CYPRUS: Significant Increase In Passengers Travelling Through Larnaka And Pafos Airports

There was a significant increase in the number of passengers processed through Larnaka and Pafos airports and a further boost to Cyprus’ connectivity, with the entrance of new airlines and the introduction of new routes, according to Hermes Airports’ official data for 2016.

More specifically, a total of 8,974,163 passengers travelled through the airports in 2016, 1,365,000 more than in 2015, recording an 18% increase. There was a 24.5% rise at Larnaka airport and 2.6% at Pafos airport. According to Hermes Airports’ data, the most important hikes were recorded by the markets of Russia (+47%), the United Kingdom (+13%), Greece (+14.5%) and Israel (+47%).

Moreover, the Cypriot airports’ network was further enhanced by the operation of 10 new airlines and the introduction of 21 new routes, thus boosting the island’s connectivity.

The new airlines, Cobalt Air, Pobeda, TUS Airways, Ellinair, Air Berlin, Azur Air, Yan Air, Wind Rose, Alitalia and Israir, carried some 428,000 passengers, while an increase in the number of flights to existing routes led to an additional 919,000 passengers.

Commenting on the numbers, Hermes Airports’ Chief Executive Officer Eleni Kaloyirou said that 2016 ended on a high note. These results, she noted, “have a direct positive impact on Cyprus’ economy and tourism”.

She stressed, however, that “they do not allow for complacency” and that “the coordinated efforts by Hermes as well as other tourism stakeholders must continue and intensify”. If this is the case, Kaloyirou estimated that this upward trend will continue in 2017.

Despite the surge in tourists, restaurants, clubs, taverns and souvenir shops in Protaras are emptier than ever. Three months into the tourist season and yet owners of tourist businesses in the area have expressed their disappointment.

According to Petros Assia, the president of leisure businesses in Protaras, this phenomenon has been very common in the last five years.

“Although the streets, beaches and hotels in Protaras are full, the rest of the businesses are empty, which has a massive impact on the tourist industry in Cyprus”, said Assia. He added: “I don’t see the situation improving for the rest of the summer months”.

Assia highlighted that this trend is most noticeable in the areas where most “all- inclusive” hotels are located. He said that in other areas with less all-inclusive’ services available, the tourist influx at businesses is much better.

“If this all-inclusive trend is not properly monitored and criteria are set to not only improve it and at the same time protect the rest of the tourist industry, in a few years the climate will be non-reversible,” Assia said.

“This will mean that Cyprus will be just offering hotel services and lacking in the rest that the tourism industry has to offer”. All-inclusive hotels, which increase every year at an alarming rate, offer not only meals but also transportation services and souvenir shops, so tourists don’t spend any money on any other services outside the hotels.

“That is why most of the other businesses in the area are on the brink of bankruptcy”, said Assia. “The lack of profit that the businesses are currently experiencing means that there is no money for upgrades and renovations, which makes them less competitive”.

Assia argued that tourists who visit the island come on a tight budget, and choose to use public transport, do not visit any bars or restaurants or spend any money on shopping.

All-inclusive hotel holidays, especially in Paphos, have become a reality in Cyprus but pose risks for the sustainability of tourism, deputy director general of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation Annita Demetriades said in June 2016. The majority of hotel beds in Paphos are all-inclusive.

“A large number of hotels are offering all-inclusive holidays but negative economic and social effects have been observed in the local community at entertainment establishments, supermarkets, souvenir shops and for excursions,” she said.

To improve the above situation, the CTO, the Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Initiative and the Travel Foundation UK, commissioned the Brighton Hospitality Research Group (BHR) from Brighton University, to further investigate the matter with a view to identifying incentives that could push tourists in Paphos to spend more money and time outside of the hotels.

According to the main conclusions of the study, it was found that among the tourists there was a lack of reliable information in relation to the activities they could engage in outside the hotel complex, and that businesses with something to offer found it was difficult to find a way of promoting what they had to offer.

President of the Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Initiative Philippos Drousiotis, said: “In Paphos, and all over Cyprus in general there is a need to ensure that tourists know the destination and what it has to offer them.”

