common sense: it’s the name of the game

BRINGING YOU THE NEWS FROM THE 13TH WORLD ROUTE DEVELOPMENT FORUM IN STOCKHOLM – 25 SEPT

DAY 3 I TUESDAY

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07.30 Registration open08.30 One-to-one meetings begin10.10-10.40 Refreshment break10.40-12.40 One-to-one meetings12.40-14.00 Lunch in the networking village*

14.00-15.30 One-to-one meetings15.30-16.00 Refreshment break16.00-17.30 One-to-one meetings17.30-19.30 Farewell function*

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ROUTES I TUESDAY PROGRAMME

The citizens of Scandinaviacould be forgiven for feeling alittle confused over the argu-ment between Stockholm andCopenhagen as to which city isthe ‘capital’ of the region.

Now they can be a little moreconfused after Norway’s capitalOslo waded into the debate,

Ding ding, round two! Stockholm andCopenhagen have been involved in a spat overwhich city is the ‘capital of Scandinavia.’ Now, enter Oslo with some pretty blunt advice

Common sense: It’s thename of the game

albeit with a plea for commonsense and a call for the region towork together.

“This argument reminds me ofmy nephew and my niece whenthey are arguing over the remotecontrol for the TV and it alwaysends up with me having it,” saidFrode Fosse Valland, marketingco-ordinator for visitOslo.

“We are all going around say-ing we are the capital ofScandinavia when what weshould really be doing is all of uscapitalising on Scandinavia.”

Following the story in yesterday’s Airline Business Dailyin which Stockholm andCopenhagen staked their claims,Valland called on all the partiesto end the bickering.

“We should all stop doing thisnow because we are one destina-tion. We have been fighting formore than 700 years to defineour countries and we should allnow work harder at better presenting what we do in today’s world.”

Four European airports yesterdayjoined past Nobel prize winners inusing Stockholm’s famous city hallas the venue to celebrate awardsuccess. At a glittering ceremonyheld in the same location as theannual Nobel banquet, AmsterdamSchiphol (highly commended:Munich; Hong Kong), Athens (highlycommended: Istanbul; Zurich),London City (highly commended:Aruba; Damman) and Milan Linate(highly commended: Birmingham;Sao Paulo) were unveiled as theoverall winners in this year’s presti-gious OAG Airport MarketingAwards, presented by OAG’s CEOAlan Glass. British Airways’ CEOWillie Walsh received the 2007ORBIS ‘social responsibility award’presented by Georgina Howson, cor-porate fundraising manager of theinternational charity that works tire-lessly towards the prevention ofblindness. The event was co-hosted by the City of Stockholmand Stockholm Arlanda Airport.

With a shiny new terminal just opened and a second runway to be commis-sioned in early 2009, new business development director Francisco Cuellarhas every reason to be singing the praises of fast-growing Cancun. TheMexican airport’s third terminal has taken the pressure off its other busy ter-minals, which are expected to handle 12 million passengers this year. Cancunis particularly keen to develop new international services to Scandinavia andeastern Europe and consolidate its North American network, says Cuellar.

And the winner is...

SEE PAGE 15

Cancun strums a happy tune

AIRLINE BUSINESS @ ROUTES 25 September 2007 3

Daily editorial teamGeoff Thomas, Brendan Sobie,Mike Martin, Kerry Ezard

ContributorsMark Pilling, David Field,Allison Tucker, Alan Peaford,Gunter Endres

Design/productionAmelia Clark

Photographer Tom Gordon

Distribution George Lowrie

Printed byMorgan Axelsson,Fagerblads

Where to find usThe Routes Daily team can becontacted at room K6 atStockholm International Fairs.The telephone number is+46(0)87272011 / 2012.© Airline Business 2007

Editorial head officeQuadrant House, The Quadrant,Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS, UKTel: +44 208 652 4996Fax: +44 208 652 8914e: [email protected]

To read the AirlineBusiness blogs visit

www.flightglobal.com/routes2007

PUBLISHED BY AIRLINE BUSINESS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH AEROCOMM

Advertisement salesShawn Buck, Robert Hancock,Pierre Mussard

ROUTES HAPPENINGS

Delta confirms Arlanda plansDelta Air Lines plans to announce sever-al new transatlantic routes for 2008 overthe coming weeks.

As reported exclusively by AirlineBusiness Daily yesterday Delta willlaunch flights to Stockholm Arlandafrom its Atlanta hub on 4 June. At yes-terday’s press conference with ArlandaAirport, Delta director of internationalplanning, Andy Renner, confirmedStockholm will be Delta’s 37th transat-lantic destination and 30th in Europe.

Later this week, Delta will announceits 38th transatlantic destination andadd several more new transatlanticroutes more as it finalises its summer2008 schedule. “We have more routeannouncements for 2008,” Rennerpromises.

The summer 2008 schedule will alsofeature the launch of flights fromLondon Heathrow. The new EU-USOpen Skies agreement opens upHeathrow to more US carriers includingDelta and Renner says Delta is deter-mined to begin serving Heathrow fromthe end of March 2008.

Delta plans to move at least some ofits London-Atlanta and London-NewYork flights from Gatwick to Heathrowand is now trying to secure slots atHeathrow.

“Heathrow is a very congested air-port. We’re exploring all options,”Renner says.

Delta is negotiating to acquireHeathrow slots from other carriers,including SkyTeam alliance partner AirFrance. Renner says the negotiationsshould be completed by year-end butsays it is too early to say if Delta will getenough slots to move all its Gatwickflights to Heathrow or will have to splitits London operation between two air-ports. “We’d like to decide it as soon aspossible. It’s hard to determine thetimeline because other carriers controlthe slots,” Renner says.

Stockholm is Delta’s second destina-tion in Scandinavia after Copenhagen,which it began serving from Atlanta in2006. “We’re happy with theCopenhagen service,” Renner says. “Itwas one of our best new route addi-tions from Atlanta among our 2006route additions. We’re very bullish onScandinavia because of that and wethink both markets will be comple-mentary.”

He adds leisure travellers visitingScandinavia in particular like the flexi-bility of flying into one city and out ofanother. Business travellers also oftendo business in both Copenhagen andStockholm.

Delta chose to link Stockholm withAtlanta instead of its New York JFK hubbecause “Atlanta has more connectionsplus in our mind New York has a lot ofservice”. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS),Continental Airlines and MalaysiaAirlines now all serve the Stockholm-New York route.

Renner points out Atlanta passengers

arriving from Stockholm will be able toconnect within four hours to flights to140 North American destinations.“Atlanta-Stockholm is not just aboutAtlanta. It’s about all of the US as well asconnections to Mexico, the Caribbeanand Latin America.”

Continental links Stockholm with itsNewark hub and US Airways linksStockholm with its hub in Philadelphiabut Renner says “nothing comes closeto this” in terms of number connec-tions available in Atlanta. StockholmArlanda managing director KerstinLindberg Goransson says 900 US com-panies have offices in Sweden including50 from the state of Georgia, whereAtlanta is located.

Atlanta-Stockholm is the fourth long-haul route announcement for Arlandathis year, Goransson points out. SASannounced earlier this year new routesto Beijing and Bangkok and QatarAirways announced a new route toDoha. “This proves the strength of theStockholm market,” Goransson says. ■

Renner andGoranssoncelebrateafterannouncingDelta’s newAtlanta-Stockholmroute

4 AIRLINE BUSINESS @ ROUTES 25 September 2007

LEADERSHIP FORUM

JURASSIC BARK!British Airways was yester-day accused of being a“dinosaur” for not embrac-

ing the European Union-USA Open Skiesagreement with more enthusiasm.

