GREECE: Ellinair Commences Flights From Athens To Rhodes

Greek airline Ellinair, a member of the Mouzenidis Group, is expanding its domestic network of destinations by adding three new weekly flights connecting Athens with the island of Rhodes in the Dodecanese.

Our aim is to meet the needs of visitors and the residents of Rhodes as the local authorities and the travel community have requested for the improvement of the island’s air connectivity, Ellinair CEO Ioannis Mouzenidis said in an announcement.

The flights will be conducted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by an Airbus A319, for the period of June 4 – October 1, 2018, while the airline is considering to increase the frequency in the future.

We will continue to expand our itineraries and fleet, according to the business plan announced recently by the group’s President Boris Mouzenidis,” Ioannis Mouzenidis underlined.

Ellinair also connects Rhodes with Thessaloniki for a second year, with two weekly flights on Fridays and Sundays.

Launched in 2013, Ellinair is based in Thessaloniki and operates scheduled and charter flights to Greece.

Ellinair network of destinations today includes more than 40 cities, many of them in Russia.

Ellinair operates a fleet of 10 aircraft and plans to add two more next year.

Ellinair has been collaborating with Hahn Air and has signed interlining agreements with more than 250 carriers globally.

The Mouzenidis Group offers specialized tourism services, products and solutions and today consists of five companies – including Mouzenidis Travel, Ellinair and BOMO Hotels and 18 brand names.


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GERMANY: Germania To Add More Flights To Greece In 2018

German carrier Germania has revised its flight program for summer 2018 and will operate more frequent flights from Dusseldorf to Greece.

The new destinations include the Greek islands of Crete, Karpathos, Kos, Lesvos, Rhodes and Zakynthos. Additionally, the number of connections to the island of Samos will be increased to two per week.

In 2018 Germania will also operate a new twice weekly service from Dresden to Athens. Moreover, in 2018 the airline will launch flights from Germany to Thessaloniki and Corfu.

Germania already operates seasonal direct flights from the German cities of Bremen and Nuremberg to Athens and also offers service to select Greek islands through a codeshare agreement with Greek airline Sky Express.

Top Kinissis Hellas is the General Sales Agent (GSA) of Germania in Greece.

New flights to Canary Islands and Portugal

Germania also announced that in 2018 it will fly to the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma and Tenerife. Also new to the airline’s schedule are the Portuguese destinations Faro on the Atlantic coast and Ponta Delgada at the Azores.

Also, in 2018 two flights a week twill continue to take off from Germany to Paphos in Cyprus.

Germania’s 2018 winter schedule also includes four flights a week for Tel Aviv.

In efforts to meet demand from the Turkish community in Germany, Germania offers an extensive choice of flights to Turkey.

The destination airports include Edremit, Alanya/Gazipasa, Hatay and Zonguldak. A new addition is Kütahya/Zafer, while the flights to Malatya are being increased.



Tourism Observer

NORWAY: Norwegian Air To resume Guadeloupe Islands Flights

Norwegian Air will resume its seasonal winter service to the Guadeloupe Islands for a third consecutive season. Nonstop flights from New York (JFK), Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Providence (PVD) to Guadeloupe (PTP) will begin on October 29th 2017.

Service will be significantly increased out of New York with six weekly flights (everyday but Wednesday). Flights will operate three times a week out of Fort Lauderdale and twice weekly out of Providence to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.

Tickets are now available for purchase at norwegian.com/us with fares as low as $79 one-way, taxes included.


New York (JFK): EVERY DAY BUT WEDNESDAYS – Departure time JFK – PTP: 2:10 pm
Fort Lauderdale (FLL): Tues. Thur. and Sat. – Departure time FLL – PTP: 3:35 pm
Providence (PVD): Thur. and Sun. – Departure time: 4:55 pm

S7 Airlines and Cyprus Airways have concluded an agreement for the performance of codeshare flights.

Now, passengers of S7 Airlines will be able to travel by codeshare flights of S7 Airlines and Cyprus Airlines from Saint Petersburg to Larnaca. The flights will be performed beginning from 8 June 2017 three times a week.

On Wednesdays and Fridays, the flights will depart from the Pulkovo airport at 05:05 and arrive at the Larnaca airport — at 09:45, on Sundays — departure at 01:50, arrival — at 06:30.

