EMIRATES ACCELERATES EXPANSION IN GERMANY
Emirates Airline is to increase capacity on its Dubai – Frankfurt route earlier than it first planned with an initial ramp up of its schedule now taking place at the start of the Northern Winter schedules. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier currently offers two flights per day on the route and had revealed earlier this year that it would introduce a third daily flight from December 1. However, it will now add four additional weekly services from October 30, increasing to 21 flights per week from December 1, as planned. The airline first launched flights to Germany in 1987 when it introduced a connection between Dubai and Frankfurt. It currently operates 49 passenger flights to Germany per week from its Dubai hub, with existing connections to Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. It has already announced plans to introduce a second daily link to Hamburg from September 1, and its Frankfurt expansion and introduction of the Airbus A380 on its flights to Munich from January 1, 2012 will mean capacity to Germany will increase by more than a third this winter. An estimated 995,000 O&D passengers travelled between Germany and Dubai in the past year, up 11.7 per cent on the previous year. Emirates Airline accounts for a 62.6 per cent share of this traffic, but statistics show that the airline offers more than just point-to-point travel options, but links across its wider network: an additional 784,000 passengers (57.3 per cent of its total) fly via Dubai to and from other destinations, with Thailand, India, Australia and China the main markets.
DONAVIA TO ADD MOSCOW - MINERALNYE VODY SERVICE
Russian carrier Donavia is to launch a twice daily flight between Moscow Sheremetyevo and Mineralnye Vody from August 1. The route is already served by the airline’s parent company Aeroflot Russian Airlines, which will now also codeshare on the new flights. An estimated 145,000 O&D passengers flew on the route in the past year, and although there is no direct competition there are seven other daily flights from other Moscow airports. Kavminvodyavia currently dominates the total market between Moscow and Mineralnye Vody (56.5 per cent of the estimated 591,000 O&D passenger traffic) with twice daily flights from Domodedovo and Vnukovo, while UTair also offers a double daily link from Vnukovo and Gazpromavia a daily service from the same airport. In addition to this domestic development, Donavia has also recently boosted international flights from its main base at Rostov-on-Don. On July 3 it introduced a weekly rotation to the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek, while from July 24 it modified its twice weekly Rostov – Adler/Sochi – Tel Aviv schedule with one of the two flights now operating directly to the Israeli city.
ETIHAD INCREASES FLIGHTS TO ERBIL
United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Etihad Airways has announced that it is to double capacity on the Abu Dhabi – Erbil route from September 1. The carrier launched the Iraqi link on a twice weekly basis in June 2010, but will now serve the market four times every week due to increasing passenger demand. According to the carrier loads are already exceeding the 80 per cent figure. An estimated 10,000 O&D passengers travelled between Abu Dhabi and Erbil on the flight during its first year of operation, with a similar number connecting on to Etihad’s wider network. According to the data, with the exception of its home UAE market, the main traffic flows are to/from India (14.7 per cent), Australia (10.3 per cent) and Pakistan (6.4 per cent). “We are committed to building and strengthening ties in our region. With these additional flights, Etihad will offer air travellers from around the world significantly improved connection opportunities through our Abu Dhabi hub as we continue to add breadth and depth through additional frequencies on key routes across our expanding global network,” said James Hogan, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways. “We expect to see continuing strong demand on these routes, particularly from government and business travellers, as well as people from Iraq visiting family and friends around the world.”
GULF AIR ATTEMPTS TO BOOST LOCAL TRAFFIC
Middle East national carrier Gulf Air has unveiled a host of new commercial initiatives that it hopes will position it as a dynamic and innovative operator with a difference. Key to this revised strategy is winning a greater share of its home market where it has seen its presence decline due to greater competition from rivals across the region. Speaking at a press conference in Bahrain this week the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer, Karim Makhlouf said the national carrier is all set to expand its customer base and increase its revenue by introducing a range of new products, services and incentive packages for key customer segments while strengthening its home market share. “Since the launch of the airline’s new business strategy in November 2009 by Chief Executive Officer Samer Majali, we have made some notable progress; we added 15 new destinations to our network, discontinued four unviable routes, brought in 14 new aircraft, improved our on-time performance by seven per cent and achieved a fleet technical dispatch reliability of 98.9 per cent. Now the time has come for us to focus on our customers’ needs and increase our commercial efficiency,” he said. “We realised that our market share at home – the Kingdom of Bahrain- is just 32 per cent - the lowest compared to our regional competitors. At the same time, competition has increased with more and more new airlines including low-cost carriers entering the market eating into our customer base and thus, our market share,” he added. According to Karim Makhlouf, “it is imperative” that Gulf Air owns its home market and a series of new customer-focused initiatives will target different customer segments – family, business, government, pensioners and the youth – to win back market share. “As the national carrier of the Kingdom, we have a moral responsibility to promote Bahrain and make ’Bahrain Fly’,” he added. In the latest change to its schedule, Gulf Air will add a sixth weekly flight to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa from August 4 and moving to a daily service from October 30. The airline competes with Ethiopian Airlines which already offers a daily schedule. An estimated 23,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year with Gulf Air accounting for just seven per cent of this total, having only introduced its flights in December 2010.
Related Content
