Charting the resurgence of air transport in markets around the word, Routes looks at the easing of travel restrictions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This week: AirAsia begins routes to Belitung; Volotea to station two A319s in Naples; Loganair to start Cornwall Newquay flights; SAS expands network with 14 new routes and more.
This week: Just-Us seeks US flights; AirAsia X takes first A330neo; Brexit ends TAP Portugal London City services; Flydubai expands Asia network and more.
This week: Malindo Air is to begin a new service to India; Flydubai expands presence in Russia; Air Canada rouge to introduce Caribbean service from Routes Americas 2019 host.
Part three of our focus on the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia looks at the aviation market in Uzbekistan, which is slowly being transformed through more liberal policies and a focus on increasing tourism.
Airbus enjoyed a late flood of orders in 2017, including the finalisation of a record deal for 430 single-aisle aircraft. Southwest Airlines has also announced an increase to its Boeing order book.
Airbus has sealed a record $50bn order at the Dubai Air Show, one of the largest commercial plane deals in history, but Boeing has hit back with a $27bn agreement of its own.
The world’s busiest airport for international traffic will apply a new departure tax to bookings made from April 1, 2016 for travel from June 30, 2016 onwards. The service fee will cost 35 dirham – around $9.50.
Flights to Amman, Beirut, Chittagong, Doha, Kathmandu, Kuwait and Muscat will become available from DWC from October 25, 2015, while flights to these destinations from Dubai International will also remain available.
Low-cost carrier, flydubai has further strengthened its links to Russia, adding Novosibirsk and Nizhniy Novgorod to its comprehensive network in the region.
The budget carrier plans to links its Dubai International Airport base with Ahwaz, Hamadan, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz from March 2015, adding to its existing flights to Tehran and Mashhad, which were only launched in August 2014.
Its latest growth for the first quarter of 2015 will see another three destinations added to its route map, further expanding the carrier’s footprint to 89 destinations in 46 countries. These comprise flights to Hargeisa (Somaliland), Chennai (India), and Nejran (Saudi Arabia).
The carrier’s entry into Tanzania is no real surprise as the country is a regional hub for tourism in East Africa and in 2013 the country welcomed over one million tourists. According to the Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB), this figure looks set with to double with two million tourists forecast by 2017.
flydubai will become the first carrier to operate direct flights from Dubai to both Sarajevo and Zagreb. It will introduce a twice weekly link to Sarajevo from December 8, 2014, while a three times weekly offering to Zagreb will follow from December 16, 2014. Both routes will be served by its dual-class 737-800s.
Building on the momentum from last year, when 17 new destinations where added to the network, the airline has further cemented its commitment to enhance connectivity between different cultures.
