New routes launched - Saturday 13 Dec - Friday 19 Dec

Turkish Airlines launched flights from Istanbul (IST) to Birmingham (BHX) this week. There will be five weekly flights using a 737-800. This marks the first scheduled service between the two cities.

AirBaltic began serving Hannover (HAJ) this week from its home base in Riga (RIX). Flights will operate daily (except Wednesday and Sunday) using one of the airline’s Fokker 50s. Hannover becomes the airline’s fifth destination in Germany after Berlin (19 weekly departures), Dűsseldorf (four weekly flights), Hamburg (daily flights) and Munich (daily flights increasing to eight per week from 27 December). So far in 2008 airBaltic has seen passenger numbers rise by 29%. Even in November traffic was up an impressive 13% with the load factor remaining unchanged at 58%.

airberlin.com has finally started flying to Ciudad Real (CQM) the new Spanish airport around 100 kilometres south of Madrid. It is serving the airport four times weekly from its base at Palma de Mallorca (PMI). The start of the routes has been delayed twice.

British Airways has added another destination to its London City (LCY) network operated under its CityFlyer brand. Geneva (GVA) is now being served four-times weekly using an Avro RJ 100. The other destinations it serves are Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Madrid, Nice, Warsaw and Zurich. CityJet (on behalf of Air France) and Swiss already operate multiple-daily services between London City and Geneva.

easyJet added a new destination to its network this week. Salzburg (SZG) in Austria became the airline’s newest outpost with the start of thrice-weekly services from London Gatwick (LGW). Salzburg becomes easyJet’s third Austrian destination as it already serves both Vienna (from London Luton) and Innsbruck (from Bristol, Liverpool and London Gatwick).

Italian airline Eurofly has begun weekly flights from Milan Malpensa (MXP) to Tel Aviv (TLV). Flights will operate on a Wednesday only until 23 February when frequency increases to three flights per week with additional flights on Mondays and Thursdays. El Al already operates daily on the route while Alitalia is currently operating four weekly flights.

Jet2.com has launched weekly (Saturday) flights from Blackpool (BLK) to Geneva (GVA). These will operate through the winter ski season until 18 April 2009. Jet2.com already serves Geneva from its home base of Leeds/Bradford and Manchester.

Ryanair launched just five new routes this week with a heavy emphasis on the struggling Spanish market. It has begun domestic flights between Palma de Mallorca (PMI) and both Barcelona Girona (GRO) and Reus (REU). Also new are direct services from London Gatwick (LGW) to Alicante (ALC) and Barcelona Girona (GRO). The Alicante route from Gatwick (which Ryanair is serving twice-daily) marks the first time Ryanair has gone head-to-head with easyJet at what is now easyJet’s biggest base. British Airways and Monarch are also active on the route. The Girona route will provide indirect competition with easyJet’s triple daily flights to Barcelona. Finally, Ryanair is now connecting Edinburgh (EDI) with Krakow (KRK) three-times weekly. This is the airline’s ninth route to Krakow with the tenth (from Stockholm Skavsta) starting next week. Ryanair already serves two other Polish destinations (Lodz and Wroclaw) from its newest base in Edinburgh.

SAS has started serving Kittila (KTT) in northern Finland from its Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) base. Flights will operate twice-weekly with a 737.

Amsterdam-based Transavia.com has started five new “winter ski” routes this week, but none of them are from its home country. It has launched three/four times weekly services from Innsbruck (INN) in Austria to Berlin Tegel (TXL) and Hamburg (HAM) in Germany, to Brussels (BRU) in Belgium and Copenhagen (CPH) in Denmark. It has also started weekly flights from Copenhagen (CPH) to Salzburg (SZG).

Vueling, despite major network cutbacks that saw passenger numbers down almost 30% in November, has found the resources to start a new route between Seville (SVQ) and Tenerife Norte (TFN). Competition on the route is provided by future ‘partner’ clickair and Air Europa.

Two new routes have been inaugurated by WestJet this week. From Toronto (YYZ) there are now weekly seasonal flights to La Romana (LRM) in the Dominican Republic while from Calgary (YYC) the airline has started a new daily service to Kamloops (YKA) in British Columbia, a route already served by Air Canada Jazz. Kamloops handled around 200,000 passengers in 2007.

Wizz Air has done some more ‘joining-the-dots’ on its route network this week with the start of five new routes. In Poland, there are two new routes from Poznan (POZ) to Cork (ORK) and Rome Fiumicino (FCO) while in Romania there are new routes from Timisoara (TSR) to Dortmund (DTM), and from Cluj Napoca (CLJ) to Paris Beauvais (BVA). Finally there is a first international route from the airline’s new Ukraine base in Kiev (KBP) to London Luton (LTN).

Source: AnnaAero