This story fi rst appeared on The Hub.
STRENGTHENED SOUTHWEST
The world’s largest low-cost carrier, Southwest Airlines, has agreed to takeover AirTran for $3.4 billion – and the move looks set to strengthen Southwest’s position in the domestic market, by giving it access to some key US airports. Through the AirTran acquisition, Southwest will gain access to several key domestic markets, including slots at Atlanta, where AirTran operates 57 destinations and is currently the second largest carrier in terms of weekly seats, behind Delta. Southwest will also have access to Washington Reagan National where AirTran is the sixth largest operator behind US Airways, Delta, American, United and Continental. As the largest domestic operator in the US, Southwest operates a fl eet of over 500 B737 aircraft, with nearly three million weekly seats. It has 69 destinations in its network, according to Flightbase. Its largest operating bases, by destination, are Las Vegas, Chicago Midway, Phoenix, Baltimore and Denver. AirTran’s network is much smaller with its main base in Atlanta, where it operates 30% of its network. It also has major operations at Baltimore, Orlando, Milwaukee and LaGuardia (New York).
These networks complement each other and the two carriers compete on relatively few of the routes. The majority of competition is at Baltimore, where they compete on Boston, Indianapolis, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Milwaukee. Log onto
www.routesonline.com for full analysis.
KOREAN PREPARES FOR A380
Korean Air will initially operate its new A380 aircraft on short-haul routes such as Japan and East Asia, and from next August it will operate on long-haul routes to the US and Europe. The airline said this would make it the fi rst carrier to fl y the aircraft between the US and Asia.
Delivery of the fi rst of 10 A380s is expected in May 2011. Another three deliveries are scheduled for June, July and August. The Asian carrier said in a statement that its fi rst four A380s are currently in the fi nal assembly stage at the A380 factory in Toulouse – the same assembly line that Routes Europe delegates had the opportunity to visit in May 2010.
The airline said its A380s would offer passengers a different experience from the ones currently in operation, as Korean’s will only have between 400 and 450 seats.
with the number of international fl ights more than doubling from 565 to 1,369 during October and November.
Male, Mumbai, Valencia and Beirut are all new destinations on Vienna International Airport’s winter timetable. Austrian Airlines will operate to Male once weekly from late October, increasing to twice weekly from Christmas Eve. The airline is also re-establishing fl ights to
www.routesonline.com
Mumbai with fi ve a week. Wataniya will launch service from Lebanon’s capital at the start of the winter timetable and NIKI will add Valencia to its network in February.
British Airways will launch a new twice-daily route between London City Airport
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and Stockholm-Arlanda on January 9. Embraer 190s will operate the service.
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