ICELAND: WOW Introduces Iceland To Texas Route

WOW air is the first of three airlines to start flights between Reykjavik/Keflavik (KEF) and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) this summer, with the ULCC having launched a three times weekly A330-300-operated service on 23 May.

From 30 May Icelandair will launch the 6,009-kilometre route with four weekly 757-200-operated flights, while American Airlines will be the third carrier to join the sector party when it begins the route on 7 June.

The oneworld member plans to link its Texan hub with the Icelandic airport daily, with it, like Icelandair, planning to use its 757-200s on the route.

To launch three connections in as many weeks to such a large international hub is a sign we remain on the road of rapid growth and airlines continue to recognise the opportunities available, commented Hlynur Sigurdsson, Commercial Director, Isavia on the addition of Dallas/Fort Worth to Reykjavik/Keflavik’s summer network.

The new flights will not only represent substantial choice for our customers via Dallas/Fort Worth’s immense network, but also allow travellers from North Texas to benefit from our own ever-expanding route map.

This giving them access to Iceland as well as numerous further destinations.

WOW air introduced Cincinnati (CVG) to its ever-growing North American network, with it now linking its Reykjavik/Keflavik (KEF) hub to the US city four times weekly.

Launched 9 May, the LCC will operate the uncontested 4,833-kilometre airport pair using its fleet of 220-seat A321s.

Connecting the Tri-State community with additional international destinations has been a priority for Cincinnati, commented Candace McGraw, CEO of Cincinnati Airport.

We’re excited that WOW air is now providing local travellers with the opportunity to travel non-stop from Cincinnati to Iceland, as well as a one-stop, low-cost service to more than 20 destinations across Europe, Israel and the Canary Islands.

This becomes the US airport’s second transatlantic service, with it joining Delta Air Lines in the European arena.

The SkyTeam member presently offers a daily service to Paris CDG, a route that it flies using its 767-300s.

WOW air has now begun service to Tel Aviv (TEL), with the carrier having inaugurated a four times weekly service from Reykjavik/Keflavik (KEF) on 12 September.

The 5,272-kilometre route, the only connection operating between Iceland and Israel, will be operated by WOW air on its fleet of A321s.

Flights leave Reykjavik/Keflavik at 18:15 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, arriving in Tel Aviv at 04:40 the following morning.

Return flights leave Tel Aviv at 08:25 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, getting back into Iceland at 13:30.


Tourism Observer

USA: United Airlines Launches New Flights

United Airlines launched two transatlantic routes on 23 May, with it now serving Reykjavik/Keflavik (KEF) from New York Newark (EWR), while Edinburgh (EDI) has greeted its third route with the Star Alliance member, this time from Washington Dulles (IAD).

This fantastic addition to Edinburgh Airport will link our two capital cities for the first time and strengthen the already strong links between Scotland and America.

This was a comment by Gordon Dewar, CEO, Edinburgh Airport on the Star Alliance member’s connection between the capitals of Scotland and the US.

The 4,175-kilometre link from New York and 5,578-kilometre sector from Washington will both be flown daily this summer on the carrier’s fleet of 757-200s.

While the new service to Edinburgh faces no direct competition, the route between Newark and Reykjavik/Keflavik is already well served, with WOW air (13 weekly flights) and Icelandair (daily) providing a robust schedule between the two airports.

Iceland becomes United’s 13th European country market.

Although United’s inaugural flight from San Francisco to Munich departed California on 24 May the return flight departed Bavaria the following day. In Munich there was a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the event.

United already serves Munich with daily flights from Chicago, Houston, Newark and Washington.

United Airlines has launched daily flights between San Francisco (SFO) and Munich (MUC). The 9,432-kilometre route will be flown using the airline’s 787-8s.

Star Alliance partner Lufthansa already operates a daily service between the two cities. For United this becomes its fifth route to the Bavarian capital as it already flies daily from Chicago, Houston, Newark and Washington.

This new seasonal service will operate until 4 September. United now serves 87 destinations non-stop from San Francisco, of which 25 are outside of the US. Apart from Munich, United also serves Frankfurt in Germany with double-daily flights this summer.

Singapore Airport baked an impressive cake to welcome the arrival of United Airlines’ non-stop service from Los Angeles.

The carrier will operate the 14,096-kilometre link from the Californian hub daily on its 787-9s. By launching flights to Singapore, this becomes the airline’s longest route from Los Angeles.

United Airlines launched its longest route from Los Angeles (LAX) on 27 October, a 14,096-kilometre link to Singapore (SIN), beating the airline’s current route to Melbourne from the Californian hub which has a sector length of 12,751 kilometres.

Flown on the Star Alliance member’s 787-9s with a daily rotation, this becomes United’s second non-stop route to Singapore from the US after San Francisco.

