New airline routes launched (10 – 16 January 2012)

Route of the Week: Porter Airlines’ Toronto City
to Timmins

• Porter Airlines launched new service from Toronto City (YTZ) to Timmins (YTS) in north-eastern Ontario on 16 January. The 570-kilometre route will be operated with 70-seat Q400 aircraft 18 times weekly. Air Canada competes indirectly out of Toronto Pearson, offering 41 weekly flights.

Cake of the Week: Wizz Air’s Budapest to
Dortmund

• Wizz Air moved one of the German routes operated out of its home base in Budapest (BUD), the base analysed this week, on 13 January. The Central and Eastern European ultra low-cost carrier suspended its route to Weeze and now instead serves Dortmund (DTM) with its 180-seat A320s; initially twice-weekly, but increasing to three times a week at the start of the summer scheduling season. Competition comes from easyJet, which has operated the route since 2004, currently with three times a week.

The rest of this week’s new routes

• Air China launched services to the southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, turning Naha (OKA) into its sixth Japanese destination served out of the airline’s base at Beijing (PEK). As of 11 January, Okinawa will be served with a twice-weekly frequency using 737-800 aircraft configured for 167 passengers. The route has been operated since mid-August last year, when it became Hainan Airlines’ first Japanese destination. Providing the same weekly frequency, Hainan Airlines will be Air China’s only competitor.

• Air Vallèe has launched a new route from Parma (PMF) in northern Italy, ahead of its base launch at the start of the summer scheduling season. On 14 January, the airline began operating daily to Catania (CTA) in Sicily, using MD83 aircraft. The route is launched as WindJet dropped its operations on the route on 10 January, having operated between the two airports since November 2007. Michele Costantino, president of Air Vallèe Holding Company, commented: “We are pleased to be able to launch this new service to Catania ahead of the new based operation at Parma. Catania is an important destination for the area and we are sure that the Air Vallèe service, prices and timetable will more than able to exceed customer expectations.”

• airberlin made the first alteration to its network as an effect of last month’s announcement that Etihad increases its holding in the German carrier. From its Berlin Tegel (TXL) hub, airberlin now serves Etihad’s hub at Abu Dhabi (AUH), at the same time cancelling its previous route to Dubai. The route will be operated four times a week with 303-seat A330-200 aircraft. airberlin’s CEO Hartmut Mehdorn called the new route “one of the key components of the partnership with Abu Dhabi becoming airberlin’s gateway to Asia and Australia”. The route has previously been served briefly in 2009 by the now defunct German airline Blue Wings.

• Far Eastern Air Transport of Taiwan launched a new route across the Taiwan Strait on 15 January. From Kaohsiung (KHH), Taiwan’s second-largest city, the airline now serves Chengdu (CTU) in south-western Mainland China. Flights operate twice-weekly with the airline’s 143-seat MD83 aircraft. This is the second route from a Taiwanese regional airport to the Sichuan Province city. Far Eastern Air Transport already operates four other routes across the Taiwan Strait.

• FirstNation Airways, the Nigerian start-up carrier that launched operations last year, began operating its second route on 14 January. The airline now flies the domestic route from its Lagos (LOS) base to Port Harcourt (PHC) in the Niger delta, seat of the country’s oil industry. The 440-kilometre route is operated twice-daily with A320 aircraft, competing with Arik Air’s 33, Aerocontractors’ also 33, Air Nigeria’s 28, and Dana Air’s 11 weekly flights.

• Hainan Airlines launched two new routes from Mainland China to the Taiwanese capital airport Taipei Taoyuan (TPE) on 11 January; each operating with the airline’s 164-seat 737-800s. Flights from Lanzhou (LHW) in Gansu Province in northwest China are operated once a week, while the route from Sanya (SYX) on the island of Hainan off the southern coast is served three times a week, competing with China Airlines’ two weekly flights.

• Hawaiian Airlines, the airline analysed this week, launched a new year-round route to the San Francisco Bay Area from of the island of Maui in the last week, using its 264-seat 767-300s. At the same time as the airline upgraded its seasonal service to Oakland to a year-round operation, the airline began operating a new route. On 10 January, the airline launched three weekly flights from Kahului, HI (OGG) to Silicon Valley’s airport in San Jose, CA (SJC). The route faces competition from Alaska Airlines, which operates with daily frequencies. Hawaiian currently only serves two other destinations in the US mainland from Kahului; Seattle and Las Vegas.

• JetBlue expanded its Florida network on 12 January, launching a daily seasonal service to Bradley International Airport serving Hartford, CT (BDL) from West Palm Beach, FL (PBI). The route, which is operated with 150-seat A320 aircraft, is the airline’s sixth route to the Florida airport. Jon Beatty, Pratt & Whitney’s VP Airline Customers, commented: “With Pratt & Whitney headquarters in East Hartford and our sea-level commercial and military engine testing facility in West Palm Beach, Pratt & Whitney travellers will be many of the first in line for JetBlue’s newest route.”

• Sun Country Airlines returned to the Costa Rican market on 13 January when the Minneapolis/St Paul, MN (MSP) based airline launched a weekly service to Liberia (LIR) in Costa Rica with its 162-seat 737-800s. The leisure airline last operated to Costa Rica – the only Central American country other than Mexico that the airline has served – briefly in 1999-2000. The new route, which is seasonal and operates until 13 April, competes with Delta’s also weekly operation.

• Thai AirAsia expanded its domestic network, launching a new route from Bangkok (BKK) to Trang (TST) in the south of Thailand. The destination will be served on a daily basis using 180-seat A320s beginning on 16 January. The low-cost airline faces indirect competition from Nok Air and Orient Thai, which provide 11 and seven weekly flights respectively from Bangkok Don Muang. At the inaugural event, Thai AirAsia’s CEO Tassapon Bijleveld said: “We are very pleased to announce that our inaugural flights today between Bangkok and Trang have a load factor of over 90%. This shows that there is strong demand for travel between the two destinations.”