Nigel Mayes is the senior vice president, consulting & product development at ASM. Nigel has more than 15 years’ experience in route development and is responsible for product development at ASM.

The sister company to Routes, ASM is the world‘s leading route development consultancy and has supported the creation of new air services since 1993.

Route 1: Bogota – Munich

Data

Carrier
Aircraft	Boeing 787-8
Frequency	Five weekly
Start date	16 November 2018
Distance	9,355 km
O&D traffic demand (2017)	15,901
Growth % YOY	16.2%
Average one-way fare $ (2017)	$391.15

Insight

Munich is to become Avianca's fourth destination in Europe in addition to Barcelona, London Heathrow and Madrid. The carrier plans to offer the flight five times per week from 16 November 2018, subject to government approval, with Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft. Star Alliance partner Lufthansa already serves the Frankfurt-Bogota route daily with Airbus A340-300s. It is understood that Avianca was considering both Munich and Frankfurt, however, the selection of Munich gives it access to Lufthansa’s vast European network without attacking the German airline’s exiting route to Colombia. Sabre data shows an estimated 122,847 passengers flew between Colombia and Germany in 2017, with the largest indirect flows on Bogota-Frankfurt, Bogota-Munich and Bogota-Berlin, mainly connecting through Madrid.

Route 2: Auckland – Chicago O’Hare

Data

Carrier
Aircraft	Boeing 787-9
Frequency	Three weekly
Start date	30 November 2018
Distance	13,240 km
O&D traffic demand (2017)	12,111
Growth % YOY	-4.7%
Average one-way fare $ (2017)	$1,497

Insight

Air New Zealand will operate the ultra-long-haul route three times weekly, year-round with its new configuration Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. Flight time will be approximately 15 hours northbound and just over 16 hours southbound. The route builds on Air New Zealand’s current strategy of serving Star Alliance and joint venture partner United Airlines’ hubs in the US. It currently flies to San Francisco, Los Angeles and more recently Houston George Bush. The service to ORD will provide passengers with one-stop codeshare connections to about 100 destinations across the US. From summer 2019, United will also extend its service between Auckland and San Francisco to year-round, introducing a three weekly service with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Air New Zealand’s latest route launch comes as Qantas is reportedly mulling the launch of Brisbane-Chicago once it takes delivery of the next batch of four 787s later this year.

Route 3: Kuala Lumpur – Denpasar – Melbourne

Image: paullymac

Data

Carrier
Aircraft	Boeing 737-900ER
Frequency	TBC
Start date	7 June 2018 (preliminary schedule filing)
Distance	6,351 km
O&D traffic demand (2017)	448,540
Growth % YOY	-3.7%
Average one-way fare $ (2017)	$302.72

Insight

Malindo Air has filed a preliminary schedule for its planned service to Melbourne, tentatively set to commence in June 2018. The airline intends to operate Boeing 737-900ER aircraft on Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar-Melbourne. The Melbourne-Denpasar leg will become the third Australia-Bali route launched in little more than a year by the Lion Air Group-owned airline. Malindo will compete on the Melbourne-Denpasar leg with Garuda Indonesia, Jetstar and Qantas, while AirAsia, AirAsia X, Batik Air, Indonesia AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines fly Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar. Only AirAsia X and Malaysia Airlines operate Kuala Lumpur-Melbourne non-stop.

Source: Sabre Market Intelligence