Abu Dhabi International Airport

Etihad and Ethiopian plan services to Sao Paulo as Latin America-Asia market prepares to grow

Etihad Airways and Ethiopian Airlines intend to launch services to Sao Paulo, the economic heart of the rapidly growing Latin American market. While Sao Paulo is seeing increased capacity from a number of carriers, services from Etihad and Ethiopian are notable for the considerable transfer traffic they will have, including from Asia. Linking the high-growth economies of Asia with their Latin American counterparts has been alluring for many carriers, but distances and aircraft range limitations necessitate all services be one-stop.

Asia-Latin America's traditional, if small time, transfer hubs in North America and Europe have increasingly seen competition from the Middle East. That will be complemented in the next few years with hubs from Africa, first from East Africa and potentially later from West Africa.

Rapidly expanding Kenya Airways charts growth with plan to serve every inhabited continent by 2017

Kenya Airways plans to launch its first services to North America, South America and Australia by 2017, making it one of the few carriers to serve every inhabited continent. While these three continents will give Africa's currently fifth-largest airline by seats a global presence, its future is pegged on Asia, with the carrier over the next 10 years planning to launch seven new routes into China, six in the Indian Subcontinent and three across North and Southeast Asia as well as having a growing presence in Europe and the Middle East. It is poised to become Africa's largest carrier.

Growth will be fuelled by Africa's status as a burgeoning market, as well as reliance on partners: Kenya Airways will open routes to SkyTeam member hubs in Xiamen (Xiamen Airlines), Hanoi (Vietnam Airlines), Seoul (Korean Air), Moscow (Aeroflot) and Prague (Czech Airlines). The intercontinental focus follows Kenya's strong emphasis on regional Africa, with the carrier aiming to serve every African nation by the end of 2013. 

Emirates responds to airberlin-Etihad alliance with capacity and equipment upgrades to Germany

A significant initial outcome of last year's airberlin-Etihad alliance is the capacity increase airberlin and Etihad have implemented over the past week between Germany and Abu Dhabi. Emirates has responded with its own capacity increases, the fact of which is unsurprising. What is interesting is how Emirates had operated to the restrictive and limited German market with A340-300s, which it is in the process of disposing. Emirates in recent times had largely confined the A340-300, with older and less premium interiors, to secondary markets, but the rapid increase in competition in the form of airberlin-Etihad is seeing Emirates deploy its more competitive Boeing 777-300s.

airberlin prepares to drop Bangkok in order to boost Middle East, Africa and US services

airberlin plans to cancel service to Bangkok from both Dusseldorf and Berlin Tegel in late Mar-2012 as part of a network re-alignment with new shareholder Eithad Airways. The capacity changes will allow airberlin to upgrade its Mombasa service to year-round and allow for the introduction or increase of previously announced Abu Dhabi, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York services. airberlin will also shift its Germany-Phuket flights to originate in Abu Dhabi, the hub of Etihad.

The moves culminate airberlin’s recent hybridisation push in an effort to be Germany’s second business airline. The market has not yet responded as the carrier’s costs are high but revenue low, reflective of an under-performing short-haul business. The Etihad agreement, and recent capacity changes to increase profitable long-haul services, will better position airberlin to move upmarket.

Virgin Australia to partially wet lease 777 to alliance partner Etihad for Kuala Lumpur services

Virgin Australia will wet lease one of its Boeing 777-300ERs to alliance partner Etihad Airways during a once weekly 34 hour 55 minute layover in Abu Dhabi. Etihad has earmarked using the aircraft to bolster services to Kuala Lumpur, a popular market for Gulf travellers and one that competitor Emirates has been increasing capacity to.

The decision to wet lease the aircraft to Etihad once a week, from May-2012 subject to regulatory approval, finally allows Virgin to better utilise the once weekly extended layover as part of the carrier's three times weekly Sydney-Abu Dhabi services which commenced in Feb-2011. The other two services have 10 hour 55 minute layovers.

Middle East sixth freedom hubs add 8 million passengers in 2011 as home carriers plan further growth

The three major sixth freedom hubs in the Middle East – Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi – added 7.7 million passengers between them in 2011. Passenger traffic at the three hubs continues to grow by leaps and bounds, regardless of the regional disruptions that affected traffic in the Middle East last year. Much of this is testament to the strength of their home carriers, the industry aligned development policies pursued at each airport and the vision of local governments to transform their cities into major aviation centres.

Combined, the three hubs had an average passenger traffic growth rate of 10.5%. This is a notably stronger performance than the rest of the Middle East, where international traffic expanded 8.9% over 2011. Hub growth is closely tied to growth from each hub's main carrier: Etihad Airways, Emirates and Qatar Airways. All three have already announced significant expansion in the near future.