RUSSIA: AZUR Air To Fly To Goa,From Eight Russian Cities

Russian airline company “AZUR Air” has planned an ambitious program of flights to Goa, the popular Indian resort, from eight Russian cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa.

Airline “AZUR Air” in the winter season has significantly expanded its destination network by adding a number of departures from the Russian regions to the Indian resort. So, the flights to the International Airport Dabolim (Goa) from Ufa, Samara, Rostov-on-Don and Nizhny Novgorod will be absolutely new directions in the schedule of flights.

Today, October 18, the flight program begins from Ekaterinburg to Goa, since October 20 - from Ufa, since October 21 - from Kazan, October 24 - from Rostov-on-Don, October 25 – from Samara, October 27 - from Nizhny Novgorod and St Petersburg. The average flight frequency on each of these directions – is every ten days. Flights will be performed by Boeing 757-200 airplanes with a capacity of 238 passenger seats.

In addition, on October 15 a new winter program of flights was launched from Moscow Domodedovo airport to Dabolim International Airport. The flights will be implemented 3 times a week. The entire program of flights to the Indian resort Goa will be performed till the end of March within the framework of the winter schedule.

Michael Kritskii, CEO of “AZUR Air” said: “in the winter season the company significantly expands its route network. A priority for us is - to open new routes not only from Moscow but from regional airports also. Thus, we provide to our passengers from regions the opportunity to optimally plan their holiday, to depart from the nearest airports to them and not waste time in connecting flights".

It is noted, that in the last autumn-winter season the airline passenger traffic of “AZUR Air” to the Indian resort amounted 73.5 thousand people.

The airline company “AZUR Air” is a young Russian brand on the air passenger transportation market and one of the major charter airlines companies in the country. The first flight under this brand was in December 2014. “AZUR Air” performs flights on international routes, ensuring the needs of the largest Russian tour operators. Today, in the rating of the Russian airlines companies the “AZUR Air” is the eighth best by number of passengers and the fifth - by passenger traffic. The aircraft fleet consists of fifteen aircraft, including nine Boeing 757-200 and six Boeing 767-300. “AZUR Air” flies from thirty Russian cities on twenty-nine international tourist routs.

RUSSIA: Azur Air

Azur Air,formerly called Katekavia is a charter airline and former regional airline in Russia. Initially it was based out of Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport, the domestic airport serving Krasnoyarsk, and its destinations were all within the Krasnoyarsk Krai. In April 2014 the airline commenced scheduled flights between larger Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo Airport and further cities in Siberia: Surgut and Tomsk. As in 2015 the number of flights has increased.

The airline started operations in 1995 and operates regional flights out of Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport and Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo Airport. The airline also operates charter services to Siberia and Yakutia.

It carried around 122,000 passengers in 2009, and in 2010 started to acquire larger aircraft, mainly the Tupolev Tu-134. As of 3 April 2014, it had three Tupolev Tu-134s.

The airline received international media and social media attention in 2014, when a video emerged of passengers on a scheduled flight from Igarka to Krasnoyarsk disembarking pre-departure to push their plane in temperatures of minus 52 degrees Celsius after its chassis froze.

In 2015, Katekavia was rebranded as a leisure carrier and renamed Azur Air.

As of April, 2015, Azur Air flies from its bases in Krasnoyarsk as to charter routes, as to regional routes, which are:

Azur Air had the codeshare agreement with the following airline (as of July 2015):

UTair Aviation

As of April 2015, the Katekavia fleet consisted of the following:

On 3 August 2010, a Katekavia Antonov An-24 crashed on approach to Igarka Airport, killing twelve people. The crash was caused by pilot error. As a result of the crash, the Russian government started to investigate how Katekavia operated their flights.

As Azur Air:

There were no incidents till today

RUSSIA: Russian Market For Changes,Aeroflot To Absorb Transaero Airlines

Cakes and smiles: There’s some appearance of normality in the way that Russia’s air transport business has continued to function and launch important new routes in the past year, albeit miles behind its economic potential. Transaero Airlines’ flurry of new destinations includes: St Petersburg to Shanghai in June, Moscow Vnukovo to Delhi in February, and Moscow Domodedovo to Malta in April, while Aeroflot’s fast-growing low cost unit, Pobeda, which has generated near-30% growth at Moscow Vnukovo this year, launched Sochi/Adler to Kazan, amongst many other new routes, in May.

