aviation sector


to sell


10 aircraft, including an order for 60


irbus 20neos, and the closure of its Edinburgh transatlantic base, after little more than a year, rang loud.


Slower growth ahead This autumn, however, saw the


release of third quarter figures confirming pre-tax earnings of £149 million versus 12 million last year despite a capacity increase of . orwegian has scared


riate euit rm ndio artners stepped in to rescue WOW air when elandair pulled out o neotiations


investors with its exponential


growth – this year it added 11 Boeing s and


Asia is


experiencing a boom in LCCs


increased Available Seat Kilometres by 40%. It also has to absorb the start-up costs of Norwegian ir rgentina, which began operating in ctober, but has pledged that going forward, the


growth will abate”.  look at some figures shows how budget airlines have made their mark on the Europe-orth merica routes, but also reveals how the picture has become muddied by their hype. apa and  report that 179 new North Atlantic routes have been added since 2012 and 2 closed and that, since then, growth has come mainly from new airport pairs, with the number of pairings between Europe and North America growing from 11 to 1.


Among new airports connected to orth merica are Bucharest, agreb, ork, Bergen and Belgrade. n the other side of the tlantic, Winnipeg, ustin and many other secondary cities have become connected to Europe for the first time thanks to low-cost carriers (LCCs). espite this, apa estimates that s have only just over  of seats on the Europe-North Atlantic market. It adds that, while airlines that have entered the market since 2012 have been responsible for seat growth of 1, this is less than the 29 growth from incumbent carriers. Behind all the hype about s, it is the traditional brands that have added most capacity and opened new routes. Next year, for example, M will add Boston


wtm.com


and Las Vegas; British Airways Charleston


and Pittsburgh; and Air France launches Dallas/Fort Worth. Capa concludes that s have made a significant impact in the past five years, but adds “the legacy airlines are not shying away from the fight.


Budget brands hoping to expand in


Europe face the added threat that legacy carriers are really beginning to get on their case, with ufthansa roup using Eurowings as its low-cost weapon. Lufthansa spent €170 million expanding Eurowings this year, buying the assets of ir Berlin, including  aircraft, after its collapse in ugust 201. The deal pushed Eurowings into a €65 million loss in the January-September period, a decline of 210 million year-on-year. ufthansa roup chief executive Carsten Spohr clearly thinks it a price worth paying. Spohr said he had “seized a historic opportunity in the consolidation of Europe’s aviation sector, adding “it was the right decision to do so in strategic terms, even if this has given Eurowings a very challenging 201. I, having abandoned attempts to buy orwegian, still has three cannons in its budget arsenal, the first being evel in Barcelona, designed specifically to head off orwegian there. Then there is er ingus, which will undergo a brand


winter 201 wtm insights 


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