The accusation was made during theRoutes Leaders’ Forum by formerOlympic Airways chairman RigasDoganis, who said: “I find it astonishingthat British Airways and others have notbeen more enthusiastic – many of themare dinosaurs.

“They should be more enthusiastic.The existing agreement is not perfect, butit gives opportunities for new airports tobe served, and for new airlines and newmodels. The [European] Commissionshould be thanked for getting this far.”

British Airways chief executive WillieWalsh raised a chuckle in the audience bygiving the deadpan response: “Well, thisis me being excited… maybe it’s just dif-ferent personalities.”

Walsh attributes his lack of enthusiasmfor the Open Skies deal to the fact that itdoes not provide the opportunity for dra-matic change. “The Open Skies agree-ment is a small step forward but I don’tthink it’s radically going to change thecompetitive landscape,” he says. “Theissue is: how soon can we move to gen-uine liberalisation? That’s the real prizewe should be aiming for.”

Mark Nicklas, senior negotiator of airservice agreements at the EuropeanCommission’s directorate general forenergy and transport, admits there is fur-ther progress to be made, particularly oncabotage and ownership rights.Negotiations for a second stage agree-ment are scheduled to begin in May

2008, and Nicklas says that if no progressis made on these issues by November2010 the EC can – and will –suspend cer-tain rights.

“We can’t suspend all traffic rights butwe can suspend freedom rights. It will beup to EU member states to decide whatthey want to suspend,” adds Nicklas.However, with presidential elections inthe USA set for next year, he acknowl-edges that “a major breakthrough in 2008is unlikely”.

This point is echoed by Walsh: “Wehave got to be realistic – it’s going to bedifficult the make progress in the time-frame given because of the political cli-mate that exists in the US.”

Despite not jumping up and downwith joy over the existing Open Skiesdeal, British Airways is taking advantageof the lifting of restrictions on Europe-USA flights by pressing ahead with itsplan to operate non-stop flights to theUSA from key destinations in continen-tal Europe.

Walsh says the carrier aims initially tolaunch flights to New York from betweentwo and three points in Europe, but thiswill expand later on. “Expect us to startsmall, but the opportunity will grow overtime. We’ve surprised people by saying we

would do this, but we as a European car-rier have the strongest European brand inNorth America.”

He believes this brand recognition,together with there being “key marketswhich are not being served in terms ofproduct”, means that launching conti-nental Europe-USA flights is “quite aneasy opportunity for us to target predom-inantly US sales”. British Airways will ini-tially operate these flights with Boeing757s, which Walsh describes as “not anideal aircraft, but a good aircraft”.

Speaking to the Airline Business Dailyafter the forum, Walsh said BA is nowtalking to about a half dozen large air-ports in continental Europe and “proba-bly in mid to late November” will selecttwo or three for new services to New YorkJFK. At the same time, BA will decide howmany of its 13 757s it will re-configurewith its long-haul business class product.“We’ll definitely use two. The question isif we’ll use three.”

Walsh adds the aircraft will definitelyhave flat bed seats in the front and BAwill decide in November whether it willhave a premium economy or regulareconomy section in the back. The newflights are slated to begin next summer,most likely June. ■

B Y K E R RY E Z A R D

British Airways gets slammed at the show for its‘prehistoric’ response to the Open Skies agreement

“I find itastonishingthat BritishAirways andothers havenot beenmore enthu-siastic –many ofthem aredinosaurs”Rigas DoganisFormer OlympicAirways chairman

Rigas Doganis:Tyrannosaurus vexed... Willie Walsh: fossilised response?

To readthe

AirlineBusinessblogs visitflightglobal.com/ab/routes2007

The aerospace industry deserves recognitionfor the work it has done in reducing emis-sions, and a level of balance needs to bebrought into the environmental debate,Emirates president Tim Clark told the RoutesLeaders’ Forum yesterday.

Clark “can’t understand why, in Europe,aviation has moved to the centre stage soquickly” in terms of its impact on climatechange. “It seems to me that environmentalconcerns need a degree of balance,” he adds,pointing to advances made in aircraft designand describing the Boeing 787 and the AirbusA350XWB as “the threshold for 21st centuryaircraft design”.

However, Clark believes manufacturers nowneed to work towards designing a “simple andlight” aircraft specifically targeted at the needsof low-cost carriers. “With the growth of low-cost airlines, manufacturers now have to

rethink the way they design aircraft. Thereneeds to be something simple that these peo-ple [low-cost carriers] will buy that isn’t chuck-ing out huge amounts of pollution.”

Fariba Alamdari, VP of market and valueanalysis at Boeing, agrees that there is a needfor an aircraft tailored towards the low-costsector. She says: “We are looking at next gen-eration composite materials to make aircraftlighter. Manufacturers are looking at ways tomake aircraft lighter and simpler.”

On the subject of emissions trading, Clarksays there is “as much chance of ICAO devel-oping a global emissions trading scheme asthere is of Carling running out of lager beer inthe UK”. He adds that he is “not quite sure theEuropean Commission is aware of the level ofcompetitive disadvantage” its European Unionemissions trading scheme will place onEurope-based carriers.

But British Airways chief executive WillieWalsh takes a different view, saying he is a“very clear proponent of the inclusion of avia-tion” in the European emissions tradingscheme: “We have seen a 23% reduction in ourdomestic CO2 emissions [since participating ina voluntary scheme in the UK]. Our experienceof emissions trading is quite positive.”

However, Walsh adds that the EuropeanUnion “needs to be realistic in terms of itsambitions”, pointing out that “to think it candictate to the rest of the world is taking it astep too far”.

Also under discussion during yesterday’spanel was the potential of biofuels for use inaviation. Alamdari says that in 10 years’ timethere will be “a very good opportunity tocome up with an algae-based biofuel”, whichcould lead to a 60-80% reduction in the car-bon footprint.

Several UK airports are courtingMalaysia’s AirAsia X as the long-haullow-cost carrier prepares for a lateOctober launch of services.

AirAsia X’s chief executive AzranOsman-Rani says the carrier will launchservices to Australia and China “at theend of next month” and plans to beginflights to the UK “towards the tail endof next year”. He adds AirAsia X is nowtalking to several UK airports includingKent, Luton, Manchester and Stansted.

“It depends on which airport in theUK gives us the best deal. We haven’tconcluded negotiations yet,” Azran saidyesterday during the Routes Leaders’Forum session on the long-haul low-cost model.

After Stockholm, Azran is heading toAustralia, where he says he will formal-ly announce later this week one of theAirAsia X’s first two routes. Azran saysthe carrier, which took delivery of itsfirst A330 last week, will launch withfour weekly flights to an Australian cityand five weekly flights to a Chinesecity. AirAsia indicated in July that it wasplanning to initially serve the GoldCoast in Australia and Hangzhou inChina from its Kuala Lumpur base butAzran would not confirm if this is stillthe plan.

