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.”

USA: Diamond Resorts International Completes Major Enhancements

The Royal Sunset Beach Club in Tenerife.

Several Diamond Resorts locations have received expanded and refreshed facilities, continuing the company's mission of providing high-quality amenities for their members, owners and guests. From Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort in the majestic mountains of California to the breathtaking landscapes of the Canaries and Balearic Islands in Spain, these worldwide renovations help members, owners and guests truly Stay Vacationed by enhancing the quality of their getaway time.

Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort has enriched its outdoor experience. A hidden gem tucked between Lake Tahoe's impressive Sierra Nevada mountain range and offering both winter and summer activities, dining in the scenic outdoors has become more impressive. Members can now enjoy the property's new barbeque area, which includes three new stainless steel barbeques and picnic style benches. Set along the picturesque lake are three new fire pits with Adirondack lounge chairs - making evenings by the fire that much more delightful. Additionally, new sleeper sofas were added to all deluxe units and in-room safes are now a feature in all units throughout the resort.

The Royal Sunset Beach Club in Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, has revitalized 12 studio accommodations with new appliances and furniture, giving the units a fresh, appealing new look. Additionally, the decor has been fully updated in 25 of the beach club's one-bedroom units and seven of its two-bedroom units. Renovations were also made to the pool area including the installation of a new whirlpool and a remodeled pool deck area, providing members, owners and guests with additional lounge space on the 40 new sun beds.

Jardines del Sol in Lanzarote, the easternmost Canary Island, completed a full refurbishment of its accommodations with new exterior doors and windows and freshly painted interior walls and doors. Living areas in all units were updated with new furniture and matching decor and new bathroom appliances.

Upcoming renovations to White Sands Beach Club located in Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands, will include the refurbishment of eight new accommodations, the installation of new doors and handrails, and new tile floors on all terraces, stairs and solarium.

"At Diamond Resorts, continual improvement is an important part of our mission," said David Palmer, President and CEO of Diamond Resorts International. "We constantly look for ways to refresh and improve our accommodations, to ensure that our members, owners and guests experience the highest possible standard of comfort and amenities. After all, we want them to enjoy affordable luxury and create priceless memories while they stay with us, and return home with the feeling that they can Stay Vacationed all year long. That is what we are all about."

SPAIN: Iberia Express Grows By 8.4% From Madrid Since Last Year;

Iberia Express launched its latest route to the UK from Madrid on the 8 September in the form of a thrice-weekly service to Manchester, a sector that will then operate twice-weekly from the end of October for the remainder of W15/16. The carrier, a subsidiary of Spain’s national carrier, Iberia, also serves Edinburgh and London Gatwick from the Spanish capital, with the airline also serving London Heathrow from other Spanish airports.

Iberia Express was set up on 6 October 2011 by IAG, and commenced its first flight operations on 25 March 2012. The main intention of the airline was to operate European routes that were unprofitable when flown by mainline Iberia, and to make them viable by the new carrier operating the sectors with lower running costs. In its short history, Iberia Express has become the fourth biggest airline to fly from Madrid, with over 6 million passengers having flown and 50,000 flights operated within the carrier’s first two years of operation. In 2013, a report by FlightStats confirmed that Iberia Express tops all other European airlines in terms of punctuality. The airline operates an all-A320 fleet, of which a majority have been passed to the company from mainline Iberia.

Iberia Express is Madrid’s #4 largest carrier
Iberia Express remains the fourth largest airline from Madrid (highlighted in Iberia Express colours in the table above) in S15, the same position it held last year. What is interesting to note however is that mainline Iberia (highlighted in Iberia colours), the number one carrier from the Spanish capital, has seen a greater growth in seat capacity in the past 12 months of 9.5% when compared with that of Iberia Express’ 8.3%. Overall, Iberia Express occupies 7.8% of seat capacity from Madrid, down only 0.1% from the 7.9% which it occupied last year, a result of Madrid seeing two additional carriers operating services from the facility according to OAG.

Tenerife North overtakes Santiago de Compostela
After reporting a growth in seat capacity over the past 12 months of 9.8%, the 1,770-kilometre sector to Tenerife North overtakes Santiago de Compostela to become the carrier’s number one route from its Madrid hub, although the latter is also reporting growth of 3.3% in seat capacity. Since last year, three new airports have entered the top 12 when compared to the same time period of 2014 (highlighted in light green), with Frankfurt (no longer served by Iberia Express), Malaga and Tenerife South no longer being in the top 12. London Gatwick goes straight into the top 12 at ninth spot, tied with Berlin Tegel, after the airline launched services to the airport from the Spanish capital on 28 March according to OAG, operating with an 11 times weekly frequency. Also joining the top 12 party from Madrid are Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, two routes which have both been operated by Iberia Express since the airline commenced service.

