Tag Archives: A319111

EasyJet to offer Southend-Newquay domestic flights

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (UK) (London-Luton) has announced today that it will be further expanding its routes from London Southend Airport with a new domestic service to Newquay (Cornwall) starting on June 20, 2013.

The new three times weekly service which depart on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Copyright Photo: Terry Wade. Airbus A319-111 G-EZIO (msn 2512) in the special “Supporting UNICEF” color scheme arrives at London (Gatwick).

EasyJet (UK):

EasyJet to go to allocated seating tomorrow

EasyJet (UK) (London-Luton) is shifting away from its open seating policy copied from pioner LCC Southwest Airlines (Dallas). Instead the low-fare airline will change to allocated seating starting tomorrow. The company has issued the following statement:

EasyJet will introduce allocated seating on all of its flights – typically over 1000 a day – from November 27, 2012. The airline trialled allocated seating in April 2012 with nearly 2 million passengers flying on 12,500 allocated seating flights. In response to the trial’s success, the airline took the decision to roll out allocated seating across the whole network.

EasyJet trialled allocated seating because passenger research showed that the boarding process could be a source of stress for some customers and in some case, a barrier to them flying with EasyJet. The key tests of the trial were to improve passenger satisfaction without impacting EasyJet’s ability to deliver industry leading punctuality – all of which were achieved on trial flights.

Research among passengers who have travelled on an EasyJet allocated seating flight has shown that 71% think allocated seating is better due to the improved boarding experience, while over 60% said that they are more likely to fly with EasyJet in the future as a result.

Some interesting facts also emerged from the trial flights:

On shorter journeys seat 6A was the best seller while on longer flights it was 1A
On shorter journeys seat 16B was the least popular while it was 19B on longer flights
Passengers preferred seats on the left hand side of the plane with seats A, B and C out selling D, E and F

All passengers will be allocated a seat for free on EasyJet’s flights but will have the choice of selecting a specific seat for a fee when they book flights, or adding them later to guarantee where they’ll be sitting. There are three bands of pricing, dependent on the seat selected:

£12 for extra leg room
£8 for up front seats (emergency exits, row 2-5 on A319 or 2-6 on A320)
£3 for any other seat

EasyJet trialled allocated seating during the summer season, the busiest time of year, to stress test the new systems and procedures. The airline decided to roll out the system in the winter season when fewer people travel to ensure a smooth transition. The trial flights showed that allocated seating can be delivered at the same time as maintaining strong levels of on time performance and without adding cost.

EasyJet (UK):

Frontier Airlines adds the first jet service at Shenandoah Valley, Virginia today

Frontier Airlines (2nd) (Denver) today (November 20) expands its service from Orlando International Airport, Fla. (MCO) with the launch of nonstop service to Shenandoah Valley, Va. (SHD). Frontier Airlines is the only low-fare carrier at the airport, the first jet service at the airport, and the only airline offering nonstop service from the Shenandoah Valley to Orlando.

Following is the schedule for Frontier’s Shenandoah service:

Orlando-Shenandoah (beginning Nov. 20, 2012)

Route

Departs

Arrives

Frequency

Aircraft

MCO-SHD

7:30 a.m.

9:25 a.m.

Tues/Thurs

A319

SHD-MCO

10:05 a.m.

12:10 p.m.

Tues/Thurs

A319

MCO-SHD

7:00 a.m.

8:55 a.m.

Sun

A319

SHD-MCO

9:35 a.m.

11:40 a.m.

Sun

A319

The new service will operate on 138-seat Airbus A319 aircraft.

Frontier Airlines on the same day also expanded its service from Orlando, Florida (MCO) with the launch of nonstop service to Columbia, Missouri (COU). This is the only nonstop service from Columbia to Florida, and the only low-fare carrier service to Mid-Missouri.

Following is the schedule for Frontier’s Columbia service:

Orlando-Columbia (beginning Nov. 20, 2012)

Route	Departs	Arrives	Frequency	Aircraft
MCO-COU	1:50 p.m.	3:35 p.m.	Tues	A319
COU-MCO	4:15 p.m.	7:35 p.m.	Tues	A319
MCO-COU	8:00 a.m.	9:45 a.m.	Sat	A319
COU-MCO	10:25 a.m.	1:45 p.m.	Sat	A319

The new service will operate on 138-seat Airbus A319 aircraft.

Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum. Airbus Airbus A319-111 N929FR (msn 2240) with Larry, the Lynx, on the tail, departs from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Frontier Airlines:

Route Map: Frontier is adopting the Allegiant Air model for serving underserved smaller markets to vacation centers. Frontier is adding more leisure and vacation routes and also from these smaller underserved markets.

Please click on the map to expand.

EasyJet supports UNICEF with a new Airbus A319 logojet

EasyJet (UK) (London-Luton) is a big supporter of UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund. According to Wikipedia, UNICEF was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. In 1954, UNICEF became a permanent part of theUnited Nations System.

The company previously issued this statement of its support of UNICEF and its “Change for Good” program:

In 2012 easyJet formed a partnership with UNICEF the world’s leading organization for children.

The partnership runs across easyJet’s pan-European network during the peak summer and winter seasons, reaching out to the airline’s 55 million passengers who travel on the airlines’ 200 aircraft on over 600 routes across 30 countries.

The program branded Change for Good offers all our customers the chance to support the world’s children simply by dropping their spare change into specially designed pouches, which are handed out by easyJet’s crew during flights.

The money raised through donations from easyJet customers will fund UNICEF’s life-saving work for children across the world, such as vaccinating children at risk from diseases such as measles and polio or providing mosquito nets to prevent malaria.

The new partnership, which will operate for an initial three year period, will form part of UNICEF’s global Change for Good initiative, which has raised millions of pounds for the world’s most vulnerable children through partnerships with leading airlines across the globe.

For more information about UNICEF visit: http://www.unicef.org.uk/

Donate to UNICEF’s work for children: http://www.unicef.org.uk/Donate/Donate-Now/

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. The pictured Airbus A319-111 registered as G-EZIO (msn 2512) was rolled out of the paint shop this morning (November 18) at Southend Airport near London in this special color scheme.

EasyJet (UK):

Hot New Photos:

Frontier to drop Allentown, arrives in Mesa, Arizona

Frontier Airlines (2nd) (Denver) has announced it will suspend its nonstop service between Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE), in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Orlando International Airport (MCO) effective on April 7, 2013. Flights after April 7, 2013, will be removed from the carrier’s schedule on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012.

“Frontier is committed to providing its customers with convenient, low-fare service and relies heavily on airports keeping their costs competitive,” said Greg Aretakis, Frontier’s vice president, network and revenue. “Unfortunately, increasing fuel and other operating costs at Lehigh Valley International Airport have made it impossible to provide the low fares customers demand and, ultimately, we made the business decision to suspend our service.”

ABE serves the Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton (hence the ABE code) in eastern Pennsylvania.

In other news, Frontier Airlines yesterday (November 15) launched nonstop service from its hometown hub in Denver, Colorado (DEN) to Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz. (AZA) with daily nonstop service. This addition to Frontier’s long-standing service to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport provides East Valley customers convenient access to Denver with easy connections to 43 destinations through Denver.

Following is the schedule for Frontier’s Phoenix-Mesa service:

Denver-Phoenix-Mesa (beginning Nov. 15, 2012)

Route

Departs

Arrives

Frequency

Aircraft

DEN-AZA

1:10 p.m.

3:03 p.m.

Daily

A319

AZA-DEN

3:45 p.m.

5:29 p.m.

Daily

A319

The new service will operate on 138-seat Airbus A319 aircraft.

Frontier Airlines:

IAG to drastically downsize Iberia in order to return it to profitability

International Airlines Group-IAG (London), the holding company for both British Airways (London) and Iberia (Madrid) has announced drastic plans to downsize Iberia in order to return the airline to profitability. IAG has also announced it will proceed to acquire a controlling interest in lower-cost Vueling Airlines (Barcelona).

The following statement was issued today:

A comprehensive plan to save Iberia after record losses and return it to profitability was announced today by International Airlines Group (IAG). Iberia’s transformation plan will introduce permanent structural change across all areas of the business with the aim of stemming losses and returning the Spanish airline to profitability.

Transformation Plan Highlights:

Stem Iberia’s cash losses by mid-2013.
Turnaround in profitability of at least €600 million from 2012 levels to align Iberia with IAG’s target return on capital of 12 per cent by 2015.
Network capacity cut by 15 per cent in 2013 to focus on profitable routes.
Downsizing its fleet by 25 aircraft – five long haul and 20 short haul.
Reduction of 4,500 jobs to safeguard around 15,500 posts across the airline. This is in line with capacity cuts and improved productivity across the airline.
New commercial initiatives to boost unit revenues including increased ancillary sales and website redesign.
Discontinue non-profitable third party maintenance and retain profitable ground handling services outside Madrid.
The transformation will be funded from Iberia’s internal resources

In the short term the transformation will focus on stemming the losses and creating a profitable route network. This will include suspending loss making routes and frequencies and ensuring there is effective feed for profitable long haul flights.

As well as halting Iberia’s financial decline we will establish a viable business that can grow profitably in the long term. Short and medium haul operations will be transformed to compete effectively with low cost carriers who have successfully established themselves in Iberia’s home market. The plan will see comprehensive productivity improvements and the introduction of permanent salary adjustments to achieve a competitive and flexible cost base.

Iberia has many advantages. It has an excellent geographical position to serve Latin America, along with historical ties; a strong brand and the ability to grow long term at it hub.

A deadline of January 31, 2013 has been set to reach agreement with the unions. If agreement is not reached, deeper cuts and a more radical reduction in the size and scale of Iberia’s operations will take place to secure the natural long haul traffic flows at Madrid and safeguard the company’s future.

Rafael Sánchez-Lozano, Iberia’s chief executive, said: “Iberia is in fight for survival. It is unprofitable in all its markets. We have to take tough decisions now to save the company and return it to profitability. Unless we take radical action to introduce permanent structural change the future for the airline is bleak. However this plan gives us a platform to turn the business around and grow.

“The Spanish and European economic crisis has impacted on Iberia, but its problems are systemic and pre-date the country’s current difficulties. The company is burning €1.7 million every day. Iberia has to modernise and adapt to the new competitive environment as its cost base is significantly higher than its main competitors in Spain and Latin America.”

“Time is not on our side. We have set a deadline of January 31, 2013 to reach agreement with our trade unions. We enter those negotiations in good faith. If we do not reach consensus we will have to take more radical action which will lead to greater reductions in capacity and jobs”.

Willie Walsh, IAG’s chief executive said: “We want Iberia to be strong and successful. For too long the narrow self interest of the few has damaged the long term future for the many. We will not hesitate to take the necessary steps to protect the interests of our shareholders, our customers and our employees.

“This turnaround plan is critical for Iberia and for the future of Spain. A strong and profitable Iberia can create jobs and boost tourism, a key driver in Spain’s economic recovery”.

Copyright Photo: Paul Denton. Iberia will look drastically different in 2013 with many European routes like Madrid-Geneva being dropped or replaced by lower cost carriers. Iberia’s Airbus A319-111 EC-HGS (msn 1180) taxies at GVA.

Iberia:

Frontier Airlines to expand service at Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Frontier Airlines (2nd) (Denver) has announced it will expand on its existing annual summer seasonal nonstop service between Denver, Colorado (DEN) and Jackson Hole, Wyoming (JAC) with the addition of winter season flying beginning February 13, 2013. The Denver-based carrier will operate two weekly flights through April 7, 2013. Frontier’s summer season service in Jackson Hole will resume May 2013.

Following is the schedule for Frontier’s Jackson Hole service:

Denver-Jackson Hole (beginning Feb. 13, 2013)

Route

Departs

Arrives

Frequency

Aircraft

DEN-JAC

12:25 p.m.

1:55 p.m.

Wed/Sun

A319

JAC-DEN

2:35 p.m.

4:05 p.m.

Wed/Sun

A319

Frontier’s Jackson Hole service operates on 138-seat Airbus A319 aircraft.

Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum. Airbus A319-111 N919FR (msn 1980) departs from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL).