Azran says Australia’s largest airport,Sydney, is “clearly too expensive” forAirAsia. But the chief executive of

Sydney Airport owner MacquarieAirports, Kerrie Mather responds: “Ithink he is having a go because hewants to fly to Sydney and negotiate alower cost. Sydney is obviously thelargest market in Australia. It’s still sub-stantially underserved.”

She adds Sydney already has twolong-haul low-cost carriers, Jetstar andViva Macau. Oasis Hong Kong Airlinesalso is considering flying to Sydney.Mather says Jetstar, which operates sev-

eral long-haul low-cost routes fromSydney including to Kuala Lumpur, hasproven the long-haul low-cost modelcan work. “It is a successful example oflong-haul low-cost,” Mather says,adding there is “significant opportuni-ties” for airports to cater to these newbreed of carriers but these opportunitiesin many cases are impeded by restric-tive bilaterals.

Adds Malaysia Airports managingdirector Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid:“It’s premature to say it [the long-haullow-cost model] won’t work. From anairport point of view we’re gettingready for it.”

Azran says AirAsia X will offer in theUK-Malaysia market 31in-pitch econo-my class seats starting at $500roundtrip and business class seats start-ing at $1000. There will be no free foodor drink for either class but the businessclass seat will be significantly wider andhave significantly more legroom.


LEADERSHIP FORUM

Emirates president seeks balance in green debate

AirAsia X’schief executiveAzranOsman-Rani

It depends on which airport in theUK gives us the best deal. We haven’t concludednegotiations yet

UK airports seek the X-factor

Booming Berlin is back...Rocketing passenger numbersthrough Berlin’s airports havebrought the German capital“back into history,” said BurkhardKieker (pictured), VP marketingand corporate communicationsfor Berlin Airports, at Routes yes-terday.

Boosted by the move of theGerman parliament from Bonnto Berlin, passenger numbershave leapt from 13 million in2003 to 19.5 million this year.

Next year will see the figurecrash through the 20 millionmark as work continues on thebuilding of the brand new air-port for the city, scheduled forcompletion in 2011.

The new airport will offerthe city capacity of 50 million.

“For 60 years Berlin wasdenied and it has taken the citysome ten or 15 years to recover,”says Kieker. “Now that process isfinished and we are a very strongplayer again. The message is thatBerlin is back into history again.”

“As far as the airports areconcerned, we are now thenumber three player and wewill be a very strong numberthree. There is tremendousgrowth in traffic and where wehave two legs as far as intercon-tinental traffic is concerned, infuture we will have three legs,the third being Berlin.”

The time is ripe for an Indian orChinese airport to seize the initiativeand carve itself a role as a major region-al hub, said John Grant, principal con-sultant with ASM, the ‘route develop-ment for airports’ specialists, speakingat Routes 2007 yesterday.

“If you are in India or Pakistan youtend to go to Dubai, Doha or AbuDhabi for connections, so there has gotto be an opportunity for an Indian orChinese airport to establish itself as ahub,” he says.

“One of the interesting things inIndia is that all markets are locally driv-en and nobody has got to grips with thehub opportunity.”

He adds: “It could be a Chinese air-port but they will have to sort out thetransfers process. Sometimes you can-not transit without a visa and some-times you have to change terminals oreven airports.

“It will just take somebody to gettheir act together.”

Whatever develops, Grant says that

the situation throughout the world-wide industry is very fluid anddynamic.

“If you look at what Dubai hasachieved in a short time you can seehow things can change. Only 20 yearsago it was Singapore and London: nowyou have Dubai and that came fromnothing.

“The biggest threat to the major air-ports is complacency. Those airportsthat are currently number one or twoare the ones who should worry. Theyare like oil tankers and they cannotchange direction very quickly.”

ASM has itself been rapidly respond-ing to the dynamic changes in the mar-ket through a programme of expansionover the last two years. It has openedoffices in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing andHyderabad and an associate office inJapan. It is also looking at other oppor-tunities such as Latin America.

“Basically, we are operating in all themajor global markets,” he says. “Thedemand is incredible. You can see ithere at Routes – people understand thatthey need a competitive position in themarket.”

If you lookat whatDubai hasachieved ina short timeyou can seehow thingscan change.

John GrantASM principalconsultant

China or India: Next regional hubEXHIBITOR NEWS


In yesterday’s edition of Airline Business Daily News, we stated thatVivaAerobus would be the ‘first and only’ operator using the new termi-nal that’s planned for Austin airport in Texas. If the proposed terminal(an innovative JV between the city council and GE Commercial AviationServices) goes ahead, the airport authorities will be looking for otherlow-cost airlines to join launch-operator VivaAerobus in the new facility.

CORRECTION

been in use since March 2006 andJanuary 2007, respectively.

Ahmad says work will begin on thenew Kuala Lumpur terminal next year,while no date has been set for the com-mencement of work on the new KotaKinabalu terminal. He adds that both ofthe existing budget terminals were onlyever meant to be temporary as MalaysiaAirports gauged the level of demand forlow-cost services.

Kuala Lumpur’s existing low-cost ter-minal is located about 20km (12.4mi) byroad from the airport’s main terminal,and is close to reaching its capacity for 10

million passengers peryear. The new terminalwill have three times asmuch capacity and willbe located closer to themain terminal.

“We needed to build[the Kuala Lumpur termi-nal] very quickly. Thelocation where we built itwas the best for themoment because italready had an apron. Wealso wanted to see howlow-cost air travel grewbefore building a perma-nent facility, and it grewbeyond expectations.”This is largely the result ofthe expansion of AirAsia.

The existing low-costterminal at KotaKinabalu has capacityfor three million passen-gers annually and is cur-rently handling lessthan one million, sothere is less urgency tobegin work on thereplacement facility. ■

regions at a rate of about four to five peryear. “We have been quite fortunatethat traffic has been growing steadilyover the last few years.”

“While we would like to have the bigcarriers coming in, we welcome everyairline. We are particularly pleased thatthis year we’ve seen Etihad and Jetstarcome in – this shows that we are startingto attract long-haul airlines,” notesAhmad, adding that the airport “cer-tainly would like to welcome US carri-ers” in the long-term.

Kuala Lumpur faces strong competi-tion for Asia-Pacific hub status fromBangkok and Singapore,but Ahmad believesMalaysia has two keyweapons that will enableit to compete effectively:“Although we have com-peting airports in theregion, we believe wehave the potential togrow because our tourismindustry is attractingmore and more visitors toMalaysia. Also, we have avery strong outboundtravel market fromMalaysia, so hopefullythis will benefit us.”

Low-cost boomMalaysia has experiencedso much of an increase inlow-cost airline trafficthat it has decided tobuild larger dedicatedlow-cost terminals atKuala Lumpur and KotaKinabalu in the easternstate of Sabah to replacethe existing budget termi-nals, which have only

Malaysia Airports, thehosts for the 2008 RouteDevelopment Forum in

Kuala Lumpur, is attending this year’sevent in full force with a 50-strong con-tingent as it seeks to publicise its hometurf to long-haul carriers.

Dato’ Seri Bashir Ahmad, the airportgroup’s chief executive, says the contin-gent includes the mayor of KualaLumpur, representatives from TourismMalaysia, as well as around 15 Malaysianjournalists. Malaysia Airports funded thejournalists’ trip as a means of ensuringmaximum coverage of the event in thelocal and national press.

“It’s important for [the journalists] tounderstand and write about Routes, sothat people in Malaysia can understandand fully support the event,” saysAhmad.

