News From Around The EuroZone

Richard Maslen May 19, 2011

CARPATAIR TO LAUNCH CONSTANTA – ISTANBUL LINK

Carpatair has become the latest airline to announce its expansion at Constanta in Romania, the country’s oldest city. Located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast, it is the largest metropolitan area in the country outside of the capital Bucharest, but air links are currently limited. Carpatair already offers a domestic link to Timişoara but from June 15 will introduce a three times weekly service to Istanbul Ataturk. The airport, a former Romanian Air Force base, is currently used by the United States military as a stageing post for its activities into the Middle East. Alongside Carpatair’s flights, the only passenger services are a weekly link by airberlin to Nuremburg and a twice weekly connection by Ryanair to Pisa. Seasonal links are also provided by Luxair to Luxembourg, Niki to Vienna and Yamal Airlines to Moscow, while XL Airways France has ad hoc charter flights from Paris. However, during Routes Europe, we revealed that Romanian charter and ACMI lease specialist Medallion Air is to enter the scheduled market with a planned base at Mihail Kogălniceanu International Airport. From June 15 it begins direct flights to a mix of seven domestic and international destinations. These comprise Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca (seasonal to September 15 only), Istanbul, London, Madrid and Rome, with Barcelona following from July 21. The majority of these flights will be operated twice weekly, although Barcelona, London and Rome will see just one rotation per week. Carpatair and Medallion expect to attract a mix of passengers on its flights. Constanta is a developing business market with a large number of new companies establishing a presence in the region since 2008, while it is also home to the largest port on the Black Sea coast. It is also a rising tourist destination with a growing number of resorts being formed along its coastal beach, an area close to mineral springs; another attraction for leisure visitors.

ESTONIAN AIR ADDS CAPACITY TO MOSCOW

Estonian Air is to introduce a new Sunday flight on its route from Tallinn to the Russian capital Moscow. The airline currently operates five flights per week, but will add the sixth weekly rotation from July 3, meaning the route will be served every day except Saturday. “We hope that the improved flight schedule will bring us more customers valuing the convenience and speed of direct flights,” said Rauno Parras, acting Vice President Commercial, Estonian Air. “Moscow Sheremetyevo airport is an important hub for travelling into CIS countries and Asia, where our partner airline Aeroflot offers very good connections.” Estonian Air carried approximately 21,000 O&D passengers on the route in the past year, a 53 per cent share of the total market, more than doubling its traffic in the last 12 months. The airline uses a mix of Bombardier CRJ900s and Boeing 737s on its flights.

AIRBERLIN TO ADD WINTER FLIGHTS TO THE CANARY ISLANDS

German carrier airberlin is to add 30 additional flights this winter to the Canary Islands with more flights from various German airports to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, Gran Canaria and Tenerife South. This extra capacity is equivalent to 290,000 seats and according to the airline has been introduced for the winter 2011/2012 schedules to meet “growing demand for holiday travel to the Canary Islands”. The expansion includes an additional five weekly rotations from Düsseldorf (increasing links to 22 per week), seven more flights from Stuttgart, five from Hamburg and new direct links from Saarbruecken and from the German city via Nuremberg. airberlin was the largest operator between Germany and Spain in the past year carrying more than a third of the estimated 1.2 million O&D passengers that travelled between the two countries on scheduled flights.

AIRBALTIC PARTNERS WITH SKYWAYS FROM VILNIUS

Latvian national carrier airBaltic has entered into a commercial partnership with Swedish regional carrier Skyways on flights from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. From June 7 Skyways will inaugurate six times weekly flights from Vilnius to Stockholm and Berlin, services which also provide onward travel options to domestic destinations in Sweden, including Halmstad, Jonkoping, Kristianstad, Karlstad, Sundsvall from Stockholm and to Geneva via Berlin (from June 20). These flights will all be operated using Embraer ERJ 145s and will include airBaltic’s ‘BT’ code. airBaltic is currently the largest operator out of Vilnius International Airport, a market where Ryanair and fellow Baltic carrier Estonian Air also have a strong presence as there is currently no scheduled national carrier in Lithuania since the collapse of flyLAL in January 2009 and more recently Star1 Airlines in September 2010. The two new routes to Berlin Tegel and Stockholm Arlanda are already served by Estonian Air. An estimated 7,700 O&D passengers travelled on the route to Germany, a market the carrier has been serving four times weekly since the start of this month, while 34,000 passengers flew to the Swedish capital, where it offers six flights per week.

KLM TO REPLACE CITYJET ON AMSTERDAM - BASEL

A further rationalisation of the networks of Air France, KLM and its regional partners will see the Dutch national carrier take over responsibility for the operation of the Amsterdam – Basel route. This is currently served by CityJet on behalf of Air France on a twice daily basis using an Avro RJ85. From October 30, KLM will utilise a Fokker 70 of KLM cityhopper on the route, slightly reducing capacity. An estimated 152,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, a 1.5 per cent fall on the previous 12 months. easyJet Switzerland, which offers eleven flights per week, dominates traffic between the two cities, although together Air France and KLM account for a 29 per cent share. Although the flight is currently operated by Air France, a greater level of traffic is booking flights under the KLM code.