Etihad Opens Third Route to Iraq
United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Etihad Airways has announced the launch of a four times weekly service from Abu Dhabi to the southern Iraqi city of Basra from April 15, 2012, its third destination in the country. The airline already offers a daily link to the capital Baghdad and a four times weekly service to Erbil in the north of the country, routes which commenced in the second quarter of 2010. “Iraq’s surging economy represents a good opportunity to add even greater depth to our schedule,” said James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways. “Basra is an important industrial and transport hub but currently has only limited access to air services and we are delighted to be able to help improve these by investing in the local community.” The airline is offering a schedule that provides morning and afternoon departure on the first two and last two days of the working week and this has been specially customised to suit expected traffic flows. Oil and gas represent the backbone of the local economy and major companies rotating staff in and out of Basra have already expressed strong interest in the new flights. Like its existing Iraqi routes, Etihad will use an Airbus A320 on the Basra route configured with 16 Pearl Business Class and 120 Coral Economy Class seats. According to Etihad, last year more than 100,000 passengers were carried between Abu Dhabi and its two existing destinations in Iraq, with the Baghdad route enjoying strong growth. Many of these passengers were connecting at Abu Dhabi to other destinations across the airline’s network as the estimated O&D demand between Abu Dhabi and Iraq was much smaller in 2011, an estimated 28,000 passengers. Emirates Airline, Gulf Air, Royal Jordanian and Turkish Airlines already provide non-stop links into Basra from the Middle East but there are currently no direct flights from any other parts of the world, highlighting the reason for the large numbers of transfer passengers on Etihad’s flights last year. An estimated 561,000 O&D passengers are believed to have travelled from Iraq into Europe last year, for example while approximately 121,000 passengers flew internationally from Basra during the same period.
Gulf Air Reveals Operational Plans for new Airbus A321s
Middle East carrier Gulf Air has confirmed that it will launch operations with the first of six Airbus A321s that it has on order during the second quarter of this year. The airline is due to receive its first aircraft in late March / early April and will launch commercial scheduled operations with the type from May 1, 2012. According to the latest update to its flight inventory, the A321 will initially enter service on the Bahrain – Mumbai route on a twice daily basis. As additional aircraft arrive the jet will be introduced on flights from Bahrain to Cairo, Delhi, Karachi and Kochi from June 1, 2012 and then on the Bahrain – Colombo route from September 1, 2012. Gulf Air is to operate the aircraft in a two-class arrangement with 8 Business Class and 161 Economy Class seats. Unlike many Airbus A320 Family models, Gulf Air’s Business Class will be fitted with seats that can convert into lie-flat beds and the entire aircraft will be fitted with a modern In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) suite with private televisions for every passenger. This is not the first time Gulf Air has operated the A321. In June 2008 it acquired two aircraft on lease from Macquarie AirFinance but these were retired from service late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter of last year as political hostilities in Bahrain intensified. They were then returned to the lessor in June and July and are now in operation with Atlasjet Airlines in Turkey.
Turkish Airlines Adds Kharkiv Connection
Turkish Airlines (THY) is to expand its network to the Ukraine with the introduction of a twice weekly connection between Istanbul and Kharkiv, the second largest city in the former Soviet Republic. The new route will be introduced from March 13, 2012 and will increase THY’s network in the country to seven destinations. This summer THY will offer 49 weekly frequencies to Ukraine, by far the largest operator into the Eastern European country from Turkey. Alongside the new route to Kharkiv the airline will offer 13 flights per week to Kiev; eleven to Odessa; eight to Dontesk; seven to Simferopol; five to Dnepropetrovsk and three to Lviv. THY will face no direct competition between Istanbul Ataturk and Kharkiv, although Pegasus Airlines does provide a regular link to the Ukraine city from Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen. An estimated 42,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year. In the wider market an estimated 508,000 O&D passengers travelled between Turkey and Ukraine in 2011 with THY holding a 45.2 per cent share of this traffic. Alongside the Turkish carrier, Aerosvit Airlines also provides flights from Istanbul to Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev, Odessa and Simferopol; Onur Air has links from Istanbul Ataturk to Odessa and Pegasus Airlines serves the Istanbul Sabiha Gkocen – Donetsk route alongside its flights to Kharkiv. Traffic between Turkey and Ukraine has grown significantly during the past two years, returning to a figure close to the market high that was recorded in 2008. THY has actually seen its share of traffic between the two counties fall during the past 24 months from 53.4 per cent in 2009 to 45.2 per cent last year. This has been mainly due to growth at Aerosvit Airlines and more recently the expansion of low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines into Ukrainian markets.
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