He adds that discussions are now tak-ing place over the social activities pro-gramme that will be offered to delegatesat Routes 2008: “We will arrange for pre-and post-conference tours and willencourage delegates to visit other areas ofthe country as well.”

Malaysia Airports is keen to use boththis year’s and next year’s Routes toentice long-haul carriers into launchingflights to Kuala Lumpur. The group willbe making a particular play for BritishAirways, which axed Kuala Lumpurfrom its network in 2001. “We are con-tinually talking with British Airwaysand we are hopeful that some time inthe future they will return to KualaLumpur,” says Ahmad.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airports is“quite happy with the number of carri-ers from the Middle East and China”,and is attracting airlines from these


INTERVIEW MEET THE 2008 HOSTS

Malaysia is gearing up for nextyear’s Routes event in KualaLumpur – and looking forwardto showing off its potential

“We believewe have thepotential to growbecause ourtourismindustry isattractingmore andmore visitors”

Dato’ SeriBashir AhmedMalaysia AirportsCEO

Next year’s Routes hosts Kuala Lumpur celebrated being in Stockholm by presentingsome traditional Malaysian dance to delegates and exhibitors.

Dancing queen...

BY KERRY EZARD

EasternEastern

PromisePromise

Scandinavianstand-off 2!

EXHIBITOR NEWS


Valland says that each of thecities had its strengths andwould qualify as a regional ‘capital’ by some measures:Stockholm is a modern designand business capital; Copen-hagen is a “classical” capital; andOslo is a 1,000 year old Vikingcapital and a favoured destina-tion for tourism.

“If I were to choose for myself Iwould say Copenhagen becauseit is a classical city, but Stockholmis a modern hub,” he says.

“We are different cities andarguing about which is the mostimportant is like arguing aboutwhich foot is more importantthan the other. We are better thanthis and we want to get acrossthat this argument is wrong.”

Meanwhile, Helsinki couldalso make a claim to be theregion’s hub as flag carrierFinnair continues to expand its

impressive Asian network.Finnair director of internation-

al relations Sverker Skogberg saysthe carrier will add its 11th Asiandestination, Seoul, next June andis in talks with several potential-ly new Asian airports. “Our goalis to open one to two Asian desti-nations yearly,” Skogberg says.

He adds Finnair will have theaircraft to meet the goal becauseit is committed to increasing thesize of its widebody fleet fromnine to 12 aircraft by 2010. Thewidebodies are used on Asianroutes and Finnair’s lone NorthAmerican route, to New York. Intotal Finnair now operates 11intercontinental routes fromHelsinki, or two more interconti-nental routes than StockholmArlanda currently has from allcarriers combined.

Remarkably there are as manySwedes as Finns on Finnair’sAsian flights. Skogberg says on anaverage flight from Helsinki to

Asia, 20% are from Sweden, 20%are from Finland, 5% are fromDenmark and Norway and 55%are from other countries, mainlyother European countries.

Finnair now operates 10 flights per day to Stockholm andthree per day to Gothenburg.Stockholm accounts for 15% of Finnair’s Asian passengers and Gothenburg about 5%,Skogberg says.

This has not surprisinglydrawn the attention of ArlandaAirport and ScandinavianAirlines (SAS). SAS will launchnon-stop flights from Stockholmto Bangkok next month andBeijing in April. Swedes now fly-ing to these two Asian cities havethe choice of backtrackingthrough Copenhagen on SAS orflying through Helsinki onFinnair. Skogberg says most flythrough Helsinki because theconnection times are better andbusinessmen can get in at leastan extra half day’s work.

“We’re doing extremely well inSweden now. Our brand is good.People realise how smoothHelsinki airport is,” he says.

Skogberg acknowledges “com-petition will be tougher” afterSAS starts operating direct servic-es from Stockholm to Asia butthinks demand from Swedes forconnections via Helsinki willremain strong.

“So far we haven’t seen anyalarming signs,” he says, refer-ring to forward bookings forBangkok. “We’ve been waitingfor SAS to do something like this.We still trust the brand thatwe’ve built up.” ■

FROM P1

Quick on the draw!Today is your last chance to enter the ATI InternetCafé prize draw in which you could be the luckywinner of a video iPod. Just drop by the ATI stand(F2), leave your business card in the draw box andkeep your fingers crossed. The draw will be held onthe stand at 3pm today.

And more prizes up for grabs!Routes’ ‘airline visit’ prize draw has been extended this year, with even more prizes up forgrabs during the event. As usual, the many exoticprizes reflect each donating airport’s region – sodon’t delay, enter today! Simply pick up yourstamp card (on each meeting table) and take it toany participating hosted networking stand andhave it endorsed. All the lucky winners will benotified today (Tuesday).

inshortChinese mega-expansion continuesChina’s major carriers have unveiled plans to launchmore than 27 new long-haul routes over the next twoyears. Air China will launch 12 new routes, includingBeijing-Berlin and Beijing-Istanbul in March, andBeijing-Warsaw in October 2008. China Southern willlaunch Beijing-Newark in July 2008 followed byGuangzhou-Moscow services in October.China Eastern will launch Shanghai-Los Angeles servic-es in June 2008. Hainan Airlines will launch Beijing-Berlin services in May 2008 followed by Beijing-Seattle in June. Shanghai Airlines will, in summer orautumn next year, launch Shanghai-Hamburg,Shanghai-Vienna and Shanghai-Zurich services. In2009, Air China will launch Beijing-Toronto, Beijing-Washington, Shanghai-San Francisco, Beijing-Manchester, Beijing-Zurich, Beijing-Dusseldorf, Beijing-Vienna, Beijing-Rome and Beijing-Milan.

Frode Fosse Vallard joins the ‘Scandinavian capital’ debate

“This argument reminds me of my nephewand my niece when they are arguing overthe remote control for the TV and it alwaysends up with me having it”

STOP PRESS: Cathay Pacific Air-ways last night opted not to pro-ceed with a proposed acquisitionof shares in China EasternAirlines, a move that could haveupset plans by Singapore Airlinesto acquire its own stake in theChinese carrier.

Trading in Cathay Pacificshares on the Hong Kong stockexchange was suspended on 21September pending anannouncement by the airline,fuelling speculation over a possi-ble China Eastern bid.

But in a statement last night,Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacificsays that its proposed buy-in,together with the China NationalAviation Holding Company, will“not now proceed”.

Cathay’s proposed bid, had it

gone ahead, would have replacedthe bid put forward by SIA andSingapore Government invest-ment division Temasek Holdings.

SIA and Temasek had previous-ly agreed to acquire a combined24% share of Shanghai-basedChina Eastern.

Earlier yesterday, Chinese flagcarrier Air China’s shares weresuspended from trading in HongKong, further fuelling speculationthat it and equity partner CathayPacific Airways were preparing ajoint bid for China EasternAirlines which could havederailed SIA’s planned buy-in.

Air China and Cathay own17.5% of each other and AirChina has in recent months beenquietly buying up China Easternshares, giving it 11%.

Rumours were rife in recentmonths that China Eastern maybe forced to merge with one ofChina’s stronger carriers, such asAir China, but early this month itagreed to the 24% buy-in by SIAand Temasek.

The deal, which has governmentapproval but which still requires anOK from minority shareholders,will see SIA and Temasek payingHK$7.15 billion ($916 million) forthe combine\d stake.

