MONARCH MOVES INTO NEW MARKETS
UK carrier Monarch Airlines has modified its business model and is now focusing more heavily on its scheduled operations, reducing its charter activities significantly. As part of this revised outlook, the airline has revealed that it will introduce five new routes during the Northern Summer 2012 schedules with new destinations in Turkey and its first ever summer scheduled flights to Egypt. The carrier is to add a daily service between London Gatwick and Dalaman from April 26, increasing during the peak summer months to up to eleven rotations; a five times weekly flight to the Turkish city from Manchester from May 1 and a twice weekly link to Antalya from London Gatwick from May 3. An estimated 1.56 million O&D passengers travelled between the UK and Turkey in the past year and Monarch will compete with easyJet and Pegasus Airlines from London Gatwick and easyJet and Jet2.com from Manchester, as well as charter providers. Its new Egypt flights will commence from May 3 and will comprise a three times weekly link to Sharm el Sheikh from London Gatwick and a twice weekly service from Manchester. easyJet already offers flights to the Egyptian Red Sea destination with four flights per week from London and three from Manchester, routes that it carried an estimated 97,000 and 53,000 O&D passengers, respectively, over the past 12 months. “The addition of new scheduled services to Turkey and Egypt supports Monarch’s shift to focusing on scheduled flying and enables more customers to take advantage of our innovative ‘build your own class’ service, which gives them the ability to tailor their flight package to their exact requirements, providing a greater sense of freedom and personalisation,” said Kevin George, Managing Director, Monarch Airlines. “As well as benefiting from a fantastic value fare, customers can also select from a range of optional extras such as extra legroom seating and pre-ordered meals, all of which are perfectly suited for longer flight durations such as Turkey and Egypt”. Speaking at the recent Institute of Travel & Tourism conference in Venice, Italy, the Chairman of Monarch’s parent company, Fabio Mantegazza outlined more information about the carrier’s revised business model, claiming that it would provide a more balanced relationship with its tour operator partners in a market in which scheduled flying was growing and charter business was not. “We simply reacted to what the business was telling us which was charter, which is a model that is still valued in some circumstances, is not growing and scheduled is,” he said.
AEROSVIT CANCELS BELGRADE LINK
Ukrainian carrier Aerosvit Airlines is to suspend its flights between Kiev and Belgrade this week, according to sources that specialise in aviation news from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia). EX-YU Aviation reports that the four times weekly flights will stop from June 9 until the end of the summer schedules, due to “technical reasons”. The carrier had this year boosted flights on the route from three to four per week but the anticipated level of traffic was never reached. Aerosvit Airlines is the sole operator on the route, carrying around 7,000 O&D passengers in the past year and accounting for 76 per cent of the point-to-point traffic. A further 2,000 O&D passengers are estimated to have flown between the two cities on indirect flights by other operators including Austrian Airlines, Czech Airlines and Lufthansa. Aerosvit had hoped to secure a large amount of transfer traffic on its flights but official data shows that just eleven per cent of its total traffic began or ended their journeys outside of Belgrade and Kiev.
ALITALIA INAUGURATES BEIJING AND RIO LINKS
Italy’s national carrier Alitalia last week inaugurated flights from Rome Fiumicino to Beijing and Rio de Janeiro. The flights commenced on June 1 and support the airline’s expansion strategy into the Asian and South American markets. This has been made possible by the growth of its long-haul fleet and in particular the arrival of additional A330s and reconfigured Boeing 777 models. The route to the Chinese capital, Beijing, is being operated four times per week, but will increases to a five times weekly schedule from October. This is Alitalia’s only current link into China, although it does use its code on China Eastern Airlines’ three times weekly service to Rome from Shanghai. The Rome – Rio de Janeiro route is initially being operated three times a week but will increase to four weekly rotations from next month. The flight widens the carrier’s intercontinental network into a market where there are currently limited flight connections. "China and Brazil represent, together with India and Russia, target markets for the strategy of expansion of intercontinental and international routes; the strategy focuses on areas of the world with the highest growth rate for leisure and business traffic,” said Giancarlo Schisano, EVP Chief Operating Officer, Alitalia at a launch event for the two new services.
EASTERN AIRWAYS EXPANDS DIJON NETWORK
UK regional carrier Eastern Airways has today expanded its network from it Dijon base with a new three times weekly summer service to Southampton, its first international destinations from the French regional airport. “Part of our expansion plans for Dijon was to provide a link to the South of England, and Southampton is the ideal gateway for us to offer this link for business travellers and tourists travelling between the two regions. Any travellers who have business in Dijon and beyond can also make use of our onward services to Bordeaux, Toulouse and Nantes from Dijon,” said Kay Ryan, Commercial Director Eastern Airways. The city of Dijon is the capital of the Cote d’Or and Bourgogne region and industry includes manufacturing, automobile, electronics, machinery and pharmaceuticals. The region has some of the country’s best wine producing vineyards, and of course Dijon is famous for its mustard. In September 2010, Eastern Airways first set up a dedicated French base in Dijon with the launch of domestic flights to Bordeaux and Toulouse. Daily flights were recently added to Nantes.
IBERIA BOOSTS RUSSIAN FLIGHTS
Spanish national carrier Iberia has raised capacity on its routes between Spain and Russia for the summer period. It resumed a twice-weekly Airbus A319 service between Madrid and St Petersburg on June 4 and will also add two new weekly flights to Moscow in June and September and four extra weekly flights in July and August, for a total of 18 flights per week. An estimated 744,000 O&D passengers travelled between Spain and Russia in the last year, with Iberia holding a 21.2 per cent share of this traffic. Aeroflot Russian Airlines dominates the traffic between the two countries with over 30 weekly flights between Moscow and Alicante, Barcelona and Madrid. Fellow Russian carrier S7 Airlines also serves the Moscow – Madrid route with three flights per week.
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