ECUATORIANA AIRLINES Ready to

Two Japanese regional carriers are to merge operations in 2022 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the aviation industry. Hokkaido based Air Do and Solaseed Air, based in Miyazaki expects to be one company by October 2022.

The merger would allow for both companies to ‘recover the financial base at an early stage, survive the new business environment, provide more added value to customers, and achieve sustainable growth, further deepen the business alliances and cooperative relationships between the two companies.’ The two companies aim to reduce costs by standardising operations and sharing knowledge to “promote efforts to increase profits by co-creating new value”. As the first step, a joint website will launch a campaign starting in July under the name of “Let’s travel the whole country with two wings”.

BRITISH AIRWAYS BRING EARLIER START OF GIBRALTAR FLIGHT

BA’s route from London City Airport to Gibraltar will begin on 11 June instead of the 25 June. This is due to the British territory being on the UK’s Green Travel list for summer vacations and therefore demand is expected to be higher. It is a new route for the airline.

ECUATORIANA AIRLINES READY TO TAKE TO THE SKIES

The new Ecuadorian airline company has launched its plans and image featuring a hummingbird that seeks to convey the ‘wealth, diversity and positive aspects of the country’. It expects to begin operations from October 2021 operating 2 simultaneous flights from Quito to Guayaquil and back.

For Eduardo Delgado, president of Ecuatoriana Airlines, ‘this investment is made in a time of crisis because there is an opportunity and because the country requires support for its economic reactivation. 85% of our airports do not have a single commercial flight and we need to be united and connected. '

The company's other domestic routes will also include Cuenca, Loja, Manta and Galapagos and will then incorporate regional and international routes.

AIR FRANCE FLIES BACK TO HELSINKI

After not flying to Helsinki in Finland for over 20 years, Air France has resumed non-stop flights to the Finnish capital since stopping flights in 2001, a codeshare with Finnair from Paris Charles de Gaulle connected the two countries.

Now Air France returns from 6 July 2021 with a new year-round direct route. Initially operating 4 times per week using 143-seat Airbus A319s, before increasing to daily from 19 July.

Once the route becomes daily the SkyTeam alliance member will provide approx. 2,000 two-way weekly seats between Paris and Helsinki, giving a total between the two destinations to around 4,050 seats. This compares with 14,000 weekly seats offered by Finnair and Norwegian in July 2019.

AMERICAN AIRLINESNEW ROUTES FROM MIAMI TO SPAIN

American is to add two additional flights from Madrid to New York from mid-June. The carrier currently operates daily flights to Barcelona and Madrid.All passengers have to have full vaccination proof.

Spain opened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers this month. When the US opens its borders, American Airlines will be ready to connect leisure passengers in the US with Spain.

TURKISH AIRLINES BIGGEST CONTRIBUTOR TO EUROPEAN AIR TRAFFIC

Turkish Airlines has continued to maintain its reign in Europe with 729 daily flights. Turkish Airlines was followed by Air France with 467 flights, Lufthansa with 386 flights, Ryanair with 349 and Widerøe with 368 flights.