New routes launched during the last week
(Saturday 28 March – Friday 3 April)

Route of the Week:
Forli to Amsterdam

anna.aero is delighted to present its new branding for this award for which all winners receive a glittering certificate to hang in your board rooms and lobbies.

Wind Jet wins the prestigious Route of the Week award for its direct twice-weekly service between Forli and Amsterdam. It is among nine new routes the airline has launched from Forli this week. Pictured are Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s Jasper Spruit, Director Aviation Marketing, and Bert Stroboer, Account Manager.

• Italy’s Wind Jet has taken a chance on developing a major presence at Forli (FRL), an airport midway between Bologna and Rimini. Among the nine new routes started this week was a twice-weekly service to Amsterdam (AMS). This means that Amsterdam now has direct flights to 12 Italian destinations. Ryanair abandoned its international flights from Forli at the end of October and has recently given up its domestic services as well, transferring its capacity to Bologna’s main airport instead.

Cake of the Week:
Bahrain Air – Bahrain to Abu Dhabi

Like Route of the Week, our popular Cake of the Week award has also received a make-over. Winners will also receive one of our certificates. Keep growing, keep baking, route planners!

The ADAC cake romps home – no other cake came even near winning: Bahrain Air celebrates a new service to Abu Dhabi from Bahrain. Nine weekly flights will be operated using A319/A320 aircraft.

• Bahrain Air has added Abu Dhabi (AUH) to its growing network from Bahrain (BAH). A total of nine weekly flights will be operated using A319/A320 aircraft. Etihad with 25 weekly departures and Gulf Air with 27 weekly departures will provide stiff competition on the route.

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• Norwegian was a close runner-up for the Cake of Week award for not one, but two routes – from Amsterdam Schiphol to Copenhagen and Oslo. The airline had a busy week, launching seven new routes in total.

• Air France launched a new Basel-Amsterdam route, which is served 13 times per week. CityJet operates the flights as a franchise on behalf of Air France. Pictured are: Eric Fuchsmann, Regional Director East France, Air France; Vincent Devauchelle, Deputy Director, EuroAirport; and Jürg Rämi, Director, EuroAirport.

Palanga Airport Director Leonas Kvietkauskas addressed the gathered crowd at the launch of airBaltic’s twice-daily Riga-Palanga service.

• Despite the difficulties being faced by the Latvian economy airBaltic has started two new routes this week from its base in Riga (RIX). There will be twice-daily flights to Palanga (PLQ) in Lithuania operated by the airline’s Fokker 50 fleet while Tromso (TOS) in Norway will be served thrice-weekly with 737s. In 2008 airBaltic handled 2.59 million passengers, up 29% on the previous year. Despite this the load factor dipped by just one percentage point to 62%.

Armavia has launched twice-weekly flights from Yerevan to Zurich.

• Armenia’s national carrier Armavia has started twice weekly flights from the capital Yerevan (EVN) to Zurich (ZRH). The major Swiss city becomes the latest destination in Western Europe to be linked by the airline to Yerevan following in the footsteps of Amsterdam, Athens and Paris CDG. Twice-weekly services to Dűsseldorf which began last June appear to have been suspended. On 24 March the airline carried its 100,000th passenger in 2009, Hugh Christie from the UK, who was travelling between Yerevan and Tbilisi.

Qatar Airways’ new Doha-Houston service is the airline’s third non-stop route to the US, following New York JFK and Washington Dulles.

• Qatar Airways has slightly belatedly begun serving Houston (IAH) from its base at Doha (DOH). Daily flights were originally supposed to start last November but kept being pushed back due to the late delivery of new Boeing aircraft. This becomes the airline’s third non-stop route to the US as it already serves New York JFK and Washington Dulles with daily flights. Local rival Emirates began serving Houston from Dubai in December 2007.

bmi has begun five times weekly flights from London Heathrow to Kiev. Pictured are: Borys R. Shakhsuvarov, General Director, Boryspil International Airport and Peter Spencer, Managing Director, bmi.

• bmi started five-times weekly flights from London Heathrow (LHR) to Kiev (KBP) in the Ukraine using A321s. British Airways already serves this market on a daily basis while Ukraine International Airlines operates daily to London Gatwick. For the more budget-conscious traveller Wizz Air flies thrice-weekly from London Luton to Kiev.

