TURKEY: Onur Air Resumes Domestic Flights June 26, July 15th For International Flights

The low-cost Turkish airline Onur Air will resume domestic flights on June 26 and international flights on July 15, the company announced Tuesday.

Onur Air said in a statement that it will resume operations with new safety and health measures implemented following more than two months of suspension of flights as part of the restrictions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flights were suspended on March 28 amid worldwide coronavirus restrictions.

The airline will operate one daily round trip between Istanbul and the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya and the Black Sea city of Trabzon and a trip to the Aegean resort town of Bodrum four days a week, starting from July 26.

Onur Air CEO Teoman Tosun said the company’s priority is to ensure maximum security for the passengers and to offer the cheapest prices available.

Our aircraft are being disinfected in line with national and international health standards to prevent the spread of the virus, Tosun said.

The spread of the virus suspended touristic activity from March as Turkey was quick to close its borders and halt flights and other modes of transportation.

Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines, SunExpress its joint venture with Lufthansa and major budget airline Pegasus have already resumed domestic flights between major routes in the first week of June, after the lifting of travel restrictions due to the pandemic.

The airlines had been scheduled to resume limited international travel from mid-June and are waiting for permission to fly from national and international authorities.

The Low Cost Airlines Market report provides a detailed analysis of global market size, regional and country-level market size, segmentation market growth, market share, competitive Landscape, sales analysis, impact of domestic and global market players, value chain optimization, trade regulations, recent developments, opportunities analysis, strategic market growth analysis, product launches, area marketplace expanding, and new innovations.

Top Companies in the Global Low Cost Airlines Market are Fastjet, Mango, Fly540, Dana Air, JamboJet, Skywise, Onur Air, Bahrain Air, Airblue, Air Arabia, Flydubai, Air Asia X, FlySafair, Sama, Nas Air, Ease On Air, Jazeera Airways and Others.

Onur Air is a low-cost airline with its headquarters in the Technical Hangar B at Istanbul Ataturk Airport in Yeşilköy, Istanbul, Turkey.

It operates mostly domestic scheduled services, as well as a wide range of charter flights out of its base at Istanbul Airport. Its aircraft and crews also operate for its partly owned leisure subsidiary Holiday Europe.

Onur Air was established on 14 April 1992 and started revenue operations using a wet-leased Airbus A320 with a flight to Ercan in North Cyprus on 14 May of that year.

Onur means proud, self-esteem in Turkish. Over the next years, the Onurair fleet grew, so that by the end of 1995, it included nine aircraft.

Previously its head office was in Florya, Bakırköy, Istanbul.

In 1996, Ten Tour acquired ownership of the airline. By 1997 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 twin-jet airliners had been added to the fleet. Due to a recession, Onur Air had to reduce the size of its fleet to 13 in 1998, and then to 9 in 1999. Since then the airline has expanded again.

As of 6 April 2019 all of Onur Air's flights from their former base at Ataturk Airport have been relocated to the new Istanbul Airport.[

In August 2019, Onur Air established a new, partly-owned subsidiary named Holiday Europe for leisure flights between Europe and destinations around the Mediterranean. Onur Air provides aircraft and crews for the new brand.

On 17 June 2003, Onur Air Flight 2263, a McDonnell Douglas MD-88 registration TC-ONP overshot the runway at Groningen Airport Eelde following an aborted take-off. There were no injuries, but the airline was accused of security breaches.

On 12 May 2005, Onur Air was denied access to Dutch airspace for a month. Several incidents were the cause of the suspension of the airline. Negotiations took place between the Dutch authorities and Onur Air and on 24 May 2005 Onur Air had permission to fly from and to the Netherlands again.

On 1 January 2007, the cargo hold of a McDonnell Douglas MD-88 aircraft burst open upon landing at Ataturk International Airport, spilling luggage onto the runway.

On 7 September 2007, an Airbus A321 aircraft lost cabin pressure on a charter flight from Dalaman Airport to Birmingham Airport, resulting in an emergency landing at Atatürk International Airport. Passenger reports included a smoking engine and broken down oxygen masks.

