Qatar Airways (Doha) has scheduled a number of Airbus A350-900 flights on the short Doha – Dubai route according to Airline Route during the month of March giving travelers a chance to sample the new type on a much shorter route. The A350-900 is currently in service between Doha and Frankfurt, the first route for the new type.
In other news, Qatar Airways Cargo is launching freighter service to EuroAirport serving the Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg area. The new route will operate weekly with Airbus A330-200F freighters on the Doha-Brussels-EuroAirport (Basel)-Doha route.
Copyright Photo: Bernhard Ross/AirlinersGallery.com. Captured in beautiful light, newly-delivered Airbus A350-941 A7-ALA (msn 006) is seen at its first destination, Frankfurt. A7-ALA was handed over to the carrier on December 22 and entered service on the route on January 15.
Airberlin (airberlin.com) (Berlin) is continuing to optimize its route network with the expansion of its services to the important focus market of Italy at the beginning of the summer schedule. Starting March 29, 2015, Airberlin will operate a new daily service from Stuttgart to Rome as well as three flights a day from Stuttgart to Milan (Linate) starting in May 2015. In addition, starting in May Airberlin will expand its service on the Stuttgart to Venice route to include three new daily flights.
The number of flights from Dusseldorf to Rome is also being increased: starting March 29, Airberlin will offer six new flights from Monday to Friday as well as two flights on Sundays. Several improvements to the departure times of existing services complete the optimization of the flight program from Germany to Italy. With up to ten additional flights per week compared to last year, Airberlin will operate a total of 260 flights a week from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to Italy during summer 2015.
The new flights will be integrated in the codeshare agreement with Alitalia (3rd) (Rome) and will carry Alitalia flight numbers. All of Airberlinโs and Alitalia’s direct flights between Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been operated as codeshare flights since the start of the 2014/2015 winter schedule.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-214 D-ABFC (msn 4161) lands at EuroAirport serving the Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg area.
EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) is continuing itโs ever-expanding route map by announcing 19 new routes for the summer season of 2015.
The new routes were released on the carrierโs website. They are as follows:
Amsterdam โ Corfu (June 30) twice weekly
Amsterdam โ Ibiza (June 30) three times weekly
Amsterdam โ Palermo (June 29) twice weekly
Bristol โ Bilbao (April 19) twice weekly
Bristol โ Isle of Man (April 19) four times weekly
Bristol โ Zakinthos (May 13) once weekly
Hamburg โ Alicante (March 30) twice weekly
Hamburg โ Bologna (March 29) three times weekly
Hamburg โ Irakleion (June 27) twice weekly
Hamburg โ Paris Orly (March 29) once daily
Hamburg โ Pisa (March 30) twice weekly
Hamburg โ Thessaloniki (June 29) twice weekly
Lisbon โ Ponta Delgada (March 29) three times weekly
London Luton โ Split (June 16) three times weekly
Manchester โ Kefalonia (June 16) twice weekly
Manchester โ Split (June 17) twice weekly
Newcastle โ Corfu (June 7) once weekly
Newcastle โ Rhodes (June 4) once weekly
Newcastle โ Split (June 2) twice weekly
Sophie Dekkers, easyJetโs UK Director, said:
โWeโre pleased to be continuing our growth with additional new routes for next summer placed on sale today.โ
โThis underlines our commitment to both leisure and business passengers across the UK, making it easy and affordable for them to connect to a choice of summer destinations and we expect our new routes to be especially popular.โ
Reported by Assistant Editor Oliver Wilcock from Manchester.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EZGA (msn 4427) lands at EuroAirport serving Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg..
Air France (Paris) will combine its short-haul, point-to-point operations under the HOP! Air France brand starting in the summer of 2015. Air France is reorganizing it short haul operations due to the increased competition for other low-cost airlines and other forms of travel. The airline issued this statement:
The organization proposal for the Air France Group’s short-haul activity, bringing together Air France’s point-to-point activity and HOP!, was presented this during the Air France Works Council meeting.
