News From Around The World

Vueling Banks on Santander Success from Barcelona

Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling is to add the northern city of Santander to its network from its expanding Barcelona El Prat base during the coming Northern Summer and subsequent Northern Winter 2012/2013 schedules. The carrier will offer a four times weekly service from June 22, 2012, introducing around 40,000 additional seats into the market this year.

The airline will not be the only carrier on the route as Irish budget carrier Ryanair has been serving this domestic link since September 2010, while Air Nostrum has been providing flights on behalf of national carrier Iberia since July 1997, having served the market on a seasonal basis the previous year. Ryanair currently offers a daily service, although Air Nostrum’s own eleven times weekly offering is scheduled to stop at the end of this month. In the past year an estimated 174,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route, up 64.6 per cent on the previous year, due mainly to Ryanair’s arrival in the market.

Santander is a city with growing tourism demand owing to its beautiful urban beaches, landscapes and to its wide range of gastronomy, culture and leisure. In addition, it is the door to Cantabria, a community that has a wide range of rural and mountain tourism, and villages of great cultural interest including Comillas, San Vicente de la Barquera, Puente Viesgo, Santillana del Mar and Castro Urdiales.

“This was one of the most sought-after tourist destinations for our clients and an opportunity for people from Santander to access a wide range of European cities through our hub in Barcelona," said Javier Suárez, Director of Route Planning and Management, Vueling.

Vueling expects to generate a good mix of business and leisure clientele on its flights. Although highlighted as a low-cost carrier approximately 40 per cent of the airline’s passengers travel for business purposes and it is currently consolidating its operational model to focus on offering Premium services at competitive prices and combining various sales channels in order to offer services adapted to both leisure and business travellers.

This new route is a further step to improve the connectivity of Vueling’s Barcelona hub. In the first phase, the route will connect passengers to destinations in the Balearic Islands such as Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca with through ticketing being offered to all three destinations despite aircraft changes in Barcelona.

JetBlue Finds New Home in San Juan

US low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways has reached an agreement with the Puerto Rico Ports Authority to move its operation at San Juan's Luis Munoz Marin International Airport to the new Terminal A from Terminal C. The move, scheduled for the end of May, will allow the airline to operate within the larger facilities with additional counter space and gates and will enable it to accommodate future growth at the airport.

"We're always looking for state-of-the-art facilities that allow us to deliver the same great experience we do in the air, on the ground," said Rich Smyth, Vice President of Corporate Real Estate, JetBlue Airways. "The brand-new Terminal A, right next door to where we are now, will greatly improve our customers' experience while accommodating our projected growth over the next decade."

This coming month JetBlue will operate 266 weekly flights into Puerto Rico ranking it as the largest international operator into the country with a 29.3 per cent share of the available seat capacity. It’s main destination is San Juan which it serves on an at least daily basis from Boston Logan International, Fort Lauderdale, Hartford Bradley International, Jacksonville, New York JFK, Orlando International and Tampa International in the US; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and St Croix and St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Flights are also offered from New York JFK and Orlando International to both Aguadilla and Ponce.

JetBlue first made its debut in Puerto Rico in May 2002 when it launched its first flights to San Juan from New York JFK, subsequently adding direct links to Aguadilla in May 2004 and Ponce in June 2005. In November 2005 it added links to San Juan from Newark Liberty International, with Orlando International following in May 2006, Boston Logan International in December 2006 and other routes have followed. For the last two years JetBlue has provided more than one million seats into the market and forecasts this to grow above 1.5 million for the first time this year, with an estimated provisional annual capacity growth of 6.8 per cent for 2012.

Arik Air Ends Abuja – London Link

Independent Nigerian carrier Arik Air has announced that it will again cancel its daily service between the Federal capital Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and London Heathrow from the start of the Northern Summer 2012 schedule, due to capacity constraints at the UK international gateway.

This is the second consecutive season that Arik Air has been forced to close the route due to slot issues in London. It had initially suspended operations at the end of the last summer schedule but after appealing to UK authorities they facilitated the temporary continuation of the commercial lease of slots to maintain the operation. However, the interim solution was only available up to March 25, 2012 and with no new agreement in place Arik Air says it has been compelled to stop the link.

“Arik Air was compelled to suspend its services on the route following the inability of the UK and Nigeria governments to come to a solution on the 2008 Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) and access to slots in Heathrow in line with the frequencies agreed in the BASA,” the airline said in a statement.

The Nigerian carrier launched services between the two cities in November 2009 joining British Airways on the route. The UK carrier had entered the market in April 2002 after Nigeria Airways pulled out of the market ahead of its eventual closure in July 2003 and the arrival of Arik Air meant the introduction of the first head-to-head competition on the route for at least two decades.

In the past year an estimated 171,000 O&D passengers travelled on the Abuja – London Heathrow route with Arik Air accounting for around 30 per cent of this traffic. The market grew by around 10.2 per cent in the past 12 months. The arrival of competition on the route has forced down prices, according to data, with average one-way fares falling by 8.7 per cent since Arik Air’s entry. Interestingly, British Airways’ own fares have risen by 12.1 per cent during this period; the decline being accountable to Arik Air’s fares being around 61.1 per cent cheaper than its competitor.

Wizz Air Makes Move to Malpensa

Central and Eastern European low-cost carrier Wizz Air has announced it will switch its flights from Budapest to the Italian city of Milan from Bergamo Orio al Serio Airport to Malpensa Airport from June 18, 2012; its first scheduled flight to the hub airport. From July 1, 2012 it will also introduce flights to Milan Malpensa from Bucharest although these flights will complement rather than replace its existing operation at Bergamo Orio al Serio.

Wizz Air will offer eleven flights per week on the Budapest - Milan Malpensa, a route that had been previously served by Malev Hungarian Airlines prior to its collapse earlier this year. The carrier has been serving the Milan market via Bergamo Orio al Serio since December 2004 and its move is part of a strategy to extend its reach in the northern Italian corridor and to offer product differentiation from the Hungarian city following Ryanair’s major expansion there.

The new three times weekly service to Milan Malpensa from Bucharest will complement the existing eleven weekly flights between the Romanian capital and Bergamo Orio al Serio and will bring double daily services to the wider Milan market.

“Wizz Air is thrilled to offer our low-fares to passengers traveling from Milan Malpensa to Central and Eastern Europe. These two routes are just the beginning of our presence. We hope to see rapid growth, similar to what we have achieved in other major metropolitan areas, such as London. We started with two routes and now fly over 20! Pink and purple will soon be trending on the runways of Milan!,” said György Abrán, Chief Commercial Officer, Wizz Air.

The low-cost carrier has also announced some further amendments to its network from Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport. It will introduce a new link to the Bulgarian Black Sea destination of Varna, a destination popular with Hungarian tourists, while a second weekly frequency will be introduced to Palma de Mallorca. This growth will be balanced by some cuts with the airline’s flight to Pisa due to end from April 15 due to low demand.

“We provide the best value for our passengers. The flight to Milan-Malpensa is an excellent example of this: we offer a better service for the same price. This is favorable for both Hungarian tourist travelling to Milan, but also for the incoming tourists and business travelers.

“With the addition of flights to Varna, the number of Wizz Air seashore destinations has increased to 15 in 2012. We have flights to Bulgaria, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain. I still think that we will carry 2.3 million passengers in our Hungarian network this year, which would mean a 70 per cent increase of our business,” said József Váradi, Chief Executive Officer, Wizz Air.