Another long-haul sector launched by United this week is the 8,541-kilometre link from New York Newark (EWR) to Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE), a route that will be served by carrier’s fleet of 767-400s when referring to OAG schedules.

Launched on 28 October, the daily connection from Newark down to Argentina will face no direct competition, with the airline’s new US-Asia service also not facing any incumbents.

It should be noted that United already offers daily flights to Ezeiza from Houston Intercontinental on its 777-200s.

Scottsbluff Airport baked a cake to greet United Airlines’ inaugural service from Denver on 30 January. The Star Alliance member will operate a twice-daily service on the 241-kilometre sector using its CRJ 200s.

United Airlines has debuted two Nebraska routes from Denver (DEN) this week, with the Star Alliance member commencing services from its Colorado hub to North Platte (LBF) and Scottsbluff (BFF).

The latter was the first to launch, with the 241-kilometre route being inaugurated on 30 January, while the 364-kilometre link to North Platte commenced two days latter.

Both sectors will be flown twice-daily using the carrier’s CRJ 200s, with no direct competition being provided. See how Scottsbluff Airport’s FTWA compares to others from around the world.


United Airlines inaugurated its new non-stop seasonal service between its New York Newark hub and Porto. The outbound flight, UA144, departs New York daily at 21:45, landing in Portugal at 09:45 the following day.

United flight UA145 departs Porto at 12:35, arriving in Newark at 15:35 on the same day all times local.

United Airlines has initiated two new city pairs this week, one domestic and one international. On 1 May, the Star Alliance carrier began the 452-kilometre route from Denver (DEN) to Moab (CNY) in Utah.

The 12 times weekly CRJ 200-operated sector will encounter no direct competition. Three days later, United commenced a link from its New York Newark (EWR) gateway to Porto (OPO).

The daily 757-200-operated service will face incumbent TAP Air Portugal, which flies the same airport pair twice-weekly.


Tourism Observer

SWEDEN: Scandinavian Airlines Targets Long-haul Growth In 2016

SAS is planning several new long-haul services to the US in 2016 but its most recent long-haul route launch was from Stockholm Arlanda to Hong Kong, which began operating on 10 September. The 8,203-kilometre route, operated by the airline’s wide-body fleet has helped to increase the ASKs offered by SAS out of Stockholm this winter by up to 20%.

Operating on the far north of Europe, and obliged for political reasons to operate three separate hubs within 600 kilometres of each other, SAS is by most measures one of Europe’s top 10 airlines, carrying over 27 million passengers in 2014. However, the Star Alliance carrier has struggled financially in recent years and came very close to collapse in late 2012. Since then things have improved, thanks to a major cost-cutting programme and the fortuitous fall in the price of fuel, so much so that the carrier has even reported a positive 3% operating margin for its most recent 12-month accounting period (to July 2015).

As the national carrier for all three Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) SAS’ three biggest bases are also the capital cities of those countries. The next busiest airports (Bergen and Stavanger) are both in Norway, helping to make it the airline’s leading country market for weekly seat capacity, ahead of Denmark, Sweden, UK, Germany and Spain. The leading non-Scandinavian airports (shown in bright green) are led by London Heathrow in sixth place.

Capacity changes at the airline’s top dozen airports has been within plus or minus 5% with the exception of Trondheim (down 9%), Stockholm Arlanda (up nearly 7%), and Gothenburg (up almost 20%). SAS’ growth in Gothenburg may be related to the benefits of competition from Ryanair which has moved to the bigger airport, and upgraded it to a designated base, following the closure of the city’s downtown airport to commercial services. Dublin features among SAS’ recent route launches…definitely a challenge to Ryanair!

Stockholm growing, Copenhagen and Oslo stagnate in 2015

Analysis of monthly ASKs (Available Seat Kilometres) at the airline’s three main bases shows that on the whole the airline has continued to add capacity to its network. In 2015, Stockholm has seen an 8% increase in its annual ASKs compared with 2014, while both Copenhagen and Oslo have seen very small reductions. In 2014 the opposite had been true, with Copenhagen and Oslo both growing faster than Stockholm.

What this graph fails to illustrate is the increase in routes offered by SAS from its main bases. According to anna.aero analysis of OAG schedule data between August 2011 and August 2015, SAS grew the number of airports served from 87 to 109, while increasing the number of routes flown from around 150 to over 230. SAS’ most recent quarterly presentation highlights this in a different way, pointing out that between July 2011 and July 2015 the airline increased the number of international routes (to outside Scandinavia) by 62%, from 112 to 181. Across the same period aircraft utilisation improved by 29%.

Stockholm’s sudden ASK growth towards the end of 2015 can partly be explained by the launch in September of a new long-haul, wide-body service to Hong Kong using the airline’s latest A330s.

