An estimated 143,000 O&D passengers travelled between USA and Venezuela last year with around 58,000 flying between New York JFK and Caracas. Just under half of these passengers are travelling on American’s direct flight, although due to the existing frequency of service around 15 per cent currently fly with American via Miami International and a further 13 per cent via San Juan. The additional three weekly flights will likely pick up much of this leakage and at the same time stimulate demand. "Our increased service to Caracas underscores the importance of the Venezuelan market as well as our commitment to provide our passengers the premier network in Latin America," said Peter Dolara, Senior Vice President – Mexico, Caribbean and Latin America, American Airlines. "Caracas is an important business destination and home to the famous Teleferico, cable cars that take you to the top of El avila National Park; the Caracas Botanical Garden, containing more than 2,000 native flora; and of course, the Parque Los Chorros, which includes the only natural waterfall in a capital city park. These additional flights will help increase tourism to these Venezuelan treasures."
Southwest and AirTran Announce Summer Plans
Southwest Airlines and its wholly-owned subsidiary AirTran Airways have announced the latest changes to their route network for the late May to early August period. These will include a range of new routes but also the cancellation of some existing services. Southwest Airlines will offer new daily flights from Houston Hobby to Kansas City, Raleigh-Durham and Seattle as well as daily flights between Chicago Midway and Oklahoma City from June 3, 2012. The Houston Hobby – Kansas City route is already served on a daily basis by Frontier Airlines, while Kansas City, Raleigh-Durham and Seattle are all served from Houston George Bush Intercontinental with flights from Continental Airlines and Alaska Airlines. There is also no direct competition between Chicago Midway and Oklahoma City, although American Airlines and United Airlines offer flights from Chicago O’Hare International. AirTran will enhance its offering from Baltimore and Denver. From Baltimore it will introduce twice daily flights to Seattle and Los Angeles and daily flights to New Orleans and San Francisco, while from Denver it will introduce twice daily services to New York La Guardia and daily rotations to Akron and Dayton from June 3, 2012. The carrier will also add international services including a twice daily link between Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood and San Juan, Puerto Rico from May 24, 2012 and services from San Antonio to Cancun and Mexico City beginning May 2012, and Orange County, California to Cabo San Lucas and Mexico City beginning June 2012, subject to government approval. "We have been very encouraged by the success of AirTran's existing international service and we look forward to building upon that success," said Bob Jordan, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer and AirTran Airways President. "We continue to set the stage for long-term growth by aligning our current networks to maximise what we each do best. The next step, which we anticipate will happen in the first half of next year, will be to connect these two strong networks to offer our collective passengers lower fares on more flights, which we believe will greatly benefit consumers and create significant revenue potential for Southwest." However, it is not all about growth and AirTran is to suspend services on six existing routes from June 2012, cutting just under 60 weekly flights from its network. These comprise its three times daily links between Atlanta and Bloomington and Washington Dulles; its daily Baltimore – Miami service and its operations from Orlando to Bloomington, Charleston and Knoxville, which are currently served twice, five times and twice weekly, respectively.
JetBlue Launches International Link from Westchester County Airport
JetBlue Airways this week inaugurated the first international flight from Westchester County Airport (HPN) offering travellers from the north of New York City the opportunity for an alternative option to reach Nassau in the Bahamas. The airport is located approximately three miles northeast of central White Plains and serves the greater New York metropolitan area, as it is about 33 miles north of Midtown Manhattan and is often used by those who wish to avoid the congestion of the other New York airports. JetBlue is offering a daily Embraer 190 service between Westchester County and Nassau, a destination it already serves from its main base at New York JFK. "Nassau has been a great destination for JetBlue and we're excited to provide service that will make it much easier for people in Westchester County and Connecticut to reach the Caribbean," said Dave Clark, Director Schedule Planning, JetBlue Airways. "A lot of our JFK customers live in Westchester County and Connecticut and would prefer to fly from their community airport, so we are providing what they asked for, non-stop service to a fantastic Caribbean destination from the airport right in their community."
Viva Aerobus Launches First of Florida Links
This week Mexican low cost carrier VivaAerobus is to launch two new services to Florida with links to Miami and Orlando from the city of Monterrey in Nuevo León province. The twice weekly connection to Miami was launched on November 14, while the weekly flight to Orlando will start on November 19. With these new international routes, VivaAerobus now serves six destinations in the US (it already flies to Chicago Midway, Houston, Las Vegas and San Antonio) and offers the widest network into the US from Monterrey. "We are entering the last stretch of the year with new operations to the US and it is a pleasure for us to offer our low cost travel model to the Hispanic market interested in traveling to Mexico and visiting family members at reasonable fares," said Juan Carlos Zuazua, Chief Executive Officer, VivaAerobus. "We are looking to consolidate in the North American market extending our presence in the most important cities throughout the US, as is the case with Miami and Orlando." According to VivaAerobus, the new routes are important in connecting Northeastern Mexico with Miami, where the largest number of Latin American focused corporations in the US is concentrated; and Orlando, a city which offers a diverse variety of entertainment options.
Auction Opens for Slots at New York and Washington Airports
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) opened a slot auction for airlines to request authority for take-off and landing slots at New York LaGuardia and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport this week. This is related to its decision to allow Delta Air Lines and US Airways to exchange some of their operating authorities at the two airports. Last month the DOT approved a request by the carriers under which Delta would trade 42 daily slot pairs at Reagan National for 132 US Airways daily slot pairs at LaGuardia. The Department placed a number of conditions on the trade designed to promote competition and protect consumers, including a requirement that the carriers divest themselves of eight pairs of daily slots at Reagan National and 16 pairs at LaGuardia. “The conditions we placed on the slot transfer, including the auction, will help airlines with little or no service at LaGuardia and Reagan National gain a competitive foothold at these airports,” said US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Only carriers operating less than five per cent of the slots at LaGuardia or Reagan National, either with their own aircraft or through a code-sharing agreement, will be eligible to bid for the divested slots at that airport, according to the DOT. In order to ensure that a purchaser will be able to provide meaningful new competition, all eight slot pairs at Reagan National will be sold in a single bundle, and the 16 pairs at LaGuardia will be sold in two bundles of eight slot pairs each. The final deadline for bids is 17:00EST on November 22 and the DOT says they will be posted shortly after they are received on its website with information about which bundles are being bid upon and the bid amount, but not the carrier’s identity. On November 23, the Department will then notify the divesting carrier of the winning bidders, based on the highest bid and then payments arrangements for the slots will be finalised with the divesting carrier. As this article was placed online there had been no formal bids for the slots.
Air Canada Confirms Calgary Developments
Air Canada is to boost capacity on its routes from Calgary to Tokyo and Frankfurt, replacing its Star Alliance partner on the latter European route. The airline confirms that from April 27, 2012 it will increase its Calgary – Tokyo non-stop summer service to a five times weekly schedule as it take steps towards continuing the non-stop service on a year-round basis, subject to obtaining necessary approvals in Japan. It already serves Tokyo on a year-round daily basis from Toronto and Vancouver using its Boeing 777-300ERs. The increased capacity to Frankfurt will come from an aircraft swap rather than a frequency change, with the existing Boeing 767-300ER being replaced by a larger 265-seat Airbus A330-300 on the daily service from February 4, 2012. This represents a 25 per cent increase in capacity. As The HUB reported last week, Lufthansa is terminating its own flights between Frankfurt and Calgary at the same time. "We are pleased to increase our international flights from Calgary reflecting worldwide demand to and from Alberta's energy centre," said Ben Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Air Canada.
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