FLYDUBAI LAUNCHES DAMMAM LINK
United Arab Emirates (UAE) low-cost carrier Flydubai inaugurated flights between Dubai and the Saudi Arabian city of Dammam this week, to meet the growing trade between the two countries. The carrier is offering a daily Boeing 737-800 rotation on the route. Saudi Arabia was the UAE's top GCC trading partner in 2010, with UAE-Saudi Arabia trade worth Dhs21.1bn. With inter-country relations in non-oil sectors such as science, industry and telecommunications growing year-on-year, visitor volumes are expected to grow significantly. Saudi Arabia also has one of the region's most dynamic travel markets driven by domestic tourism in addition to international business and religious tourism. Visitor numbers are forecast to grow 6.7 per cent annually until 2015 and Saudi Arabia is expected to host to almost 10 million additional visitors over the next four years. "Development of the travel and tourism industry is a core focus for the Saudi government as it increases its non-oil GDP and diversifies the economy. With the launch of this route we hope to further strengthen bilateral trade relations between the two countries and open up new areas of partnership," said Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer, Flydubai.
UKRAINE INTERNATIONAL INCREASES PENETRATION IN RUSSIAN MARKET
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) and S7 Airlines have entered into an interline agreement on flights between Kiev and Moscow. The Ukrainian carrier has after many years of campaigning, secured the rights to introduce its own flights to the Russian capital and will introduce a twice daily link to Domodedovo Airport from July 20. S7 Airlines already offers a daily service and these three rotations will be optimised to maximise benefits for the two carriers. An estimated 481,000 O&D passengers travelled between Kiev and Moscow in the past year, a market dominated by Aerosvit Airlines (48.1 per cent) which offers up to four flights per day to Sheremetyevo Airport in the Russian capital and at least a daily schedule to Vnukovo Airport. Transaero Airlines, which offers a twice daily connection, has a 21.0 per cent share, while Aeroflot Russian Airlines has a 20.2 per cent share, also with a twice daily offering. S7 Airlines is ranked fourth on the route with an 8.7 per cent share of the traffic. Through the marketing agreement with S7 Airlines, UIA will be able to offer connections from Moscow to a range of destinations in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including Anapa, Barnaul, Chelyabinsk, Ekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Osh, Pavlodar, Perm, Rostov, St. Petersburg, Semipalatinsk, Tomsk, Tyumen, Ufa, Ulan Ude and Ust-Kamenogorsk in Russia, Yerevan in Armenia, and Baku in Azerbaijan. UIA recently introduced a four times weekly link from Kiev to Samara, its only current link into Russia.
AIR ARABIA EXPANDS IN SAUDI ARABIA
Middle East low-cost carrier Air Arabia is to further expand its activities in the Saudi Arabian market with a new link to Gassim from its Sharjah hub in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The airline will offer four flights per week from July 15, adding to its existing services from Sharjah to Dammam, Jeddah, Medinah and Riyadh. "We are extremely pleased to introduce our new service between Sharjah and Gassim, which marks the fifth destination in Saudi Arabia reachable via Air Arabia," said AK Nizar, Head of Commercial Department, Air Arabia. "As we approach the holy month of Ramadan, we are pleased to offer one more way to help bring friends and families together for the holidays." An estimated 1.6 million O&D passengers travelled between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia in the past year. Air Arabia holds a 10.3 per cent share of this traffic, a market dominated by Saudi Arabian Airlines (40.2 per cent) and Emirates Airline (23.5 per cent) with their flights from Dubai. In addition to the seat-only deals on offer, Air Arabia is also providing a range of holiday packages, including hotel accommodation and visa assistance on its links to Saudi Arabia. It also serves the country through its joint venture Air Arabia Egypt which currently flies from Alexandria to Dammam and Riyadh.
TRANSAERO AIRLINES AND SINGAPORE AIRLINES SIGN CODESHARE
Singapore Airlines and Russian operator Transaero Airlines have concluded a codeshare agreement which will expand the networks of both carriers. The new agreement will come into force from August 1 and will strengthen the already strong ties between Transaero and the Star Alliance global group. Under the arrangement, Singapore Airlines will add its code to Transaero-operated flights between the Russian capital Moscow and Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Samara and St Petersburg, while Transaero will in turn add its code to Singapore Airlines-operated flights between Moscow and Singapore, and between Moscow and the US city of Houston. “We are delighted to announce this agreement with Transaero. It provides new travel choices in Russia for our customers on our well established partner airline,” said Tan Chik Quee, Senior Vice President Marketing, Singapore Airlines. “We are confident the tie-up will pave the way for more leisure and business travel by offering customers of both airlines more travel options via Moscow and Singapore.” “We are very pleased about this new cooperation agreement with Singapore Airlines, one of the leading carriers in the world with internationally acclaimed top-quality service. There is no doubt that passengers from Singapore, Russia and other countries will appreciate the opportunity to arrange their trips on these new codeshare flights,” added Olga Pleshkova, General Director, Transaero Airlines.
QATAR AIRWAYS ADDS FREQUENCIES TO KUWAIT
Qatar Airways has introduced a fifth daily flight between Doha and Kuwait City, boosting the travel options for its passengers. The new early afternoon rotation has been introduced to provide added convenience for both business and leisure travellers, providing better connection options across key destinations in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. “We are committed to offering our passengers with the best travel experience and now customers in Kuwait have even more convenient access to our network of over 100 global destinations,” said Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways. “We have experienced spectacular customer response in the past year in Kuwait and thanks to our excellent connections, our passenger growth crossing through our Doha hub has seen exponential growth annually.” Alongside introducing new flights, boosting frequencies on its already established routes is a key area for development for the airline. “As part of our growth strategy, we will continue to step up frequency on existing routes, which is a strong lever to facilitate development in the business and tourism sectors,” explained Akbar Al Baker. Qatar Airways dominates the route in terms of capacity with the only current competition coming from Kuwait Airways on a daily basis. An estimated 177,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, a period when Jazeera Airways also served the market. Qatar Airways holds a 30 per cent share of the traffic across the last 12 months and has a much stronger yield than its rivals. Over the last six months, Qatar Airways has added eight new routes to its already burgeoning global network – Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Brussels (Belgium), Stuttgart (Germany), Aleppo (Syria), Shiraz (Iran), Venice (Italy) and Montreal (Canada). During the second half of the year, it will expand in Saudi Arabia with its fourth gateway to the holy city of Medina, operating four weekly flights starting from July 14; and will also serve to Kolkata from July 27; Bulgarian capital Sofia on September 14; Norwegian capital Oslo from October 5; Entebbe in Uganda from November 2; Azerbaijan capital, Baku on November 30; and the Georgian capital Tbilisi, also on November 30.
Related Content
