Analysis for The Americas

British Airways (BA) has confirmed it will operate a five times weekly London Heathrow-Nashville service, effective May-2018, with Boeing 787-8 equipment. This is overtly an inward flight promotion, encouraging Tennessee travellers to journey to London or to one of 130 onward destinations that BA offers at Heathrow, and one that should also support British business efforts in and around Nashville, which claims to have one of the fastest growing economies in the US. It means there will be 26 US cities directly accessible by BA flights from London in summer 2018 (though there is only one in the UK directly accessible from the US – London).

The Chief Executive of Globalia, Javier Hidalgo, has stated a desire to “create a great hub in Madrid, like Dubai”, so that “Latin American passengers can stay two or three days before proceeding to travel on into Europe”.

Fiji Airways is planning to expand in the US market in response to surging demand and the emergence of Fiji as a popular holiday destination for Americans.

A trio of Far Eastern cities have been named best value for a long haul city break in a new barometer of costs for holidaymakers in ten cities with flight times of six or more hours from Europe. Research for the Post Office Travel Money Long Haul City Costs Barometer found that Bangkok is the cheapest overall destination, narrowly beating Tokyo and Beijing, while cities in North America were found to be significantly more expensive.

British Airways (BA) hasn’t been afraid to expand into new US markets this decade using the efficiency of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft and the leverage of its American Airlines joint venture to successfully introduce flights to Austin and more recently New Orleans. Now Nashville, the capital and largest city of in the state of Tennessee, will join the UK carrier’s network from May 2018 when a five times weekly service from London Heathrow is introduced.

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Romanian national carrier Tarom is to push ahead with the acquisition of up to three widebodied aircraft to support its long-haul network development. The formal Request for Proposals (RFP) confirms a CAPA – Centre for Aviation exclusive story from the start of June when the airline’s CEO, Eugen Davidoiu, told The Blue Swan Daily that the recent arrival of Boeing 737-800s was just the first stage of a fleet renewal plan both to facilitate network growth as well as to replace older generation equipment.

Latin American LCC group Viva is considering the launch of new affiliates after placing an order for 50 A320 family aircraft. The 15 A320ceos and 35 A320neos will be used to expand in Colombia and Peru, as well as to support potential start-ups throughout Latin America.

When you consider short-haul feed within the Air France business model you would obviously consider the airline’s vast network into its Charles De Gaulle Airport hub in Paris. However, did you know that the European flag carrier has also been providing short-haul flights in the Caribbean for 70 years?

US major Delta Air Lines is at the centre of a deepening transatlantic airline partnership that will see Sir Richard Branson sell his majority stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways. The airline will pay €375 million to acquire 10% equity and a seat on the Air France-KLM Group Board of Directors and £220 million of that money is being immediately used by the European joint venture to acquire a 31% stake in UK carrier Virgin Atlantic Airways.