Issue 29 Monday 3rd December 2018 www.anker-report.com Contents Emirates is now Europe’s #1 long-haul 1 Emirates is Europe’s #1 airline for long-haul services. 2 Barcelona is Etihad Airways’s latest airline; passed British Airways in 2016 European destination; capacity still growing despite dropped routes. According to analysis of FlightGlobal schedules data by The ranked in the top 15. In W18/19 Air China is the leading Asian ANKER Report, Emirates overtook British Airways in 2016 to airline in 18th place. SWISS has also dropped out of the top 15 3 Focus on: Germany, Ireland and becomes the leading airline for intercontinental, long-haul (to 17th) and the “new” airlines in W18/19 are Aeroflot, Etihad Netherlands. services (at least 3,500 kilometres) from European airports, as Airways, Norwegian, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines. 4 Malta welcomes over 30 new measured by annual seat capacity. However, in terms of flights Several US airports welcome new winter flights services in last 13 months as Air and ASKs (Available Seat Kilometres) the UK flag-carrier is still number one. A comprehensive list of new long-haul routes launched by Malta cooperating with Ryanair. airlines during the first few weeks of the winter season is 5 Focus on: Greece, Poland and UK. With the winter season (W18/19) now well under way, analysis presented on page 10 of this report. This does not include of the leading long-haul airlines from European airports 6 Germany is fastest-growing Canary routes that were started during the summer and are now confirms that Emirates is still leading the way (by seats), ahead operating for the first time in the winter season. Aeroflot and Islands market in W18/19; TUI fly of British Airways and two other European flag-carriers, Air and Condor are biggest carriers. Norwegian have both made significant additions to their long- France and Lufthansa. Doha-based Qatar Airways ranks fifth, haul networks, while all three major Gulf carriers have added a 7 Latest European route launches and ahead of the national airlines from the Netherlands, Turkey and new European destination to their route portfolio. analysis covering just four airlines Russia. Then come the three remaining US legacy carriers split The list of airports outside of Europe welcoming non-stop and 17 new routes. by fast-growing Norwegian. 8 Belfast flights dominated by routes to rest of UK, especially London. 9 UK-India market welcomes three new routes in 2018. 9 Wizz Air to launch Krakow base with 12 routes and two A321s in S19. Welcome Ten years ago Emirates was just the fifth biggest long-haul airline in Europe. Now it is #1, significantly bigger than British Airways. We look at the leading long-haul airlines and leading airports. Plus airport profiles on Belfast and Malta, a look at Etihad Airways’s European network, Wizz Air’s new Offering 36% more seats on long-haul flights than in W17/18, scheduled European flights this winter, and which did not Krakow base and trends in the German the Scandinavian carrier is the fastest-growing of the top 15 -Canary Islands and UK-India markets. welcome such flights last winter includes; Bandar Seri Begawan airlines in this analysis, ahead of Qatar Airways (+23%) and in Brunei (Royal Brunei Airlines’s service to London LHR Plus six country updates and analysis of Iberia (+14%). Iberia’s significant growth is helped by the airline previously operated via Dubai), Denpasar in Bali (served from almost 20 new launched routes. still being shown as the marketing carrier for LEVEL’s long-haul Moscow SVO by Aeroflot), Durban and Nashville (both served services from Barcelona, though its long-haul capacity from Ralph Anker by British Airways from Heathrow), Fort Myers in Florida Madrid is still up 12% thanks to increased capacity, especially [email protected] (served by Eurowings from Düsseldorf since May), Fuzhou in on routes to South America. China (to be served by Xiamen Airlines flying to Paris CDG How things have changed in a decade starting on 11 December), Indianapolis (served by Delta Air Repeating the same analysis using data from a decade earlier Lines from Paris CDG), Perth (thanks to Qantas’s long-haul (W08/09 compared with W07/08) highlights some of the key flights from London LHR which launched earlier this year) and changes in the aviation market. Now only Emirates of the Gulf St. Louis. carriers makes the top 15 (in fifth place) and there are six The last of these welcomed 5-weekly WOW air service from airlines from North America. Continental Airlines and Reykjavik KEF in mid-May, but sadly the route looks set to finish Northwest Airlines merged with United Airlines and Delta Air on 6 January as part of the airline’s rationalisation of its