GERMANY: Eurowings Holidays Starts New Offers

Eurowings Holidays, the tour operator brand of Eurowings, has expanded its product portfolio and now also offers customers holiday homes and apartments.

Preaparing for the start of the holiday season, customers can choose around 1,000 attractive holiday homes on the popular holiday island of Palma de Mallorca and in Greece from the extended portfolio of Eurowings Holidays.

In the coming months, holiday homes and apartments in all other popular Eurowings destinations around the Mediterranean are to be added.

The spectrum of holiday homes ranges from very attractively priced domiciles in the three-star segment to villas and houses in the luxury segment.

Via the Eurowings Holidays portal, customers can easily and conveniently combine their preferred holiday home with just a few clicks, including their outgoing and return flight from the desired departure airport.

In addition, it is also possible to book a transfer from the airport to the accommodation or a rental car online.

The demand for holiday homes and apartments has already risen continuously in recent years. Due to the current situation, however, interest has again increased considerably not only in the North and Baltic Seas, but also in the Mediterranean region.

Individuality and personal freedom are becoming increasingly important for holidaymakers and families.

This is the reason why we want to make very attractive offers to our customers in this segment with Eurowings Holidays, said Oliver Schmitt, chief commercial officer of Eurowings.

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

ICELAND: Primera Air Creates 3 New Routes

Primera Air, which is venturing into the combative transatlantic market this summer, has added three new routes from three different bases, all launched on 18 May.

Utilising a leased 757-200 from US charter carrier National Airlines, the airline started a six times weekly operation from Birmingham (BHX) to New York Newark (EWR).

Using the carrier’s single A321neo presently available for commercial flying, Primera commenced the four times weekly route from London Stansted (STN) to Boston (BOS).

Neither of these routes faces any direct competition. The final sector of the transatlantic trio launched was from Paris CDG (CDG) to Newark.

With incumbents United Airlines (12 times weekly) and Delta Air Lines (five) already operating this airport pair, Primera’s passengers will at least in the short-term be stepping on board a leased euroAtlantic Airways 767-300 to take them to New York on a daily basis.

Primera Air, has commenced its first transatlantic flights from London Stansted (STN), beginning a daily operation to New York Newark (EWR), just over a week after launching flights to Malaga and Alicante.

The start of services are being flown by a leased 757-200, to be replaced with the carrier’s A321LRs once they are cleared for operations.

While there is no direct competition on the airport pair, Air India, British Airways, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways all offer services from London Heathrow.

Primera Air inaugurated operations from its new base in Birmingham (BHX) on 14 May, with its first two routes being Spanish links to Malaga (AGP) and Palma de Mallorca (PMI).

The first two routes come ahead of the airline’s transatlantic debut from the city to New York Newark on 18 May, with Toronto Pearson flights following soon after in June.

Anastasija Visnakova, CCO of Primera Air, said of the Birmingham base opening: It was a pleasure to welcome our passengers on the inaugural service to Malaga.

The range of destinations, both European and transatlantic, at fantastic prices creates more choice for passengers travelling from Birmingham Airport.

We have growth plans for Birmingham and we look forward to working with the airport and serving the region’s leisure and business travellers throughout 2018 and beyond.

While both Spanish routes are new to Primera Air, both are already well served from Birmingham.

The 1,767-kilometre sector to Malaga is already flown by Jet2.com (nine times weekly), Ryanair (nine), TUI Airways (four) and British Airways (one).

The 1,473-kilometre jaunt to Palma de Mallorca is already flown by Jet2.com (eight), TUI Airways (eight), Ryanair (daily), Thomas Cook Airlines (four) and British Airways (two).

Along with its new routes from Birmingham, Primera Air also began services from Aalborg (AAL) to Athens (ATH) this week.

Initiated on 10 May, the route between the Danish and Greek cities will be flown by the airline weekly (Thursdays) facing no direct competition.

The 2,366-kilometre connection, along with the airline’s Birmingham services, will be flown by 737-800s. No other airline currently links Aalborg to Athens.

Primera Air has recently confirmed its intention to begin flights over the Atlantic to Boston and New York Newark, starting initially with flights to both destinations from Birmingham, London Stansted and Paris CDG/

With routes scheduled to begin in April and May next year. All routes will be flown by A321neos, of which the carrier currently has an order for eight, plus two A321LRs, with deliveries expected in Q1 2018.

It should be noted that the carrier also has a firm order for eight 737 MAX 9s.

Flights to Newark will be flown daily from all three airports, with Boston being served four times weekly from the UK airports, and three times weekly from the French capital.