Frontier Airlines:

easyJet to launch 10 new routes from London’s airports in 2013

easyJet (UK) (London-Luton) has announced today that it will be introducing ten new routes from the summer of 2013 across the four London airports it operates from – London Gatwick, London Luton, London Stansted and London Southend.

The Russian capital Moscow, Greek city Kalamata, along with the Greek island of Mykonos and Spanish city of Santiago join other European city break favorites Sofia, Berlin and Krakow as well as the Sardinian resort of Olbia. The further afield destinations Sharm El Sheikh and Marrakech will also feature from additional easyJet London bases.

The route expansion means that more than 316,000 affordable seats have been added to easyJet’s 2013 Summer schedule which now extends to a total of 340 routes from the UK.

Year-round flights from London Stansted to Sharm el Sheik, Marrakech and Sofia are available from just £86.99 and £30.99 respectively and will significantly strengthen and expand the range of destinations on offer from London Stansted Airport.

New summer routes for London Luton Airport include Greek island Mykonos and Sardinian treasure Olbia, while the German city of Berlin and Polish city of Krakow will now fly year-round from London Southend Airport with fares starting from £22.99*. The new routes at Southend will be served by an additional aircraft at the airport.

The airline has today announced expansion plans which will see the airline begin flying to the popular Greek resort of Mykonos and the historic Sardinian resort of Olbia, from the summer of 2013 from Luton Airport.

EasyJet will fly to the Greek resort of Mykonos twice a week from London Luton Airport with fares starting from as little as £32.99* and the inaugural flight taking off on April 26, 2013.

Mykonos is a Greek island which forms part of the Cyclades and lies between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. A sun worshipper’s paradise, the island is also awash with cultural heritage with Petros the Pelican and the Mykonos Windmills being two of the most recognized landmarks of Mykonos.

The new route to Olbia will operate twice a week with fares starting from £30.99* and inaugural flights taking off from May 15, 2013. Olbia is the gateway to the beautiful white beaches of the northeast Sardinian coast and the glittering Costa Smeralda. Once a little fishing village, it has grown to become Sardinia’s busiest ferry port and a haven for food lovers.

In other news, easyJet, announced today that it will reach the landmark of flying more than 100 routes from London Gatwick Airport.

The airline also revealed last week that it has been successfully awarded the rights to fly between London Gatwick – easyJet’s largest base, and Moscow – a key business and leisure destination with fares starting from as little as £67.00*. EasyJet will operate an Airbus A320 on two services a day between London Gatwick and Moscow Domodedovo airport and expects to fly over 230,000 passengers in its first year of operations alone with tickets on sale in the coming months. Flights will start from next Spring.

EasyJet’s Gatwick route expansion continues with the launch of flights between London Gatwick and Kalamata in Greece, as well as the Spanish city of Santiago from the summer of 2013. The airline will fly to Kalamata twice a week, with fares starting from £34.99*. This is easyJet’s first time flying to the Greek city and the inaugural flight will take off from London Gatwick on July 6, 2012. EasyJet’s new route to the historic Spanish city of Santiago will see the airline flying to the beautiful city three times a week, with fares starting from £32.99* and the inaugural flight departs on June 18, 2013.

* one way, including taxes based on two people travelling on the same booking.

Copyright Photo: Arnd Wolf. Airbus A319-111 G-EZBR (msn 3088) taxies past the camera at Salzburg, Austria. The airliner wears the special “Airbus 100” logo to commemorate the delivery of the 100th Airbus aircraft.

easyJet (UK):

The first Airbus A319 for Allegiant Air is painted, net income of $16.9 million in the 3Q

Allegiant Air‘s (Las Vegas) first Airbus A319 has been painted at Southend awaiting delivery.

In other news, the low-fare airline has cancelled all plans to operate Monterey-Honolulu service according to Airline Route.