For loss-making China Easternthe SIA agreement was negotiatedin part to ease shareholder con-cerns that it has not acted quick-ly enough to restructure its oper-ations. Star Alliance member SIAsaid in announcing the deal thatit would have a management rolein China Eastern.

ATIIn conjunction with Air Transport Intelligence, the 24-hour

news and data service from the publisher of FlightInternational, Airline Business, and Flight Daily News.

Find us at: www.rati.com

China Eastern Airlines plans to use larger aircraft androute some of its services to Melbourne, Australia via thenorthern Australian city of Brisbane. The Civil AviationAdministration of China (CAAC) says in a statement thatChina Eastern has applied to have a twice-weekly serviceon the Shanghai-Brisbane-Melbourne-Shanghai route and atwice-weekly service on the Shanghai-Melbourne-Brisbane-Shanghai route. It says the airline plans to use AirbusA340s on the routes and commence the services as earlyas November. China Eastern currently serves Melbournefour-times weekly, non-stop from Shanghai, using AirbusA330s but no airlines currently serve the Shanghai-Brisbane route, according to Innovata.

inbrief

CATHAY ABANDONS PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF CHINA EASTERN STAKE


China Southern Airlines is launching servicesfrom Shenyang in northeast China to Seoul inSouth Korea and another service fromShanghai to Cebu in the Philippines. The CivilAviation Administration of China says ChinaSouthern has applied for permission to launcha four-times-weekly service from Shanghai toCebu using Boeing MD-90s. It also says ChinaSouthern has applied for permission to launcha twice-weekly service from Shenyang to Seoulusing Airbus A319s. According to Innovata no airlines currently operate on these routes.

Indian low-fare carrier Air Deccanis to launch services between itsBangalore base and the poorlyconnected city of Vijayawada inthe state of Andhra Pradesh. AirDeccan says in a statement that itwill launch a six-times-weeklyservice between Bangalore and thesouth-east city of Vijayawada on29 October. Flights will be operat-ed with ATR turboprops.

Air Deccan, which also hasAirbus A320s, will be the only air-line operating between Bangalore,which is known as an IT centre,and Vijayawada, known for auto-motive, garment, iron and hard-ware industries.

Vijayawada has poor air linksand Air Deccan was the first carri-er to start serving it, fromHyderabad and Rajahmundry.The airline is part-owned by full-service carrier Kingfisher Airlinesand currently operates to morethan 65 Indian destinations.

INDIGO’S 12TH A320SEES NEW ROUTELAUNCH

China Southern to launchShanghai-Cebu, Shenyang-Seoul

China Eastern to serve Brisbane

AIR DECCAN TOLAUNCH NEW SERVICES

Indian low-fare carrier Indigo haslaunched several new routes afterputting into service its 12thAirbus A320. The carrier, whichlaunched operations in Augustlast year, says in a statement thatit took delivery of its latest A320direct from Airbus on 11September. It has used it tolaunch new Hyderabad-Jaipur,Kochi-Bangalore, Kochi-Goa,Kochi-Hyderabad and Goa-Mumbai services. It was alreadyserving all these cities from otherdestinations. Indigo ordered 100A320s from Airbus before itslaunch and plans to have 15 inservice by the end of this year. Ithas said the fleet will increase toaround 40 A320s by 2010, bywhich time it plans to be servingaround 30 Indian cities, doublingits present total.

Airblue looking to spread its wings

Cleveland does the Continental


Continental Airlines ann-ounced last week a$50-million expansion of its smallest hub,Cleveland Hopkins, a move intended to takesome of the pressure off its congested hub atNewark Liberty. By 2009, says Continental, itwill have added 20 new nonstop routes and 70daily flights at Cleveland, most of them onregional jets to be transferred from Newark.

By June 2008, it will have 300 daily depar-tures, up from 242 in June 2007 and willannounce more new destinations then. Newcities for a 2008 startup include Little Rock,Charleston, Tulsa, Des Moines, Kalamazooand Memphis.

Most of the new cities are dominated by

other carriers; for instance, Memphis is aNorthwest hub, while Amer-ican is the majorcarrier at Tulsa. But Cleveland is so uncon-gested that travellers may find it an easiertransfer point than airports such asNorthwest’s Detroit hub or American’s DFWcolossus.

A $16-million city and state incentive pack-age encouraged the move by Houston-basedContinental. The state package is a combina-tion of grants, loans, tax credits and hiringservices. In addition, Continental’s newflights would be eligible for the airport’s newairline incentive program that will waive up to$2.75 million in landing fees for new flights.

INSIDE TRACK

Pakistani carrier airblue hasCopenhagen and Oslo in its sights as itlooks to expand its fledgling interna-tional operation.

“We’re looking at launching Oslonext year,” airblue’s MD Syed Nasir Alitold Airline Business Daily. “June 2008 isour target.”

He says there is significant ethnictravel between Pakistan and bothDenmark and Norway and airblue even-tually is interested in launching anIslamabad-Copenhagen service after itlaunches Islamabad-Oslo. Ali also hasspoken to Stockholm Arlanda duringRoutes 2007 but Arlanda is not a priori-ty because there are fewer Pakistanis liv-

ing in Sweden compared with the rest ofScandinavia. Airblue now operates onmajor domestic routes within Pakistanand to two international destinations,Dubai and Manchester, with a fleet ofsix Airbus A320 family aircraft.

It launched flights to Manchester inJune with a technical stop in Turkeyafter attempts to acquire an A330 failed.“Initially we were very apprehensiveoperating single-aisle aircraft but it’sworked,” Ali says.

The carrier started with four weeklyflights to Manchester but added a fifthfrequency in July and will add a sixth inDecember. Airblue is now trying to dry-lease extra A320s to support additional

flights to Manchester and proposed newservices to Oslo as well as to Ammanand Muscat. It has 14 new A320s onorder but these will not be delivereduntil 2009.

Ali adds airblue is also interested inlaunching service to London Gatwick assoon as the UK-Pakistan bilateral isextended to allow a second Pakistanicarrier to operate in the Islamabad-London market.

Currently only British Airways andPakistan International Airlines areallowed to operate in the market. “Wewere given an indication last week by the[Pakistani] CAA that it may be openingup. If it opens up we’ll go into Gatwick.”

It launchedflights toManchesterin June witha technicalstop inTurkey afterattempts toacquire anA330 failed

inbrief

Ethiopian Airlinesis happy withScandinavia Swedish airport operator LFV lovesto point out how Ethiopian Airlines,the only African carrier servingScandinavia, moved its Copenhagenservice to rival Arlanda in 2003.

The carrier’s Stockholm-based areamanager for Scandinavia, Finlandand the Baltics, Paulos Sime, says themove has worked out well butEthiopian is now considering launch-ing scheduled flights to rival Osloand possibly even resuming someflights to Copenhagen.

“At the moment we are quitehappy with Stockholm. But we’relooking at Oslo and looking at goingto Copenhagen on an ad hoc basis,”Sime told Airline Business Daily.

He adds Norway especially has alarge ethnic Ethiopian population.Ethnic traffic now accounts forabout half of Ethiopian’s passengerson the Addis Ababa-Stockholm routewhile the other half are businesspassengers going to Addis Ababaand beyond to other points in Africa.