The flights from Larnaca will depart on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 20:10 and arrive in Saint Petersburg at 00:55.

This schedule will be convenient for passengers from Saint Petersburg travelling to Cyprus for a vacation.

An early arrival at the Larnaca airport and evening departure to Saint Petersburg will allow the passengers to get the most of their time in Cyrpus, without losing the day of departure and arrival.

The concluded codeshare agreement will also enable passengers from Saint Petersburg to travel to the Greek Islands of Rhodes or Crete with a connection at the Larnaca airport, the hub of Cyprus Airways.

The flights will be performed on the Airbus A319 modern aircraft of the Cyrprus Airways fleet. The aircraft is designed to carry 144 passengers in a comfortable economy class cabin.

The Icelandic airline WOW, on June 2, 2017, launched a direct route linking Reykjavik with Belgian capital, Brussels.

WOW flies from Reykjavik to Brussels seven times a week. Passengers will board an A321 aircraft for a flight that lasts 3 hour and 30 minutes. Roundtrip ticket prices start at 190$ including airport fees and transaction costs.

WOW air is a low-fare, long-haul airline based in Iceland. The airline was founded in November 2011 and serves 33 destinations across Europe, North America and Asia.

CYPRUS: New Cyprus Airways Announces Destinations, Cobalt Adds Sixth Aircraft

Cyprus Airways has announced the first three destinations that will be included in its flight schedule for the first phase of its launch, to begin in June 2017.

Based in Larnaca, the airline will operate scheduled flights to Heraklion, Rhodes, and Tel Aviv, with two additional destinations to be announced in the next few weeks.

In 2017, Cyprus Airways will operate its Airbus A319 aircraft, offering 144 Economy seats.

In Autumn, the airline will announce a revised and extended flight schedule to be implemented in March 2018, with the arrival of a second aircraft of the same type.

The airline is currently looking into adding more aircraft by the end of 2018.

Cyprus Airways on Tuesday announced the start of ticket sales for Heraklion in Crete, and Rhodes, while tickets to Tel Aviv and two other destinations will be available in the coming weeks.

Flights to Rhodes will begin on June 23 and Heraklion on June 24.

Today marks the start of the first phase of our operation. We are thrilled to launch our website and start selling on airline tickets to Heraklion and Rhodes.

In the coming weeks will gradually add additional tickets for routes, offering more travel opportunities for our passengers, said Natalia Popova, Commercial Director of Cyprus Airways.

Cyprus Airways on Wednesday announced the launch of ticket sales for flights from/to Larnaca International Airport to/from Tel Aviv and St Petersburg, the latest addition to the airline’s schedule for this summer.

Direct flights to St Petersburg will begin on June 1 and will be offered three times a week. For this destination, Cyprus Airways also offers the option to fly through Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, via an interline agreement with S7 Airlines.

The Larnaca – Tel Aviv route will be operated three times a week starting June 4.

Cyprus Airways tickets are offered in two categories of fares, Basic and Flex, with variations in features and additional services, such as baggage allowance, seat selection, and changes, the airline said.

Cyprus Airways will operate its Airbus A319 aircraft, offering 144 Economy seats. In Autumn, the airline will announce a revised and extended flight schedule to be implemented in March 2018, with the arrival of a second aircraft of the same type.

The airline is currently looking into adding more aircraft by the end of 2018.

Cobalt Air on Monday announced the addition of a sixth aircraft to the fleet.

The new A320-232, already registered in the Cyprus Aircraft Register with the 5B-DDC number, bears the colours and the logo of the company and will be integrated directly into its flight programme in order to meet its increased demand for airline seats,the Cyprus-based airline announced.

According to the company’s announcement the new plane landed at Larnaca Airport on Saturday and is expected to make its first flight in the coming days.

With the acquisition, the company aims to offer passengers a wider choice of destinations, it said.

The vision of the company was and remains the emergence of Cyprus as a tourist destination throughout the year and the transformation of our country into a regional aviation hub, Cobalt said.

On May 1, the airline started to offer direct flights from Larnaca to Beirut to travellers.

The company has also plans to expand its reach to destinations which are not directly connected to Cyprus such as China, India and USA.

The air carrier received its air operating certificate in May 2016 and started off with one aircraft, gradually increasing the number of planes, routes and flights.

TURKEY: German Tourists Avoiding Turkey, Why?

