Etihad Sets Tripoli Launch Date
Etihad Airways has confirmed it will inaugurate flights between Abu Dhabi and the Libyan capital Tripoli on January 17, 2012. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) operator will offer three return flights per week using a two-class, 162-seat Airbus A320, its fifth destination in North Africa. The airline’s Chief Executive Officer, James Hogan, had confirmed in October that the airline was planning to fly to Libya “as soon as the NATO no-fly zone is lifted, the airport is declared safe and all appropriate infra-structure is in place we will be able to begin services”. At this time the airline had suggested it would use a 262-seat A330-200 on the route, but has obviously readjusted its operational plan. Etihad Airways has developed a schedule on the route that, it says, will allow maximum connectivity over Abu Dhabi for flights from North and South Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, as well as serving strong point to point traffic. The flights will initially operate via Alexandria in Egypt, but will move to a non-stop basis once infrastructure is developed in the Libyan capital. "We are delighted to be able to launch these flights do all we can to help the country get back on its feet at this critical point in Libya's history," said James Hogan. The new services will further strengthen links between Libya and the UAE as the Gulf nation was among the first to recognise the new government of the country and provide political, military and humanitarian support.
Aeroflot Launches International Superjet Flights
Aeroflot Russian Airlines has operated its first international scheduled flight with its Sukhoi SSJ-100 Superjet regional aircraft. The Russian flag carrier and SkyTeam alliance member has introduced the type on its route between Moscow and the Norwegian capital Oslo on December 4 and has subsequently also introduced the aircraft on flights to Budapest. “The fact that the SSJ100 started to serve international routes of Aeroflot reflects the confidence of the airline in the reliability of our aircraft,” said Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk, President of aircraft designer Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. “We believe that the SSJ100 aircraft will efficiently serve both international and domestic routes of Aeroflot and will do our best to make sure that the growing fleet of SSJ100 meets the expectations of the airline.” Aeroflot currently operates three SSJ100 aircraft on routes from Moscow to St Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Astrakhan, Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Anapa, Perm and Minsk. Armenian national carrier Armavia is the only other operator of the SSJ100 and it has been using its aircraft to connect Yerevan with destinations across Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Sanctions Against Syria
The Arab League has approved a set of economic sanctions against Syria in a move that could significantly impact operations into the country. The action is to penalise President Bashar al-Assad's regime for a bloody crackdown on protesters and will leave the country in growing economic isolation in the region. The sanctions include travel bans on high-level regime officials, freezing of their bank accounts, blocking the sale of "nonessential" commodities to Syria, halting transactions with the Syrian central bank and ending financing for all Arab-funded projects in Syria. At the present time international airlines will continue to serve the country, although flights are expected to be curbed in the coming months due to political pressure. The table below shows the current international schedules from Damascus. There are also direct international flights to other Syrian cities, although these are much less prevalent than to the capital. Alongside the direct flights, other disruption will occur, as many operators fly over Syrian airspace to travel within the region and flights will potentially have to take alternative and much longer paths in the future.
Qatar Airways Says India is Key to Global Strategy
Qatar Airways’ Chief Executive Officer, Akbar Al Baker, has highlighted the importance of the airline’s ongoing expansion and commitment to India, one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Speaking in Kolkata to celebrate the recent launch of the airline’s flights to the former Indian capital, Al Baker expressed his deep sentiments towards India as a solid trading partner with the State of Qatar. Qatar is India’s largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) while exports from India to Qatar centre on food, machinery, chemicals, jewellery and textiles. With strong cultural, social and business links between the two nations, together with the large Indian expatriate community living around the world, the airline boss spoke of how Qatar Airways had developed an established air bridge to connect India with rest of the world. In its relentless expansion, Al Baker said India played a key role in Qatar Airways’ infrastructure, being a key employer of Indian nationals, who represent around 25 per cent of the airline’s 20,000-strong workforce. Kolkata joined the carrier’s burgeoning Indian route network in July with the launch of daily non-stop services from Doha, becoming its 12th passenger gateway in the country. The airline also operates twice-weekly cargo flights to Kolkata. Since 2004, when Qatar Airways only operated to four cities in India, the airline has gradually increased capacity across the country, tripling the number of destinations to the current 12, taking overall frequency to 95 passenger flights and 15 freighter services each week. Its Indian network covers daily flights to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa, Hyderabad, Kozhikode, Trivandrum, Chennai, Bengaluru (Bangalore), with 11-flights-a-week to Cochin and double daily to the capital, Delhi. “Today, Qatar Airways enjoys a robust operation in India with 110 flights a week, a four-fold increase from just a few years ago. Having launched flights to Goa, Amritsar, Bengaluru and Kolkata over the past 24 months, our new routes have facilitated growing demand for more capacity to and from India,” explained Akbar Al Baker. “This is a market that is strong and full of confidence. We are eyeing more opportunities here in India and look forward to developing our footprint further to give the travelling public a wider choice of services they deserve, and the cargo community more flights to ease the flow of goods, produce and other shipments to and from India.”