Lines, while Air Canada has slipped to 16th in the rankings in European and North American W18/19. There is also an Asian carrier, Singapore Airlines network. continues on page 10 The ANKER Report Issue 29: Monday 3 December 2018 1 Barcelona is Etihad Airways’s latest European destination; capacity still growing but four routes have been dropped in last two years Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways only launched services in November 2003 and, by some measures, could be considered the fastest-growing airline of all time, at least during its initial years. Just like its Gulf rivals, Emirates and Qatar Airways, routes to Europe have played a key part in the airline’s network development, with flights to Geneva, London LGW and London LHR all launching as early as 2004. Etihad Airways has added at least one new European destination in 11 of the last 14 years with Barcelona being the newest. Flights to Spain’s second city began on 28 November and marks the airline’s first new European routes since introducing Istanbul SAW and Venice VCE in 2016. Service to Istanbul’s second airport only lasted from July 2016 to March 2017, while flights to Venice operated from the end of October 2016 to the end of October 2017. As a result the number of destinations served in Europe has fallen in each of the last two years despite capacity increases of 6% in 2017 and 8% in 2018. Other routes that have failed to stand the test of time are Larnaka (last served in October 2016), London LGW, which was dropped at the end of March 2007, and Edinburgh which was last served on 30 September 2018. Emirates and Qatar Airways both much bigger Offering just over 3.1 million seats between its Abu Dhabi hub and Europe in 2018, Etihad Airways’s offering is significantly smaller than that of its two main rivals. Qatar Airways looks set to offer around 7.4 million seats between Doha and Europe in 2018, while Emirates is on track to fly 11.8 million seats to Europe from its Dubai DXB base. UK & Germany share 50% of European ASKs Looking at individual routes as measured by Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs), the airline’s 3-daily service to London LHR is almost twice as big as the airline’s second and third busiest European routes, which are Paris CDG and Manchester (both served 2-daily). According to FlightGlobal schedules data the airline’s 10 A380s are only used on two routes to Europe, London LHR and Paris CDG. In total, Etihad serves 14 countries in Europe with UK (31%) and German (19%) services accounting for half of the airline’s ASKs to Europe. The busiest European airports not currently served by Etihad (now that the airline has begun flights to Barcelona) are London LGW, Moscow SVO, Paris ORY, Istanbul SAW and Copenhagen. The first four of these are in cities that Etihad serves using other airports, making Copenhagen arguably the airline’s next most likely new route. Etihad currently does not serve any of the Nordic hubs. Unlike Emirates, Etihad Airways also operates some narrowbody aircraft, 22 A320s and 10 A321s. In 2018 these aircraft have been used on routes to Athens, Belgrade, Istanbul IST, Minsk and Moscow DME. Etihad Airways’s European routes from Abu Dhabi 2004-2018 Year Non-stop European destinations added Non-stop European destinations no longer served 2004 Geneva, London LGW, London LHR - 2005 Brussels BRU, Frankfurt FRA, Munich - 2006 Manchester, Paris CDG - 2007 Dublin, Milan MXP - 2008 Minsk, Moscow DME London LGW 2009 Athens, Istanbul IST, Larnaka - 2010 - - 2011 Düsseldorf - 2012 - - 2013 Amsterdam, Belgrade - 2014 Rome FCO, Zurich - 2015 Edinburgh, Madrid - 2016 Istanbul SAW, Venice VCE - 2017 - Larnaka 2018 Barcelona Istanbul SAW, Venice VCE Source: The ANKER Report analysis of FlightGlobal schedules data for 2003-2018. The ANKER Report Issue 29: Monday 3 December 2018 2 Germany: Passenger numbers were up 7.5% in October. Ireland: Traffic was up almost 8% in Ireland in October growing much faster than movement constrained Remember, last October airberlin was in the process of with Dublin leading the way. Ryanair and Aer Lingus are Amsterdam. The top five airlines all increased capacity collapsing. easyJet’s rapid growth at Berlin TXL has both growing solidly, but the fastest expansion has come by between 5% and 9%. Air France and Vueling helped that airport report 32% growth in October with from Norwegian and Flybe. registered decreases in seats while Wizz Air (+13%) was Germania the other airline reporting significant seat Netherlands: Dutch traffic grew by almost 4% in the fastest-growing of the top eight airlines despite growth compared with last October (+60%). November with the country’s secondary airports dropping five routes and adding only two.