When asked why Ethiopiandropped Copenhagen for StockholmSime said: “The business was moreor less based in Sweden. We decidedto come to the source of the market.Our business has doubled or tripledsince then.”

‘Cos everyonelistens when Istart to sing

Delegates visiting the Stockholm stand gave their vocal chords a bit of an airingat an Abba-themed Karaoke session on Monday afternoon. The famed Swedishartistes might not have been that impressed with some of the strangled warblingsproduced by many of the people who took part – but what they lacked in talentthey certainly made up for in enthusiasm and volume!

To readthe

AirlineBusinessblogs visitflightglobal.com/ab/routes2007

Spark up in smoke cabinsSo you sit in an aircraft for ten hoursaching for a cigarette and you are very,very grateful when you get into the airport. You go to light up only tofind that the airport is now a total nocigarette zone.

You don’t need a PhD to fathomwhy air rage is on the increase.

But a potential solution that meetsthe needs of smokers without intrud-ing upon non-smokers is doing a roar-ing trade at Routes 2007.

The smoke cabin from Smoke FreeSystems/Smoke Away lets you smokeand whisks the smoke away withinthe cabin area where it is filtered. It isdesigned for offices, retail areas andany public space. More than 4,000have been installed.

It’s also found at the following at airports, including Arlanda,Stockholm, Paris Charles de Gaulleand the American Airlines Lounge atHeathrow.

Expect more airports to embrace thetechnology, Smoke Away’s general

manager Fredrik Schreiber said atRoutes yesterday.

“We have installed seven smokecabins at the Routes event and theinterest has been very strong,” he said.“In just a few hours on the first day,we had 40 to 50 people visit us and wehave got 25 good leads from differentairports, including Dubai andHonduras.

“This is a good exhibition for us and clearly there is a demand. We look forward to some more discussions in the remaining timeavailable.”

Schreiber, himself a pipe smoker,says that the system can improve pro-ductivity in offices because it cutsdown on the need for staff to take cig-arette breaks.

The system can be installed in anyoffice space and it retains the smokeunder a canopy before drawing it intothe filter system.

“It is not suitable for aircraft but it isideal for airports.”

First operations at the colossal DubaiWorld Central (DXB) airport’s are justover a year away, the recently-appointedmanaging director Christa Soltau said atRoutes 2007.

The first flight will be a freighter, withthe second wave of operations plannedto be low-cost carriers and charter opera-tors. The DXB team is at Routes 2007talking to representatives of all three sec-tors in the industry.

“The first runway is near to comple-tion and the ILS system is installed,” shesays. “Once it is completed there will besix months of testing.”

The airport – which will eventuallyhave six runways – is designed for acapacity of 12 million tonnes of cargo ayear and 100 million passengers.

The first phase of the cargo city is soldout and the whole complex is backed byDubai Logistics City, another of the fea-tures of the $30 billion mega-develop-

ment being promoted by the DXB team. “A company can set up in Dubai

Logistics City and receive componentsfrom China and others from India, beforebuilding the final product for rapid ship-ment to their customers,” says Soltau (pic-tured). “It will be the most comprehensivefacility of its kind and everything isdesigned for complete efficiency.”

The cargo facility will be linked by aspecial bonded road to the sea port tenmiles away. The overall development isdivided into zones. They are:■ Dubai Logistics City will span 25

square kilometres and will have thecapacity to handle 12 million tonnesof cargo a year. It will feature its ownaviation area and a cluster dedicated tospecialised aviation industry suppliers.Ultimately, it will form one of theworld’s first truly integrated multi-modal logistics centres as it will belinked to Jebel Ali Port.

■ Residential City will be developed inthree phases, ultimately becoming

home to 250,000 people in a range ofaccommodation types as well as boast-ing malls and hotels.

■ Commercial City will become DubaiWorld Central’s business and financehub, catering for 130,000 people work-ing in 850 towers.

■ Golf Resort will feature two 18-holecourses bounded by 2,500 freeholdhomes. The central ‘zone’ will be the airport

itself and there its architects are promis-ing a hassle-free, passenger-friendly expe-rience. This ‘new model’ airport will thenbe exported world-wide.

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), the$15 billion aerospace business launchedin 2006, has said that Dubai WorldCentral will be the test-bed for inventinga new kind of airport.

“It will bethe mostcomprehen-sive facilityof its kindand every-thing isdesigned forcompleteefficiency”

Christa SoltauDXB managingdirector

DXB first operations just a year away

EXHIBITOR NEWS

B Y M I K E M A RT I N


Smoke Away’s general managerFredrik Schreiber

To readthe Airline

Business blogsvisitflightglobal.com/ab/routes2007


Free airline and airport profiles from ATI at Routes 2007

Thousands of airline and airport executives access ATIeveryday to help them develop news routes and keep aheadof the competition. As a special offer to Routes delegates,you can access free airline and airport profiles from ATI tohelp you prepare for your meetings at the event.

Visit the Flight Internet Area, Stand F2 at Routes 2007or alternatively, sign up for a free trial at www.rati.comor email [email protected]

AIRPORT NEWS

environmental impact assessment,which will take several years to complete.

If it gets the go-ahead, the new twin-runway airport, which will be able tohandle the Airbus A380, will relieveMcCarran but not replace it, and beoperational by 2017/18.

Las Vegas gambles on new terminal

To readthe Airline

Business blogsvisitflightglobal.com/ab/routes2007

Las Vegas McCarran InternationalAirport is here at Routes putting the wordout that it has a gleaming new $4 billionterminal coming on stream in 2012.

“We’re here for the first time atRoutes with the city’s Convention andVisitors Authority to promote LasVegas as a destination,” says ElaineSanchez, marketing manager ofMcCarran.

By the time the international termi-nal 3 opens, the city will have builtanother 40,000 new hotel bedrooms,on top of the 135,000 it has today, saysCathy Tull, vice-president of strategicplanning for the Visitors Authority.

It is crucial for the two bodies towork together to lure travellers to LasVegas to fill these rooms. “For everyhotel room we build we need 2,000visitors per year to keep our 90% aver-age hotel occupancy rate,” sheexplains. The message from the LasVegans is that the city is much, muchmore than simply a gaming and gam-

Right: ElaineSanchez,marketingmanager ofMcCarranandCathy Tull,vice-presi-dent ofstrategicplanning forthe VisitorsAuthorityat the show

bling mecca. “It has great dining,shopping, spas and golf,” says Tull, aswell as being a popular conventionlocation.

Terminal 3 will boost the airport’scapacity to some 53 million passengersper year. In 2006 it handled 46 millionand has already seen more than 38 mil-lion this year. “Right now we are tryingto attract international carriers whohave a strong network,” says Sanchez.

The airport and the VisitorsAuthority have marketing assistancefunds of up to $250,000 each to helpnew entrants get a service off theground.

The new terminal is designed to copewith traffic growth in the city for thenext decade or so. After that the down-town airport will struggle to accommo-date extra traffic. The city’s grand planis to build a new airport some 30 miles(48km) south of city at a site calledIvanpah Valley.

The plan is currently undergoing an


of a roll. I think that has come throughat this event.”

Howarth adds that most of the standspace for next year’s Routes event inKuala Lumpur has already been booked.