Transaero Launches Vilnius Connection
Independent Russian carrier Transaero Airlines inaugurated flights last week between Moscow Domodedovo and Vilnius International, the first direct air service between the two airports. The company is offering four flights per week using a Boeing 737-500 configured with three classes (Business class, Premium Economy and Tourist Economy) but expects to upgrade the route to a larger aircraft within the first year of operations. Although there are no direct links between Moscow Domodedovo and Vilnius, UTair does provide a twice daily flight to the Lithuanian capital from Moscow Vnukovo using one of its ATR 72 turboprops. In the past year an estimated 33,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two capital cities, down approximately six per cent on the previous 12 month period when Yamal Airlines also offered direct services. “The start of operations to Vilnius Airport marks another very important step in diversifying Transaero’s route network and building connections between European cities and destinations across Russia, the CIS and far beyond,” said Olga Pleshakova, General Director, Transaero Airlines ahead of the route launch. “We’re are pretty confident that passengers of our new flight will take advantage of not only direct service to Moscow but our transfer facilities at Domodedovo airport as well.”
Etihad Enhances Johannesburg Schedule
United Arab Emirates (UAE) flag carrier Etihad Airways is to introduce a revised operational schedule between Abu Dhabi and Johannesburg from January 24, 2012. The new flight timings will provide morning and evening departure options and will offer business and leisure passengers better flexibility and enhanced connection opportunities into the Indian Subcontinent and across North and South Asia. “We believe this new schedule will open up a number of opportunities for our Johannesburg service and could eventually enable us to introduce a second daily flight,” said James Hogan, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways. As part of the revised schedule, Etihad’s flights to Johannesburg will now terminate in the South African city rather than continuing on to Cape Town. The carrier said it is “examining other means” of serving the Cape Town market, and said it “already has in place” arrangements to offer passengers connections in partnership with local carriers. Etihad launched flights between Abu Dhabi and Johannesburg in December 2005 and in the last six years has carried more than half a million passengers to and from South Africa. In the past year around 19,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route.
Qatar Airways Inaugurates Chongqing Connection
Qatar Airways has expanded operations in China with the launch of three times weekly flights to Chongqing, the airline’s fifth Chinese destination and 15th route start-up this year. The airline’s inaugural flight to the Chinese city touched down at Chongqing’s Jiangbei International Airport on November 30, where it received the now customary water salute from the Airport Fire Service. The Middle Eastern carrier already offers scheduled passenger links to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, as well as cargo services into China. With Chongqing’s huge industrial catchment area in central western China, Qatar Airways believes there is a huge potential to operate to the city, which is currently largely underserved by the major international operators. Main local industries in Chongqing are centred on consumer goods and the processing of food, automobiles, chemicals, textiles and machinery. The city is also the largest in China for the production of motorcycles and third biggest for motor vehicles and as a major manufacturing centre, Chongqing is a key transportation hub located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, a vitally important shipping waterway in China.
Kam Air Upgrades with an A320
Afghanistan operator Kam Air has launched operations with its first Airbus A320. The aircraft was purchased earlier this year for a reported $10 million and was delivered last month. It is configured in a two-class layout with 12 Business Class and 138 Economy seats and will be used on flights from Kabul to Dubai and destinations in India, according to Kam Air executive Zamarai Kamgar. The aircraft was originally delivered to specialist leasing company ORIX Aviation in August 1994 and spent much of its service with UK carrier British Mediterranean Airways, a former franchisee of British Airways that was eventually acquired by bmi British Midland International. Since May 2006, the short-haul model has been flying in India with Indian Airlines, now part of Air India.
Aeroflot Plans Nine New Routes Next Summer
Aeroflot Russian Airlines is planning to launch new routes to nine domestic and international destinations during the Summer 2012 schedules, although it has only opened reservations for two of these at the current time. The growth has been made available through an increase of the carrier’s fleet and the arrival of additional Airbus A320 Family and Sukhoi SSJ100 Superjet aircraft. From the start of the Northern Summer schedule on March 25, 2012, Aeroflot will open daily links to Nizhnekamsk and Orenburg in Russia and the Ukrainian cities of Dniepropetrovsk and Dontesk (all planned to be operated by Superjet SSJ100s). The following month, on April 27, 2012 a daily Airbus A319 flight to Stuttgart will be added, while from June 1, 2012 daily links to Alicante, Bologna, Krakow and Tomsk are planned.
Related Content
