UNITED KINGDOM: TUI Airways Connects To Malaysia And Thailand

TUI Airways added 10 new routes to its schedule in the past few weeks including new long-haul links to Langkawi (LGK) in Malaysia and Utapao (UTP) in Thailand, from each of Birmingham (BHX), London Gatwick (LGW) and Manchester (MAN).

These six long-haul connections are all operated once every two weeks. The other four routes, including services from Dublin (DUB) to Salzburg (SZG) and Toulouse (TLS), from Gatwick to Lyon (LYS) and from London Luton (LTN) to Chambery (CMF), are not available for booking on the airline’s website, suggesting they are part of ski-season charter programmes.

The longest sector amongst TUI Airways’ 10 new routes is the 10,223-kilometre connection from Manchester to Langkawi, while the shortest is the 715-kilometre link from Gatwick to Lyon.

There is no direct competition on the six new long-haul sectors, but three of the four European airport pairs are already served by other carriers.

TUI Airways, formerly Thomson Airways and often referred to as TUI UK, is the world's largest charter airline, offering scheduled and charter flights from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland to destinations in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.

The airline carried 11.2 million passengers in 2017, making it the third-largest UK airline by total passengers, after EasyJet and British Airways.

The registered office is at the TUI Travel House in Crawley, West Sussex but its head office is located in Wigmore House in Luton, Bedfordshire.

TUI Airways Limited holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Type A Operating Licence permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

The airline was formed following the merger of the travel division of TUI AG and First Choice Holidays plc in September 2007 to form TUI Travel.

The two companies' respective airlines, Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways, were merged under the former's Air Operator's Certificate in May 2008 and were rebranded as Thomson Airways on 1 November 2008.

TUI Travel merged with TUI AG to form TUI Group in December 2014.

TUI Airways officially changed its legal name from Thomson Airways to TUI Airways on 2 October 2017. This was in line with sister companies TUI fly Belgium, TUI fly Deutschland, TUI fly Netherlands and TUI fly Nordic.

All airlines in the group, excluding Corsair International, are now rebranded to TUI.

On 13 May 2015, it was announced by the TUI Group that all five of TUI's airline subsidiaries will be named TUI, whilst keeping their separate Air Operators Certificate, taking over three years to complete.

TUI Airways was the last airline to be completed in late 2017. The rebrand began in mid-2016, with the addition of the new 'TUI' titles to its fleet.

In December 2016, Thomson Holidays launched their final television advertisement using the Thomson brand, before integrating into the TUI brand.During the rebrand in 2017, the TOMSON call sign was dropped and replaced with TUI AIR.

In May 2017, the brand TUI Airways began to be used in several areas and was implemented on all flight tracker applications. Most of the aircraft had been branded with TUI titles and onboard items such as glasses and napkins carried the new brand.

Thomson Airways officially changed its legal name to TUI Airways on 2 October 2017.[ TUI's sister company, TUI UK (formerly Thomson Holidays), has ceased using the Thomson brand, adopting the TUI UK brand on 18 October 2017.

The airline's head office is in the Wigmore House near Luton, Bedfordshire. The facility is adjacent to Luton Airport.

Most scheduled flights operated by TUI Airways are on behalf of tour operators. The airline offers flights to destinations around the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean from 19 base airports in the United Kingdom.

Additionally, seasonal charter routes are served from Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm.

TUI Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft:

- Boeing 737-800: 26

- Boeing 737 MAX 8: 2

- Boeing 757-200: 13

- Boeing 767-300ER: 4

- Boeing 787-8: 8

- Boeing 787-9: 4

- Total: 57


Tourism Observer

ESTONIA: airBaltic Will Deploy Two Airbus A220-300 In Tallinn

airBaltic has announced that as of summer season of 2019 it will base two of its new Airbus A220-300 aircraft in Tallinn, in order to serve the growing range of destinations offered to Estonian passengers.

In total, airBaltic will have three aircraft based in Tallinn next year.

Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic says: since 2014, we are continuing to grow our operations in Tallinn Airport and we are glad that more Estonian passengers choose our services. Next summer we will serve already 12 different destinations. By basing a third aircraft in Tallinn, we are further committing to the Estonian market. We see airBalticc as a true Baltic airline, and with this Estonia is part of airBaltic’s growth story.

