Issue 56 Monday 20 April 2020 www.anker-report.com Contents C-19 wipes out 95% of April air traffic; 1 C-19 wipes out 95% of April air traffic; DHL and Leipzig now lead movements statistics in Europe. DHL and Leipzig now lead ATM stats 3 European airline operations in April according to Eurocontrol. The coronavirus pandemic has managed in the space of a According to the airline’s website, Avinor has temporarily month to reduce European air passenger travel from roughly its closed nine Norwegian airports to commercial traffic and 4 Alitalia rescued (yet again) by Italian normal level (at the beginning of March) to being virtually non- Widerøe has identified alternatives for all of them, with bus government; most international existent (at the end of March). Aircraft movement figures from transport provided to get the passengers to their required routes from Rome face intense Eurocontrol show the rapid decrease in operations during the destination. competition; dominant at Milan LIN. month. By the end of the month, flights were down around Ryanair still connecting Ireland and the UK 5 Round-up of over 300 new routes 90%, but many of those still operating were either pure cargo flights (from the likes of DHL and FedEx), or all-cargo flights Ryanair’s current operating network comprises 13 routes from from over 60 airlines that were being operated by scheduled airlines. Ireland, eight of which are to the UK (from Dublin to supposed to have launched during Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London LGW, London the last five weeks involving Leipzig/Halle is now Europe’s busiest airport STN and Manchester as well as Cork to London STN). The other European airports. In terms of aircraft movements, according to figures from five are from Dublin to Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne Eurocontrol for Thursday 9 April, the busiest airports in Europe Bonn and Lisbon. 7 Mini airport profiles of Leipzig/Halle for movements were Frankfurt, London LHR, Leipzig, Paris CDG in Germany, Norwich in the UK and In addition to the eight UK routes to Ireland, Ryanair is also still and Cologne Bonn. Three Norwegian airports made the top 15 flying from London STN to Berlin SXF, Budapest, Eindhoven and Trieste in Italy. (shown in red on page 2), along with three German airports Lisbon. These routes are currently set to operate until at least (shown in grey). Cologne Bonn, East Midlands and Leipzig owe Welcome 23 April. The highest frequency routes are from Dublin to their position to their based cargo operators. London LGW and London STN which are both operating on a By the following Tuesday (14 April) Leipzig had become the daily basis at present. That makes a total of 17 scheduled leading airport with 185 movements according to Eurocontrol, routes in total. In addition, Ryanair is also operating a number ahead of Heathrow with 179. of pure cargo services. Who could have imagined just seven weeks ago how quickly passenger air travel to, from and within Europe would be virtually wiped out? By the end of March well over 90% of passenger flights had been scrapped, with airlines and airports specialising in cargo operations now being the busiest for flights. The end of March was also the scheduled start of the Summer 2020 (S20) season, when airlines start ramping up flights to make money from the growing demand for leisure travel across Europe. The ANKER Report had identified over 350 new services that were going to be launched during the last five weeks. We have decided to provide a round- DHL now leading operator in Europe SAS operating within Scandinavia up of these routes, to at least remind On 14 April, DHL was the leading carrier in Europe according to While not as busy as Widerøe, SAS has maintained a reasonable ourselves of what airlines had been Eurocontrol with 236 movements, ahead of Widerøe in Norway level of service within Scandinavia. Out of the 94 flights it was planning for this summer. (209), Ryanair (98) and SAS (97). Widerøe’s movement figure scheduled to operate on 14 April, 74 were on Norwegian was 38% down on the equivalent date last year, while the only domestic routes. All other flights involved airports in Denmark, Stay safe. other airline not to cut flights in Europe by at least 90% was SAS Norway and Sweden. (down 86%). Ralph Anker Transatlantic flights [email protected] Widerøe is busiest passenger airline After President Trump’s unilateral decision in mid-March to Widerøe operates almost exclusively domestic routes in stop all European citizens from entering the US, Eurocontrol Norway. As of 17 April the country has fewer than 7,000 data shows that by the end of March the number of confirmed cases of C-19 and just 161 deaths. With its fleet of movements between the EU and the US was down 85%. This turboprops operating in 2-by-2 seating configuration, the airline level has been reasonably stable through