Bucharest Otopeni International Airport

Middle Eastern LCCs driving growth into Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS

Russia, the CIS nations and Central and Eastern Europe have been receiving a great deal of attention from Middle East-based carriers in recent months. Full service and low-cost carriers have announced or added a flurry of routes into Eastern European destinations over the past few weeks. Airlines in the Middle East are looking to tap into the underserved region, which is still showing strong economic growth despite troubles in several European markets and strong growth in business and tourism traffic.

Homegrown LCCs Air Arabia and flydubai are leading a push into the regions, but so too is Qatar Airways. Additionally, Oman Air plans to launch services to Moscow. While Middle Eastern carriers have long dominated traffic into western Europe, they now comprise the majority of traffic between the Middle East and central Europe, eastern Europe, Russia and CIS.

Lufthansa Italia consolidates its position at Milan Malpensa

Lufthansa Italia this month announced plans to launch frequent (up to daily) services from Milan’s Malpensa Airport to Catania (Sicily) and Prague from 01-Nov-2010, using A319s. These are not easy routes on which to win business with considerably more offered on the Catania route from Alitalia’s Air One subsidiary, Windjet and easyJet, and to Prague from CSA and easyJet. Less than two years after Lufthansa’s interest in taking over the ailing Alitalia fizzled out when Air France purchased a stake, prompting Lufthansa to set up its own new brand, Lufthansa Italia, at Milan, what are the prospects now for Lufthansa’s first new airline that it had set up in a foreign market?

Ryanair meets Wizz Air: does a merger make sense?

Two extremely aggressive LCCs in Europe are established as the leaders in their geographic areas. Already they are complementing each other nicely, with only limited head to head competition. This raises the intriguing possibility of a merger, at least in one form or another, spawning an irresistible airline force across the region. The two airlines: Ryanair and Wizz Air. Ryanair is globally known, but the younger Wizz less so.