With the news of the carrier’s transatlantic venture, Primera Air will join the list of airlines including Norwegian, LEVEL, Eurowings, WestJet and WOW air in offering low-cost long-haul flights to North America from Europe.

Based in Scandinavia, Primera Air was initially launched to operate charters for major Scandinavian tour operators, but gradually it started selling tickets on some of its fixed charters in 2013.

The continued success allowed Primera Air to increase both the number of routes and flight frequency, resulting in a mixed charter/scheduled carrier business model.

Today the majority of Primera Air flights are scheduled, although some flights combine charter and scheduled passengers, and separate full charter flights are also operated.

Currently the carrier has a fleet of nine aircraft; two 737-700s and seven 737-800s.

This year Primera Air will increase its annual seat capacity by close to 15% when referring to OAG schedules, with the airline expected to operate 1.24 million seats in 2017.

However, what is very clear is the seasonality of the carrier, with its peak month of July in 2017 seeing 187% more seats than the carrier’s lowest month this year, December.

While the carrier has increased its seat capacity this year, the airline has done it sustainably, with it not increasing its seasonality profile.

Instead it has grown capacity throughout the year, with all months except three (March, June and October) seeing double-digit growth in seat capacity.

Now while services from both Birmingham and Stansted will not see direct competition, flights from CDG will go head-to-head with a number of airlines.

United Airlines (twice-daily), La Compagnie (nine times weekly) and Delta Air Lines (daily) already link CDG to Newark, while Boston is served by Air France (13 times weekly), American Airlines (daily) and Delta (daily) this summer.

There are also 60 weekly flights in summer between CDG and New York JFK, a route that is flown by LCC Norwegian four times weekly on 787-8s.

So while Birmingham and Stansted are monopoly markets for Primera Air over the Atlantic, it will have a tough job cracking the market from the French capital.

Particularly with there already being LCC competition from Norwegian, which also links CDG to Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles.

The carrier will also in S18 serve Boston and Newark from CDG, along with routes to Denver, Oakland and Orlando.

What also makes it harder for Primera Air is that it does not have brand awareness in France or the UK, so strong marketing is going to have to be done if the venture is going to be successful.

Currently the airline’s biggest market is Denmark, with Billund (14% of weekly departing seats) and Copenhagen (13%) being the carrier’s largest bases this summer.


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.

SPAIN: Viva Air

Viva Air (IATA: FV, ICAO: VIV, Call sign: Viva ) was an airline from Spain that operated during the 1980s and 1990s.

Viva Air, whose complete name in Spanish was Vuelos Internacionales de Vacaciones (International Vacation Flights,) was founded on 24 February 1988 by Iberia and Lufthansa.

Operations began with a320 aircraft. At the beginning flights were mostly from Germany to Spain, in particular to Palma de Mallorca. By 1992, the partnership between Lufthansa and Iberia dissolved and Iberia took over the operations of Viva Air. Shortly thereafter, Viva Air entered the Spanish domestic scheduled market using Douglas DC-9 aircraft but those were quickly replaced by the Boeing 737-300.

The airline's aircraft stood out with their simple and colourful Joan Miró-style livery created by Spanish school children. It was intended to symbolise the Spanish sunshine which most of its passengers sought during their holidays. After the first few years of operation, the airline was one of the first subsidiary airlines of a major carrier (in this case IBERIA) to gain a foothold into London's Heathrow Airport from where Viva operated several scheduled services on behalf of its parent company using Viva callsigns and Viva flight numbers.

Since the scheduled flights were losing money, Iberia took over those routes and Viva Air was relegated to charter flights using Boeing 737-300 aircraft of which it had 10 in service by 1995.

Owing to heavy competition from other Spanish and European charter companies, Viva Air began to lose money and, by 1999, operations ceased and the airline was liquidated. Iberia took over all staff, aircraft and route licenses.

Fleet

3 - Douglas DC-9-32
10 - Boeing 737-300

GERMANY: Jetairfly Expands Seasonally With New Routes

Berlin Tegel Airport welcomed with a ribbon cutting ceremony on the apron the arrival of Jetairfly’s thrice-weekly departures from Antwerp.

Jetairfly, the Belgian subsidiary of TUI Airlines, expanded its seasonal offering with the addition of eight new routes during the course of last two weeks. Six of these new airport pairs were introduced from Antwerp (ANR), to Alicante (ALC), Barcelona (BCN), Berlin Tegel (TXL), Malaga (AGP), Milan Malpensa (MXP) and Palma de Mallorca (PMI). Interestingly, Jetairfly will face no direct competition on any of the new additions. See how Berlin Tegel Airport’s FTWA compares to others from around the world.