Aviation is a catalyst for growth, a vital conduit for world trade, and a major global employer. Nearly 63 million jobs and $2.4 trillion in global GDP are supported by aviation. But with these benefits comes an impact on the environment. Whether that is climate change, aircraft noise, local air quality, environment advocacy actions and most recently illegal wildlife trafficking.
The Canary Islands are one of the largest exporters to Africa, a market worth €227.42 million in 2014. The island is only a 45 minute flight away from Morocco, compared to a two and a half hour flight time to reach Madrid. At present, routes to Marrakech, Agadir, and Dakar are being served from Tenerife twice a week, and a route to Casablanca three times weekly.
Binter made its debut in Cape Verde in 2012 and its planned expansion will mark its first intra-African operation. The growth is being facilitated by the arrival of new regional turboprop equipment in its Canary Islands based fleet freeing up older aircraft to be redeployed into Cape Verde.
The airport, famous for its sleek terminal building designed by Spanish neofuturistic architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, Santiago Calatrava Valls, reported a second successive year of year-on-year traffic growth in 2015 and fifth rise in the past six years.
At present, Bilbao Airport serves more than four million people a year. The airport directly provides services within Europe, but after hosting Routes Europe in 2018, long-haul services could be on the horizon for the Basque Country.
The United Kingdom woke up this morning to the news that the country’s people had voted to leave the European Union. By a small majority, 52 percent of residents voted for independence, a decision that could change the political landscape of Europe forever and could bring an end to the United Kingdom, as both Scotland and Northern Ireland look to maintain membership of the European Union.
The new flight will commence from May 26, 2017 and will be flown using a 164-seat Boeing 757-200ER. It will be operated in conjunction with its Transatlantic joint venture partner Virgin Atlantic Airways, adding to the UK carrier’s seasonal service from Glasgow to Orlando.
Big data – it’s what everyone’s talking about, but how effectively are airlines really using it? Of course, data provides vital information on anything from marketing to operations, but it can also be used as a tool to develop digitally.
POP plans to establish regular links from London Stansted to two Indian cities: Amritsar (Punjab) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat). Subject to the successful completion of a 60 day rewards-based crowdfunding exercise in association with Trillion Fund Ltd to raise £5 million, the airline could take to the air as early as October this year.
Swedavia is strengthening the Aviation Business team by employing former Copenhagen Airport air service development executive Ole Wieth Christensen to provide an increased focus on developing intercontinental routes to Sweden. As director of intercontinental route development he will be overall responsible for development and execution of Swedavia’s Intercontinental Route Development Strategy.
Ryanair's introduction of flights from Oslo Airport to London Stansted and Vilnius follows the confirmation this week of the closure of the airline’s base at Rygge after the Norwegian Government introduced of an 80NOK tax on all departing passengers. Ryanair said the “environmentally unfriendly tax” will damage Norwegian tourism, traffic and jobs and left it with “no choice” but to modify its Oslo operations.
Tianjin Airlines will become the latest of the country’s airlines to launch long-haul flights when it takes delivery of at least three Airbus A330-200s from the European manufacturer in the coming months. These aircraft will be used to debut flights into Europe and North America and alongside London will see the introduction of flights to Moscow, Russia and Vancouver, Canada.
A new video released by the aircraft manufacturer shows the benefit of utilising their A380 model. These benefits are felt by two very different cities – Birmingham, England and Los Angeles, USA.
Delta and Virgin Atlantic’s joint venture is based around offering customers more options and a seamless experience between the US and the UK. The airlines are continuously evaluating their joint Transatlantic network to match the right aircraft to the right destinations and the summer 2017 network growth and route switches are a clear example of this.
Focusing on direct routes to popular destinations, SAS’s 2016/2017 Winter Programme will open up 470,000 more seats to travellers in Scandinavia than last year, and will see an increase in flight frequency on selected domestic and European routes.
European budget carrier Norwegian has revealed that it is considering launching transatlantic flights from Edinburgh as well as potentially introducing UK domestic services as part of its backing to the case for Gatwick Airport’s expansion.
BA previously served Santiago between 1993 and 2000 but as a tag on its flights into Buenos Aires. The new non-stop offering from London at 14 hours 40 minutes is nearly an hour longer than BA’s current longest flight of 13 hours 50 minutes to Buenos Aires and covers a distance of approximately 11,645km, versus the 11,085km for the London - Buenos Aires city pair.
The expanded offering will boost its available capacity by 19 percent to 450,000 annual seats and will include a new twice weekly link to the recent Routes Europe host city, Kraków, in Poland. It will also extend summer routes to Faro, Gran Canaria and Malta into the winter schedule, adding to its current flights to Alicante, Malaga and Tenerife.
The UK has always been one of the key markets for Oman Air and is one of just five country markets it serves in Europe. The airline currently offers flights to Frankfurt and Munich in Germany; Milan in Italy; Paris in France, Zurich in Switzerland and London, with the airline describing the UK capital as a flagship route.
Maximising Dublin’s connectivity potential is the focus for Ireland’s two largest carriers. Speaking at the Phocuswright Europe conference in the Irish capital this week, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, has hinted that flight connections with Aer Lingus could be a reality within the next 12 months.
From the start of the forthcoming winter schedule, British Airways is to introduce new non-stop flights from London Heathrow to both Doha, Qatar and Muscat, Oman. Both destinations are already part of the airline’s network but are currently served with one-stop direct flight routings via Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.
The new link will not only support better aircraft utilisation of Alitalia’s short-haul fleet through the sector’s night hour operation, but will also bring increased connectivity options in and out of Cyprus via its Fiumicino hub.
Icelandair introduced the Boeing 767 back into its passenger service last month, around ten years since the carrier last utilised the type on its scheduled route from its hub at Keflavik International Airport. It is using the aircraft into major European markets such as Amsterdam and London as well as to Boston, Chicago and New York in North America.
On first consideration, Tenerife might not seem the most logical host for Routes Africa 2016, but, as Routes News, investigates, the Continent is key to its development strategy of becoming a major trade hub.