Tag Archives: A320200

Vueling Airlines announces a new base in Rome, can Alitalia survive?

Vueling Airlines (Vueling.com) (Barcelona) is expanding operations in Italy (especially Rome).

The company will launch a new Rome (Fiumicino) base next summer season starting on April 2, 2014. Vueling will launch 22 new routes from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport throughout the summer. Vueling will base eight Airbus aircraft at the airport. The new destinations from Rome include Alicante, Amsterdam, Athens, Bari, Berlin, Brindisi, Brussels, Catania, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Genoa, Lamezia Terme, Munich, Mykonos, Palermo, Prague, Rhodes, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Split, Thira (Santorini) and Turin.

Vueling is also adding new routes from Florence for the summer season.

Can Alitalia survive this new assault by lower cost Vueling and Ryanair?

Vueling Airlines:

Iberia Express to add Madrid-Stockholm service, will start repainting its fleet

Iberia Express (Madrid) will add a new route linking the Madrid hub and Stockholm (Arlanda) on March 30, 2014. The new route will be operated with Airbus A320s two days a week per Airline Route.

In other news, taking the lead from its parent Iberia, Iberia Express will begin to repaint it fleet in this new Iberia-like color scheme. The airline issued this statement (translated from Spanish):

“Starting this week, we renew our brand to adapt to the new brand architecture of Iberia while maintaining our identity: dynamism, agility and proximity.

Besides changing the logo, we will replace our visual identity by creating a style based on freshness, flexibility and photographic style.

The incorporation of the new image will be performed gradually in all the graphic elements of the company.”

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com (all other images by Iberia Express). Iberia Express’ Airbus A320-214 EC-JSK (msn 2807) taxies at Palma de Mallorca in the special Tenerife – Salmes Cup 2013 promotional color scheme.

Iberia Express:

Have you seen the “new look” AirlinersGallery.com photo library website?

Finnair to add Pisa, Biarritz and Alanya for the 2014 summer season

Finnair‘s (Helsinki) new summer flight schedule, beginning on March 30, 2014, will offer flights to three new seasonal destinations including, Pisa, Biarritz and Alanya and will add additional frequencies to Düsseldorf, Zürich, Antalya and Vaasa. Flights to Xi´an in China continue on March 30 and to Hanoi in Vietnam on June 2.

This summer Finnair will operate three weekly flights to Alanya, Turkey from April to August. Finnair will also offer additional frequencies to its existing route to Antalya, Turkey. Flights to Turkey operate eight times per week and most of the flights are during the daytime. Finnair is the only airline to operate scheduled non-stop flights from Finland to Antalya and Alanya.

In order to serve the demand from the local business market, extra frequencies will also be added to Vaasa with an evening flight departing at 6:10 P.M. from Helsinki. With the addition of this flight Finnair will now operate six flights per day to Vaasa.

Extra frequencies are also being added to Copenhagen, Dubrovnik, Malaga, Paris, Rome and Tel Aviv from June to August. Popular destinations returning to the summer schedule include Toronto (Pearson), operating with upgraded Airbus A330 aircraft from June 1 to September 21, and Chicago (O’Hare) as a codeshare with Oneworld partner American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth).

Finnair will also open a new route to Tromsø for the 2014 winter season. The arctic city in the far north of Norway will be served from Helsinki three times per week from January 1 until March 28, 2014.

Finnair:

Belle Air of Albania ceases all operations

Belle Air (Tirana) ceased all operations yesterday (November 25). The private Albanian airline had launched operations on March 1, 2006 to seven airports in Italy. The company blamed the failure on the “general economic situation, the decline of the purchasing power, recession in the markets it operates as well as from the freezing for over 18 days of its bank accounts”.

It is unclear if this suspension also includes the operations of Belle Air Europe (Prishtina).

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-233 F-ORAD (msn 558) taxies past the camera at Antalya, Turkey.

Belle Air (Albania):

Route Map:

JetBlue now flies as far south as Lima, Peru (are Airbus A330s coming?)

