Corporate Travel Analysis Reports

The Sep-2016 launch of flights by Singapore Airlines (SIA) has led to a more modest than expected increase in international traffic for Wellington Airport. The Wellington-Canberra sector of SIA's new Wellington-Canberra-Singapore route has also struggled somewhat with an initial load factor of less than 65%. However, the Wellington-Singapore market could still potentially support a nonstop service in future as demand for Wellington-Canberra-Singapore been impacted by a less than ideal product.

Central and Eastern European low cost carrier Wizz Air has confirmed it will take action to safeguard its important UK network of flights and establish a UK-based operation if uncertainty continues to persist over the protection of traffic rights once the United Kingdom (UK) leaves the European Union (EU).

UK regional carrier Loganair will take to the air in its own right once again in autumn 2017 after nearly quarter of a century flying under franchise arrangements with other airlines. It will become the national carrier of Scotland when it ends its current agreement with Flybe ahead of next year's winter schedule, but an aggressive stance from its former business partner is souring the road to independence.

It's not all priority boarding and airport lounge access driving business travellers anymore, says Egencia's Business Travel and Technology Survey. In its 4^th edition, the survey shows the increasing desire by business travellers for technology access, cross-device integration, and greater productivity offerings on the road rather than traditional airline offerings.

Philippine low cost airline Cebu Pacific is aiming to upgrade its Manila-Sydney service to daily, satisfied with its improving performance on the route.

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.

A more efficient usage of slots at London Heathrow has helped Europe's largest airport continue to grow its passenger traffic despite operating at near capacity. A record 6.76 million passengers were handled in June 2017 (+2.3% from June 2016), including a record 259,917 passengers flying through on June 30, 2017, the airport's busiest day ever, has boosted the number of passengers travelling through the UK's hub in the past 12 months to 77 million, another record.

Papua New Guinea's PNG Air is hallway through an ambitious fleet renewal and expansion programme, which has enabled the airline to improve its product and increase domestic capacity.

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.

Last week, the Blue Swan Daily teased you with our exclusive interview with Malaysia Airlines CEO, Peter Bellew, who visited the CAPA offices to discuss all things Malaysia Airlines in the Australia market.