Following the next two events – inKuala Lumpur in 2008 and Beijing in2009 – the Routes event will be held inVancouver, just six months after the

city’s hosting of the Winter Olympics. Says Howarth: “We are very excited

about taking the world event to NorthAmerica for the first time

Larry Berg, president and CEO of theVancouver Airport Authority, says:“Routes 2010 will give our marketingteam a key vehicle for promoting newroutes for both passengers and cargo.”

The winnertakes it allThe 16th Routes will be held in 2010 inVancouver – the first time it has beenheld in North America, it wasannounced at the show yesterday.

The announcement comes at the endof this year’s World Route DevelopmentForum, which will see a record 2,300 del-egates and more than 30,000 meetingsbetween airlines and airport operators.

“I think this year’s event is going verywell,” said Routes’ chairman MichaelHowarth yesterday. “I am getting somevery positive feedback from delegates.

“We have a record number of airlineattendees and very high level of qualityof airline attendees and I think thatreflects the industry’s position at themoment.

“Despite the recent financial turbu-lence, you have very strong economies,record aircraft orders and continuedderegulation, so the industry is on a bit

ROUTES HAPPENINGSCheers!From left atyesterday’ssigning areRickAntonson,presidentand chiefexecutive ofthe GreaterVancouverConventionand VisitorsBureau, LarryBerg, presi-dent andchief execu-tive ofVancouverAirportAuthority,MichaelWoodward,chairman,The RouteDevelopmentGroup andMichaelHowarth,chairmanRoutes


Skybus is making rock bottom-priced fares its mainselling point in the battle for passenger numbers

We believe our fares are solow that we are attracting

people who have very oftennever flown before and whoare willing to drive to a new

and unfamiliar airport

Skybus, a four-month-old USstartup, is building up a nation-al route system by looking for

airports that are in effect alternatives to theestablished alternatives. Take for instance itsEast Coast destinations: Skybus servesRichmond, about 100 miles south ofWashington, rather than Baltimore/Washington International that has been thelow-fare alternative to the two mainWashington airports.

In New England, rather than choosing anestablished alternative to Boston Logan such asManchester, as Southwest did a decade ago,Skybus instead chose Pease airport inPortsmouth, more than 50 miles from Logan.

Skybus co-founder Bill Diffenderffer (pic-tured) explains: “We’re creating new markets.We believe our fares are so low that we areattracting people who have very often neverflown before and who are willing to drive to anew and unfamiliar airport.” The airline’s sell-ing point and appeal to the public is that faresstart at $10 each way and it reserves at least 10seats on each flight for tickets at that pricewhile its other fares do resemble traditionalairline pricing structures, very few are higherthan $100 each way.

He says that fares run about 65% belowlegacy fares and are also competitive with fareson Southwest – which also serves Skybus’home base at Columbus, Ohio and some of itsother markets. Skybus’ strategy is to “get peo-ple who didn’t want to fly, to fly. We keeptelling the big airlines like Southwest orAirTran that we’re not trying to steal their pas-sengers, that the people we want are new cus-tomers and new business”.

All Skybus fares are one-way, and the airlinedoes not offer connecting fares. In fact, he says,he does not assume significant numbers ofconnecting passengers, even though someSkybus customers will make a transcontinental

Money, money

trip by changing in Columbus for a flightbetween, say, San Diego and Fort Lauderdale.The airline charges for food, for checked bagsand for as many ancillary services as it can, astrategy that is an admitted replication of theAllegiant Travel approach. “We think veryhighly of them” Diffenderffer says of LasVegas-based Allegiant.

Diffenderffer says that the Skybus airportstrategy is based on a very broad concept ofcatchment areas by assuming that people willdrive considerable distances to get to an airportwith its low-fare service.

Its home base is the political and geograph-ic center of Ohio. Columbus, saysDiffenderffer, is within 100 miles of 6.7 millionpeople, which is analogous in size to theAtlanta area. He says that the lure of very lowfares draws people from the southern part ofthe state, people who live near Cincinnati air-port (which is in fact in northern Kentucky) orwho are willing to make the drive from thestate’s medium-sized cities such as Dayton oreven Cleveland. “Even with rising automobilefuel prices when people calculate the savingsfor a family trip, they think we’re worth thedrive,” he says.

Some Skybus’ airport choices reflect thisconcept. On the West Coast, its most ambi-tious choice is the Bellingham airport, whichlies between the major Seattle/TacomaInternational Airport and the Canadian border.Of the four new markets Skybus announced inlate September for a December startup, two are

MONEYdesigned to draw passengers from major citiesas far as 100 miles away.

For instance, its choice of Chattanooga, a cityon the Tennessee/Georgia border, gives the air-line access to a population area that includesAtlanta’s northern suburbs. An hour’s drive ofthe Atlanta metropolitan area, Chattanooga air-port will be able to draw passengers who wouldotherwise drive at least an hour to reach AtlantaHartsfield/Jackson airport on the south side ofthe city. Similarly, its planned service forGulfport/Biloxi airport in southern Mississippishould draw passengers from New Orleans,about 70 miles away.

Unlike some of the other Skybus airports,Chattanooga and Gulfport have scheduledservices, while another December startup,Punta Gorda airport in Florida, does not. Thisgeneral aviation facility, officially theCharlotte Country Airport, is in southwestFlorida, about 40 miles south of Sarasota andis completing a 16,000-square-foot terminalthat helped lure Skybus.

The airport will be the third general aviationairport that Skybus will serve, after theWestover airport near Springfield,Massachusetts, about 30 miles from BradleyInternational airport near Hartford and St.Augustine airport in northwest Florida, about40 miles from Jacksonville. The other new air-port that Skybus announced on 18 September isMilwaukee, and Skybus is counting on drawingtravellers from the Chicago metropolitan areato its south as well as from Wisconsin cities. ■

INTERVIEW

B Y DAV I D F I E L D


STAT ATTACK

Data-downloadTOP 10 ROUTES BY SEATS OFFERED

1 LONDON HEATHROW LHR NEW YORK JFK JFK 79,556 BRITISH AIRWAYS AMERICAN AIRLINES2 LONDON HEATHROW LHR CHICAGO O’HARE ORD 46,556 AMERICAN AIRLINES UNITED AIRLINES3 LONDON HEATHROW LHR LOS ANGELES LAX 39,270 BRITISH AIRWAYS VIRGIN ATLANTIC4 PARIS CDG CDG NEW YORK JFK JFK 33,682 AIR FRANCE AMERICAN AIRLINES5 LONDON HEATHROW LHR WASHINGTON DULLES IAD 32,240 UNITED AIRLINES BRITISH AIRWAYS6 FRANKFURT FRA CHICAGO O’HARE ORD 24,116 LUFTHANSA UNITED AIRLINES7 LONDON HEATHROW LHR SAN FRANCISCO SFO 24,080 BRITISH AIRWAYS UNITED AIRLINES8 LONDON HEATHROW LHR BOSTON LOGAN BOS 22,968 BRITISH AIRWAYS UNITED AIRLINES9 FRANKFURT FRA NEW YORK JFK JFK 22,498 LUFTHANSA SINGAPORE AIRLINES

