PORTUGAL: SATA International Rebrands As Azores Airlines

Five hours. Nonstop. From Toronto. That’s all it takes to get to the beautiful islands of the Azores with Azores Airlines year-round nonstop service from Toronto, and seasonal service from Montreal.

The oldest airline in Portugal has just become the newest, following the recent rebranding of SATA International as Azores Airlines, and the airline hosted a VIP dinner for agents and media at Toronto’s Old Mill Wednesday night to get agents reacquainted with the brand.

As Portuguese music duo, Sounds of Portugal, strummed traditional Portuguese music, the crowd mingled before sitting down to dinner and updates from Portugal Tourism and Azores Airlines.

Willie Delgado, country manager for Portugal Tourism, based in Toronto, welcomed guests before introducing Azores Airlines chief commercial officer, Gavin Eccles, who updated guests on Azores Airlines and their plans in Canada, including a new winter schedule and generous stopover programme.

At 76 years old, the airline has grown the number of seats they offer in Canada by 63%, offering year round service from Toronto to Ponta Delgada with five weekly nonstop this summer, and four weekly flights for the winter 2018/2019 period.

Onward connections are available to other destinations in Portugal such as Lisbon, Porto, and Madeira, as well as Gran Canaria, Cape Verde, London and Frankfurt.

They also offer seasonal summer service with one weekly flight from Montreal to Ponta Delgada, and one weekly flight from Toronto to Terceira Island.

We also believe in supporting those who work with us said Eccles as he spoke of Azores Airlines six percent at-source commission rate.

We believe passionately in upfront commission. You are our sales force. You are selling me. Why would I not want to reward you?

With Azores Airlines’ stopover programme, travellers can visit two destinations for the price of one, with stopovers available on the outbound or the return, staying as little as a few hours, or for as long as seven days. There’s no additional cost and no complex booking process.

We are offering our clients the ability to discover a part of the world that they may not normally think about going to.

Eccles again said It’s something that Iceland has done. And I stand here and say that what Iceland did for Icelandair is what I'm trying to do for Azores and Azores Airlines.

Portugal has been doing spectacularly well in the Canadian market and obviously I’m biased but it’s a great destination said Tourism Portugal’s country manager, Willie Delgado.

What we're doing here today is promoting another part of Portugal which may not be that well known, and that’s the Azores, a spectacular nine-island archipelago right smack in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

Delgado continued. It's an island of tremendous beauty, unique culture, great food and great history. And although the Azores is focused a lot on diaspora, we're working with Azores Airlines hand-in-hand to further broaden our market and I think that's what we did today.

Influenced by their location and by the Gulf Stream, temperatures in the Azores are mild year round, and while its winter temperatures may not make it a direct competitor to the Caribbean, the temperature averages 22°C in summer and 17°C in winter, making it ideal for nautical sports all year round.

But in closing, I had to ask Delgado whether, given its short flight time, the Azores is competing with the Caribbean this winter.

As a winter destination, it's wonderful. Temperate weather and a five hour flight from Toronto Delgado said.

There’s all kinds of wonderful experiences with nature, with the geothermal parks, with whale watching, the great food with the local culture and the local wines, so it's something to think about for sure.

It's a different experience but we're convinced that Canadians, once they learn about it, they'll take to it.


Tourism Observer

SPAIN: Iberia Now Flying Burgos To Barcelona

Iberia has recommenced scheduled flights at Burgos (RGS), with a three times weekly service from its Barcelona (BCN) operation.

The two Spanish airports were connected in 2015, when Léon Airlines offered the domestic city pair for a short time.

Flown by Air Nostrum’s CRJ 1000 fleet, the route faces no direct competition.

Iberia began three times weekly operations to San Francisco (SFO) on 25 April from its Madrid (MAD) hub.

Flown by the IAG-owned airline’s A330-200 fleet, the latest addition to Iberia’s US network joins its existing services to Miami, New York JFK - both double-daily, Boston, Chicago O’Hare - both daily and Los Angeles - five times weekly.

The 9,326-kilometre sector will face no direct competition.

Spain’s national airline Iberia has been gradually rebuilding capacity from its main hub after five successive years of cuts following the global economic crash of 2008-2009.

OAG schedules data shows that the combined departing seats available from Madrid on Iberia, its LCC subsidiary Iberia Express, and independent franchise partner Air Nostrum, which operates under the Iberia Regional brand, increased by 19% from 2014 to 2017.

The three carriers will offer flights to a combined 124 destinations from Madrid during 2017.

Domestic services account for about 22% of the routes, but provide up to 41% of Iberia’s total published capacity from its main base in 2017.

Between 2008 and 2010 the vast majority of Iberia’s published flights from Madrid were operated by the flag carrier’s mainline aircraft or Air Nostrum, with a small percentage performed by other airlines including charter carrier Iberworld.

Relative newcomer to the family Iberia Express, which only began services in 2012, has seen the strongest capacity growth from Madrid over the past three years among the three Iberia-branded carriers.

In 2017, Iberia Express will provide 41% more seats from Madrid than it did in 2014.

Over the same period, the capacity provided by Iberia and Iberia Regional has increased by a more modest 15% and 10% respectively.

The largest year-on-year increase in Iberia Express’ capacity from Madrid took place between 2016 to 2017.

The LCC subsidiary has increased its number of departing seats from the capital city by 23% in 2017.