This year we launched direct flights from Tallinn to London, Stockholm and Oslo. Next year new direct flights to Malaga, Brussels and Copenhagen will be added. By offering both direct flights from Tallinn and convenient connections via Riga, airBaltic offers the best connectivity to and from the Baltic states to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East, Martin Gauss added.

This year airBaltic expects to transport around 400 000 passengers to and from Estonia. This making Tallinn the second biggest market after Riga.

From Tallinn, airBaltic offers direct flights to Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Oslo, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna and Vilnius as well as convenient connections via Riga. airBaltic will launch new direct services from Tallinn to Malaga, Brussels and Copenhagen in 2019.

airBaltic serves over 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, offering the largest variety of destinations and convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East.

For summer 2019, airBaltic will launch a new direct routes from Riga to Stuttgart and Lviv.


Tourism Observer

SWEDEN: Police Arrest And Abandon Chinese Tourists At Cemetery

A Chinese family was reportedly taken to a cemetery in the Swedish capital of Stockholm last Sunday after being denied hotel check-in, according to a statement released by Chinese Embassy in Sweden, prompting massive discussions on social media both home and abroad.

After arriving at a Stockholm hotel in the early morning on September 2, a Chinese tourist, surnamed Zeng, with his 64 and 67 years old parents, found out that the room they booked was not available for check-in until later in the daytime.

Considering the poor health condition of his elderly parents, Zeng asked staff at the hotel if they could rest in the lobby and they would love to pay a fee.

Unexpectedly, the staff told them to leave immediately. If not, they would have to call the police, according to Zeng.

After the police arrived, Zeng showed the prescription of his parents to the police and asked if his parents could stay at the hotel and he would leave himself.

However, the police denied the request and dragged his father out of the hotel and threw him to the ground.

Zeng said his father, who is suffering from cardiovascular disease, lost consciousness and his body started twitching.

The scuffle gradually attracted more passersby, some of them condemned the police behavior.

The police offered no humanitarian assistance to us during the emergency, Zeng said.

Several minutes later, more armed police officers arrived and took Zeng and his parents into a police car.

The officers asked them if they were refugees or tried to use violence.

They kept beating my parents and even threatened to abandon us in the woods with wild animals, Zeng said.

After an hour of driving, Zeng found that he was together with his family taken to a cemetery, eight kilometers away from the hotel.

A half hour later, a passerby drove Zeng and his parents back to Stockholm downtown.

Upon arrival, Zeng immediately notified the Chinese Embassy and informed the local police of the incident.

We just wanted to leave this place and go back home, said Zeng.

The Chinese Embassy in Sweden issued a safety alert on September 14 reminding Chinese citizens in Sweden to be alert and take precautionary measures.

A day later, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Sweden said that the embassy is deeply appalled and angered by what happened and strongly condemns the behavior of the Swedish police.

We hope that the Swedish side will handle the case in accordance with law, and urge the Swedish side again to take immediate actions to protect the safety and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens in Sweden, the Embassy said in a statement.

The Swedish police department has yet to respond.

The incident has also sparked a heated discussion on Twitter.

"They should have claimed to be Syrian Migrants then they would have received a handsome #SocialWelfarePackage, a #FreePasstoAllCriminalActs and a #FreeAccomodation," said @Lizzie De on Twitter.

"I don't know what truth you are referring. If these tourists broke the laws or cause a scene, I believed there are standard procedures to handle them. But tossing them to somewhere near the cemetery sounds pretty awful. Unless you meant that's the Swedish police's standard', said @CheeKeat.

"To be fair, it is inappropriate for the hotel to do like that. But why didn't Zeng pay one more night for the room, especially when they know they will arrive in the midnight?" said @Suk_lowlow on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.


Tourism Observer

SWEDEN: Chinese Ambassador Alarmed By Swedish Police Manhandling Chinese Tourists

Chinese Ambassador, Gui Congyou gave an interview in Stockholm on Sunday, talking about the brutal treatment of Chinese tourists by Swedish police and clarifying the recent issuing of travel alerts to the country.

There is doubt whether the Chinese Embassy in Sweden had carried out an in-depth inquiry of the incident before taking diplomatic action as there have been many versions of what happened on September 2.