• bmibaby will operate the new Manchester-Toulouse route three times per week during summer and twice-weekly in winter. The airline will market the route as a summer destination and also a ski destination for winter, taking into account the important UK traffic going to Andorra.

  bmibaby, currently wondering what future it has under Lufthansa’s new ownership of its parent company bmi, began three new routes this week. From its ‘home’ at East Midlands (EMA) it has started thrice-weekly flights to Almeria (LEI) in Spain, while from Manchester (MAN) it has started double-daily flights to Amsterdam (AMS), and thrice-weekly flights to Toulouse (TLS). Both of these routes have previously been operated by jet2.com thus proving the value of keeping track of dropped routes. On Amsterdam the airline will face direct competition from KLM which operates 41 weekly departures.

Etihad has launched daily services from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne. It is the airline’s third Australian destination after Sydney and Brisbane. The first aircraft to touch down was branded in eye-catching Formula 1 livery just days after the weekend’s Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park. Brand ambassador Danni Minogue (pictured left) joined Etihad CEO James Hogan and Australian media personality Helen Kapolos at the celebration.

• Etihad launched its second non-stop route to Australia this week with the start of daily services to Melbourne (MEL) from Abu Dhabi (AUH). The airline already serves Sydney with 11 weekly non-stop flights and also serves Brisbane via Singapore. An Airbus A340-600 will be used on the route.

Malev will initially operate its new Budapest-Iasi service five times weekly with a Q400, increasing to six-times weekly from the beginning of June. Iasi is Malev’s fifth Romanian destination.

• Hungarian flag-carrier Malev, now under new ownership and management, began flights from Budapest (BUD) to Iasi (IAS) in north-eastern Romania this week. Initially flights will operate five times weekly with a Q400 increasing to six-times weekly from the beginning of June. This means that Malev now flies to five destinations in Romania. Iasi become a new destination for the oneworld alliance of which Malev has been a member since April 2007.

Monarch celebrated the new Birmingham-Larnaca route with a Cypriot night at a Greek/Cypriot restaurant, which was attended by representatives from Monarch, the Cyprus Tourist Office, Birmingham Airport and the local media. The airline also hosted a press trip to Larnaca this week and took six Midlands-based journalists to Cyprus to experience the sights and tastes of the island.

• Monarch began flying from Birmingham (BHX) to Larnaca (LCA) this week. Flights will initially operate twice-weekly. The airline already serves the Cypriot airport from its other bases at London Luton, London Gatwick and Manchester.

Saudi Arabian Airlines has launched three new routes to Indian destinations this week, including Jeddah-Bangalore.

• Saudi Arabian Airlines has added three new routes to Indian destinations this week. There are new twice-weekly non-stop services from Jeddah (JED) to Kozhikode (CCJ) and Lucknow (LKO) as well as a new service to Bangalore (BLR) from Jeddah (JED) which operates via Riyadh (RUH). All services will be flown by the airline’s 757s. On the Kozhikode route the airline will compete directly with Air India which operates five weekly flights.

SAS began Malta to Stockholm Arlanda services this week, despite major capacity cutbacks across its network.

• Despite major capacity cutbacks across its network SAS this week began serving Malta (MLA) from Stockholm Arlanda (ARN). The only other scheduled service currently between Sweden and Malta is provided by Ryanair, which already flies twice weekly from Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) to Malta (MLA).

Vivaaerobus began daily flights to Guadalajara from its base at Monterrey using 737s.

• Mexican low-cost carrier Vivaaerobus added Guadalajara (GDL) to its network this week when it began daily flights from its base at Monterrey (MTY) using 737s. According to OAG data it will be competing on the route with Aeromexico, Aviacsa, Interjet and Mexicana all of which operate at least twice daily on the route. For some reason Vivaaerobus does not at present provide its schedule data to OAG so anna.aero has to rely on the airline’s website for schedule data information.

• Heathrow reconnected to Shannon! Shannon Airport Director Martin Moroney (right) may be holding up a globe to show us where to find the Democratic Republic of Congo (why are you doing that Martin??) but the really great news for the West of Ireland was Aer Lingus’ recommencement of its LHR service following a 14-month gap. “Reaction was vital as it sent a clear message to all potential carriers that there was a very vibrant market for these services,” says Moroney, who is holding the world in his hands with an Aer Lingus cabin crew member Tony Kinnane.