On 20 August 2011, an Onur Air pilot forgot to contact Munich Air Traffic Control and caused the quick reaction air defence of both Germany and Austria to send four Eurofighter Typhoons to intercept the company's A321.

GERMANY: Germania Launches New Routes

Germania has commenced its first services to the French island of Corsica during the last seven days.

Weekly flights (Saturdays) from Dresden (DRS) and Nuremberg (NUE) were started to Bastia (BIA), the second busiest airport on the island after Ajaccio.

The 1,007-kilometre sector from the former airport will be flown by the airline’s 737-700s, while the service from the latter facility will be operated by a mix of Germania’s A320 family.

Both routes were launched on 19 May and neither faces any direct competition.

Germania, on 26 April, launched direct flights between Dresden (DRS) and St. Petersburg (LED).

The capital city of the state of Saxony became a new destination in the Russian airport’s route network and the seventh German city with direct scheduled service.

The LCC operates the city pair twice-weekly with its 737-700 fleet, leaving from the German city on Thursdays and Sundays and the return flights departing Russia on Fridays and Mondays.

In addition to Dresden, St. Petersburg offers direct connections to such German cities as Berlin Schonefeld and Tegel airports by Rossiya Airlines and S7 Airlines respectively.

Hamburg and Dusseldorf by Rossiya, Munich by Rossiya and Lufthansa.

Frankfurt by Lufthansa and Ural Airlines and Cologne Bonn by Pobeda. There is no direct competition on this sector.

Germania now serves the Vienna (VIE) to Rostock (RLG) route twice-weekly (Fridays and Sundays) from 26 May.

The flights, operated by an A319, depart from Rostock at 11:50 and land in Vienna at 13:20, and leave the Austrian capital at 14:05 and arrive back in the Hanseatic city at 15:35.

We are pleased to welcome a new airline at Vienna Airport, namely Germania.

The new route to Rostock makes it even easier for passengers to reach the northern part of Germany, says Julian Jager, Member of the Management Board of Vienna Airport.

The route faces no direct competition. The day before, the airline began weekly (Thursdays) rotations between Hamburg (HAM) and Varna (VAR).

Flown by Germania’s A319 fleet, the city pair will encounter resistance from incumbent SunExpress Germany, which also flies the route on a weekly basis.

The last of the trio of new routes commenced by the airline on 23 May was the addition of another route from its recently opened Palma de Mallorca (PMI) base.

Germania added a twice-weekly (Tuesdays and Fridays) service to Montpellier (MPL) on 23 May. Operated by the carrier’s 737-700 fleet, the 459-kilometre sector will face no direct competition.

Germania has commenced two new routes from Germany this week. The airline began weekly (Fridays) operations from Düsseldorf (DUS) to Gazipasa-Alanya (GZP) in Turkey.

The 2,617-kilometre sector will be flown by Germania’s A319 fleet. By contrast, its twice-weekly (Mondays and Thursdays) operation from Nuremberg (NUE) to Athens (ATH), will be flown on its 737-700s. Neither route faces any direct competition.

Germania has based a second aircraft at Berlin Schonefeld (SXF), and is using the fresh capacity to re-start weekly services (Fridays) to Sharm El Sheikh (SSH), thereby reviving a route between the German capital and the Red Sea resort that has not been available for four-and-a-half years.

The following day the carrier also began services to Fuerteventura (FUE), a route that will operate on a twice-weekly basis (Tuesdays and Saturdays).

Unlike the Egyptian sector, the Spanish city pair will see direct competition from Ryanair (twice-weekly) and Condor (weekly).

Both routes will be flown by the carrier’s 737-700 fleet. Additional new features in Germania’s winter flight schedule from Schönefeld include increased capacity to Hurghada and a new route to Gran Canaria which launches next week.

The airline is committed to a policy for growth at this base, as well as Berlin Tegel.