April. can operate at 50% load factor with passengers only seated in Many of the flights still operating are either cargo flights from window seats. The airline’s website explains that, “We strive to carriers such as DHL and FedEx, or passenger airlines operating keep a good distance between passengers. We have fewer cargo only flights. However, with US residents in Europe passengers on board our aircraft than usual. Our cabin crew try allowed to travel back to the US and European residents being to reduce contamination when seating passengers, however, allowed to return from the US, several airlines are still we must also take into account aviation safety considerations operating between the US and Europe. Examination of schedule to ensure the correct weight distribution on the aircraft.” data and flight operation data reveals that last week there were The ANKER Report Issue 56: Monday 20 April 2020 1 around 20 flights per day operated by scheduled airlines from Europe to the US. These included: • Aer Lingus operating daily from Dublin to Chicago and 5-weekly to Boston; • Air France operating 3-weekly from Paris CDG to New York JFK and Los Angeles; • Alitalia operating daily from Rome FCO to New York JFK; • American Airlines operating daily from London LHR to Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami; • British Airways operating daily from London LHR to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York JFK and Washington; • Delta Air Lines operating from Amsterdam to Atlanta (daily) and Detroit (3-weekly); • KLM operating from Amsterdam to New York JFK (daily), Atlanta and Los Angeles (both 3-weekly) and Chicago (2-weekly); • Lufthansa operating 3-weekly to Chicago and New York EWR; • SWISS operating 3-weekly from Zurich to Newark; • United Airlines operating daily from Frankfurt and London LHR to Newark; • Virgin Atlantic operating from London LHR to New York JFK and Los Angeles. • Juneyao Airlines operating weekly from Helsinki to routes from 18 May. Along with many other airlines, Shanghai; easyJet has been criticised for making it difficult for Qatar Airways maintaining many European links • KLM operating from Amsterdam to Bangkok, passengers to reclaim their money easily after the airline One long-haul carrier that is pointedly still operating Beijing, Delhi, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and suspended service, with airlines preferring to offer credit flights to European airports is Qatar Airways. Although Tokyo NRT; vouchers against future travel. Cirium Data and Analytics data suggests that the airline Meanwhile Turkish Airlines confirmed last week that its was planning to operate between 18 and 27 daily flights • Korean Air operating from London LHR and Paris international flight cancellations have been extended across a total of 27 destinations in Europe for the week CDG to Seoul ICN; through to 20 May. Domestic flights have been commencing 13 April, analysis by The ANKER Report of • Lufthansa operating from Frankfurt to Bangkok and suspended at least until 1 May. flights operated according to Flightradar24.com Tokyo HND; (FR24.com) shows that Qatar Airways operated 18 flights Repercussions for the industry • Malaysia Airlines operating from London LHR to from Doha to 15 European destinations on Friday 17 Europe’s airlines are struggling to figure out when Kuala Lumpur; April and 14 flights to 11 European destinations on services might be allowed to resume and what social Saturday 18 April. On both days there were multiple • Singapore Airlines operating from Frankfurt, distancing rules might still be in place, and whether they daily flights to both London LHR and Paris CDG. London LHR and Zurich to Singapore; will be consistent across different parts of Europe. Its Middle East rivals Emirates and Etihad Airways had all • Virgin Atlantic operating from London LHR to Hong Variations across Europe are already evident. their passenger flights grounded for a two week period Kong; The state of the economy, levels of employment and the from 25 March. Emirates resumed five European routes • Xiamen Airlines operating from Amsterdam to willingness to travel by air if there are still health (to Brussels, Frankfurt, London LHR, Paris CDG and Xiamen. concerns (which seems likely until a vaccine is widely Zurich) from 7 April with 3- to 4-weekly flights. However, available) are all unknown, but will influence the level of passengers can only currently be carried on the Wizz Air fleet spread their wings future demand. outbound sectors from Dubai. Etihad’s only European While some carriers have grounded all scheduled flights, Some airlines, like Lufthansa, have been proactive and service is currently to Amsterdam, which FR24.com some are maintaining a handful of routes in addition to already indicated likely changes to their fleet. Lufthansa confirms operated three times during the last week.