Serbia

Middle Eastern LCCs driving growth into Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS

Russia, the CIS nations and Central and Eastern Europe have been receiving a great deal of attention from Middle East-based carriers in recent months. Full service and low-cost carriers have announced or added a flurry of routes into Eastern European destinations over the past few weeks. Airlines in the Middle East are looking to tap into the underserved region, which is still showing strong economic growth despite troubles in several European markets and strong growth in business and tourism traffic.

Homegrown LCCs Air Arabia and flydubai are leading a push into the regions, but so too is Qatar Airways. Additionally, Oman Air plans to launch services to Moscow. While Middle Eastern carriers have long dominated traffic into western Europe, they now comprise the majority of traffic between the Middle East and central Europe, eastern Europe, Russia and CIS.

Europe's fringe carriers look for partners to overcome financial crisis; Cyprus Airways latest

Airlines on Europe's southern and eastern periphery are becoming more precariously positioned, but are looking for for partners to help overcome the growing financial crisis. Cyprus Airways is the latest such carrier, and reported a widening in first half losses in the six months to 30-Jun-2011, as lower top-line revenue fell and higher fuel costs squeezed the airline in the period. Cyprus Airways is also turning to implementing a raft of measures aimed at stemming operating losses.

Germanwings to improve on 2010 result in 2011 despite impact of air traffic tax and high fuel costs

Lufthansa Group stated Germanwings is expected to report an improved operating result in 2011, despite the air traffic tax and the high oil price continuing to present challenges for Germanwings throughout the 2011 financial year. The company did not provide further details about its outlook, other to say that the full year result will be an improvement on last year’s operating result of an EUR11 million loss. However, given the increasing losses in the first half of the year, the carrier will still fall short of the record EUR39 million operating profit achieved in 2009.

Serbia attempts another JAT Airways sale – third time lucky?

Serbia’s government has announced plans to again attempt to offload a stake in national carrier JAT Airways, its third attempt at doing so after heavy losses at the airline and a severe economic downturn in Eastern Europe sapped investor interest. It remains unclear whether Serbia will have much more luck this time around, as the companies that have previously shown interest have backed away from the deal.

Russia, Turkey and Sweden the hottest destinations for European travellers this Summer. Egypt down

Russia, Turkey and Sweden are among the fastest growing major destinations for European travellers this summer, latest analysis from CAPA shows. According to Innovata schedule data for Apr-2011 - the first month of the summer scheduling season - Russia and Turkey will enjoy near 20% increases in passenger capacity from other European countries next month.

European airlines report single-digit traffic growth in 2010; profits remain weak

European airlines reported single-digit growth last year - a welcome improvement from 2009's depressed level - but 2010 was a lacklustre year overall. Full year data has been released by the Association of European Airlines (AEA), the European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) and EUROCONTROL. As noted by EUROCONTROL, growth across the continent last year was driven mainly by LCCs.