Destinations double since operations commenced
Iberia Express in 2012 served a total of 16 destinations from Madrid, this number has now risen to 31 destinations in 2015. From the destination split, the majority of routes served are Spanish domestic services. Of the international country markets served by Iberia Express from Madrid, the average amount of airports served is two. This shows the importance of the Spanish domestic market within Iberia Express’ operation, a market that faces strong competition from ULCC Ryanair. Soon Iberia Express will face strong competition from Norwegian, which is planning to start domestic services to Gran Canaria and Tenerife North during the start of W15/16 season from the Spanish capital. The latest route launched by Iberia Express from Madrid was to Manchester on 8 September.

Services operated alongside mainline Iberia
An analysis of OAG Schedules Analyser data for September 2015 reveals that only three routes of Iberia Express’ operation from Madrid are operated alongside mainline Iberia operations. The destinations are Athens, Düsseldorf and Gran Canaria.

Iberia Express currently has no new routes planned for S16 from its Madrid hub, and it is also worth noting that neither does mainline Iberia, making it interesting to think as to what cities will be the next destinations for the subsidiary. When looking at Iberia Express’ route map (as shown below), we can see that there is a very even geographical spread in relation to the location of western European airports served by the carrier, with key capital cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, London and Paris being served from Madrid. Of the international routes served from Madrid, eight are capital cities. In relation to the potential future routes for Iberia Express, the main focus will possibly be the transfer of services from mainline Iberia to Express which could potential include Brussels, Budapest (launched 2 June), Florence, Hamburg, Milan (Linate or Malpensa), and Rome Fiumicino.

In relation to new routes for the Iberia group that have the potential to be served under the Express brand, one could be Oslo Gardermoen, a European capital currently not served by mainline and is currently only served by Norwegian. With Iberia Express having oneworld alliance advantages opening up connections to Latin and South America, it would give them the edge over Norwegian on the sector. Another potential destination would be Helsinki, which is currently served by fellow oneworld member Finnair. It is worth noting though that LCC Norwegian also operates to the Finnish capital.

Within the domestic network, the key route most likely to be transferred from mainline is Barcelona. With this lucrative domestic route seeing strong declines in traffic since the development of high speed rail, the national carrier may want to reduce costs on the city pair by using the Express model to help increase profit margins, operating alongside Vueling. Other potential domestic routes that could be switched from mainline to Express include A Coruña, Asturias and Santander.

As of September 2015, Iberia Express’s destinations consist of 14 domestic and 18 international airports. All flights depart, arrive and connect in Madrid, except for the following routes: Vigo-Tenerife North, Asturias-Tenerife North, Tenerife North-London Heathrow, Tenerife North-Lyon and Gran Canaria-London Heathrow.

FRANCE: Air Méditerranée Proposes Dakar, Cape Verde And The Canaries

Air Méditerranée launches this winter 2015-2016 new routes to Dakar in Senegal (from Marseille), Boa Vista and Sal in Cape Verde (from Nantes and Paris-Charles de Gaulle) and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

Air Méditerranée launches this winter the Marseille-Dakar line, it will operate at the same time in regular service since the company holds the traffic rights on Dakar and tourist flights on behalf of its customers tour operators or agencies travel. From December 18, 2015 to May 6, 2015, regular flights posted on its website and operated by Boeing 737-500 configured for 131 passengers, will depart once a week (Friday) at 12:15 pm for an arrival at 16h50 (5h35 flight) The return flights starting again at 17:40 Dakar for an arrival at 0:15 the next day in Marseille.

Other leisure destinations are winter program. Thus, from December 18, 2015 to May 27, 2016, Air Méditerranée settles in Cape Ver t opening on behalf of its major customers two new destinations tower operators to Boa Vista and Sal, every Friday, from Paris-CDG Nantes-Atlantique.

Las Palmas with Air Méditerranée finally strengthens serving the Canary she launched last year, co-charter for eight major French and European tour operators: FRAM, FTI, Karavel, Look Voyages, Thalasso No. 1 Thomas Cook, TUI France and Voyamar. Winter 2015/2016 edition of the Canary program is enriched by destination Las Palmas from Lyon, Nantes and Paris, which adds to Lanzarote from Paris-CDG, Bordeaux Brest, Deauville, Lyon, Marseille, Metz, Nantes, Toulouse and Fuerteventura from Paris-CDG, Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Toulouse.