Gui answered that the embassy had reached to relevant parties to get details about the incident from different perspectives, informed the Swedish government and then requested a meeting with Swedish police.

However, there was no response to the meeting request from the Swedish police.

Gui also clarified that the three Chinese tourists did have a reservation at the hotel and they just arrived several hours earlier and stressed that they did not break any Swedish law and urged the police to meet with the embassy.

We have received information from all parties involved, except the Swedish police,Gui said and questioned Why were the three Chinese citizens treated so brutally by the Swedish police when they did not break any Swedish law?

Why has the police not informed the Chinese Embassy of the incident nor responded to the requests for a meeting?

A journalist quickly explained that it frequently happens in Sweden that hotels call the police if tourists refuse to leave the property and the three stayed for a few more hours in the hotel after being told to leave.

In that case, the hotel has the right to remove them according to Swedish law.

Gui answered, If they did stay a few more hours in the hotel, it would already be dawn. But the whole thing happened during the late night.

It was late at night, and they were in a country thousands of miles away from home where they did not know anyone.

Arriving only a few hours earlier than the booking time, they were actually already the hotel's guests and needed assistance from the hotel.

Concerning the police reportedly manhandling out the family of three, Gui asked what the improper behaviors of the Swedish police.

Gui again asked, Did the Chinese tourists break any law? If they did, why did the police and hotel not contact the Chinese Embassy immediately?

Had the Embassy been contacted, we would have provided assistance to the three Chinese tourists immediately, Gui added.

Gui was asked to share his view on the security situation in Sweden as a travel alert to Sweden were issued.

On average the embassy receives two reports of Chinese tourists' wallets or passports being robbed or stolen per day.

Our colleagues often had to wake up midnight or work on weekends and holidays to replace their documents so that they could return home.

We have raised the issue to almost all the relevant Swedish government departments, but none of them said it was their responsibility.

Almost all of the robberies and thefts were reported to the police, but so far no case has received any reply from the police, not to say being solved. Gui says.

He stated that the embassy had issued many such alerts and all Chinese embassies and consulates abroad need to issue travel alerts or warnings when local security is bad or deteriorating to ensure the safety of life and properties of Chinese citizens abroad.

At the end of the interview, Gui emphasized the importance of the relations between China and Sweden and hoped that the two countries could work with the same goal and develop bilateral relations on the basis of equality, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

The Swedish Embassy in China published a statement on this incident via Weibo, saying that the police officers involved will be investigated if a complaint is filed and prosecutors will carry out the investigation on the complaint that the officers broke the law and neglected their duties.


Tourism Observer

UNITED KINGDOM: British Airways Grounds Flights Worldwide Due To Computer Problems

British Airways has cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick until 18:00 BST because of computer problems.

A "major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide", the airline said.

It apologised for the global system outage and said it was working to resolve the the problem.

Heathrow Airport said it was "working closely" with BA to solve the issue.

There is no evidence at this stage to suggest the system failure was caused by a cyber attack, British Airways says.

All affected passengers will be offered the option of rescheduling or a refund.

In a statement, the airline asked passengers with flights before 18:00 BST on Saturday not to come to Gatwick or Heathrow airports, which it said had become extremely congested.

Other airlines flying in and out of Heathrow and Gatwick are unaffected.

The problems mean parts of British Airways's website are unavailable and some travellers claimed they could not check in on the mobile app.

BA aircraft landing at Heathrow are unable to park up as outbound aircraft cannot vacate the gates, which has resulted in passengers being stuck on aircraft.

A passenger said he had been sitting on a plane at Heathrow for 90 minutes. He said the captain told passengers the IT problems were very problematic and catastrophic.

BA staff in Heathrow's Terminal 5 were resorting to using white boards, according to passengers.

Delays have been reported in Rome, Prague, Milan, Stockholm and Malaga due to the system failure.

Passengers say they haven't been told very much just that there is a worldwide computer system failure.

They were told that we couldn't even get on other flights because they are unable to see what flights we can be moved to.

Not even flights from other countries can fly to the two airports.

British Airways staff are unable to say how long delays would take, but they say all flights are grounded around the world.

Passengers are being told their computer systems were down worldwide.

