Country Feature
China to Europe sees highest YOY growth; Shanghai – Iceland coming
China to Europe sees 48 European and 34 Chinese airports. In 2019, 2.4m extra seats were added, the biggest ever, with over 50 new routes. Keflavik coming.
Cancun – US sees 3.3 million indirect passengers; InterJet returns
8.5 million people flew US – Cancun in the last year. 3.3 million connected en route. 50 US airports have a median of 43,000 connecting passengers.
Virgin Atlantic doubles Delhi; for all airlines, London-Delhi seats down 25%
Virgin Atlantic to add second-daily Heathrow – Delhi. For all airlines, seats down 25% since 2015 from Jet Airways’ end and big cuts in seats per departure.
Saudi Arabia – India bilateral increases 78% to 50,000 weekly seats
Weekly seats from India – Saudi Arabia increase 78% to 50,000. 5.3 million passengers were carried in the last year, but only 37% were non-stop. Many opportunities remain.
IATA Slots in Brisbane nears; key unserved Australia routes revealed
Top-20 domestic routes in Australia have 1m+ indirect passengers a year. Canberra stands out and Canberra – Hobart leads with the strongest fare/mile.
Despite Jet Airways’ end, 39 million seats exist between India and the Gulf
159 routes operate between the Gulf and India. Dubai International is the most-served airport and Emirates is the largest airline, but not at group level.
Top-20 unserved routes: Eastern USA to the Caribbean
In the 12 months to August 2019, 25 million flew from the Eastern USA to the Caribbean, with six million million indirect. The top-20 unserved routes were mainly across San Juan, Punta Cana and Montego Bay; these saw almost 600,000 passengers. Could Cleveland – Montego Bay be a new route?
Bangkok-China: 17 million seats across 44 airports and 28 airlines
China is the number-one country to Thailand for tourists, with China-Bangkok seats up by 14 million since 2010. 69 routes operate between the two on an airport-level basis, involving 44 airports and 28 airlines. Bangkok-Guangzhou has 30 return-trips a day across nine airlines. Thai LCCs now dominate the airline rankings.
IndiGo makes history by being the first LCC to link India and Vietnam
IndiGo has begun a daily service from Kolkata to Hanoi, marking the first route an LCC has operated between India and Vietnam. The choice of Kolkata was from its geographic closeness to Southeast Asia while enabling connections from across India. Complementing Hanoi is Kolkata-Ho Chi Minh City, which starts on the 18th of this month.
Top-20 unserved routes: Australia-Southeast Asia
In 2018, the top-20 unserved routes between Australia-Southeast Asia saw 777,000 passengers. To/from Vietnam, almost six in ten travelling indirectly. With its coming A321XLRs, will VietJet Air start Brisbane-Ho Chi Minh City, a strong-growing market with 51,000 passengers and above-average fare/mile?
The dragon awakes: over 2.5 million flew China-Africa last year
Buoyed by rising trade and 1 million+ Chinese in Africa, over 2.5 million people flew between China and Africa in 2018. Guangzhou is the leading gateway, with one-third of passengers, while Egypt is the most-demanded country. 14 routes operate to the continent, but 8 in 10 passengers connect on the way. anna.aero explores this growing and exciting market.
Cypriot passenger numbers up 7.6% for first part of 2019; 10.94 million handled in 2018; Larnaca hits eight million barrier
Larnaca and Paphos airports handled 10.94 million passengers in 2018, with this having grown from a total of 7.0 million in 2010. Jonathan Ford looks at the recent developments occurring on the Mediterranean isle, including seasonality changes as it become a more year-round destination, plus its top markets.