South Africa remains the most-served sub-Saharan African market from Europe based on non-stop capacity. According to Cirium schedules data, there 806,000 departing seats in W23 – 19% lower than the almost one million in W19. In contrast, all of Europe to sub-Saharan Africa rose by about 5%. More than two-thirds of South Africa-bound passengers continue […]
November 20, 2023 | Airlines, Airports, Europe, News & Analysis, Top Story
Virgin Atlantic inaugurated a new long-haul service on Saturday 4 November between London LHR and Providenciales, an island in the Turks and Caicos archipelago. The 6,895-kilometre route will be maintained 2-weekly, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with the 258-seat 787-9 aircraft. The airline faces no competition. The service continues from Providenciales to Montego Bay. Flight VS163 […]
November 15, 2023 | Latest Route News +
Virgin Atlantic introduced flights between London LHR and Malé, the capital of the Maldives, on Sunday 22 October. The 8,535-kilometre service will be maintained 3-weekly on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays departing London LHR, with the 258-seat 787-9 aircraft. It will compete directly against British Airways’ 4-weekly rotations on the route, which will increase to daily […]
October 24, 2023 | Latest Route News +
In 2019 London’s Heathrow Airport was Europe’s busiest, welcoming 80.9m passengers. This was almost five million more than Paris CDG (76.2m) and nine million more than third ranked Amsterdam (71.7m). However, UK air travel was more severely impacted than other European countries when the pandemic struck in 2020 and Heathrow slipped to third that year […]
February 27, 2023 | Airlines, Airports, Europe, News & Analysis, Top Story
With the promise of warm temperatures, there are an average of 50 daily departures from Europe to the Caribbean this winter, according to Cirium schedules data. In total, the market has just under 2.8 million departing seats, 2% smaller than in the high of W21 (and 10% below W19). The year-on-year (YOY) change is primarily […]
February 1, 2023 | Airports, Europe, News & Analysis, North America
Since the arrival of COVID, the UK’s recovery in air travel demand has been well below the European average with the country adopting severe travel restrictions in the early days and waiting longer than many of its European neighbours before removing the majority of restrictions. It has consistently lagged behind its major European rivals France, […]
December 9, 2022 | Airlines, Airports, Europe, News & Analysis, Top Story
There are more flights between European airports and South Africa this northern winter than between Europe and any other country in sub-Saharan Africa. According to Cirium schedules information data, there are 780,000 one-way seats. Europe-South Africa capacity is down by a quarter Even though it is now South Africa’s summer, Europe-South Africa seats remain down […]
December 7, 2022 | Airlines, Airports, Europe, News & Analysis, Top Story
Europe to the Indian Ocean tourist destination of the Maldives is a large and growing market. It saw an estimated 1.2 million passengers between January and September 2019. Despite the pandemic, or because of it, traffic increased by around 12% versus the same nine months in 2019. Especially good growth was seen from Russia (+106%), […]
November 30, 2022 | Airlines, Airports, News & Analysis, Top Story
As previously noted, the Europe-Asia market is recovering more slowly than many other inter-continental markets. There are several reasons for this. China’s zero tolerance approach to COVID has resulted in extreme travel restrictions on passengers. As a result, seat capacity between Europe and China is still down over 95% according to Cirium data for September. […]
September 14, 2022 | Airlines, Europe, News & Analysis, Top Story
New York is by far the biggest US market from the UK, as confirmed in our recent story looking at the London-Boston market. The market welcomed a new carrier on 12 August when Norse Atlantic Airways began daily service between London LGW and New York JFK using 787-9s, formerly operated by Norwegian. Between 2004 and […]
August 19, 2022 | Airlines, Airports, Europe, News & Analysis, North America, Top Story
Virgin Atlantic has launched its first new US route since 2017 with the introduction of a 4-weekly service between London LHR and Austin in Texas. The inaugural flight on the 7,910-kilometre route departed the UK on Wednesday 25 May using the airline’s 258-seat 787-9s. Other services depart the UK capital on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays. […]
June 2, 2022 | Latest Route News +
Virgin Atlantic on Tuesday 29 March began its first service between Orlando MCO and Edinburgh. Flight VS 226, operated by an A330-300 registration G-VGEM departed the Florida airport at 17:09 local time arriving in Scotland early the following morning at 05:51, 29 minutes ahead of schedule. The aircraft, based at Manchester had arrived in Orlando […]
April 5, 2022 | Latest Route News +