Germania will achieve 400% growth in Berlin, commented Clauspeter Schwarz, Germania’s COO. This is our response to market changes and a greater presence in the capital.

Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of Berlin Brandenburg said: We are very pleased with the increased commitment of Germania to Berlin.

The wider range of flight offerings, the development of its bases at our two locations, as well as the maintenance operations at Schonefeld make the airline a key partner for us.”


Tourism Observer

GERMANY: Traffic At Nuremberg Airport Grows 23%

The city of Nuremberg is home to a population of over 500,000 people, an important industrial centre with a strong standing in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe. With a strong manufacturing prowess, items made in the area around the city include electrical equipment, mechanical and optical products, and printed materials.

The city is also strong in the fields of automation, energy and medical technology, with one of the city’s biggest employers being Siemens. Nestled in the northern part of Bavaria, the city is served by Nuremberg Airport, the tenth largest airport in Germany which last year welcomed just under 3.5 million passengers.

The airport has had many successes during the past year, including the opening of a new Ryanair base, and the team being highly commended at this year’s Routes Europe Marketing Awards in Belfast.

Nuremberg Airport has had an exceptional start to 2017, with Q1 traffic up 23% when compared to the same three-month period of 2016. Passenger figures for January were up 22%, while February indicated a 25% rise and March 23%.

Looking at the international and domestic markets, the former welcomed a 37% increase in traffic during Q1, while the latter showed a more modest 3% rise, highlighting that international expansion is the driving force behind Nuremberg’s impressive growth.

According to ADV monthly statistics, the average growth during the first quarter of 2017 across Germany’s leading airports was 4.5%, showing that Nuremberg is well above the national average.

With the airport’s exciting growth comes the news that it is Germany’s fastest-growing top 10 airport for Q1, with only Berlin Schonefeld (sixth largest airport; 16% growth in Q1 2017) and Düsseldorf (third; 13%) also registering double-digit growth. If Nuremberg’s growth pattern continues throughout 2017, then it should welcome around 4.2 million passengers this calendar year.

When taking Nuremberg’s 2016 monthly passenger statistics and placing them in anna.aero’s Seasonal Variation in Demand calculator (SVID) it performs well, generating a score of 5.48 – a “Good” rating. This is an improvement from the 6.26 also good that it scored for its 2015 monthly statistics.

What this indicates is that with Nuremberg’s impressive traffic growth, the impact has not damaged its seasonality. In fact with the seasonality profile of the airport being reduced, even with more traffic, shows that Nuremberg has demand for year-round services, not just summer seasonal ones when the airport is at its peak.

Since Ryanair opened its base at Nuremberg in October 2016, it now has two 737-800s stationed at the Bavarian airport and as a result it has grown to become Nuremberg’s largest airline. In total the ULCC occupies 18% of weekly departing seat capacity this summer, with its own individual seat capacity growing by over 420%, a result of the based aircraft.

Last year the airline occupied 4.4% of weekly seat capacity during summer. In the past year the airline has opened flights to Bari, Budapest, Madrid, Manchester, Milan Bergamo, Palermo, Porto, Rome Ciampino and Verona from Nuremberg. In total the airline will offer 58 weekly flights from the city during S17.

Wednesdays and Sundays are the busiest of the week with nine flights each, while the rest of the week sees eight daily departures. Looking ahead to W17/18, the most significant route that Ryanair will open from Nuremberg is Krakow, the first connection to be offered between the Polish and German sister cities, and Nuremberg’s first direct flight to Poland.

Ryanair will also connect Nuremberg to Vilnius from the end of October.

The most recent carrier to join the airline roll call at Nuremberg is bmi regional which began flights from Birmingham on 8 May, a route which will operate six times weekly and which anna.aero was fortune to attend the launch of.

