Big three
The three major Gulf carriers have announced a huge number of new routes and capacity increases into Europe for 2011. Adam Coulter fi nds out what is behind these moves.
I
t seems not a week goes by without an announcement of new routes or increased frequencies or larger aircraft sizes to a regional European city from the Gulf airlines. By June this year, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar will operate to 64 European destinations between them (65 from August). However, many of these cities – Copenhagen, Larnaca, Budapest, Valletta, Manchester and Dublin – are hardly giant conurbations with huge catchment areas.
One or two are capitals, but some are very much second or even third cities, while others are even island cities. So what is fuelling this extraordinary growth into Europe? And is there a clear strategy that connects all three? Take Manchester, for example, probably the best example of a relatively small European city being serviced by Gulf carriers.
Emirates announced in March it would start a third daily fl ight to Dubai from Manchester from May 1. This is in addition to last year’s deployment of an A380 – the fi rst regional airport to have one.
A week earlier, Etihad announced it would double its fl ights between Manchester and Abu Dhabi from seven to 14 a week from August 1. Last November, the airline opened a new lounge for fi rst and business class passengers travelling from Manchester. Qatar, meanwhile, announced it would
axe fl ights from Gatwick this summer and use the freed-up aircraft to expand at Manchester, where it will go double daily from June 1. That’s a total of 49 direct Manchester to Gulf cities per week – on wide-bodied
60
aircraft in a three-class confi guration, often including a fi rst class.
All the airlines state that they are fi lling the gap left by BA when it pulled out of the long-haul market, but how can that fi gure be sustainable?
All three carriers emphasise the strong growth in demand from Manchester for fl ights to their Middle East hubs and on to the Far East and Australia. Laurie Berryman, Emirates’ vice president UK & Ireland, says: “We’ve already fi lled the additional capacity we introduced with the A380 last year and demand continues to grow, hence this plan for further growth.”
Island cities
It might seem hard to understand how Manchester justifi es so many services, but it’s perhaps even tougher when it comes to Valletta (Malta), Larnaca (Cyprus) and Dublin, particularly since the latter country’s economic crash.
Larnaca is served by both Emirates and Etihad and has a population of 72,000.
Salem Obaidalla, Emirates’ senior vice president commercial operations for Europe and the Russian Federation, says: “Although both Malta and Cyprus are not massive catchment
Since bringing the A380 to Manchester last September the route to Dubai has been one of Emirates’ strongest performers
Manchester Airport’s managing
director, Andrew Harrison, said: “Since bringing the A380 to Manchester last September, the route to Dubai has been one of Emirates’ strongest performers and we saw a full complement of 517 passengers in November, so we know the traffi c is there.”
In fact, one of the airports that has suffered in the past year has been Gatwick, where Qatar announced it would be axing services from May 31. Its move follows that of Etihad and Oman Air in quitting the airport, leaving just Emirates now operating there.
areas, both destinations have a good mix of leisure, business, VFR and labour traffi c which travels in and out of the islands.
“Because of the demographics of the island, the airline fl ies via Cyprus (Dubai – Larnaca – Malta – Larnaca – Dubai), combining traffi c out of the two small countries.” Emirates has Fifth Freedom
traffi c rights between Malta and Cyprus and also operates a strong-performing cargo service to the island.
Etihad launched its Larnaca service last year. Chief strategy & planning
www.routes-news.com
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