Some delayed passengers have been given vouchers for food and drink.

EU flight delay rights

- If your flight departed the European Union or was with a European airline, you might have rights under EU law to claim if the delay or cancellation was within the airline's control

- Short-haul flights: 250 euros for delays of more than three hours

- Medium-haul flights: 400 euros for delays of more than three hours

- Long-haul flights: 300 euros for delays of between three and four hours; and 600 euros for delays of more than four hours

- If your flight's delayed for two or more hours the airline must offer food and drink, access to phone calls and emails, and accommodation if you're delayed overnight - including transfers between the airport and the hotel.

I hope this is just not a cyber attack or

GERMANY: Lufthansa Acquires Its Fifth A320neo

Lufthansa took delivery of another A320neo from Airbus. This means that five aircraft of this model have been delivered to Lufthansa this year, as planned.

The ‘Transfer of Title’ of the new aircraft – with the registration D-AINE – took place yesterday on the Airbus business premises in Hamburg-Finkenwerder.

Certification for use of transport and an operating license will be issued over the next few days; transfer of the aircraft to the ‘home base’ in Frankfurt is scheduled for 2 January 2017.

In the coming year, an additional ten A320neo aircraft are toLufthansa is the first customer for this new generation Airbus A320neo. These new aircraft have been in service since the beginning of 2016 on routes within Germany as well as on European routes such as Oslo, Stockholm and Barcelona. be delivered to Lufthansa.



Through new technology engine design and the latest cabin layout with up to 180 seats, the A320neo is, in fact, around 20 percent cheaper to run per passenger. Another important feature of the A320neo is the significant reduction in both noise and CO2 emissions.

The 85-decibel ‘noise footprint’ of an A320neo at take-off is only half as loud as comparable levels of an A320 in the existing fleet, making an important contribution towards active noise reduction.

The Lufthansa Group has a total of 116 neo-type aircraft on order, 45 of them in the larger A321neo model.

ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia Ailines To Fly To Oslo, Norway

After starting an important route to New York City in July, adding Moroni the capital of the archipelago Comoros, Ethiopian Airlines has announced it is starting flights to the Norwegian capital Oslo.

In a press release the airline said that it will start scheduled five weekly flights to Oslo, via Stockholm with one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner in March 2017.

Commenting, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam said: “With Africa’s economic boom, and its growing trade, investment, business and tourism ties with Europe in general and Norway in particular, Ethiopian is pleased to provide the essential air connectivity that will serve as the engine for the continued growth of these relations. In addition to serving the growing travel needs between Oslo and Africa, we will be able to offer efficient connections between Africa and Central/ Eastern Europe in cooperation with our Star Alliance Partners.”

He added that the inclusion of Oslo in the Ethiopian network is part of the Airline’s Vision 2025 of connecting Africa with the world’s major economic and financial hubs.

The state-owned airlines, established 70 years ago, operates over 240 flights daily from its hub in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. In the 2014/2015 fiscal year, Ethiopian Airlines made $175 million in profits, and this is more than the profit made by all airlines in Africa combined.

LATIVIA: Riga Airport Leading In The Baltics

The number of passengers served has increased by 6.3%.

In the first half of the year, over 2.52 million passengers were carried, which is a 6.3% increase compared to the first half of the previous year.

The number of flights has increased by 2.1% and over 33 thousand flights have been performed in total.

Serving 45% of Baltic air passengers, Riga's Airport has maintained its leading position in the Baltics.

The "Riga" Airport has recorded a sharp 18.4% increase in the number of transfer passengers, thanks to the success of the national airline "airBaltic" in attracting transfer passengers.

In the first half of the year, transit and transfer passengers accounted for 26.6% of the total number of passengers. The main transfer destinations are Tallinn, Vilnius, Helsinki, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Kiev, Berlin, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, but the largest increase in transfer traffic has been in the direction of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, London and Kiev.

This year, the most popular destinations in terms of number of passengers are London, Moscow, Frankfurt, Oslo and Helsinki, while the largest growth has been for flights to Berlin, London, Kiev, Moscow and Stockholm.

In the first half of the year, two new airlines have launched routes - "Vueling" (Riga-Barcelona-Riga) and "Aegan Airlines" (Riga-Athens-Riga).

Currently, the airport is successfully carrying out the terminal's development. The new terminal is expected to be completed by this year's winter flight-season.

Europe’s Most Competitive Airport Pairs and city pairs in S15 revealed

Pobeda became the latest carrier on the highly competitive city pair between Moscow and Sochi when it commenced services between Moscow Vnukovo and Sochi/Adler on 6 February. Aeroflot’s in-house LCC now serves the route with six daily flights. This summer, the link between Moscow and Sochi is the most highly competed route in Europe with a total of 10 carriers operating services between the two cities.

We look at several aspects such as aircraft type operated, weekly frequency, sector length and which other carriers may already be operating on the route. Typically around half of all new airlines services are on airport pairs that are not served by anyone else. (Coincidentally, out of 25 new services launched this week, 12 are already served by other carriers.) However, that means that around half of all new services are airlines entering a market already served by at least one other carrier. These existing carriers are not likely to take kindly to having their position challenged.

This got us wondering as to which were the most competitive routes within Europe, during the peak summer season, on both an airport pair and city pair basis. At this point the anna.aero data elves let out a big sigh and got to work to see what they could uncover. For summer we used the first week of August in 2015. When attaching airports to cities we used the IATA recommended allocations for the following 16 cities: Belfast, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Istanbul, London, Milan, Moscow, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Tenerife, Venice and Warsaw.

German airports to Antalya dominate summer airport pairs ranking
For this summer the following table reveals the airport pairs served by the highest number of airlines. Routes to Antalya from German airports appear five times among the top eight, with Cologne Bonn and Düsseldorf to Antalya both offering flights on eight different airlines. Two more ‘summer sun’ routes also appear in the rankings; Düsseldorf to Heraklion and Manchester to Palma de Mallorca. The final route is the Italian domestic link between Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa.

Moscow – Sochi/Adler most competitive city pair
If instead of considering airport pairs we examine city pairs within Europe, the most competitive markets now include a large number of markets from London. With six airports designated as serving the UK capital (Gatwick, Heathrow, London City, Luton, Southend and Stansted) it’s no surprise that London routes now feature prominently. However, only one city pair can beat the eight carriers between Cologne Bonn and Antalya, and Düsseldorf and Antalya as reported earlier in this analysis. And it does not involve London. Instead it is the Russian domestic route between Moscow and Sochi/Adler, which according to OAG Schedules Analyser data had a total of 10 different carriers serving the market this August.

Two other Moscow routes also appear with seven competing airlines. Moscow is served by three airports; Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo. Seven city pairs involving London are served by seven carriers; four in Spain, two in Greece and one each in Cyprus and Italy.

SWEDEN: SAS Commenced Operations Between Stockholm Arlanda And Hong Kong.

On 10 September, SAS commenced operations between Stockholm Arlanda and Hong Kong. Before the departure of the inaugural flight, Torborg Chetkovich, Swedavia CEO, and Rickard Gustafson, SAS President and CEO, fronted a ribbon cutting ceremony. Passengers on the inaugural flight were treated to a special oriental buffet while also being offered a book titled ‘Flavor – A Journey in the Scandinavian taste’, which SAS developed together with the renowned restaurant Noma in Copenhagen.

SAS commenced operations between Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) and Hong Kong (HKG) on 10 September. The 8,203-kilometre sector will be flown five times weekly using a mixture of the Star Alliance member’s A330-300s and A340-300s according to OAG Schedules Analyser data.

The route will not face any direct competition. Flights will depart from Arlanda at 1500, with an arrival time in Hong Kong of 0720 the next day. The return flight leaves Hong Kong at 0905 and arrives back in Sweden at 1435 the same day.

Commenting on the launch, Rickard Gustafson, President and CEO of SAS said: “Today we are writing a new chapter in the history of SAS, as we launch direct flights between Stockholm and Hong Kong. We are very proud to be linking Stockholm and the rest of Scandinavia with Hong Kong through a convenient new connection that has been opened today.”

Recently SAS announced that its next long-haul route from Arlanda will be to Los Angeles. The sector to the California airport, recently analysed by anna.aero, will become the 13th intercontinental route served by SAS from Stockholm. See how Hong Kong Airport’s FTWA compares to others from around the world.