In total, weekly seat capacity this summer from Nuremberg has risen by nearly 32% when analysed with S16 data.
Antalya is fastest-growing route for Nuremberg in S17

With SunExpress increasing its seat offering between Nuremberg and Antalya by 128% during the past 12 months, the Turkish resort is the fastest-growing top 12 route from the German airport this summer. It is followed by London Stansted which has seen its capacity increase by over 71%, the result of Ryanair increasing its frequency to 12 times weekly (twice-daily Mondays to Fridays) from daily on the route to the UK capital.

The leading route from Nuremberg this summer is Palma de Mallorca, a title it holds on to from S16 despite a 8.5% drop in capacity.

Looking at OAG schedules for this summer, Nuremberg will have direct flights to 58 destinations (w/c 13 June 2017), an increase of 15 when compared to the same week of 2016.

Along with the new routes to Krakow and Vilnius being launched by Ryanair, other services that are to be introduced from Nuremberg during the remainder of 2017 include Adana, Athens, Dalaman, Reykjavik/Keflavik and Tel Aviv with Germania, with the latter two being the airport’s first flights to Iceland and Israel.

Finally Wizz Air, which has grown its seat capacity from Nuremberg by 122% since last summer, will begin services from Kiev Zhuliany in August.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2017, one of the most significant route launches from Nuremberg is to Tel Aviv, a sector that will be inaugurated by Germania in November.

Along with Tel Aviv, Germania will also add Reykjavik/Keflavik to its Nuremberg schedule from June, becoming the German airport’s first flights to Israel and Iceland.

Other important route launches from Nuremberg in 2017 include Krakow and Vilnius with Ryanair, and Wizz Air adding Kiev Zhulyany flights.

TURKEY: Turkish Airlines Is Delaying 39 Boeing And Airbus Jets From 167 Aircraft

Turkish Airlines has announced it is delaying 39 Boeing and Airbus jets from its outstanding commitments for 167 aircraft.

Turkish Airlines currently has 92 Airbus A321neos on order.

TURKISH AIRLINES has deferred deliveries of a host of narrowbody aircraft as it moves to counter a downturn in domestic air traffic. Announcing the action in a disclosure to the Borsa İstanbul Stock Exchange on October 7, the carrier revealed it is delaying 39 Boeing and Airbus jets from its outstanding commitments for 167 aircraft, which consists of 92 A321neos, 65 737 MAX 8s and 10 737 MAX 9s.

The airline did not elaborate on which types will be affected by its decision, but confirmed it will now receive just ten of the 34 aircraft due in 2018, while 15 of the 92 narrowbodies planned for delivery in 2019 and 2020 have also been postponed.

The carrier has, however, increased the number of airframes it will receive over the following three years with all outstanding orders now due to be fulfilled by 2023, a year later than planned.

Turkish Airlines did not explain the move, though it has been struggling with weak demand for travel in the country in the wake of numerous terrorist attacks and a failed military coup, leading it to post a $644m loss for the first half this year.

The downturn is also impacting other Turkish operators including SunExpress and Anadolujet, which have cancelled lease agreements with Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes and BoraJet respectively, while Pegasus Airlines has made three of its aircraft available for charter.

Lufthsana-Turkish Carrier Launches RAK Flights

SunExpress starts weekly charter flights from seven German cities on October 31

SunExpress, the Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines joint venture carrier, is now flying to Ras Al Khaimah, the emirates tourism authority announced on Tuesday.

Weekly charter SunExpress flights from seven German cities started on October 31, according to an emailed statement.

The cities are Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hanover, Dresden and Leipzig. The flight is operated by a 189-seat Boeing 737-800.

A weekly charter flight from Katowice in Poland operated by Kurban Tours started on November 1, the statement said.

The flights will operate until May.

GERMANY: Lufthansa And Airberlin Under Growing Pressure

While Lufthansa celebrates 25 years of operations back in Berlin, airberlin is celebrating its major base at Düsseldorf with the recent unveiling of an “airdüsseldorf” branded A321. Germany’s two biggest carriers are both facing difficult times. Lufthansa is developing its low-cost subsidiary Eurowings to help fight against LCCs across Europe while airberlin, with its complex business model, continues to cut capacity as it searches for sustainable profitability.

