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Wall Street Journal
Oct 16 2012
The World's Oddest Air Routes
By JACK NICAS And SUSAN CAREY
For years, Armenian airline Armavia focused on ferrying Armenians
across Europe and Asia. Now it is tapping a new market: Flying Sikhs
between the U.K. and India.
In July, Armavia started flying from Birmingham, England, where there
is a large Sikh population, to Sikhism's spiritual center in Amritsar,
India - via a stopover in Armenia. With just nine planes, Armavia must
think creatively to compete, said Artur Zakaryan, the carrier's U.S.
representative. And "there is a market, so why not?"
Network planning in the airline business - determining which of a
carrier's planes will fly where - is more than just fitting together a
maze of well-traveled routes. Airlines must be shrewd observers of
global economic and migration trends to spot profitable opportunities.
The pressure has increased in recent years, as more saturated
skies - nearly every high-traffic corridor is already served - have pushed
airlines to look for niche routes with less pressure on profit
margins. Over the past decade, airlines have added 10,000 new routes - a
37% increase - serving more than 37,000 city pairs this month, according
to Innovata LLC, which analyzes airline schedule data.
Often route planners are connecting cities that, at first glance,
don't seem to fit. Take Baku, Azerbaijan, and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Azerbaijan Airlines began flying between the two cities this summer
because Baku has emerged as a major oil-producing hub and Aberdeen is
Europe's petroleum capital.
Or consider Paris and Cincinnati. While Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL
-1.19% has slashed its international flights from Cincinnati over the
past decade, it has spared the daily Paris flight partly because of
the route's lucrative cargo: 4.2 million pounds of jet-engine parts
ferried each year between factories near the two cities.
Meanwhile, new diasporas are growing out of the widening web of trade
links created by globalization - and in some cases by conflict and
economic hardship.
Boston has nonstop flights to Cape Verde, an island nation off the
coast of Senegal, and to the Azores, nine volcanic islands in the
middle of the Atlantic, because clusters of emigrants from both live
in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Before the Cape Verde flight began as a year-round option in 2003,
Cape Verdeans in the U.S. sometimes reached the island via Portugal,
said Raquel Dias, who immigrated to Massachusetts 25 years ago from
Cape Verde. "It was complicated and expensive," she said. Now, she
says she visits friends and family in Cape Verde nearly every year.
For two decades after its launch in 1986, German budget carrier
Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH focused on building a conventional route
map that blanketed its home country and stretched to a few vacation
hot spots, such as the Canary Islands.
But in 2010, a tour operator in Iraqi Kurdistan alerted executives of
Germania to the large Kurdish population in Germany and helped the
airline enter the war-torn country. By the end of this year, Germania
will be flying to Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq eight times a
week - from twice weekly in 2010 - from Munich, Düsseldorf and Stockholm.
The Iraq flights are 90% full, Germania said, compared with the
airline's average of 83%.
"Now we are looking out for other communities with Kurdish people in
Europe," said Karsten Balke, a Germania attorney. "Just doing the same
job every day, every week doesn't help you because always you have
competition... So we have to think ahead."
Brian Znotins, managing director of international planning for United
Continental Holdings Inc., UAL -0.25% said the world's largest airline
evaluates potential routes using a trove of public and purchased data
on issues such as air traffic and immigration trends.
It also talks to its corporate customers. Last November, United
started flying nonstop flights five times a week from Houston to
Lagos, Nigeria, in response to requests from oil companies that
contract with the airline, Mr. Znotins said.
Chris Wilmot, chief executive of Houston engineering and construction
firm WCW International Inc., said he lobbied for the Lagos flight
since 1999. "I travel once a month to Lagos or Ghana" to support his
firm's work on telecommunications and other projects, he said. The
nonstop "saves at least 10 hours. Otherwise, you have to go through
Europe."
In November, United and Delta begin flying to Williston, N.D., a town
of about 24,000 that happens to be at the center of an oil boom. The
city's airport, not built to accommodate so many passengers, is
planning to use a mobile home to fit an extra waiting area.
Cargo can also support mainstream flights. Delta flies 22 tons of
asparagus on many of its flights from Lima, Peru, to Atlanta. Alaska
Airlines, a unit of Alaska Air Group Inc., ALK +0.97% moves 3,000
pounds of basil from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to the U.S. daily.
Or cargo can make even the smallest routes more attractive. The
American Red Cross said its workers have taken flights in Tanzania
that stop for honey, and if there was none on a given day, the
passengers would have to spend the night and hope that the sweet cargo
would appear.
Airlines keep trying new combinations. In May, Icelandair
GroupICEAIR.RK -1.27% is launching a twice-weekly, seven-hour flight
to Anchorage, Alaska, "opening up a new market for Icelandic tourism,"
the airline said.
But not all the experiments work out. Air Greenland tried to stimulate
tourist demand with a weekly flight between Baltimore and
Kangerlussuaq in the summer of 2007, but only about 800 tickets were
sold. The airline canceled the route months later.
- Jon Ostrower contributed to this article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444657804578050781305169460.html
Oct 16 2012
The World's Oddest Air Routes
By JACK NICAS And SUSAN CAREY
For years, Armenian airline Armavia focused on ferrying Armenians
across Europe and Asia. Now it is tapping a new market: Flying Sikhs
between the U.K. and India.
In July, Armavia started flying from Birmingham, England, where there
is a large Sikh population, to Sikhism's spiritual center in Amritsar,
India - via a stopover in Armenia. With just nine planes, Armavia must
think creatively to compete, said Artur Zakaryan, the carrier's U.S.
representative. And "there is a market, so why not?"
Network planning in the airline business - determining which of a
carrier's planes will fly where - is more than just fitting together a
maze of well-traveled routes. Airlines must be shrewd observers of
global economic and migration trends to spot profitable opportunities.
The pressure has increased in recent years, as more saturated
skies - nearly every high-traffic corridor is already served - have pushed
airlines to look for niche routes with less pressure on profit
margins. Over the past decade, airlines have added 10,000 new routes - a
37% increase - serving more than 37,000 city pairs this month, according
to Innovata LLC, which analyzes airline schedule data.
Often route planners are connecting cities that, at first glance,
don't seem to fit. Take Baku, Azerbaijan, and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Azerbaijan Airlines began flying between the two cities this summer
because Baku has emerged as a major oil-producing hub and Aberdeen is
Europe's petroleum capital.
Or consider Paris and Cincinnati. While Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL
-1.19% has slashed its international flights from Cincinnati over the
past decade, it has spared the daily Paris flight partly because of
the route's lucrative cargo: 4.2 million pounds of jet-engine parts
ferried each year between factories near the two cities.
Meanwhile, new diasporas are growing out of the widening web of trade
links created by globalization - and in some cases by conflict and
economic hardship.
Boston has nonstop flights to Cape Verde, an island nation off the
coast of Senegal, and to the Azores, nine volcanic islands in the
middle of the Atlantic, because clusters of emigrants from both live
in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Before the Cape Verde flight began as a year-round option in 2003,
Cape Verdeans in the U.S. sometimes reached the island via Portugal,
said Raquel Dias, who immigrated to Massachusetts 25 years ago from
Cape Verde. "It was complicated and expensive," she said. Now, she
says she visits friends and family in Cape Verde nearly every year.
For two decades after its launch in 1986, German budget carrier
Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH focused on building a conventional route
map that blanketed its home country and stretched to a few vacation
hot spots, such as the Canary Islands.
But in 2010, a tour operator in Iraqi Kurdistan alerted executives of
Germania to the large Kurdish population in Germany and helped the
airline enter the war-torn country. By the end of this year, Germania
will be flying to Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq eight times a
week - from twice weekly in 2010 - from Munich, Düsseldorf and Stockholm.
The Iraq flights are 90% full, Germania said, compared with the
airline's average of 83%.
"Now we are looking out for other communities with Kurdish people in
Europe," said Karsten Balke, a Germania attorney. "Just doing the same
job every day, every week doesn't help you because always you have
competition... So we have to think ahead."
Brian Znotins, managing director of international planning for United
Continental Holdings Inc., UAL -0.25% said the world's largest airline
evaluates potential routes using a trove of public and purchased data
on issues such as air traffic and immigration trends.
It also talks to its corporate customers. Last November, United
started flying nonstop flights five times a week from Houston to
Lagos, Nigeria, in response to requests from oil companies that
contract with the airline, Mr. Znotins said.
Chris Wilmot, chief executive of Houston engineering and construction
firm WCW International Inc., said he lobbied for the Lagos flight
since 1999. "I travel once a month to Lagos or Ghana" to support his
firm's work on telecommunications and other projects, he said. The
nonstop "saves at least 10 hours. Otherwise, you have to go through
Europe."
In November, United and Delta begin flying to Williston, N.D., a town
of about 24,000 that happens to be at the center of an oil boom. The
city's airport, not built to accommodate so many passengers, is
planning to use a mobile home to fit an extra waiting area.
Cargo can also support mainstream flights. Delta flies 22 tons of
asparagus on many of its flights from Lima, Peru, to Atlanta. Alaska
Airlines, a unit of Alaska Air Group Inc., ALK +0.97% moves 3,000
pounds of basil from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to the U.S. daily.
Or cargo can make even the smallest routes more attractive. The
American Red Cross said its workers have taken flights in Tanzania
that stop for honey, and if there was none on a given day, the
passengers would have to spend the night and hope that the sweet cargo
would appear.
Airlines keep trying new combinations. In May, Icelandair
GroupICEAIR.RK -1.27% is launching a twice-weekly, seven-hour flight
to Anchorage, Alaska, "opening up a new market for Icelandic tourism,"
the airline said.
But not all the experiments work out. Air Greenland tried to stimulate
tourist demand with a weekly flight between Baltimore and
Kangerlussuaq in the summer of 2007, but only about 800 tickets were
sold. The airline canceled the route months later.
- Jon Ostrower contributed to this article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444657804578050781305169460.html