Welcome to my 143rd weekly routes article! I have analyzed subjectively exciting services that began or resumed in the past week or so. This week’s edition is quieter than usual. Click here to see the last jam-packed edition.
Take-off: two Condor routes to Thailand
It has taken eight years, but the German leisure carrier Condor Airlines is back in Thailand. On September 21, it took off from Frankfurt to Phuket. The long route has an initial twice-weekly A330neo service, although frequencies will rise to three times weekly in November. The gold-striped aircraft, D-ANRO, operated the first roundtrip.
In the year to July 2024, Frankfurt-Phuket had 178,000 indirect passengers, nearly all of whom connected in the Middle East or Southeast Asia. However, relatively low fares and long distances are combined to ensure that the service is quite low-yielding. Condor served the market for years until 2016 on its now-retired 767-300ERs, the same as for its second route: Frankfurt-Bangkok.
On September 22, Condor reintroduced Frankfurt-Bangkok Suvarnabhumi flights, which operate four times weekly on the A330neo (the green-striped aircraft, D-ANRI, operated the first roundtrip).
With 492,000 annual passengers, it is a big point-to-point market. Non-stop flights are provided by Thai Airways (double daily) and now Condor. While Lufthansa serves Munich-Bangkok, it last flew from Frankfurt in 2022, partly explaining Condor’s re-entry.
A trio of destinations for Pegasus
On September 16, Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus took off from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, the carrier’s primary airport, to Isfahan. Four days later, Sabiha Gökçen-Shiraz flights began. This means that Pegasus now serves five Iranian cities.
Let’s focus on Isfahan. The 1,186 nautical mile (2,197 km) route is currently served twice-weekly but will be served three times weekly from November. The A321neo and A320neo are scheduled. Like most of Pegasus’ Middle Eastern services, it operates overnight, leaving Istanbul at 22:15 and arriving back at 07:00. This setup helps with onward connectivity.
On September 24, Pegasus began flying from Sabiha Gökçen to Seville, its third Spanish destination, alongside Barcelona and Madrid. It appears to be Seville’s first scheduled Türkiye service. It runs three times weekly. In keeping with many of Pegasus’ European services, flights leave Istanbul at 10:10 and get back at 20:40. As you can see, it fits in well with its Middle Eastern operations.
Photo: Pegasus
That’s Nice: Air Serbia back in Côte d’Azur
Air Serbia has relaunched Belgrade to Nice flights, one of three French airports served. The 568 nautical mile (1,053 km) route returned on September 19 after being flown in 2020. It runs twice-weekly on the A319 and, from November, also the E195.
When it was last served, it was summer seasonal. It competes directly with Wizz Air’s twice-weekly service, which began in 2022—when Air Serbia ended it. Not only will the airport pair have two airlines for the first time, but both will operate during the off-season, which seems excessive.
WestJet begins 5th Nashville route
While teased in last week’s edition before celebratory photos were available, Nashville’s latest route addition is worth examining. It is WestJet from Winnipeg, which runs twice-weekly on the 737-800 until November 15. It will operate 18 roundtrip services.
In the year to July, Nashville-Winnipeg had 9,600 roundtrip passengers. Unsurprisingly, it is the first time the 947 nautical mile (1,753 km) airport pair has had non-stop flights.
Photo: Winnipeg International Airport
WestJet has served Nashville since 2016 and operates from Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver, and now Winnipeg. It has 17 weekly take-offs in the current week, nearly half of Nashville’s Canadian service (45%). The carrier’s lower-cost unit, Swoop, served Nashville in 2022, although the airline has since been subsumed into WestJet’s operations.
Thai AirAsia jets to Tiruchirappalli
On September 21, the Thai capital, Bangkok, welcomed flights to its next Indian city, Tiruchirappalli (informally called Trichy; I’ve been there), in Tamil Nadu. It was because of Thai AirAsia, whose Don Mueang service operates three times weekly on the A320neo.
The route, last served by the carrier in 2018, covers 1,299 nautical miles (2,406 km) each way. FD150 leaves Bangkok at 20:30 and arrives in India at 22:35 local time (the first flight took 3h 10m). Returning, FD151 departs at 23:05 and gets home at the fun time of 04:15+1 (the first flight took 3h 22m).
When all airlines are combined, more than 3.6 million point-to-point passengers flew between Bangkok and India in the year to July. Bangkok-Delhi was the largest market, with 821,000 roundtrip passengers.
These cities are served or soon will be: Ahmedabad, Amritsar (starts October 28), Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Gaya (resumes on October 10), Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Tiruchirappalli, and Vishakhapatnam.
Volotea begins 4th Hamburg route
The low-cost carrier focuses on thin routes, many of which are not served by another airline, between small and medium-sized cities. Its latest addition is Nantes to Hamburg, which exists due to Volotea’s relationship with Eurowings. Hamburg joined its network last October because of this partnership, and there are now four routes: Bordeaux, Florence, Lyon, and Nantes.
Photo: Hamburg Airport
Nantes-Hamburg is used to non-stop flights: Air France’s regional unit operated the route between 2017 and 2020.
It’d be easy to suggest that some demand might come from Airbus’ Saint-Nazaire plant, near Nantes, although it might be minimal given that Volotea operates on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The airport had 12,000 indirect passengers in the past year, which is a good base for an airline like Volotea to build on with non-stop flights, low fares, and strong promotions.
Source: Simple Flying