JetBlue Airways (New York-JFK) is stretching its route map further south in Latin America suggesting the rumored Airbus A330s could be ordered in the future. Yesterday the fast-growing company began daily nonstop service from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood to Lima, Peru. The new route is part of the airline’s continuous expansion at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood airport, where JetBlue now offers nonstop flights to 25 destinations, three of which are in South America. Lima is JetBlue’s 81st destination.

JetBlue’s schedule between Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood (FLL) and Lima, Peru (LIM), effective November 21, 2013:

FLL to LIM:	LIM to FLL:
Depart – Arrive	Depart – Arrive
5:40 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.	12:30 a.m. – 6:19 a.m.

Flights operate daily effective November 21, 2013 (southbound) and November 22, 2013 (northbound) –

All times local.

JetBlue’s flights between Fort Lauderdale and Lima, Peru, will be operated with its Airbus A320 fleet.

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 WL N827JB (msn 5677) with Sharklets in the Blueberries tail design lands at Las Vegas.

JetBlue Airways:

Wizz Air to open its 19th base in Craiova, Romania

Wizz Air (Budapest) has announced its 19th base to be opened in Craiova, Romania in July 2014 with one based aircraft. A new Airbus A320 aircraft will be delivered in Craiova on July 23, 2014.

The new aircraft will support operations of a total of six Craiova routes and increase seat capacity in the first 12 months of based operations to over 260,000 seats. The airline believes this will also stimulate the local job market in aviation and tourism sectors as consumers will have access to more low cost routes. Wizz Air announced more weekly flights on the existing services to Milan Bergamo and London Luton, and announced four new routes to Barcelona, Bologna, Dortmund and Rome Ciampino, that will start operating from July 23, 2014.

WIZZ AIR’S NEW ROUTES FROM CRAIOVA:

To	Days	Starts	Fares from**
Bologna	Wed, Sun	23 July	RON 99
Rome Ciampino	Wed, Sun	23 July	RON 99
Dortmund	Tue, Thu, Sat	24 July	RON 129
Barcelona	Mon, Fri	25 July	RON 129

WIZZ AIR’S INCREASED FREQUENCIES FROM CRAIOVA:

To	Days per week
London Luton	from 2 to 4
Milan Bergamo	from 2 to 3

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 WL HA-LWV (msn 5660) with Sharklets lands at EuroAirport serving Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg.

Wizz Air:

Routes from the new base:

SAS and Apollo renew their relationship for 2014

Scandinavian Airlines-SAS (Stockholm) and travel organization Apollo are expanding their relationship for the next summer season. SAS issued this statement:

SAS and Apollo continue their long working relationship, signing an agreement for the summer season once again. The agreement is for 2014 and involves SAS flying Apollo’s customers from 17 different locations in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. It is worth SEK 910 million.

It has been confirmed that SAS and Apollo will continue their partnership, which goes back many years. Apollo has chosen SAS as their main external airline partner, alongside their own airline company Novair. Important factors for Apollo during the procurement process included the fact that SAS provides a flexible fleet and has safe and reliable production with good punctuality.

This partnership allows Apollo to offer summer departures from 17 different locations in Sweden, Norway and Denmark to more than 20 destinations in the world. The cities where flights will depart from in Sweden are Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

Scandinavian Airlines-SAS:

Nasair rebrands as Flynas with a new color scheme

Nasair (subsidiary of National Air Services) (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) has repainted this Airbus A320-200 with Sharklets in a new livery in Singapore. The new look rebrands the carrier as “Flynas” which trades on its website flynas.com URL address. The change was announced on November 13.

Copyright Photo: Kok Chwee K.C. Sim/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-214 VP-CXJ (msn 5716) appears in Singapore after emerging from the paint shop.

Flynas (Nasair):

Route Map:

Video (in Arabic):

Avianca Holdings reports adjusted net income of $99.1 million in the third quarter

Avianca Holdings S.A. (Avianca) (Bogota) for the third quarter of 2013 reported a consolidated adjusted net income of $99.1 million (all amounts in US dollars) excluding FX effects related to liabilities denominated in Colombian Pesos and on the gain on sale of assets. This represents an increase of 151.3% over the same period in 2012. Avianca´s adjusted net profit margin increased by 450 basis points reaching 8.5%. Including the aforementioned effects on net income, Avianca Holdings S.A. and its subsidiaries generated a net income of $39.9 million.

