Safi Airways Partners With Gulf Air to Bahrain
Afghanistan international carrier Safi Airways has confirmed it will operate in partnership with Gulf Air on its new Kabul – Bahrain route which will commence next month. The airline will offer a three times weekly service from April 23, 2012 but will also codeshare on Gulf Air’s own flights on the route, which will also be operated three times weekly.
"Safi Airways is delighted to commence flight services to Bahrain," said Lloyd Carswell, Chief Commercial Officer Safi Airways. "The Gulf is an important market for us and it offers tremendous opportunities. We are pleased to be part of the expansion and development of this key region and we are continuing in our strategy to indentify new routes."
Bahrain will be the fourth destination to be served by Safi Airways since it underwent a restructuring in 2010 after it was forced to close its European routes due to a European Union ban. It now serves New Delhi in India and the major Middle Eastern business centres of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Safi Airways is currently the fourth largest operator from Afghanistan offering 26 weekly flights and just over 4,300 weekly seats from the country.
An estimated 11,000 O&D passengers travelled on the Kabul – Bahrain route last year after Gulf Air inaugurated the first direct services between the two cities for more than three decades in June 2011. Interestingly, even before the introduction of the direct flights there has been a growth in demand between the cities, with the main passenger flows being with low-cost operator flydubai, via Dubai, and then Air Arabia, via Sharjah.
Yamal Provides Moscow Link for Gothenburg
Russian operator Yamal Airlines will introduce the first direct air services in more than ten years from the Swedish city of Gothenburg to the Russian capital Moscow. The small carrier, based in Salekhard, mainly serves domestic markets with the Armenian capital Yerevan and Azerbaijani city of Ganja its only current international destinations.
Yamal will introduce a three times weekly service on the route from March 26, 2012 using Domodedovo Airport as its terminus in the Russian capital. The airline will use its expanding fleet of 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets to service the route. Although this will be Yamal’s first scheduled European destination the flight is not the first link between Gothenburg and Moscow following the collapse of the Soviet Union as Aeroflot Russian Airlines offered up to two flights per week to the Swedish city from its Moscow Sheremetyevo hub between October 1991 and February 2000, mainly using 68-seat Tupolev Tu-134s.
In the past year an estimated 15,000 O&D passengers travelled between Gothenburg and destinations in Russia. The majority of these (an estimated 68.5 per cent) were flying in or out of the Russian capital, most using the services of SAS Scandinavian Airlines via Stockholm or Copenhagen.
Royal Jordanian to Maintain Munich Route
Middle East carrier and oneworld alliance member Royal Jordanian has announced that it will continue to provide flights between Amman and Munich this summer despite earlier revealing that the German city would be removed from its international schedule as part of a cost saving network cull. The airline said only last month that it would end flights to five destinations – Al Ain, Brussels, Munich and two not yet announced Gulf cities from April 19, 2012, but in the case of the Bavarian city this decision has now been reversed.
At the time of the announcement Royal Jordanian said these destinations were selected based on a recent performance and economic feasibility study and confirmed that alongside the route closures, frequency cuts would take place on flights between Amman and Amsterdam, Colombo, Geneva, Khartoum, Rome, Vienna and Zurich.
According to Royal Jordanian’s Chief Executive Officer, Hussein Dabbas, the Munich route has been saved by linking it to its services to Frankfurt and due to the “assistance” provided by Munich Airport. The city will now be served on a twice weekly basis with a direct flight every Saturday and a weekly rotation via Frankfurt every Wednesday.
“The Arab spring and the political unrest that swept the Arab region last year is having a significant impact on Royal Jordanian,” the airline said in a statement and it is expecting visitor numbers to Jordan and the wider Middle East market to much reduced during the first quarter of this year. Further cuts may also be necessary and the company says it will cancel more flights during the year with the decision to be based on forward bookings over the coming months. It is also considering reducing the size of its fleet to take into account its reduced network scale.
Although the airline has not detailed the possible destinations concerned it does highlight that its flights to destinations including Aden, Aleppo, Alexandria, Bahrain, Cairo, Damascus, Sharm El Sheikh and Tunis have all seen notable declines in traffic during the past year, translating into the loss of hundreds of thousands of passengers. Similarly, there has been a decline in tourist arrivals from Europe that resulted in 1,300 flight cancellations last year and over 550 more in the first three months of this year. The airline has also seen rising costs with its fuel bill alone increasing 44 per cent last year.
In the past year an estimated 4.79 million O&D passengers travelled between Jordan and the rest of the world, with the largest traffic flows being to Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Beirut (Lebanon), Cairo (Egypt) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).
Saudi Airlines Cargo Expands European and African Reach
Saudi Airlines Cargo, the dedicated freight business of Saudi Arabian Airlines, will this summer introduce additional flights into Europe and Africa as it widens its network in the Continents. From the start of the Northern Summer timetable later this month, Saudi Airlines will operate four flights per week to Frankfurt and two flights per week to Vienna, with onward connections in Saudi Arabia from and to Hong Kong and other destinations in the Far East.
“We are extremely excited to be introducing these new services from Frankfurt and Vienna, which will provide a great boost to our existing activities in Europe where we currently operate scheduled freighters from Brussels, Amsterdam and Milan,” said Peter Scholten, Vice President Commercial, Saudi Airlines Cargo.
“Frankfurt is the financial and transportation center of Germany, the largest and most important market in the European Union, while Vienna is the gateway to Eastern Europe. Offering a high frequency of services from these key cities with direct connections to the Far East will allow us to grow our business as well as to expand our activities into Eastern Europe,” he added.
Meanwhile, the carrier will also introduce a weekly Boeing 747 freighter flight to Accra, Ghana from March 25, 2012. Accra, Kotoka International Airport is a major hub for the sub-region and export cargo includes mainly perishables like fruit and vegetables the majority of which is destined for markets in Europe and the Middle East.
"Ghana is an emerging market with enormous business potential for air cargo,” said Peter Scholten. “The addition of this new destination will help us to increase our activities in Africa, where we already operate scheduled B747 freighters from Saudi Arabia to Nairobi, Lagos, Addis Ababa, N'djamena, Khartoum and Johannesburg."
Saudi Airlines Cargo operates scheduled freighter services using 12 freighter jets as well selling the belly-capacity on the 140 passenger aircraft for Saudi Arabian Airlines offering links to a global network that encompasses over 220 destinations. The new Frankfurt service is due to be operated using Boeing 747F equipment, while Vienna will be served by McDonnell Douglas MD-11Fs.
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