20 | INDUSTRY TRAVEL NEWS
NEW FLIGHTS
Budget airline AnadoluJet has started its first international route linking the capital cities of Turkey and Syria three times a week. This is the first service between the two cities since Swissair dropped the route in 1983. Bahrain Air has launched two routes to Bangladesh. Flights to Dhaka from Bahrain will operate three times a week. The airline will also fly from Bahrain to the port city of Chittagong four times a week. Bulgaria Air and tour operator Kur-Club have kick- started the first flights of Bulgaria’s summer season. The chartered flights are from Frankfurt and Düsseldorf in Germany to Varna on the Black Sea Coast. Air Europa will fly from Madrid, Spain, to Miami, Florida, four times a week. The airline now competes with two “oneworld” partners American Airlines and Iberia, which already service this route daily. China Eastern has launched three weekly flights from Nanjing, China, to Singapore. Singapore is, along with Lufthansa’s service from Frankfurt, the only destination outside East Asia to be served from Nanjing. Hainan Airlines has started twice-weekly services from Hangzhou, China, to Bangkok. Hainan also serves Bangkok from Haikou. Philippine Airlines has added a third Australian destination to its network, adding flights via Brisbane to its Manila to Sydney route. American Airlines is now serving Haiti from its San Juan base in Puerto Rico. The Caribbean city will be operated under AA’s American Eagle brand. V Australia, the long haul arm of the Virgin Blue Group, has launched flights to South Africa, from Melbourne to Johannesburg. EasyJet has added two more routes from its Rome Fiumicino base in Italy. The four-weekly services to Nice, France, will rise to six times a week in the summer season. Malta is also set to get daily flights from Rome, competing with Alitalia’s daily and Air Malta’s eight-weekly flights. Germania has started flying from Germany to Beirut, Lebanon, with twice-weekly flights from Berlin Tegel. The Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus has launched daily flights between Istanbul Sabiha Gökçeuuyuin and Paris Orly in France.
www.opp.org.uk | APRIL 2010
MEXICO
Mexico tops US ‘hotspot’ list for first time
Mexico has climbed to the top of US travel agents’ international ‘hotspot’ list for the first time, as Americans seek cheaper holiday destinations. The country was named top location
for 2010 by 15.0% of members of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), knocking Italy off the top spot. The UK came in second with 10.5%
of votes, followed by France (9.7%), Italy (9.4%) and the Caribbean (8%). The countries in the top five had not changed in the last five years but Italy had been number one since 2006. “Mexico is a more economical choice,”
said ASTA’s director of research, Melissa Teates. “It has always been in the top five, but perhaps the concept of ‘hotspots’ had some agents overlooking it since it is a regular destination. “The Mayan Riviera portion of Cancun has seen a surge in popularity. In 2006,
AIR TRAVEL
Asia leads global travel recovery
Demand for international air travel increased by 6.4% year-on-year in January as the global economy recovered, according to new data. Research from International Air
Transport Association (IATA) showed air travel was up 8.6% compared to the market low in February 2009. However, demand is still 2% off peak levels of early 2008. “Demand is moving in the right
direction,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO. “We can start to see the future with some cautious optimism, but better volumes
Economy choice | Mexico’s value and proximity to the US have helped tourism
only Cancun made the list of top cities [but] now Mayan Riviera and Puerto Vallarta make the top ten cities as well.”
Economical choice
Mexico’s economical but developed holiday infrastructure has made it an attractive destination for families on a budget, said Stephen Drechsler, executive VP of consultancy Panorama International.
do not necessarily mean better profits. Passenger yields are still 15% below peak. And we expect 2010 losses to be $5.6 billion.”
Asian growth
Growing demand in Asia is leading the air travel recovery, mirroring the global economy as a whole. Asia- Pacific carriers recorded 31% of global growth and a 6.5% increase in demand compared to the previous year. Air travel growth was fastest in the
Middle East, where carriers did not see a fall during the recession and where demand increased to 23.6% in January. Latin American carriers also saw demand grow by 11% while African companies saw a 6% increase. Carriers in North America and
Europe saw demand increase by 2.1% and 3.1%, respectively, and demand
Soaring figures | Asia’s rise in air travel in 2009 represented 31% of global growth
remains 4-6% below peak levels in both regions. “This reflects the jobless recovery from the recession in which consumers are focused on paying down debt,” said IATA’s report.
“Practical considerations coupled
with the current economic climate drive people to places like Mexico, Central America or The Caribbean. However, Central America remains largely undeveloped, and the Caribbean is a very expensive alternative, with substantial flight cutbacks making it logistically more complicated to visit many places, and is much less family- oriented than Mexico.”
WORLD’S BIGGEST AIRPORT
The first section of what is expected to become the
world’s largest airport is due to open in Dubai later this year. Al Maktoum International Airport will open on June 27 and when finished, is expected to have a passenger capacity of between120 million and 150 million a year. The emirate expects arrivals to reach 140 million a year by 2025.
MALAGA AIRPORT OPENS
The number of passengers coming through Malaga
airport in Spain is set to double following the opening of a new terminal. The third terminal, which has taken five years to complete, has boosted the airport’s capacity and it can now handle up to 9,000 passengers an hour. The King and Queen of Spain opened the terminal in a ceremony last month.
GCC HOTEL ROOM SURGE
An average of 38 hotel rooms a day are set to open in
the GCC region this year, according to new research. A report by Dubai-based research company Proleads shows that 48 hotels with 14,178 rooms are due to open in 2010 at an estimated cost of $7.3 billion. Over 5,700 rooms will open in the UAE, almost 2,000 in Qatar and 2,000 in Saudi Arabia.
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