Operating revenue came in at $1.182 million, representing an increase of 9.6% over the same period of 2012. Said increase is the result of a rise of 9.4% in passenger income resulting from a growth of 3.5% in carried passengers. Cargo and other revenues grew by 10.9%. This increase is mainly driven by the cargo and loyalty program business unit.

Revenue per Seat Kilometer (RASK) grew 3.6% whereas the Cost per Available Seat Kilometer (CASK) in 3Q 2013, grew from USD$10.3 cents to USD$10.4 cents, an increase of 1,5% with respect to the same period in 2013.

EBITDAR (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and aircraft rentals) increased 23.1% with respect to 3Q 2012. The EBITDAR margin reached 20.1%.

Operating income (EBIT) for 3Q 2013 rose to $132.2 million, a 32.2% increase with respect to the $100.0 million reached in the same period in 2012. The operating margin in 3Q 2013 came in at 11.2%, increasing by 1.9pp with respect to 3Q 2012. Said rise was generated by an increase in operating revenue as well as by cost control measures.

Capacity, measured in ASKs (Available Seats per Kilometer) grew by 5.87% throughout 3Q 2013. This growth is driven by the expansion of Avianca’s operations in its core markets, the incorporation of larger aircraft as well as an improvement in operating cycles of 1.1%. Traffic measured in RPKs (Revenue Passenger Kilometer) grew 5.9%, resulting in a Load Factor of 82.0% representing an increase of 20 basis points with respect to the Load Factor of 3Q 2012.

In accordance with the fleet renovation and modernization plan, between July and September 2013, the company through its subsidiary Avianca S.A., took delivery of one Airbus A320 aircraft equipped with Sharklets (see above), one ATR 72-600 and one A330-200 freighter. As a result, Avianca Holdings S.A. subsidiaries ended the quarter with a consolidated operating fleet of 154 aircraft.

With these third quarter results, Avianca Holdings S.A. reports a consolidated net income for the last 9 months of $183.4 million, reaching accumulated net margin of 5.4% year to date.

During the remainder of 2013, the company expects to continue with a capacity expansion in its key markets, as a result the company forecasts ASK growth between 7% and 8% for the full year 2013 compared to 2012. In terms of passenger traffic, the company expects a sustained growth during the remainder of 2013. Passenger numbers are expected to increase between 9% and 10% for the full year 2013 and as a result the load factor should stand between 79% and 80%.

Avianca Holdings S.A. is an investment firm that serves as an instrument for the execution of the shareholders agreement which resulted in the integration process known as AviancaTaca and acts as the controlling company for the integrated operation of various airlines that operate both domestically and internationally: Aerovías del Continente Americano S.A. Avianca (Avianca), Tampa Cargo S.A. incorporated in Colombia, Aerolíneas Galápagos S.A. Aerogal incorporated in Ecuador, and the companies that make up the TACA Group: TACA Internacional Airlines S.A., incorporated in El Salvador; Líneas Aéreas Costarricenses S.A., LACSA, incorporated in Costa Rica, Trans American Airlines S.A. TACA Peru incorporated in Peru, Servicios Aéreos Nacionales S.A., SANSA incorporated in Costa Rica, Aerotaxis La Costeña S.A., incoporated in Nicaragua and Isleña de Inversiones C.A. de C.V. ISLEÑA incorporated in Honduras.

Copyright Photo: Gerd Beilfuss/AirlinersGallery.com. The pictured Airbus A320-233 D-AXAS (msn 5840) was handed over to Avianca (Colombia) as N603AV on November 5.

Avianca (Colombia):

Vueling to create a new base at Brussels with seven new routes

Vueling Airlines (Vueling.com) (Barcelona) will open a new base in Brussels in May 2014. The airline stated it would launch seven new routes from BRU to Ibiza, Lisbon, Oporto, Palma de Mallorca, Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Venice bringing the Brussels total to 11 routes.

Copyright Photo: Tony Storck/AirlinersGallery.com. Vueling’s Airbus A320-214 EC-LVP (msn 5587) with Sharklets in the “Linking Europe” special scheme arrives at London Heathrow.

Vueling Airlines: