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: Busan – Singapore

Data

Carrier
Aircraft	Boeing 737-800
Frequency	Four-weekly
Start date	4 July 2019
Distance	4,561 km
O&D traffic demand (2018)	71,107
Growth % YOY	-20.7%
Average one-way fare $ (2018)	$369.73

Insight

Low-cost carrier Jeju Air will launch direct flights between Singapore and Busan on 4 July. The service will operate four times per week using Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The launch of the route comes shortly after a six-party Memorandum of Understanding was signed to promote trade, business and tourism flows between Singapore and Busan. The one-year partnership follows the allocation of traffic rights to South Korean low-cost airlines Eastar Jet and Jeju Air, as well as Singapore Airlines subsidiary SilkAir, to operate flights on the Singapore-Busan route.

SilkAir’s four-weekly service to Busan started on 1 May 2019, while SilkAir has not yet announced its planned start date. Busan had been identified by OAG as the top unserved market for Changi Airport.

“For many years, connectivity between Singapore and South Korea has been limited to Seoul with around 60 weekly services,” said Lim Ching Kiat, managing director, air hub development of Changi Airport Group.

Route 2: Cincinnati – Sarasota

Data

Carrier
Aircraft	TBC
Frequency	Three-weekly
Start date	10 October 2019
Distance	1,310 km
O&D traffic demand (2018)	37,634
Growth % YOY	193.5%
Average one-way fare $ (2018)	$170.46

Insight

US low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines is adding four non-stop routes from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Miami International Airport (MIA), Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) and Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (SRQ).

The routes to MIA and SRQ will launch on 10 October, FLL will open a day later and the service to MSY begins on 15 November. Following their launch, Frontier will operate 23 non-stop routes from CVG.

In addition, the carrier has extended its schedule to March 2020 and will offer additional flights from CVG to Fort Myers, Florida, and Orlando through the winter. This is a more than 45 percent increase in service compared to its winter 2018-19 schedule at CVG.

Service between SRQ and CVG will operate on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Cincinnati will mark Frontier’s fourth destination out of Sarasota Bradenton, joining Atlanta, Cleveland and Philadelphia. The airline only started serving SRQ in December.

Route 3: Milan Malpensa – St Petersburg

Data

Carrier
Aircraft	Airbus A319/20
Frequency	One-weekly
Start date	27 July 2019
Distance	2,123 km
O&D traffic demand (2018)	127,143
Growth % YOY	19.7%
Average one-way fare $ (2018)	$124.50

Insight

In late July, Alitalia is adding two new weekly routes to Russia from Milan Malpensa, scheduled to operate on Saturdays. The carrier will begin service to St Petersburg and Moscow Sheremetyevo from 27 July. Alitalia last served St Petersburg from Malpensa in 2014. Resumption of the Milan route means it will now serve the Russian city from three points in Italy, in addition to Rome and Catania. SkyTeam partner Aeroflot also flies 12-weekly between Milan and St Petersburg.

Source: Sabre Market Intelligence