Iberia Express has introduced services from Madrid to Cagliari, Cardiff, and will add Toulouse to its network later in the year, but discontinued connections to Athens, Gothenburg, Stockholm Arlanda and Vigo.

Toulouse is already operated by Iberia Regional, so Iberia Express will be adding capacity on this sector, while Athens and Vigo are still served from Madrid by Iberia.

Much of Iberia Express’ capacity growth was due to the addition of seats on existing services.

This includes an increase in capacity on its five largest routes, domestic links to Gran Canaria, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife North, Santiago de Compostela and Seville.

A review of the available published capacity reveals that more than half of Iberia’a top 12 routes from Madrid in S17 link the Spanish capital with domestic destinations.

The strongest year-on-year growth took place on the domestic services to Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife North, Santiago de Compostela and Gran Canaria which saw their summer season seats expand by 27%, 21%, 14% and 12% respectively.

This is a result of an rise in capacity by Iberia Express.

A comparison of the capacity on offer during the week commencing 10 October with the equivalent week in 2016 reveals that Iberia Express has increased its frequencies to Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife North and Santiago de Compostela.

The frequency from Madrid to Gran Canaria remained static, indicating that the capacity increase on this route was due to more flights being operated by larger A321s in 2017.

OAG schedule data shows that the number of frequencies operated by A321s has grown on all four of the highlighted domestic routes in 2017.

Paris Orly was the top 12 route with the largest reduction in capacity from S16 to S17, with Iberia reducing the number of frequencies by 10%, which resulted in an 8% reduction in seats.

Lisbon and New York JFK which were in the top 12 for S16 have dropped out in S17 and have been replaced by Santiago de Compostela and Buenos Aires Ezeiza.


Tourism Observer

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.”

NORWAY:Norwegian Starts Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) and Stockholm Arlanda (ARN)

Crew and passengers enjoyed the route launch cake at Oslo Gardermoen used to mark the start of flights to San Juan in Puerto Rico on 1 November. Weekly flights are operated by the LCC’s 787-8s.

Norwegian used the second week of the W15/16 season to start six new routes from five of its bases – including long-haul services from Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) and Stockholm Arlanda (ARN).

The average sector length of these routes is 4,290 kilometres (up from 2,251 last week) – with the longest route being the 8,530-kilometre Stockholm Arlanda to Las Vegas (LAS) airport pair (last week it was the 4,126-kilometre Gran Canaria to Karlstad route), while the shortest was again a Spanish domestic rotation, this time with the 1,410-kilometre link from Malaga (AGP) to Gran Canaria (LPA).

The average weekly frequency of the new routes was 1.8, down significantly from last week’s result of four. This was due in no small part to the two new weekly long-haul operations.

NORWAY: Norwegian, Six New Routes To The Canary Islands

How many people does it take to cut a route launch cake? In Tenerife North, which saw the start of two new Norwegian domestic Spanish routes from Madrid and Barcelona, it’s four.

However, 110 kilometres away in Gran Canaria it takes five (maybe the cake was harder?). The Canaries airport was celebrating three new Norwegian services – two domestic (Barcelona and Madrid) and one international (Karlstad in Sweden).

Norwegian used the first week of the W15/16 season to start six new routes from four of its bases, five of which were domestic Spanish routes.

The average sector length of these routes was 2,251 kilometres – with the longest route being the 4,126-kilometre Gran Canaria (LPA) to Karlstad (KSD) airport pair, while the shortest was the 1,482-kilometre link from Malaga to Tenerife South (TFS). The average weekly frequency of the new routes was four.

Ryanair provides competition on four of the six new routes, all with a matching or superior weekly frequency.

SPAIN: Air Europa To Fly To Canary Islands In October

The Spanish company Air Europa will launch at the end of October two new domestic routes to Tenerife North airport: Alicante from Saint-Jacques de Compostela, while Norwegian Air Shuttle provides the same period to connect different islands Canaries from Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Malaga.

The Norwegian Air Shuttle low cost will multiply the roads to the Canary Islands in October. From 25 October: from Madrid to Tenerife North and Gran Canaria (daily flights). From Barcelona to Tenerife North (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) and Gran Canaria (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) from 26 October to Fuerteventura from 27 October (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). From Malaga to Tenerife South from October 26 (every Monday and Friday) and Gran Canaria (from 30 October). All these flights are operated by Boeing 737-800 univalves 186 seats, with Wifi service.

Norwegian operates 133 routes to 15 Spanish airports, including six bases (Alicante, Barcelona, ​​Gran Canaria, Madrid, Malaga and Tenerife South). She keeps one fifth of its fleet of 96 aircraft and employs nearly 900 people. Since the beginning of its operations, Norwegian has carried over 17 million passengers in Spain.

Another company will build on the Canary Islands this fall. From 26 October, Air Europa will link Alicante indeed every Monday at Tenerife North. Flights operated by Boeing 737-800 of 183 seats including 15 in Business Class depart at 11:55 for arrival at 15.45, the return flight starting again at 16.35 and finish at 18.30. And from next October 31, Tenerife North airport will be connected to Saint Jacques de Compostela departing every Saturday at 12:45 and finish at 14:30 (2:45 flight). The return flight off again at 15:30 for arrival at 19:10. Note that Air Europa is already serving the airport Reina Sofia Tenerife South from Saint-Jacques de Compostela.