Germany is Western Europe’s most populated country (with around 81 million inhabitants) and its most powerful economy. However, it ranks second behind the UK when it comes to annual passengers through its airports. Last year, Germany’s major airports processed over 208 million passengers (the UK handled over 240 million) an increase of 3% over the previous year. Demand for air travel grew strongly in Germany throughout the 1990s but since then has seen dips associated with ‘9/11’ and the global financial crisis in 2009. Since 2009 growth has been solid rather than spectacular with passenger numbers up only 9% between 2008 and 2014, not helped by the imposition of an environmental tax on all passengers.

So far in 2015 (to August) passenger numbers at the major airports are up a healthy 4.6%. This is being driven by international traffic; demand to other European countries is up 5.0% while international traffic beyond Europe has grown by 6.2%. Domestic traffic is up just 2.1% with high-speed trains (and high-speed motorways) providing a viable alternative on a number of routes.
18 of top 20 airports growing in 2015

Among Germany’s top 20 airports just two are not reporting growth in 2015. Curiously both Bremen (down 2.2%) and Münster/Osnabrück (down 8.8%) have seen domestic traffic increase, but this has not compensated sufficiently for a decline in international passengers. Interestingly, growth is being driven by the smaller regional airports rather than the main hubs. All four of Germany’s busiest airports are growing more slowly than the national average of 4.6%. The country’s newest airport at Memmingen is also, so far this year, the fastest-growing (+13.8%). Two airports at which Ryanair is the dominant carrier, Frankfurt Hahn and Weeze, are both reporting growth of around 9% this year, highlighting the carrier’s growth in the German market.

Spain still more popular than Turkey in 2014

Analysis of government statistics for 2014 and 2013 reveals that Spain remains the leading international travel market for passengers from German airports. Spain is well ahead of Turkey, the UK, Italy and the US for annual passengers. Among the top 20 country markets in 2014 are five that are outside of Europe (shown in bright green). These are led by the USA followed by UAE, China, Egypt and Canada. Last year saw 16 of the top 20 country markets reporting growth with the exceptions being Sweden (-3.1%), Russia (-1.7%), Norway (-0.9%) and USA (-0.5%). Greece (+17.2%) and Denmark (+11.1%) were the only country markets to register double-digit growth among the top 20 markets.

Emirates, Ryanair, SunExpress and Wizz Air growing capacity

Analysing schedule data for May 2014, May 2015 and May 2016 reveals which airlines have been growing fastest in Germany this year, and which are currently expected to grow fastest next year. While Lufthansa which saw a small decrease in seat capacity this May, is set to grown marginally next year, airberlin has the dubious distinction of being the only airline to show a capacity reduction in both years. germanwings’ abrupt change in fortunes (from 20% growth to 20% decline) can be explained by the emergence of Eurowings which will gradually be taking over many, if not all, of the airline’s routes. With Berlin Schönefeld becoming a designated base later this week and expansion at several other German airports such as Cologne Bonn, Ryanair is planning significant growth in Germany for next summer.

Emirates’ significant growth in both 2015 and 2016 is achieved primarily through the use of more A380s rather than other wide-body jets in its fleet. Given Germania’s rapid growth in 2015, its apparent cuts in capacity in 2016 may be due to not having all of its schedule data sorted yet. Meanwhile, Wizz Air is the only carrier among the top 20 to record more than 20% growth in both May 2015 and May 2016.
More infrastructure on the way (eventually)

To cope with further growth in air travel demand Germany’s busiest airports are enhancing their infrastructure. Frankfurt recently started work on T3 (which should be opened in 2022), while Munich has finally been given permission to build its third runway. And at some point Berlin’s new airport may even become operational.

Eurowings will initially complement germanwings by opening a new base in Vienna (using A320s) and operating long-haul services from Cologne Bonn (using two A330s from SunExpress and one 767 from TUIfly). A320s in Eurowings livery have been operating on behalf of germanwings with germanwings flight numbers since February.