June 23

More articles from the category

June 23

Despite the crisis: Salzburg Airport doubles investment amount

The CoV pandemic plunged all airports into an unprecedented crisis, including Salzburg Airport. The exact financial losses have not yet been determined, but one thing is certain: the airport will have to dig deep into its pockets to remain fit for the future. The investment requirement by 2030 is 193,5 million euros. This almost doubles the 100 million euros announced some time ago, according to management. On Tuesday, the management presented the necessary infrastructure measures to the supervisory board as part of a 10-year plan and presented the corresponding costs. Around 1 million euros are needed for the new construction of the main building, the aging "Terminal 80". The remaining amount is for a number of individual measures and purchases, such as the officially prescribed use of the so-called Exit-Entry System (EES) to check third-country nationals, new purchases for baggage control, adaptations for fire protection, costs for maintaining the existing infrastructure, taxiway renovation and runway drainage. "We know that a lot of money is being discussed here, but the safeguarding and simultaneous further development of Salzburg Airport is enshrined in the coalition agreement between the ÖVP, NEOS and the Greens, among others. It is clear that we are not only investing in the airport, but in our entire state," said Christian Stöckl, Deputy Governor and Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

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Lufthansa is moving Nuremberg-Munich to the streets

Lufthansa will no longer operate the ultra-short-haul flight between Nuremberg and Munich, but will instead shift it to the road. A "Lufthansa Express Bus" is to be set up, a spokeswoman confirmed to Airliners.de. The decision could also have been made due to political pressure, as the Greens have in the past stirred up sentiment against the 150-kilometer flight route. This was described, among other things, as an "ecological absurdity." However, the train is not a sensible alternative, as Lufthansa has not yet been able to establish a corresponding cooperation with Deutsche Bahn AG due to the lack of an ICE connection. Cooperation with Deutsche Post was a failure In the past, Lufthansa operated so-called "Lufthansa Express Buses" on the Saarbrücken-Frankfurt, Bonn-Frankfurt and Regensburg-Munich routes, among others. These were handed over to the then Postbus in 2015 as part of a cooperation with Deutsche Post. In addition, buses with LH flight numbers were offered from Salzburg, Innsbruck and Wörgl to Munich Airport. The project was not a success and was discontinued shortly after the sale of the Postbus business operations to Flixbus. The largest long-distance bus operator has not continued its cooperation with the crane. Currently, there is only one long-distance bus route that Lufthansa has a subcontractor operate, namely between Strasbourg and Frankfurt am Main Airport. The brand "Lufthansa Express Bus" is used here. The service is only available to airline passengers and has Lufthansa flight numbers. In Munich, Autobus Oberbayern operates a shuttle bus service between the airport and the city center as part of a franchise agreement. Use is not tied to a Lufthansa ticket. Tickets can be purchased online or spontaneously from the bus driver.

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Midsummer: Transavia France wants to reach the level of 2019

The airline Transavia France will offer the same seating capacity this year in midsummer as in 2019. In the last few weeks, 40 percent more tickets have been sold than in the same period "before Corona," explained managing director Nathalie Stubler in a TV interview with BFM. The manager admitted that sales had stagnated for many months. Now, however, the company is benefiting from a "strong catch-up effect" and the fact that passengers have "a strong appetite for vacation and travel." At the same time, she stressed that price levels should be lower than in 2019. "In July and August, we will have the same seating capacity on sale as in midsummer 2019. We are already catching up and we are offering our tickets much cheaper this year than in the same period in 2019," said Stubler. "We have been in the air for several months now. Capacity utilization has varied greatly. In April it was around 50 percent and now in June we have reached 70 percent, with the trend rising sharply." CEO Smith wants to double the low-cost fleet In the past, both Transavia and Transavia France have always had a mix of city and leisure destinations in their program. This year, the focus is clearly on warm water destinations, because these are said to be particularly popular with the population. Transavia France has radically changed its flight schedule: "For example, we are flying more to Greece, which is in very high demand among French customers this year. In direct comparison with 2019, we have 40 percent more offer to Greece," says Stubler. In

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First flights and announcements in Germany - damper in Heringsdorf

