News VUELING MOVES IN ON FRANCE
Spain’s third largest airline, Vueling, is aggressively moving into the French market by opening a new base in Toulouse in late April and adding Bordeaux to its network. These moves mean it will serve four French cities (Paris, Toulouse, Nice and Bordeaux) from the spring, with nearly two million seats for the peak summer season. Vueling said in a statement that this marks a new strategy for opening future bases in other European countries. The new Toulouse base is Vueling’s eighth and its
fi rst outside Spain since its merger with Clickair in 2008. It will base one aircraft in the capital of the Midi-Pyrenees, serving Pisa, Venice, Ibiza, Malaga, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Paris.
“This move is strategic because it starts a new phase of growth outside of Spain that validates the years of work and preparation to compete in the European market,” the airline’s chairman, Josep Piqué said. “It is symbolic because it is the fi rst base located in a thriving region, adjacent to Catalonia, which reaffi rms the Euro-Mediterranean vocation of our company,” he added The airline will also operate a new route from Barcelona to Bordeaux from April 15.
SEAMLESS AIRASIA CONNECTIONS AirAsia has introduced a new service that allows passengers travelling on some multiple fl ight legs via Kuala Lumpur to check in to their fi nal airport destination at their originating point. This negates them having to check in again for their connecting fl ight at the Malaysian gateway and also means that they do not need to clear immigration or have a transit visa.
CONGRATULATIONS COPENHAGEN Dubai’s Emirates will be landing in Copenhagen with daily service from August 1. The route will be operated by A330-200 aircraft in a three-class confi guration and is the airline’s third new destination for 2011. It previously announced new fl ights to Basra and Geneva. “Copenhagen is an important hub for the whole of Scandinavia and the launch of our non-stop service will open up a new market for Emirates. It will also offer Denmark’s businesses with easy connections to previously untapped markets,” said His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates.
The service, called Fly-Thru, is available on selected short-haul AirAsia fl ights and some long-haul AirAsia X services for passengers that have a connecting time of between 90 minutes and six hours. “Fly-Thru enables guests to leverage on the strength of our network and connectivity to position Kuala Lumpur as the gateway for travel across ASEAN and beyond,” says AirAsia’s regional head of commercial, Kathleen Tan.
Copa will introduce new service from Panama City to Toronto, Canada; Porto Alegre, Brazil; and Nassau, Bahamas, as well as increasing frequencies to other key cities, in June.
Mexicana Airlines is reportedly preparing to get back into the skies after its bankruptcy in August last year, according to media reports. The Mexican carrier is reportedly looking to initially operate
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domestically between Mexico City, Cancun and Guadalajara.
Six A380s will be on their way to Asiana Airlines between 2014 and 2017. “Long- haul fl ights are expected to grow by more than 5% each year due to free trade agreements with the United States and the European Union and the visa waiver programme,” said Asiana chief executive, Yoon Young-Doo.
Virgin Blue and Skywest Airlines have signed a 10-year agreement to service regional Australia. Under the deal, Skywest will operate up to 18 new Virgin Blue- branded turboprops to a number of regional Australian destinations.
Comair, operator of the British Airways brand in South Africa and LCC kulula, has secured the rights to operate service from Johannesburg to Maputo in Mozambique.
www.routes-news.com
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