Launched and announced routes (26 May – 4 June)

Budapest to Brussels

Wizz Air celebrates the launch of Budapest – Brussels, which will compete directly with LOT Polish and Brussels Airlines, and indirectly with Ryanair (and also another of its own services).

Wizz Air on 1 June launched Budapest – Brussels.

The 1,141-kilometre route will operate up to five-weekly this month, increasing to six-weekly in July. From 13 September, it’ll operate daily.

Speaking to anna.aero, Sonja Gehlen, Senior Aviation Development Manager at Brussels Airport, said: “We are delighted that Europe’s fastest-growing airline has launched flights to Brussels Airport. It also clearly marks the turn of tide, with traffic growth expected to recover week by week in June and July.”

Brussels is a new airport for Wizz Air.

Wizz Air third airline on airport-pair

Wizz Air is the third airline on Budapest – Brussels, joining Brussels Airlines and LOT Polish.  LOT also began this year. 

In all, these three are scheduled to have almost 154,000 seats to/from Brussels this year, up 17% YOY, with Wizz Air and LOT’s entrance offsetting Brussels Airlines’ decline.

The 2010-2011 period saw Brussels Airlines compete with Malev. Source: OAG Schedules Analyser.

In the first week of July, Wizz Air’s six-weekly service from Brussels will compete with five-weekly by Brussels Airlines and 12-weekly by LOT. 

In addition, Wizz Air will offer six-weekly flights from Brussels Charleroi and Ryanair three. 

The rest of this week’s new routes (A – Z by airline)

Frontier is to start three new routes from Philadelphia – Boston, Chicago O’Hare, and Phoenix – meaning it will operate 27 routes from the airport.

Phoenix will be Frontier’s second-longest route from Philadelphia

At 3,340 kilometres, Philadelphia – Phoenix will be Frontier’s second-longest route from the Pennsylvania airport, after Las Vegas.  It will compete with American Airlines between two of its hubs. 

MIDT data via OAG Traffic Analyser indicates that Philadelphia – Phoenix had 62,000 indirect passengers last year.

Increases coming, while separately three routes continue into S20

In addition to these new routes, Frontier is increasing frequencies from Philadelphia to Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa.  Orlando is key.  It’ll increase to 35 weekly (five daily) from November, and 42 weekly (six daily) from December. Its December increases to Miami, Orlando, and Tampa aren’t for Christmas: they continue.

Meanwhile, Frontier will extend three routes – Myrtle Beach, Sarasota, and West Palm Beach – for S20.

Frontier is now a big player at Philadelphia

Frontier has grown very strongly at Philadelphia, ending last year with almost 2.5 million two-way seats – up 26% YOY and nearly a million over 2017. 

Source: OAG Schedules Analyser.

Alliance Airlines, a very large user of Fokker 50s, 70s, and 100s within Australia, has announced Brisbane – Whitsunday Coast (Proserpine).

The 893-kilometre service will link Queensland’s capital with this important tourist location on a four-weekly basis from 22 June.  It’ll use either 80-seat F70s or 100-seat Fokker 100s.

This will be the first flights to Whitsunday Coast Airport since 28 March, with this new route subsidised – in partnership with the Whitsunday Regional Council – to help local tourism to restart. 

While it’ll have no direct competition when it starts, Jetstar will offer a six-weekly service from 27 June and daily the week after that, the carrier’s website shows.  Virgin Australia, meanwhile, will offer a 10-weekly connection from 13 July.

Brisbane – Whitsunday Coast (Proserpine) had almost 319,000 seats last year, carved among Jetstar and Virgin Australia.  Tigerair Australia ended the route in 2018, whereupon its parent, Virgin, increased its own capacity.

Source: OAG Schedules Analyser. Virgin Blue/Virgin Australia data was amalgamated for this figure.

FlyArystan, Kazakstan’s first and only low-cost carrier, is to begin four new domestic routes, one of which will have no competition.

At 2,087 kilometres, Almaty – Aktau will be the longest of FlyArystan’s new routes, followed by Shymkent – Aktau (1,502), Shymkent – Atyrau (1,491), and Shymkent – Aktobe (1,286). 

Shymkent is Kazakstan’s third-largest city, behind Almaty and the capital, Nur-Sultan.

Qazak will compete directly with FlyArystan on Shymkent – Atyrau.  It will operate a 78-seat Dash-8-400 –  the route is one of the world’s longest for the type – against a 180-seat A320. The difference is economics is clear.

Source: OAG Mapper.

Productivity and demand stimulation key

FlyArystan, part of Air Astana, currently has six A320s.  Back in December, anna.aero’s Chief Analyst, James Pearson, interviewed FlyArystan’s then Managing Director, Tim Jordan.

FlyArystan has a 40% cost advantage versus Air Astana. Aircraft productivity is aided by domestic sectors being one-to-two hours. Jordan said,  “For us, we want eight sectors a day.  That’s the most important thing.  That enables a potential of 1,200 passengers per aircraft each day.”

Luxair has announced Luxembourg – Manchester, with its first flight departing on 29 June, although this may change.

The 720-kilometre route will be operated by 76-seat Dash-8-400s with a block time of 1h 50m each way. 

It is now available for sale, with a return trip from EUR99 including taxes.

Luxair served Manchester as a stop en route to Dublin until 2007. The airport-pair then went unserved until 2016, when flybe launched it. 

flybe operated it until the carrier’s end earlier this year.  It used both Dash-8-400s and Embraer 175s.

flybe steadily grew seat load factor, ending 2019 with an estimated 78%, more or less its system average.  This was aided by reducing capacity by 16% versus 2017, with just 1.6% fewer passengers.

Source: OAG Schedules Analyser and the UK CAA.