The Austrian airline Easyjet Europe is adding two additional destinations from Munich in mid-July. These are Palma de Mallorca, which will be served three times a week, and Faro, which has been announced twice a week. Easyjet will start the two Munich routes on July 20, 2021. The carrier explains that this is a response to the increasing demand for vacations in Germany. The carrier also announced a new route from Salzburg to Barcelona. Skyexpress launched in Hamburg - Dortmund still has to wait Hamburg is already one step further, as the Greek airline Skyexpress carried out its maiden flight on the Heraklion-Hamburg route on Tuesday. Airbus A320 aircraft will be used, which Skyexpress purchased at the end of last year. For the time being, there will be two rotations per week on this route. Another destination in Germany that Skyexpress will soon be offering is Dortmund. The carrier postponed the addition to October 2021. The first flight is currently announced for October 5, 2021. Flights will then take place on Tuesdays and Sundays. The aircraft type A320neo will be used. Smartwings with additional charter flights from Bremen The Czech airline Smartwings will be offering several destinations from Bremen in autumn 2021 in cooperation with a tour operator. Due to the high demand, additional flights to Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Crete have been launched. These can be booked via Tour Operator and the FlyBre portal. Elmar Kleinert, Managing Director of Bremen Airport, said: “Especially when the weather in northern Germany is rainy and wet and cold, we offer additional charter flights at Bremen Airport with

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Austrian Airlines is withdrawing from the preighter business

Since March 2020, two Austrian Airlines Boeing 777s, OE-LPA and OE-LPC, have been "robbed" of their passenger seats and used as freighters. This is now over, as both aircraft are being "dismantled" and will be used again as passenger jets in the future. According to Austrian Airlines, the long-haul fleet brought relief supplies from Asia to Europe a total of 159 times. On board were around 200 million masks and around 30 million test kits. The goods were flown not only to Austria, but also to Germany and Italy. "With our Prachters, we responded flexibly to the requirements of the corona pandemic. There was great demand for relief supplies from Asia - we brought them to Europe. This shows how important a domestic airline with a long-haul fleet is for Austria. I am very proud of our team, which carried out this demanding operation efficiently and smoothly," says Austrian Airlines COO Francesco Sciortino. The OE-LPA is now the last Prachter in Austrian Airlines technology to get its cabin seats back. From July, the aircraft will again operate regular passenger flights - including to North America. Austrian Airlines is thus once again concentrating entirely on its core business of passenger flights on long-haul routes. The removal and reinstallation of the passenger seats on the two Boeing 777s took around 1.000 working hours per aircraft. The aircraft's cargo capacity thus increased by over 35 percent - from around 160 cubic meters to up to 220 cubic meters. Aviation Direct has shown what the "Preighter" cabin on the OE-LPA looked like in a comparison image in this article.

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IAG wants to combine offers from Level and Vueling

What was literally impossible to achieve in Vienna and Amsterdam during the Level Europe era is now possible in Barcelona: transfers from the short-haul budget airline Vueling to its long-haul sister company Level (operated by Iberia) are now possible. However, IAG is using a rather complicated solution, because the Dohop system enables so-called "virtual interlining". Competitors Transavia and Easyjet also use similar models. Initially, feeder flights for the connection from Barcelona to Buenos Aires will be made bookable. San Francisco, New York and Cancun will follow later. At a later date, the collaboration will also be extended to Avianca. "We are delighted to be the first airline to become part of Vueling Global. With this alliance, we can expand the distribution of our flights, reach more people and bring our destinations in America closer to Spain and Europe via Barcelona," says Víctor González, Head of Network & Alliances at Level. In Austria, the airline had a subsidiary that operated under the Level Europe brand. However, it was not possible to provide transfers to the long-haul flights that existed at the time from Barcelona (operated by Iberia) or Paris-Orly (operated by OpenSkies). The icing on the cake was the fact that Level Europe used Charles de Gaulle Airport in the French capital, while its sister company's long-haul flights took off from Orly. Level Europe had to file for bankruptcy last year and OpenSkies was closed. The Level brand is now only used from Barcelona.