This proposal is based on the recommendations of a group of experts submitted to Frรฉdรฉric Gagey on June 30: for each market need there must be a corresponding and adapted commercial offer and economic model, whether in terms of costs or revenue.
Starting from the summer season 2015, the short-haul activity will be operated by HOP! Air France. Its objective will be to quickly generate value for the Group, and recover profitability on the short-haul market within three years.
A new commercial offer will be introduced to the market during the first quarter of 2015, under the brand name HOP! with the backing of Air France .
This project includes the implementation of a new, simplified structure.
Presented by Lionel Guรฉrin, Chairman and CEO of HOP!, tasked with implementing the new HOP! Air France activity, it will bring together the Air France Point to Point teams from Paray Vieille Poste and the HOP! teams from Rungis at a single center in Montreuil, close to the French market sales agents. There will be no modification, transfer of employment contracts, or transfer of the teams based at Roissy or elsewhere in France.
This new structure will come into effect at the beginning of 2015, for operational implementation from the summer 2015 season onwards.
Frรฉdรฉric Gagey, Air France Chairman and CEO, added: “The short-haul activity is in competition with trains, cars, and low-cost airlines. We need to restructure our company to be even more responsive, market-oriented and close to our customers. HOP! Air France provides a response adapted to the specific characteristics of the short-haul carrier activity and the travel needs of our customers. I am counting on the efforts of all staff to achieve the ambitious targets for this business”.
The new HOP! Air France will operate 800 flights a day.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Embraer ERJ 170-100STD F-HBXB (msn 17000250) arrives at EuroAirport serving the Base, Mulhouse and Freiburg area.
Wizz Air (Budapest) has announced further expansion in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The airline will deploy one new Airbus A320 aircraft in Tuzla in June 2015 when Tuzla will become Wizz Airโs 19th base. For the Tuzla base, the airline announced new routes to Memmingen (near Munich) and Torp (near Oslo), commencing on June 26, 2015, as well as to Hahn (near Frankfurt) and Skavsta (near Stockholm) commencing on June 28, 2015.
With these new services Wizz Air is now offering a total of 9 routes to 5 countries from Tuzla.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 HA-LWD (msn 4351) lands at EuroAirport.
Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it will open its second Danish base (70 in total) at Copenhagen in March 2015 with up to four based Boeing 737-800 aircraft and starting with three new routes to London, Milan and Warsaw, with an additional 10 more new routes to be announced in the New Year. Ryanair will base its first Boeing 737-800 in Copenhagen from March and 3 more units later in 2015.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8AS EI-DAD (msn 33544) lands at the EuroAirport.
Brussels Airlines (Brussels) next summer season is adding six new destinations; Billund (starting on March 29), Calvi (May 30), Dubrovnik (April 25), Lourdes (May 11), Olbia (May 27) and St. Petersburg (March 30).
The airline issued this statement:
Brussels Airlines expands its network for summer 2015, adding no less than six new destinations: St. Petersburg, Dubrovnik, Calvi, Lourdes, Olbia and Billund.
The flight frequencies of Tel Aviv and Malta will be increased.
New Destinations
As from March 29, Brussels Airlines starts flights to Billund, in the Danish Jutland region. The airline will operate two daily flights, with a schedule that is convenient to both business travelers and tourists, and which allows connections to other destinations in Europe, Africa and the States.
Brussels Airlines also reinforces its Southern European flight offer, by adding Dubrovnik to its network, the gateway to the magnificent Croatian coast and islands. Dubrovnik will be served twice a week. Weekly flights to Calvi (Corsica) and Olbia (Sardinia) will also be added to the summer timetable.
The airport of Lourdes will be served twice per week (Monday and Friday) between May 11 and September 25. With its Lourdes service, Brussels Airlines offers an alternative travel solution to the thousands of pilgrims visiting the French town.
Brussels Airlines adds St Petersburg to its network, a cultural top destination which wasnโt connected to a Belgian airport yet. The city of the Tsars, known for its Hermitage museum, is served three times per week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday).
