Afriqiyah Airways and Libyan Airlines have suspended plans for a merger as the two flag carriers' home market struggles to contain a simmering civil war as worsening violence across the North African country steadily encroaches into the aviation sector in 2014.
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.
The company, which made a formal licence application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in April 2014, will follow in the footsteps of L’Avion and Open Skies in offering a product tailored to the premium market from the Parisian capital using Boeing 757-200 equipment.
The sale of the slot pair for the carrier’s daily Larnaca service - flights CY346 and CY347 - will result in Cyprus Airways switching its London operations to Stansted Airport from September 14, 2014.
The airline, like many other low-cost carriers, has been actively studying the launch of long-haul services across the Atlantic and this route is seen as WestJet testing the water before expanding its activities further.
The two new routes stretch from the north of Scotland with a new daily Inverness – Dublin service, to the south of England with a daily Southampton – Hamburg link, both of which will launch from October 26, 2014 at the start of the winter schedules.
Under the revised timetable, Qatar Airways will continue to operate four rotations per week on the Doha – Budapest – Zagreb linked flight routing using an Airbus A321, but every Monday, Friday and Saturday will operate separate flights to both Budapest and Zagreb.
The Star Alliance member will offer a three times weekly service on the route during the winter 2014/2015 schedule serving Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 2, also known as The Queen's Terminal, where it will take up residency from June 18, 2014.
The new flight between Helsinki and Nizhny Novgorod International Airport will commence from July 25, 2014, while Samara’s Kurumoch International Airport will be served from the Finnish capital from August 7, 2014 and the Kazan International Airport flight will follow from August 18, 2014.
United Airlines operates 34 flight arrivals and departures from new Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport on opening day (june 4, 2014) linking the London gateway with six destinations in the United States: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington Dulles.
The oneworld alliance member will launch a daily service between Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi from December 1, 2014 using an Airbus A320 configured with 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy Class. The service, which remains subject to government and regulatory approvals will be airberlin’s sole medium-haul link from Stuttgart, a market it currently mainly links to Mediterranean leisure destinations.
Luxair confirms relaunched service has been “widely used by business passengers, notably in the financial sector and fund industry” and was also popular with leisure passengers and Irish citizens living in Luxembourg.
The new route will operate on a twice weekly basis from February 5, 2015 and will be Icelandair's fifth destination in the UK and 39th across its expanding network.
Alongside the point-to-point market, the expanded frequency will provide better connection options for travelers from the UK to a range of markets across West Africa, including Abidjan, Abuja, Cape Verde, Libreville, Malabo, Niamey, N’Djamena, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou and Yaoundé.
