Analysis for The Americas

Earlier this month, we witnessed yet another example of an airline attempting to cash in on the success of a movie franchise by plastering well known images and characters all over a select aircraft. Jetstar Japan ensured the release of the new Spiderman movie, Spiderman: Homecoming, helped build brand awareness for the airline by not only splashing a giant Spiderman across an aircraft but also inviting guests to dress up as the friendly neighbourhood hero.

The great strength of hub airports is that they connect passengers from one point to another, quickly, effectively and quite often more cheaply than on a direct service from the point of origin. Under sixth freedom traffic rights, airlines such as KLM (at Amsterdam Schiphol) and Singapore Airlines (at Singapore Changi) have built major hubs on such passenger flows.

The introduction last month of a new seasonal Transatlantic connection from Madrid to Boston, Air Europa’s third US route and fourth destination in North America is just the latest stage of a network expansion that is seeing it rival Spain’s national carrier, Iberia, particularly across the Americas market.

The 2017 Paris Air Show produced an unexpected flurry of orders – Boeing and its new 737 MAX 10 emerging with a clear victory on what has historically been Airbus home turf. Deals were announced covering almost 1200 aircraft at the air show, making Paris the busiest air show since 2013.

Argentina has been a white spot in Australia’s international network since Qantas and Aerolineas Argentinas suspended services earlier this decade on the Sydney-Buenos Aires route. Regaining a service to Buenos Aires is an obvious target for Sydney Airport and could potentially be realised early next decade.

Avianca is planning to expand its network in Europe as part of the next phase of its international expansion as it starts to focus more on the international market, while slowing its domestic expansion. The Colombia based airline group plans to resume non-stop flights into Germany, adding to its existing European destinations of Barcelona, Madrid, and London Heathrow.

Norwegian will increase the pressure on European and US legacy carriers with the further expansion of its Transatlantic network next summer as it continues to show it is not afraid to compete directly with major airlines in both established and emerging city pair markets.

Asian carrier Hong Kong Airlines is expected to introduce flights into Europe and in particular resume services between Hong Kong and London as it takes delivery of its new Airbus A350-900s. The carrier, part of the HNA Group, has already confirmed Hong Kong – Los Angeles as the debut market for the type, but is understood to be very close to making a decision on London services, in an arrangement that could see it partner with Virgin Atlantic on the city pair.

Israel’s El Al has never been seen as being at the cutting edge of the passenger experience, but that could all change as the airline takes a modern approach to flying with the introduction of its first two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners into its fleet during the second half of this year. A significantly raised cabin and in-flight offering on the type will see the carrier bring added competition on its flights into Europe from September 2017 and North America and Asia from October 2017.

The CAPA-ACTE 2017 Melbourne Aviation and Corporate Travel Summit, recently took place with highly informative discussions from a wide range of expert speakers.