UAE national carrier, Etihad Airways, has revealed plans to launch its first passenger flights to Algiers, Edinburgh, Entebbe, Hong Kong, Kolkata and Madrid in the first half of 2015, while Brisbane will get its first non-stop flights using the carrier's new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
Since its debut, AirAsia X has carried over one million passengers to and from its Japan routes and Japan contributes over 12 per cent of the airline’s total revenue to date. The airline is committed to Japan and the additional flight frequency to Narita is in line with its expansion strategy for the region, says the carrier.
It is symbolic that the established Routes CIS event has transformed this year into Routes Silk Road to include a wider community that is very interlinked historically, culturally and commercially and that it is hosted in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Pearl of Caucuses, which lies on the crossroad between Asia and Europe.
Saudi Arabian low-cost carrier flynas has an ambitious long-haul expansion strategy, underpinned by new flights to the UK, writes Justin Burns for our sister magazine Routes News.
The new Air Asia X service to XiÁn’s Xianyang International Airport was launched on July 2, 2014 and represents its fifth link into China after Hangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing, and Shanghai. The low-cost carrier is offering four flights per week on the route, the only airline providing direct flights between the city and Kuala Lumpur.
The weekly service, operated by a two-class Boeing 767-300ER, represents the return of a link first served by Transaero in 2002 and served up until October 2004. This was originally flown from Domodedovo Airport in the Russian capital but is now being served every Wednesday from Vnukovo Airport.
Air New Zealand has accelerated the purchase of a 15th domestic Airbus A320 to allow improvements to its Dunedin-Auckland schedule from March 2015 with the operation of an earlier direct return service between the two cities.
In 2004, airlines offered 7.7 million seats from Lisbon Airport but this rose to just under ten million seats last year, a 27.7 per cent rise. This year, based on existing published schedules, the airport will surpass the ten million figure for the first time with capacity set to rise 7.8 per cent.
This month Air China has added its latest US destination to its network after inaugurating flights between Beijing and Washington, its seventh destination in North America. The airline already offers flights from the Chinese capital to Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in the US and Vancouver in Canada.
The two destinations join Dubai in the network of Cebu Pacific Air's long-haul division which flies Airbus A330-300s configured in an all-Economy, 436 seat arrangement.
With a focus on strengthening existing relationships with airlines and building new relationships with the broader business market and consumers, BAC’s Asian push signals a new era in the development of the airport as one of the growth gateways into Australia.
As new Prime Minister Narendra Modi promises to revive economic growth in India, Air India’s new position will improve India’s connectivity to high-growth economies and give Star Alliance members access to India’s vibrant domestic air market, says OAG.
Emirates has served Karachi since the carrier was founded in 1985, and in the past decade alone has transported over six million passengers on the route. The new service will boost the Emirates offering on the route to 14,185 seats each week, it confirms.