The recent announcement that Russia’s (majority) state-owned carrier Aeroflot was going to take over the country’s second biggest carrier, Transaero Airlines, will have a significant impact on competition in the Russian market. Based on latest passenger figures from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) the two carriers accounted for 43% of passenger movements on Russian carriers in the first seven months of 2015. Add in the figures for Rossiya Airlines, ORENAIR, Pobeda, Donavia and Aurora, all of which are either fully-owned or majority-owned by Aeroflot, and the market share climbs to over 57%.

Passenger numbers on Russian airlines are up 1.1% in the first seven months of this year from 51.3 million to 51.8 million. While UTair and Nordwind Airlines have seen significant drops in demand, Aeroflot’s LCC Pobeda has made an impressive start, already ranked ninth among the nation’s airlines. Another fast-growing airline is Azur Air (formerly known as Katekavia – IATA code ZF), which has been around for 20 years but has grown its scheduled services significantly in recent times thanks to the acquisition of several 757s and 767s from UTair.
Pobeda driving growth at Moscow Vnukovo

Government statistics for airport traffic in the first six months of 2015 shows a mixed picture. Of the top 15 airports 11 are showing a drop in traffic compared to the first half of 2014, with Rostov-on-Don seeing the biggest drop of almost 17%. The rapid growth of Aeroflot’s in-house LCC Pobeda at Moscow Vnukovo has helped the airport move past St Petersburg into third place among Russian airports. Sochi/Adler is apparently still benefitting from its raised profile and new infrastructure after hosting last year’s winter Olympics.

The fastest-growing airport according to these statistics is Simferopol, in the disputed region of Crimea. Since February 2014 the airport has been under the control of Russian forces and the airport now handles flights almost exclusively to and from Russia. As a result, passenger numbers at Russian airports (including Simferopol) are up 0.5% in the first half of 2015. If Simferopol is not included, demand across Russia’s other airports is down 1.3%.

An Istanbul-style mega-hub for Moscow? These images are from a magazine produced in Russia in 1992 by the anna.aero publisher, Paul Hogan, who was involved in British Airways’ plans for “Air Russia” – a proposed Helsinki-style hub at Moscow Domodedovo. Hogan believes the potential for a Moscow mega-hub as good as Istanbul persists, and this was the subject of his presentation at the CEE Aviation conference in Budapest 3 September.

China and Turkey capacity still growing
Using OAG schedule data (which still considers Simferopol in Ukraine) a comparison has been made for the leading country markets from Russian airports in September 2015 and compared with September 2013. On this basis, not surprisingly, Ukraine has become the leading international country market with seat capacity doubling in two years. However, if we were to exclude flights to Simferopol (which account for 80% of the seat capacity), Ukraine would become only the tenth biggest market, with capacity down 60%.

Again comparing international services between September 2013 and September 2015 reveals that among western European airlines, Germany’s two leading carriers have made significant reductions in seat capacity, with airberlin down 40% and Lufthansa down 50%. In the last week, Lufthansa has suspended three Russian routes; from Frankfurt to Moscow Vnukovo, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. airberlin has axed its Berlin Tegel-St Petersburg connection and its Munich-Moscow Domodedovo service.
Moscow’s potential as a mega-hub explored

Last week anna.aero’s publisher, Paul Hogan, gave a presentation at the CEE Aviation Conference in Budapest. With the title “How good would it be for Russia’s air transport if everything was normal?” You can download his 20-slide presentation below.

TAV-operated Tbilisi Airport serving the capital of Georgia (with which Russia was at war in 2008) celebrated the launch of Aeroflot’s new daily service from Moscow Sheremetyevo last October. Despite the current crisis, Ukrainian traffic is also up substantially, although the picture is complicated as many agencies and groups – such as OAG – define Crimea’s growing traffic base as part of Ukraine.