10 FRANKFURT FRA WASHINGTON DULLES IAD 20,650 UNITED AIRLINES LUFTHANSA

1 LONDON HEATHROW LHR HONG KONG HKG 47,208 CATHAY PACIFIC BRITISH AIRWAYS2 LONDON HEATHROW LHR SINGAPORE SIN 34,944 SINGAPORE AIRLINES QANTAS AIRWAYS3 LONDON HEATHROW LHR BANGKOK BKK 24,974 THAI AIRWAYS QANTAS AIRWAYS4 PARIS CDG CDG TOKYO NARITA NRT 24,484 AIR FRANCE JAPAN AIRLINES5 LONDON HEATHROW LHR MUMBAI INTERNATIONAL BOM 24,332 JET AIRWAYS BRITISH AIRWAYS6 LONDON HEATHROW LHR TOKYO NARITA NRT 22,820 BRITISH AIRWAYS JAPAN AIRLINES7 LONDON HEATHROW LHR DELHI INTERNATIONAL DEL 21,692 AIR INDIA BRITISH AIRWAYS8 FRANKFURT FRA SINGAPORE SIN 20,118 SINGAPORE AIRLINES QANTAS AIRWAYS9 FRANKFURT FRA BANGKOK BKK 16,352 THAI AIRWAYS LUFTHANSA

10 FRANKFURT FRA BEIJING PEK 15,414 AIR CHINA LUFTHANSA

1 HONOLULU HNL TOKYO NARITA NRT 41,030 JAPAN AIRLINES NORTHWEST AIRLINES2 LOS ANGELES LAX TOKYO NARITA NRT 32,948 NORTHWEST AIRLINES JAPAN AIRLINES3 LOS ANGELES LAX TAIPEI TPE 31,216 CHINA AIRLINES EVA AIR4 SAN FRANCISCO SFO TOKYO NARITA NRT 21,014 UNITED AIRLINES JAPAN AIRLINES5 LOS ANGELES LAX SEOUL INCHEON ICN 20,624 KOREAN AIR ASIANA AIRLINES6 CHICAGO O’HARE ORD TOKYO NARITA NRT 20,076 UNITED AIRLINES JAPAN AIRLINES7 VANCOUVER YVR HONG KONG HKG 17,616 CATHAY PACIFIC OASIS HONG KONG8 SAN FRANCISCO SFO HONG KONG HKG 17,138 UNITED AIRLINES CATHAY PACIFIC9 NEW YORK JFK JFK TOKYO NARITA NRT 16,444 JAPAN AIRLINES ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS

10 SAN FRANCISCO SFO TAIPEI TPE 16,362 EVA AIR CHINA AIRLINES

RANK AIRPORT 1 AIRPORT 2 SEATS LEAD CARRIERSNAME CODE NAME CODE PER WEEK CARRIER 1 CARRIER 2

North America – Europe

Europe – Asia

North America – Asia



SOURCE: INNOVATA, WEEK SEP. 17-SEP 23


afterhoursTHINGS TO DO IN STOCKHOLM IN YOUR DOWNTIME

Water, water everywhere...You can easily get around the 14islands that make up Stockholmby foot, cycle, or the impressivemass-transit system, but it wouldbe a shame not to take a boattrip around the islands and viewthe stunning scenery from thewater.

Stockholm’s waterfront isbuzzing with boats and shuttleferries to get you around thecity. One of the most populartrips is to the lush island ofDjurgården, a former royal hunt-ing ground in the middle ofStockholm. Stroll along the har-bour front or through it’s prettygreen parks.

Djurgården is a cultural cen-tre with many historical placesto visit. There is the famous

Vasa Museum, and the SkansenOpen Air Museum – the world’sfirst open air museum – whichis a large park filled with a col-lection of old Swedish housesand buildings plus a recreationof an old Swedish town show-ing craftman working away asthey did historically.

To get there take theDjurgårsfarjan ferry fromSlussen, or take the 47 bus.

If you get time off after theshow a boat trip you reallyshould consider is one to theStockholm archipelago.

It consists of more than24,000 islets and rocks whichstretch 80km from the east ofStockholm out into the clearwaters of the Baltic.

If you don’t have much timemaybe visit one of the largerislands such as Vaxholm orFjäderholmarna. Explore theirharbours, historical buildingsand restaurants, and soak in thebreathtaking scenery.

You can get to the islands viaferry, sail boat or yacht which allcruise out daily from the har-bour or from Strömkajen andStrandvägen in the town centre.

■ AIRPORT INFO:•Stockholm ArlandaAirportLuftfartsverket Arlanda,S-190 45 StockholmArlanda✆797 6000 / www.lfv.se•The Arlanda airportexpress train leaves forStockholm’s central station every 15 minutesand costs 200 crowns(SEK200/ £14.70) for the20-minute journey.

■ PHONE INFO:Code for Sweden: +46Stockholm Area Code: 08

■ EMERGENCY NUMBERS:• Police, Fire,

Ambulance: 112• Healthcare Information

Service (for minorproblems): ✆463 91 00

• 24 hour pharmacyThe CW ScheelePharmacy 11181 Stockholm,Klarabergsgatan 64

■ TOURIST INFO:• Main tourist officeHamngatan 27, ✆ 508 28 508

www.stockholmtown.com• Tourist centre/excursion shop SegelsTorg 1 ✆508 28 508 www.stockholmtown.com• City sightseeing(Guided bus tours)Gustav Adolfs Torg✆587 140 20• Stockholm sightseeing(Guided boat tours)Stromkajen, Grand Hotel✆587 140 20

■ EMBASSIES ANDCONSULATES:• British EmbassySkarpogatan 6-8, 115 93 ✆+46 (8) 671 3000

• United StatesEmbassy

Dag Hammarskjölds Väg31, SE-115 89. ✆+46 (8) 783 5300• DenmarkJakobs Torg 1, Box 1638, 111 86, ✆+46 (8) 4067500• FinlandGärdesgatan 11✆+ 46 (8) 676 6700• FranceBox 5335, 102 47Stockholm✆+46 (8) 459 53 30• Estonia

Tyrgatan 3/3a, 11427. Box 26076, 10041

✆+46 (8) 5451 2298• GermanySkarpogatan 9, Box 27832, 115 27. ✆+46 (8) 6 70 15 00• ItalyOakhill – Djugården✆ +46 (8) 5456 710• NetherlandsGotgatan 16A104 65. ✆ +46 (8) 556 933 00• NorwaySkarpögatan 4, S-115 27✆ +46 (8) 665 6340• JapanGärdesgatan 10, 115 27 ✆ +46 (8)579 353

US

EF

UL

IN

FO

ALL YOU NEED: Some useful telephone numbers to help smooth over your visit to Routes in Stockholm.

AFTERHOURS PICTURES COURTESY OF STOCKHOLM VISITORS BOARD

Put a boat trip on your to-do list while in Stockholm, and view some stunning scenary

RICH

ARD

RYAN

HENR

IK TR

YGG

■ THE ICE BARNordic Sea Hotel, Vasaplan,✆50 56 31 24Delegates may have been to theLondon version of this bar, but ifnot, it’s well worth trying out, anda fun thing to do with clients.Made entirely of ice, with a tem-perature of below zero, yourentrance fee includes a snugglycoat and gloves, plus a free vodkacocktail of your choice served in aglass made of…ice! Cool, eh?

COLD DRINK,ANYONE?

Stockholm has large variety of nightlife.Jazz plays an important part of life hereas do opera, classical concerts and bal-let. Stockholm’s best nightclubs arelocated around Stureplan andKungsgatan, and there are loads of barsscattered all over the city. Drinks inSweden can be quite pricey, so youmight want to choose carefully.

common sense: it’s the name of the game

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