BMI TO CUT CAPACITY TO BERGEN AND STAVANGER
UK carrier bmi British Midland International is to significantly reduce capacity on its flights from London Heathrow to Bergen and Stavanger during the Northern Winter 2011/2012 schedule. The airline will maintain a daily schedule on both routes, but from October 30 will switch the operating aircraft from an Airbus A319 to an Embraer ERJ145 regional jet, albeit one weekly rotation to Bergen will continue to be flown with Airbus A320 Family equipment. bmi inaugurated the two routes at the start of the summer schedule at the end of March and in its first two months of operation carried an estimated 8,000 O&D passengers to Bergen and 7,000 to Stavanger, securing a 79 per cent and 31 per cent share of the market, respectively over the period. It is the sole operator to Bergen, but competes with fellow Star Alliance member SAS Scandinavian Airlines to Stavanger, the latter offering a twice daily service with a mix of Boeing 737 variants.
CYPRUS AIRWAYS CUTS PAPHOS FLIGHTS
Cyprus Airways is to reduce its flights from Paphos Airport during the Northern Winter 2011/2012 schedule as it focuses its operations at its primary hub at Larnaca Airport to cut costs. The airline will drop its flights from Paphos to London, Manchester and Thessaloniki; and while it will continue to serve Amsterdam, the number of flights will be reduced significantly. This means that between November 25 and February 17, 2012 there will actually be no scheduled Cyprus Airways flights from the airport. The Dutch capital is currently served three times a week directly from Larnaca and once weekly by an aircraft which makes a stop in Paphos on both its outward and return journey. During the winter this flight will only serve Paphos on November 18, November 25, February 18 and March 24 operating directly from/to Larnaca the other weeks. In the past year Cyprus Airways has carried an estimated 22,000 O&D passengers between Larnaca and Amsterdam and around 13,000 between Paphos and the Dutch capital. It has faced increasing competition at Paphos from the growing presence of low-cost carriers and is now the fifth largest carrier by weekly seat capacity at its home airport behind easyJet, Transaero Airlines, Monarch Airlines and Jet2.com.
FINNCOMM AIRLINES LAUNCHES HELSINKI – SKELLEFTEÅ
Earlier this month Finnish regional carrier Finncomm Airlines inaugurated a three times weekly service between Helsinki and the city of Skellefteå in Swedish Lapland. The airline inaugurated flights on August 1 and is operating the route via the western Finnish town of Kokkola using an ATR 42-500. The Helsinki – Skellefteå service is being flown with a codeshare with oneworld alliance member Finnair. The new flight is the first direct connection to Sweden from Kokkola in almost ten years and Finncomm is already planning to increase frequencies to four flights per week from the start of September. The regional carrier is currently the sole operator at Kokkola’s Pietarsaari Airport, known up until March last year as Kruunupyy Airport. It offers up to five flights every weekday to Helsinki, a roué that was also served until October 2010 by Finnair, but which now codeshares on the Finncomm flight.
AEROSVIT AIRLINES PLANS NORDIC WINTER GROWTH
Ukrainian carrier Aerosvit Airlines is to boost frequencies on its routes between Kiev and the Scandinavian capitals of Copenhagen and Stockholm during the Northern Winter schedules. According to its current GDS inventory, it will operate a twice daily service on each route from the end of October using its Boeing 737s. These routes are both currently served ten times per week using a range of aircraft types. An estimated 77,000 O&D passengers travelled between Ukraine and the Nordic Countries, a market that has increased 9.2 per cent in the past 12 months. Aerosvit Airlines dominates traffic with a 17.8 per cent share. Although it is the sole operator on the routes from Kiev Borispol to Copenhagen and Stockholm Arlanda, Wizz Air Ukraine offers flights from Kiev Zhulyany to Stockholm Skavsta and Oslo Sandefjord/Torp, while Finnair and Ukraine International Airlines both operate between Kiev Borispol and Helsinki. Alongside its Nordic expansion, Aerosvit plans to increase frequencies to Dubai with nine flights per week rather than the daily schedule it offered in Winter 2010/2011, while a third weekly rotation will be offered to Larnaca on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
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