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Holidays: Berlin expects significantly more passengers

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport expects that with the start of the summer holidays in the federal states there, passenger numbers will rise sharply. Around 30.000 to 40.000 travelers are expected per day. On the classic holiday travel days of Friday and Sunday, the passenger volume even increases to up to 50.000 passengers a day. This is significantly less summer travel traffic than in 2019, with up to 120.000 passengers on peak days, but significantly more than in 2020, when around 30.000 passengers were counted on the main travel days. "More and more people are now fulfilling their holiday dreams outside of Germany. With the start of the summer holidays, many passengers will fly from, to and via BER for the first time. The first travel summer from our new airport is also something special for us. We will do our best to make the first big holiday trip from BER as uncomplicated and pleasant as possible. We ask our passengers to do their part, prepare for their flight as best as possible, allow enough time and adhere to the AHA rules," says Managing Director Engelbert Lütke Daldrup. The positive trend can also be seen in the flight offerings. In July and August, around 70 airlines will fly to more than 160 destinations in 50 countries. This means that the flight schedule from Berlin will almost reach the level of the 2019 summer flight schedule, when 86 airlines flew to 183 destinations in 57 countries. However, not all routes are served at the same density. Popular holiday destinations in Europe in particular are benefiting from the opening and easing of travel restrictions. Travelers are focusing in particular on destinations in the Mediterranean region, such as Spain, Turkey, Greece and Italy.

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Lufthansa Cargo is examining the fleet of narrowbodies

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr is thinking about adding narrow-body aircraft to the fleet of its cargo subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo. The manager announced this during an analyst conference. Spohr confirmed that possible models are currently being evaluated. He considers the plan to be "very interesting" from a profitability perspective. A final decision has not yet been made. The Lufthansa CEO did not name a specific model that could be added to the fleet. If the plan is implemented, it would be a "back to the roots", because according to CH-Aviation.com, Lufthansa Cargo had Boeing 1997 freighters in its fleet until 737. At the moment, the Boeing 757 and Airbus A321 models are very popular in the industry. These are former passenger aircraft that are being converted into freighters. This is especially true for the latter model, because Airbus does not offer a cargo variant of the A321 ex works.

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Estonia: Xfly returned last CRJ-700 to Lessor

The Estonian airline Xfly (formerly Regional Jet) has parted with its last Bombardier CRJ-700. However, the aircraft with the registration ES-ACE had previously been in long-term storage for around 1,5 years due to the corona pandemic. CH-Aviation.com reports that this CRJ-700 was last used for wet lease for SAS on March 18, 2020. Since then, the aircraft has been parked in Tallinn. Last week, the EC-ACE was flown to Keflavik. It is a leased aircraft owned by Regional One. In the past, the aircraft was also in service with Lufthansa Cityline. Xfly is a subsidiary of Nordica. The Polish LOT pulled out towards the end of last year, so both companies are now fully owned by Estonia.

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Vienna triangle: Etihad flies to Abu Dhabi via Milan

On Tuesday, after several delays, Etihad Airways announced the launch of a direct flight from Vienna to Abu Dhabi. In terms of aviation law, this is actually a so-called direct flight, because on the way to the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a stop is made in Milan-Malpensa under the same flight number. The terms "direct flight" and "non-stop flight" are often confused or even equated. Only a non-stop flight is a connection from A to B that is made without a stopover. A direct flight also goes from A to B, but can have any number of stopovers under the same flight number. You should be particularly careful with charter flights to less frequented holiday destinations in travel brochures, because the word "direct flight" is often used, but there is no reference to possible stopovers. However, there can be any number. Etihad Airways will fly non-stop from Abu Dhabi to Vienna, but will make a stopover in Milan-Malpensa on the return flight. According to the flight schedule, the length of the stopover at the Italian airport is 85 minutes. Formally, the entire triangle is operated as a "direct flight" because the Abu Dhabi-Vienna-Malpensa-Abu Dhabi route is offered under the same flight number. Significantly longer travel time - no point-to-point transport between Vienna and Milan Travelers should note that the travel time between Abu Dhabi and Vienna is 5 hours 50 minutes, which is significantly shorter than from Vienna via Milan-Malpensa to Abu Dhabi. The flight time from Austria to the Italian metropolis is given as 1,5 hours. This is followed by an 85-minute layover. The flight time from Milan to the capital of the United Arab Emirates is 5 hours and 55 minutes.

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