More flights to existing destinations
The flight offer to Malta, which was launched successfully last summer, returns in 2015 with more flight frequencies. Because of the large demand, Brussels Airlines will set course for Malta twice per week (Thursday and Sunday) between April and October.
More flights are also added between Brussels Airport and Tel Aviv. Starting next summer season, the destination will be served twice daily (morning and afternoon/night flight).
Seville, the capital of Andalucรญa, will be operated four instead of three times per week and Faro, the gateway to the Algarve, will be served six instead of five times per week.
Brussels Airlines continues its flights to other popular summer destinations next summer, including Nice, Malaga, Barcelona, Florence, Alicante, Marrakech, Agadir, Athens, Naples, Porto, Palermo, Catania, Venice or one of the many other European destinations.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 OO-SSN (msn 1963) lands at EuroAirport.
One of the best airline TV commercials (SN Brussels Airlines):
Aigle Azur (2nd) (Paris-Orly) is dropping the Paris (Orly)-Moscow (Vnukovo) route on October 26 per Airline Route. The route was an important connecting route with partner Transaero Airlines (Moscow) (see map below).
Since July 2012, Aigle Azur has been serving the Paris (Orly)-Moscow (Vnukovo) route in partnership with Transaero Airlines.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-214 F-HBIB (msn 3289) touches down at EuroAirport serving the Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg area.
Airberlin (Berlin-Tegel) and Alitalia (2nd) (Rome) have signed an extensive codeshare agreement. The agreement covers allย 412 weekly nonstop flights between Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy for this winter season.ย Etihad Airways has a 29.21 percent stake in Airberlin and a 49 percent stake in the revamped Alitalia.
Airberlin has issued this statement:
Airberlin, Germanyโs second largest airline and Alitalia, Italyโs leading carrier, have signed a codeshare agreement to offer more choice and greater convenience to their guests. All of Airberlinโs and Alitaliaโs 412 weekly nonstop flights between Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy will be codeshare flights effective this winter season.
As of October 26, Airberlinโs three daily flights from Dusseldorf and double daily flights from Berlin-Tegel will operate into Milan-Linate instead of Malpensa. Furthermore, the three daily flights from Vienna operated by Niki (Vienna), the Austrian airline which is part of the Airberlin group, will be directed to Linate as well.
The partners also agreed on selective codeshares beyond their home hubs. For instance Alitalia will place its โAZโ code on some of Airberlinโs domestic flights such as from Munich to Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin. At the same time Airberlin will place its โABโ code on selected domestic and international Alitalia flights via Rome and Milan-Linate to, for example, Naples, Brindisi, Reggio Calabria, Alghero, Cairo or Malta as well as on some of Alitaliaโs long haul flights to South America such as Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. All codeshare flights will be published in the reservation systems by October 20, 2014 for flights commencing October 26, 2014. Codesharing on Alitaliaโs long-haul connections will commence after regulatory approval.
Besides the new codeshare services and more convenient flight connections, Airberlin and Alitalia have signed a frequent flyer agreement which allows their guests to earn and redeem bonus miles on the entire route network of both airlines on a reciprocal basis for flights starting on or after November 1, 2014.
The cooperation of Airberlin and Alitalia is a result of long-term planning over the last couple of years and also of more liberal alliance governance which permits partnerships across alliances borders. Both, Airberlin and Alitalia will remain members of oneworldยฎ and Skyteam respectively. Further synergies will arise from optimized aircraft rotation and avoidance of expensive overnight aircraft stops.
Top Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airberlin’sย Airbus A320-214 D-ABFK (msn 4433) in the special Fan Force One Bitburger touches down in Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg (EuroAirport).
SunExpress Airlines (Antalya) will start five new routes from Antalya for the summer season of 2015. The new routes include Amsterdam (three days a week effective April 27, 2015), Geneva (weekly, March 28), Klagenfurt (weekly, May 13), Luxembourg (weekly, April 3) and Strasberg (weekly, April 24) per Airline Route.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com.ย SunExpress Airlines’ Boeing 737-86Q WL TC-SUU (msn 30274) lands at Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg.
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