UAE: Emirates Signs Code-share Agreement With Trenitalia

Emirates announced on Wednesday a code-share agreement with Trenitalia, Italy’s national railway company, allowing Emirates customers to visit new destinations across Italy.

Travellers can use one ticket to fly on Emirates and then reach other Italian cities by train.

Emirates currently flies to four Italian cities; Milan, Rome, Venice, and Bologna.

Customers can book their code-share trips through Emirates’ website and use their ticket to then travel by train.

First and Business class passengers will automatically be booked in First Class on Trenitalia’s trains.


Tourism Observer

SPAIN: New Model Airline Volotea Is New Member Of IATA

Volotea, the airline of mid- and small‐sized European cities is a new member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Representing some 280 airlines or 83 percent of total air traffic, IATA is the trade association for the world’s airlines.

It supports many areas of aviation activity and helps formulate industry policy on critical aviation issues.

We are pleased to become an IATA member, as this global association leads the innovation, safety and value creation in the airline industry, supporting the highest industry standards, said Carlos Munoz, Volotea’s founder and CEO.

The airline is expected to benefit from IATA’s know how and resources covering all fields of the industry, including analysis of regulations, development of standards, innovation in distribution, improvements on safety procedures, updates and training for aviation industry professionals, as well as cost reduction.

Volotea is a new model airline with a clever and bold approach, creating demand and connectivity by establishing innovative routes.

We are thrilled to welcome Volotea to the IATA family and to help them grow and excel in this highly competitive European market, said IATA Regional Vice President for Europe Rafael Schvartzman.

Volotea has carried 15 million passengers since its first flight in 2012, and over 4.8 million in 2017 alone.

Since the beginning of 2018, Volotea has launched 58 new flights to serve a lineup of 293 routes.

It currently operates flights to 78 mid- and small-sized European cities in 13 countries including France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Croatia, and the Czech Republic.

The airline is expected to carry 5.7-6 million passengers in 2018.

Its fleet consists of 32 aircraft, Boeing 717s and Airbus A319s.

Volotea currently operates from twelve bases: Venice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Palermo, Strasbourg, Asturias, Verona, Toulouse, Genoa, Bilbao, Marseille that opened on April 19 and Athens, which launched on May 3.

Volotea is a Spanish low-cost airline registered in Asturias, Spain with bases in Spain, Italy, France and Greece.

Volotea was established by Alaeo S.L. from Barcelona, a company created by former Vueling founders, Carlos Munoz and Lazaro Ros.

The name Volotea originates from the Spanish verb revolotear, meaning to fly around.

It commenced operations on 5 April 2012, from Venice Marco Polo Airport.

The company is backed by three private equity funds, two of them from Europe - Axis Participaciones Empresariales and Corpfin Capital and a third from the United States - CCMP Capital, whose chairman, Greg Brenneman, was one-time President and COO of America's Continental Airlines,and also chairs Volotea's board.

The company raised over €50m before operations began.

Boeing announced on 15 February 2012 that it had signed a long-term lease deal with Volotea for an undisclosed number of Boeing 717 aircraft.

In March 2015, it was announced that Volotea will receive a further four 717s from Blue1.

However, in November 2015, Volotea announced plans to phase out their 717 fleet over the next few years and replace it with Airbus A320 family aircraft.

As of January 2018, the Volotea fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Airbus A319-100 - 11

Boeing 717-200 - 17

Total - 28

Orders

Airbus A319-100 - 4


Tourism Observer

ITALY: Overtourism Impacting More And More Destinations Worldwide

Experts who gathered in Italy for the 25th World Travel Monitor Forum® in Pisa last month agreed that the travel and tourism industry must draw up new strategies to manage the phenomenon of overtourism impacting more and more destinations worldwide.

In view of protests by residents at popular destinations across the globe, the Pisa forum – initiated by consultancy IPK International and supported by ITB Berlin – found that diverse measures and solutions must be taken by local authorities to manage visitor numbers without restricting growth.

The international travel industry must act together with destinations on coordinated strategies including managing seasonality and visitor flows, spreading tourism benefits such as jobs and revenues more widely among local communities, and investing in infrastructure and protection of tourism assets, the experts suggested.

According to the findings, overtourism affects travelers as much as it does residents, the destinations, tourist attractions and local infrastructure.

Indicatively, approximately 25 percent of all international tourists felt that their destination had been over-crowded this year, according to a World Travel Monitor® survey of 29,000 travelers in 24 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas conducted in September 2017.

With 9 percent – equivalent to around 100 million tourists – admitting this over-crowding had affected the quality of their outbound trip.

Ski resorts were the most crowded tourism locations with one in five (19 percent) saying their winter sports holiday had been impacted affected by overtourism.

As for the most affected cities these were: Guangzhou (24 percent), Shanghai (23 percent), Beijing (21 percent), Amsterdam and Istanbul (both 19 percent), and Barcelona, Florence and Venice (18 percent), according to the survey

Overtourism is clearly not good for nature, culture, locals and tourists alike. However, global tourism has not reached its limits.

Many destinations would be happy to see more visitors, either throughout the year or in the low season.

So tourism does not have a growth problem but rather a regional and seasonal problem, said Rolf Freitag, CEO of IPK International.

The 25th World Travel Monitor Forum was supported by ITB Berlin.




Tourism Observer

AUSTRIA: Adria Airways And Austrian Airlines Sign Wet Lease Agreement

Austrian Airlines will start a wet lease agreement with its Star Alliance partner Adria Airways. The aim of the agreement is to have reserve aircraft available to enable greater flexibility in flight planning.

Austria’s flag carrier will lease the aircraft along with cockpit and cabin crew – one as of September 16, 2017, and the other as of October 1, 2017.

The Canadair CRJ 900 jets offer room for 86 passengers and thus have a larger seating capacity than the Bombardier Q400.

According to an announcement, the aircraft will be operated in the Austrian Airlines route network.

Planned destinations amongst others include Warsaw, Venice and Bucharest. Passengers on board will enjoy the customer service provided by DO&CO.

The hub of Adria Airways is at Ljubljana Airport, near the capital of Slovenia.

The Slovenian home carrier is a member of Star Alliance, and has thus been a reliable partner of Austrian Airlines for many years, Austrian Airlines said.

Adria Airways links Slovenia with numerous European cities, and offers flight connections to South East Europe.

The airline’s headquarters are located at Joze Pucnik Ljubljana Airport.

Adria Airways has sales offices in almost all European countries.



Tourism Observer

SWITZERLAND: SWISS Feb – Aug 2016 Boeing 777 European Operations

In recent schedule update, SWISS has further updated planned Boeing 777-300ER operation within Europe, which sees the 777 also scheduled to operate service to Athens, Prague and Venice, while overall 777 European operation extended into August 2016.

As of 17DEC15, planned 777-300ER European operation as follow.

eff 08FEB16 Zurich – Geneva LX2802/2807, 777-300ER operation extended until August 2016
08FEB16 – 18FEB16 Day x6
19FEB16 – 25MAR16 Day 357 (Except 12MAR16 – 19MAR16)
27MAR16 Day 7
29MAR16 – 06APR16 Day x4
07APR16 – 29AUG16 Daily

on 24MAR16, 777-300ER will operate service LX2806/2811

eff 08FEB16 Zurich – Barcelona LX1956/1957, 777-300ER operation added in late-March 2016
08FEB16 – 18FEB16 Day x56
19FEB16 – 25FEB16 Day 245
01MAR16 – 10MAR16 Day 24
22MAR16 – 24MAR16 Day 24

eff 08FEB16 Zurich – Frankfurt LX1072/1073, 777-300ER operation added in May and June 2016
08FEB16 – 19FEB16 Day x6
23FEB16 – 22MAR16 Day 24
03MAY16 – 06MAY16 Day 25
01JUN16 – 08JUN16 Day x67

eff 12FEB16 Zurich – London Heathrow No changes to planned 777-300ER operation
LX326/327 12FEB16 / 13FEB16 / 20FEB16
LX318/319 13FEB16 / 20FEB16

eff 27FEB16 Zurich – Athens LX1830/1831, 777-300ER operation added for this route
27FEB16 – 26MAR16 Day 6
17APR16 – 01MAY16 Day 7
07MAY16 – 05JUN16 Day 67
03JUL16 Day 7

eff 27FEB16 Zurich – Hanover 777-300ER moving 2 weeks earlier instead of mid-March 2016, while operation extended into August 2016
LX814/815
13MAR16 – 18MAR16 Day 357
01APR16 – 07APR16 Day x1
09APR16 – 13APR16 Day 367
20APR16 – 27APR16 Day 3
01MAY16 – 09MAY16 Day x56
16MAY16 – 23MAY16 Day 1
01JUN16 – 08JUN16 Daily
01JUL16 – 08JUL16 Daily
01AUG16 – 08AUG16 Daily

LX828/829
27FEB16 – 14MAR16 Day 6
15MAR16 – 17MAR16 Day 246
18MAR16 – 26MAR16 Day 6
02APR16 – 09APR16 Day 46
24APR16 – 29APR16 Day 257
05MAY16 Day 4

eff 01APR16 Zurich – Prague 777-300ER operation added for this route
LX1486/1487
01APR16 – 07APR16 Daily
09APR16 – 15APR16 Day x14
19APR16 – 29APR16 Day 235
01MAY16 – 09MAY16 Day x6
11MAY16 – 03JUN16 Day x67
04JUN16 – 09JUN16 Day x5
01JUL16 – 08JUL16 Day x7
01AUG16 – 07AUG16 Daily

LX1498/1499
01APR16 – 06APR16 Day x467
15APR16 – 22APR16 Day 5
01MAY16 – 08MAY16 Day x34
13MAY16 – 28MAY16 Day 56
01JUN16 – 08JUN16 Daily

eff 03APR16 Zurich – Venice 777-300ER operation added for this route
LX1664/1665
03APR16 – 10APR16 Day 7
12APR16 – 19APR16 Day 27
01MAY16 – 08MAY16 Day x146
11MAY16 – 02JUN16 Day x56 (No 777 service on 23MAY16)
04JUN16 – 08JUN16 Day x45
01JUL16 – 08JUL16 Daily
01AUG16 – 07AUG16 Daily

777-300ER also scheduled to operate LX1660/1661 on 06MAY16

SWISS’ planned 777-300ER operation to Hamburg and Malaga on Saturdays, between 27FEB16 and 26MAR16, is now cancelled.

UAE: Emirates Starts Daily Direct Flights To Bologna

Emirates Airline on Tuesday launched direct, daily flights to Bologna, its fourth Italian city after Rome, Venice and Milan.

Airline looking to draw more leisure and business travellers from East and West

Water cannons received the Boeing 777-300 at the turmac of the city, which is rich in its art, culture, trade and known world-wide for its medieval historical centres.

Bologna has a “good customer base and we want to offer people the option of flying from here”, Thierry Antinori, Emirates Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial officer Commercial Operations Worldwide, told Gulf News.

“It is going to be a very popular destination,” he added.

Emirates airline is planning to connect tourists and businessmen from Asian countries to Bologna and to offer the tourists from Europe the option of flying to the East though Dubai.

In order to achieve the goal, the senior official announced during the press conference that Emirates airline will bring 12 media groups from the different far eastern countries to Bologna in the next two months.

Emirates wants “to show them the city, because it is not known as Venice or Rome, also because we want to be successful and, to be successful, part of the job is to do the job by yourself,” he said.

While Emriates airline has a total of 1,000 Italians working with it world-wide, the UAE has the biggest Italian community east of Europe.

Enrico Postacchini, Chairman of Bologna Airport, told Gulf News that the airport has a capacity of over seven million passengers a year. Plans for further investment to increase the capacity are under way, he added.

Bologna airport is among the top European airports in terms of connectivity, he added.

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.

BELGIUM:VLM connects Antwerp to Birmingham

The airline VLM Airlines has announced a new route between Antwerp and Birmingham.

The flights depart three times a week, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:35, arrival at 12:05 (one and a half hour flight), return flights starting again at 14:30 Birmingham for an arrival at 17:00 in Antwerp. "There are strong commercial synergies "between Antwerp and Birmingham, said Steve Blair, operations manager at VLM Airlines citing the fashion industries, diamond, automotive and chemicals." We are confident that this new route will be attractive for people looking for a city break and can be used as a gateway to Bruges, Ghent and Brussels, all less than an hour from Antwerp, "he said. From Antwerp, VLM already serves Geneva, Hamburg and Southampton. Antwerp is also served by CityJet (from London-City) and Jetairfly.

Recall that the Belgian airline, which has regular services to seven destinations in five countries, including Geneva, Hamburg, Southampton, Waterford and London Luton. early June announced its withdrawal from Liege Airport in Belgium with the cancellation of the four routes to Avignon, Nice, Bologna and Venice. Its fleet consists of 11 Fokker 50 configured for 50 seats. In addition to regular flights, it continues to offer charter flights and ACMI including on behalf of CityJet or Aurigny.