• bmi regional has launched a Birmingham-Aberdeen service, which is operated 16 times per week.

• Lufthansa Italia’s daily Milan Malpensa-Lisbon service operates using an A319.

• Lufthansa Italia also launched Milan Malpensa-Rome Fiumicino services. Heike Birlenbach, Head of the Milan division of the Lufthansa Passenger Airlines; Franco Giudice, Director General Gruppo Aeroporti di Roma; and Karl Ulrich Garnadt, Board of Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, performed the ribbon cutting ceremony.

• Despite launching 12 new Edinburgh services there is surprisingly no anna.aero Kilt of the Week. But we do have some rabbits – Edinburgh Airport managing director Gordon Dewar and the ‘Bunny Girls’ celebrated the launch of the 12 new services in time for Easter. Ryanair will launch 10 of the 12 new flights this week to Bologna, Cagliari, Carcassonne, Leipzig (Altenburg), Limoges, Malta, Rome (Ciampino), Palma, Poitiers and Zadar (Croatia). Two new links to Copenhagen will also launch this week, operated by Cimber Sterling and Norwegian. Danish carrier Cimber Sterling will serve Copenhagen three times a week, while Norwegian Air Shuttle will serve the city twice weekly.

• Ryanair has also celebrated its first flights from Oslo Torp to Alghero and Bologna. It will operate a twice-weekly service to Alghero and a three times weekly service to Bologna. First to check-in for the Alghero flight was Desiree Ojala and her husband Svein Brekke, from Sandefjord, who were presented with a free flight voucher and a bottle of Italian Prosecco which Ryanair probably charged them to carry on.

• KLM returns to the Amsterdam-Liverpool route after a gap of over 70 years having previously operated between 1934-39. On its website the airline claims to be “the first major airline to take you to Amsterdam from Liverpool” which may come as a surprise to easyJet which has been operating an Amsterdam service since October 1997 and last year carried 44.6 million passengers system-wide compared to KLM’s 23.8 million. Seen heading to Schiphol are Michel Coumans, CEO KLM Cityhopper; Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council; Christine Ourmieres, General Manager Air France KLM, UK and Ireland, and Neil Pakey, Deputy CEO, Peel Airports.

• Lufthansa has launched a daily Frankfurt-Poznan service, which is operated using a CRJ 700 – other central European services have started to Lviv in the Ukraine and Dubrovnik and Split in Croatia.

• Jet Airways launched Mumbai-Kuwait services on 31 March. It is the airline’s second daily service to Kuwait from India, adding to the Kochi-Kuwait route. Pictured cutting the inaugural ribbon are: Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, Jet Airways; Charles Adams, Board Member, Jet Airways; and BP Baliga, Vice-President, Support Services, Jet Airways.

• Among Wind Jet’s nine new routes from Forli this week is a service to Berlin Tegel, which is operated twice-weekly using an A319.

• Thomas Ramdahl, Director of Networks; Daniel Skjeldam, Chief Commercial Officer; Andy Flower, Managing Director London Gatwick Airport; Richard Derykere, Head of Scheduling and Bjorn-Erik Barmen-Jensen, Director of Ground Operations, celebrate the launch of Norwegian’s London Gatwick-Aalborg/Copenhagen service.

• Ryanair has launched 11 new routes from Bologna this week – Bari, Brindisi, Constanta, Düsseldorf Weeze, Edinburgh, Granada, Katowice, Lamezia Terme, Oslo Torp, Paris Beauvais and Trapani.

• Royal Jordanian has launched a twice-weekly service from Amman to Brussels. Pictured are: Mr Dabbas (CCO of RJ in the back), cutting the ribbon are Mr Sharaf, Vice chairman RJ and Mr Stroobants, Director Aviation Development, The Brussels Airport Company.

• Brussels Airlines’ new Brussels-Vilnius service was launched by CEO Brussels Airlines, Bernard Gustin and Director Aviation Development, Brussels Airport, Jos Stroobants.

• Blu Express has launched a Rome Fiumicino-Lamezia Terme service. Cutting the ribbon are President of the Calabria Region and Blu Express’ Commercial Director George Michalopoulos.

To see the latest information we have on routes that have recently been dropped or soon will be, check out our unique downloadable Route Recycle Bin spreadsheet. We currently have over 880 routes in our database which may be of interest to carriers.