Summer bookings to Turkey by German holidaymakers are down by more than half after a spate of bombings, with tourists instead heading to Greece and Egypt, according to German market researcher GfK.

Tourism, which adds about $30 billion to Turkey's gross domestic product each year, has been hammered by attacks blamed on Islamic State and Kurdish militants that have scared away tourists over the past year. Summer bookings from Germany were down 58 percent at the end of January from a year ago.

"Greece is clearly benefiting from that, and Egypt as well," Doerte Nordbeck, head of Travel & Logistics Germany at GfK, told journalists at a news conference ahead of the world's biggest travel fair in Berlin (ITB) next week.

Germans' summer bookings for Greece were 67 percent higher than a year ago by the end of January, and the country has now replaced Turkey as Germans' second-most popular holiday destination after the Balearic islands, she said, citing booking data from travel agencies and online portals.

Tour operator TUI had said in January that it had added around 40 percent more capacity on the Greek islands of Crete, Rhodes and Kos to meet demand.

GfK said bookings for Egypt were up 91 percent from last year, but were still down 23 percent from before the 2011 uprising.
Norbert Fiebig, president of German travel association DRV said hotels in Turkey were responding by slashing their prices, while chains in Spain and Greece were taking advantage of rising demand to increase rates.

Booking portal Holidaycheck said this week that German bookings had shown hotel prices in Turkey were down 12 percent from a year ago and those in Egypt were still down by 8 percent. Prices in Greece were 5 percent higher than last year, it said.

With Germans booking earlier this year, DRV expects Germans' spending on travel bookings to grow moderately, after increasing by 2 percent to 59.8 billion euros ($63 billion), excluding expenses made during their trips, in 2016.

Germany is the world's third-largest spender on foreign travel behind China and the United States.

UNITED KINGDOM: Jet2 Unveils 57 Weekly Flights From Birmingham Airport

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays is to begin flying from Birmingham airport for the first time with the introduction of 57 weekly flights to 15 destinations.

Birmingham will become the operator and airline’s eighth base in the UK.

Destinations on sale for summer 2017 include Alicante, Crete (Heraklion), Faro, Fuerteventura, Girona (Costa Brava), Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Majorca, Malaga, Menorca, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes and Tenerife.

The flights will operate on four of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays’ new Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The first flights from Birmingham will take off on March 30 to Faro and Malaga.

The airline already flies out of Belfast International, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle.

The company said the move will create more than 200 jobs in the region.

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays chief executive, Steve Heapy, said: “This is an incredibly exciting day for us as we announce our expansion into our eighth UK airport base, providing further growth and investment for the region.

“It’s fantastic to be bringing our friendly low fares, great value package holidays, plus our brand new aircraft to Birmingham Airport.

“This is our most significant programme launch for some time, giving local travel agents a choice of 15 of the most popular sunshine destinations, including eleven Spanish hotspots, two Greek islands, plus Paphos and the sunny Algarve.

“We’re thrilled that even more of our agents’ customers can now experience our award winning flights and holidays and we look forward to our first flights taking off next year.”

Alistair Rowland, group general manager at Midcounties Co-operative Travel, welcomed the news.

“This is great news for the Midlands and our loyal customers who already love Jet2.com and Jet2holidays. We already send tens of thousands of our customers from East Midlands with them and look forward to the new Birmingham routes offering more choice and great value.

“Our partnership is already very strong and we look forward to working even closer in the future with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays and our number one airport in Birmingham.”

GERMANY: Intersky And Minoan Air Stop Flying

Two European regional airlines have stopped flying this week as the summer peak demand turns into winter over supply of flights.

Intersky the German carrier, which flew domestic scheduled services from Friedrichshafen Airport to Cologne/Bonn, Dusseldorf, Berlin Tegel and Hamburg Fuhlsbühl and international flights from Zurich to Graz and Salzburg has decided to call it a day and grounded its fleet of two ATR72-600s and three Dash 8-300s

In a similar story, Minoan Air based in Heraklion in Greece, has suspended operations but hopefully this is only temporary with its fleet of four four Fokker 50s aircraft which had operated scheduled services between Athens, Heraklion, Alexandroupolis, Rhodes, Thessaloniki, Kos, Mytilene, Mykonos, and Santorini grounded for the timebeing pending a corporate reorganisation.

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