Distinct seasonality profile

While most European airlines and airports see a peak in demand during the main summer months of July and August, the Scandinavian market is somewhat different. With a typically higher proportion of business traffic during most of the year, demand actually falls away during the summer holiday period of July and August even though that is typically when Scandinavians (like their Northern European colleagues in the UK and Germany) head south for guaranteed sunshine.

Dealing with seasonality is a major issue faced by most airlines and applying anna.aero’s SVID (Seasonal Variation in Demand) formula, which we normally apply to airports, to SAS’ monthly seat capacity for the last two years reveals that the carrier has managed to reduce seasonality at its Copenhagen and Oslo bases, but not in Stockholm.

US expansion driven by Norwegian threat?

Long-haul flying is set to grow in 2016 with the commencement of a new daily Stockholm to Los Angeles service starting in March, followed by new services to Miami from both Copenhagen and Oslo starting in autumn 2016. In addition there are increased frequencies this winter on routes to Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Shanghai. However, the service operated on the airline’s behalf by Privatair between the oil cities of Stavanger and Houston, will end in a couple of weeks at the end of the summer season. Instead the 737-700 will be re-configured from a 44-seat all-business class layout to a two-class 86-seat layout (with 20 business class seats and 66 economy seats) and will be used to start a new daily service between Copenhagen and Boston from the end of March 2016. Coincidentally, or not, this is a route that Norwegian plans to start operating with its 787-8s next May. Between the end of October and next March the aircraft will be used to provide some of the capacity on SAS’s existing Copenhagen-Newark service.

Over 90 new routes launched since 2011

Analysing OAG schedule data for the first week of August in both 2011 and 2015 reveals that SAS operates over 90 routes this summer that it did not four years ago. However, it has also dropped around a dozen routes that it did serve in August 2011, including four routes to Madrid, Bergen to London Gatwick and Copenhagen services to Lyon. Some of these new services operate at low frequency for just a few weeks during the peaks summer holiday season.

Airport Route (code)
Copenhagen (CPH) Alicante (ALC), Ankara (ESB), Biarritz (BIQ), Billund (BLL), Budapest (BUD), Chania (CHQ), Dubrovnik (DBV), Edinburgh (EDI), Gazipasa (GZP), Linkoping (LPI), Malaga (AGP), Montpellier (MPL), Naples (NAP), Newcastle (NCL), Palermo (PMO), Palma de Mallorca (PMI), Pisa (PSA), Prague (PRG), Pula (PUY), San Francisco (SFO), Shanghai (PVG), Split (SPU), Tel Aviv (TLV), Thessaloniki (SKG), Trondheim (TRD), Wroclaw (WRO)

Oslo (OSL) Aberdeen (ABZ), Athens (ATH), Berlin (TXL), Billund (BLL), Chania (CHQ), Edinburgh (EDI), Gazipasa (GZP), Pisa (PSA), Pristina (PRN), Pula (PUY), Salzburg (SZG), Santorini (JTR)

Stockholm (ARN) Aalborg (AAL), Alicante (ALC), Ankara (ESB), Barcelona (BCN), Berlin (TXL), Biarritz (BIQ), Billund (BLL), Bodo (BOO), Bologna (BLQ), Bristol (BRS), Cagliari (CAG), Chania (CHQ), Dubrovnik (DBV), Faro (FAO), Gazipasa (GZP), Hamburg (HAM), Kalmar (KLR), Malaga (AGP), Milan Malpensa (MXP), Olbia (OLB), Palermo (PMO), Prague (PRG), Pristina (PRN), Pisa (PSA), Pula (PUY), Riga (RIX), Tampere (TMP), Thessaloniki (SKG), Turku (TKU), Vaasa (VAA), Vilnius (VNO)

Gothenburg (GOT) Alicante (ALC), Athens (ATH), Berlin (TXL), Dublin (DUB), Gazipasa (GZP), Malaga (AGP), Nice (NCE), Palma de Mallorca (PMI), Pristina (PRN), Pula (PUY)

Bergen (BGO) Barcelona (BCN), Gazipasa (GZP), Malaga (AGP), Split (SPU)

Trondheim (TRD) Copenhagen (CPH), Malaga (AGP), Stavanger (SVG)

Stavanger (SVG) Barcelona (BCN), Gazipasa (GZP), Split (SPU), Trondheim (TRD)

Billund (BLL) Copenhagen (CPH), Gazipasa (GZP), Oslo (OSL), Stockholm (ARN)

Further route expansion for this winter includes the launch of Brussels and Paris CDG flights from Gothenburg, plus the re-allocation of Gothenburg-London Heathrow flights to London Stansted. There will also be a new service from Oslo to Vilnius. Apart from the new long-haul services previously mentioned, next summer will see the addition of new services from Stockholm to Munich and from Copenhagen to Faro, Krakow, Reykjavik/Keflavik and Vienna.