This week: Primera seeks success with new A321neo route, Frontier's huge expansion, China Eastern seeks to compete more effectively in the Philippine market.
A new fifth daytime slot pair for scheduled service to and from Haneda International Airport in Tokyo has been preliminary awarded to Delta Air Lines for flights from Minneapolis-St Paul, ahead of another Delta proposition from Atlanta, American Airlines from Dallas and United Airlines from Newark.
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.
Delta plans to use the type to replace older less-efficient domestic Boeing 757 aircraft that are being retired from Delta's fleet and, according to its flight schedule inventory will configure them in a two-class arrangement with 20 First Class seats and 169 Economy seats, including extra-legroom seats in its Economy Comfort cabin.
Under a water cannon salute provided by Atlanta Fire and Rescue vehicles, and in front of hundreds of guests, dignitaries and fellow passengers, Delta Air Lines Flight 1256 made history at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on the morning of December 27, 2015. The flight from Gulfport, Mississippi carried the airport’s 100 millionth passenger in 2015, marking the first time ever an airport served more than 100 million passengers in a single year.
The carrier is reducing its capacity into Brazil this winter through route switches, frequency reductions and aircraft changes in preparation for what its vice-president of Latin America, Mexico and Caribbean, Nicolas Ferri describes as a “long cycle” economic slowdown in the country, in an interview posted on the airline’s website.
After Delta recently reduced service between the world’s busiest airport and the largest international airport, the carrier has now confirmed it will end the route from February 11, 2016. It said the Boeing 777 used on this city pair will be redeployed to other Transatlantic markets where it can “compete on a level playing field that’s not distorted by subsidised state-owned airlines”.
What are the world's longest scheduled air routes by distance and block time? As Emirates Airline reveals plans to launch a Dubai - Panama City route in February 2016, Routesonline investigates.
Among the early customers for the 747, Air France was one of the largest operators of the type in the world flying four major variants of the aircraft and more than 70 aircraft over five decades of scheduled service. It has now reduced its fleet to just five 747-400s having replaced the type with more efficient 777 and larger A380 equipment.
The airline currently offers five daily flights from the much coveted airport due to its proximity to central Dallas to its Atlanta hub at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, but has run into a bitter battle with the facility’s largest tenant, low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines, over gate access.
The announced growth from Qatar Airways is sure to further anger the bosses of the three US majors – American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines – which are understood to remain disappointed at the level and speed of the US governments reaction to its claim of unfair state subsidies at the Gulf airlines.
Alongside new routes to Austin, Indianapolis and Miami which we highlighted last month, Frontier has confirmed it will also introduce regular links to Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Philadelphia.
In an investor update providing guidance for the first quarter and full year ending December 31, 2015 preliminary estimates show that Spirit expects to grow capacity by 25.8 per cent in the first quarter, 31.5 per cent in the second quarter, 33.5 per cent in the third quarter and 30.5 per cent in the fourth quarter for a year-end increase of 30.4 per cent.
Over a twelve-month period, preliminary data shows a growth rate of 5.1 percent year over year, with both international and domestic traffic posting strong growth rates of 5.8 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.
Frontier currently offers links from Atlanta to Chicago O'Hare, Cleveland, Denver, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Orlando, Trenton and Washington Dulles and will supplement these with a new daily flight to Miami and six times weekly services to both Austin and Indianapolis from March this year.
The first European operator of the new Boeing 787-9, Virgin Atlantic will deploy its aircraft on routes from London Heathrow to Boston from October 28, 2014; Washington from December 17, 2014, Newark from January 19, 2015 and New York from February 28, 2015.
UK carrier Virgin Atlantic Airways is to suspend flights to Cape Town, Mumbai, Tokyo and Vancouver as it instead looks to strengthen its transatlantic partnership with shareholder Delta Air Lines. The latest network changes are part of an ongoing network review and business recovery plan to return the carrier to long-term profitability.
The famous PEOPLExpress brand will return to the US domestic market from June 30, 2014 after an agreement was reached to launch seven routes from Newport News Williamsburg International Airport using three 150-seat Boeing 737-400s contracted from Vision Airlines.
This latest announcement shows how the partnership between Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines, which launched on January 1, 2014, is increasing the network of each carrier. Virgin Atlantic will now have access to Delta's Atlanta hub, the busiest airport in the world, for the first time, providing greater access for the carrier to offer connections through to points throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Already serving both Washington Reagan National and Baltimore Washington International airports, the carrier will launch 68 weekly flights to 14 destinations from Dulles International Airport from August this year.