On the financial side, the parent company issued the following statement for the third quarter:

Allegiant Travel Company has reported the following financial results for the third quarter 2012 as well as comparisons to prior year equivalents:

Unaudited	3Q12	3Q11	Change
Total operating revenue (millions)	$216.9	$191.5	13.2%
Operating income (millions)	$28.7	$16.7	71.8%
Operating margin	13.3%	8.7%	4.5pp
EBITDA (millions)	$44.6	$27.5	62.3%
EBITDA margin	20.6%	14.4%	6.2pp
Net income (millions)	$16.9	$9.5	78.6%
Diluted earnings per share	$0.87	$0.49	77.6%

“We are very proud to report our 39^th consecutive profitable quarter,” stated Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Allegiant Travel Company. “I`d like to thank our Team Members for their great efforts and contributions to another successful quarter. The third quarter is typically our weakest quarter of the year, and yet we were able to produce the highest third quarter earnings per share in the company`s history. This is particularly noteworthy to have done this in a quarter with the average oil price at $92 per barrel and in a demand environment that has been slightly weaker than historical norms.”

Notable company highlights

Entered into a lease agreement with GECAS for nine Airbus A319 aircraft on August 27
Announced intention to acquire ten Airbus A319 aircraft from Cebu Pacific Air on July 30
Announced service to Honolulu from Boise, Idaho, Phoenix and Spokane, Wash. to begin in early February 2013
Announced the formation of Allegiant Systems, a joint venture with AvIntel and Lixar IT to develop and market a wide variety of mobile technology services to the commercial aviation industry
As of October 23, we have converted 40 MD-80s to 166 seat aircraft
Announced fifteen routes, in addition to Hawaii, expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2012

Revenue performance

Average fare – ancillary air-related revenue per passenger has grown to $37.05 in the third quarter 2012, a $4.66 increase since the first quarter 2012
September average fare – ancillary air-related revenue per passenger has grown to $38.08, a $5.48 increase since March 2012
11^th consecutive quarter of year over year increases in total average fare

	3Q12	3Q11	Change
Scheduled Service:
Average fare – scheduled service	$82.30	$84.94	(3.1)%
Average fare – ancillary air-related charges	$37.05	$30.38	22.0%
Average fare – ancillary third party products	$5.59	$5.31	5.3%
Average fare – total	$124.94	$120.63	3.6%
Scheduled service passenger revenue per ASM (PRASM) (cents)	7.89	8.58	(8.0)%
Total scheduled service revenue* per ASM (TRASM) (cents)	11.98	12.19	(1.7)%
Load factor	90.1%	92.2%	(2.1)pp
Passengers (millions)	1.6	1.5	9.4%
Average passengers per departure	143	136	5.1%

* Total scheduled service revenue includes scheduled service, ancillary air-related, and ancillary third party revenue.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Formerly operated by easyJet (Switzerland), Airbus A319-111 HB-JZK (msn 2319) is the first A319 for Allegiant Air. It is pictured after painting at a Southend, near London. The airframe will become N301NV on delivery.

Hot New Photos:

Allegiant Air:

easyJet adds six new routes from Edinburgh

easyJet (UK) (London-Luton) has announced six new routes from Edinburgh which will result in the creation of around 160 new jobs along with an estimated 500 indirect jobs in Scotland. The low-fare airline is also Increasing the number of based aircraft from five to seven.

The six new routes, which take the total number easyJet serves to 30, have been decided following a thorough consultation with VisitScotland, Marketing Edinburgh and the Scottish business community. Key German destinations Berlin and Hamburg will be served alongside popular city breaks such as Prague, Copenhagen, Reykjavik and Dubrovnik which will be available on the new schedule.

easyJet will be the only airline to operate flights between Edinburgh and Berlin and will add competition on the Prague route. This will be the first time Iceland will be served all year around from Edinburgh.

The first Airbus A319 is scheduled to arrive on December 2, 2012 with the second plane commencing operations in March 2013.

In the 12 months to end June 2012, easyJet carried over 4.5 million passengers across its four Scottish airports – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness. easyJet will now serve 30 destinations in and out of Edinburgh and offers up to 68 flights a day between Scotland and London.

Current destinations from Edinburgh include key business routes to London, where easyJet flies to London Gatwick, London Stansted and London Luton as part of its commitment to keep the Scottish business community connected to London. Popular leisure routes to Dalaman, Naples, Athens, Tenerife and Grenoble have also been introduced in the past 12 months.

easyJet (UK):