YEREVAN AIRPORT BETTER LOCATED THAN DUBAI; TRANSAERO LAUNCHES VNUKOVO LINK LAST WEEK
anna.aero (Airline Network News & Analysis)
July 24 2013
With a population approaching nearly 1.25 million, representing over
a third of Armenia's total population, the capital Yerevan (the 13th
in the country's history) is one of the world's oldest continuously
inhabited cities, with a history dating back to the 8th century BC.
With a skyline dominated by Mount Ararat, the city is served by
Zvartnots International Airport, which handled close to 1.7 million
annual passengers in 2012, representing nearly 6% growth.
There is an undeniable growth trend evident, with the airport doubling
its traffic in the last decade. This comes despite the loss of Armenian
Airlines, when it was taken over by Armavia in 2003, the latter then
becoming the nation's flag carrier, but which subsequently failed
itself in March this year. The growth prospects of the airport are
therefore borne out by the fact that passenger traffic is only down
just over 3% in the first six months of 2013.
S7 now market leader after Armavia's exit
The collapse of Armavia has dramatically altered the airline
landscape at Yerevan. When comparing schedules for this August to
those operated in the same week last year, the impact of Armavia's
83 weekly services is marked - as they represented nearly 40% of all
the airport's flights. The airport has bounced back to some extent,
as the drop in weekly frequencies is only 16% lower than 12 months
ago. The loss of Armavia has partly been responsible for a surge in new
carriers in Yerevan, as the airport has welcomed nine new airlines,
including two now in the top 10 - Ukraine International Airlines
and Georgian Airlines - in the last year. However, the net number of
airlines at the airport has only increased by four (from 27 to 31)
as five airlines have stopped flying to Yerevan (three altogether -
Armavia, AeroSvit Airlines and Kuban Airlines), including British
Airways' daily Heathrow and Meridiana's twice-weekly Rome Fiumicino
services (replaced by Alitalia in December 2012), both of which were
terminated last October.
The top 10 airlines represent over 70% of all flying at Yerevan,
with all of them showing year-on-year frequency growth. Leading the
annual growth table is flydubai, which has grown by 133% in the last
12 months, with Transaero Airlines not far behind, adding a daily
Moscow Vnukovo service this week (LINK TO NIBS) to its existing daily
Moscow Domodedovo operation.
SVID's appraisal of Zvartnots is "good"
Entering Yerevan's monthly passenger data for 2012 into anna.aero's
Seasonal Variation in Demand (SVID) calculator, the airport performs
well, producing a score of 6.25, giving it a "good" rating. Against
its airport peer from the region Tbilisi, its 2012 score is marginally
better than the Georgian capital city (6.56 - good). However, when
compared to Armenia's second largest airport, Shirak International,
serving Gyumri in the north-west of the country, it performs worse
than the 70,000 annual passenger facility, which scores 3.72,
but still only a "good" result. Since we started doing SVID scores,
anna.aero has now evaluated over 50 airport's seasonality performance
for 2012, and Yerevan has entered the rankings at #38 spot overall,
lodging itself between Barcelona (5.4) and Birmingham (7.33).
Forget Dubai (again), Yerevan is centre of world (but not as good
as Baku)!
Most of us have done it - used a MEB3 hub to get from Europe to
countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal or China. But the reality is
that flying via Yerevan offers a shorter alternative than hubbing
through one of these better known airports. This something which
anna.aero discovered last year, when we looked at Baku in Azerbaijan.
While journey distances from Heathrow via Dubai to destinations
like Mumbai, Ahmedabad or Karachi are comparable to those achieved
through Yerevan (although the Armenian capital is still better)
the variance become increasingly stark when looking at points like
Urumqi, Islamabad and Beijing. The average distance to this basket
of routes via Dubai is 8,409 kilometres, whereas for Yerevan it is
just 7,435 kilometres, representing nearly a 12% saving. However,
when comparing the average distances of the Armenian capital to the
Azerbaijani capital (just over 480 kilometres away), Baku narrowly
beats it neighbour by just 78 kilometres. All Armenia needs now is
a global mega-carrier with deep pockets and an insatiable desire to
connect the world to set-up a base in Yerevan.
See tables and graphs at
http://www.anna.aero/2013/07/24/yerevan-airport-better-located-than-dubai/
anna.aero (Airline Network News & Analysis)
July 24 2013
With a population approaching nearly 1.25 million, representing over
a third of Armenia's total population, the capital Yerevan (the 13th
in the country's history) is one of the world's oldest continuously
inhabited cities, with a history dating back to the 8th century BC.
With a skyline dominated by Mount Ararat, the city is served by
Zvartnots International Airport, which handled close to 1.7 million
annual passengers in 2012, representing nearly 6% growth.
There is an undeniable growth trend evident, with the airport doubling
its traffic in the last decade. This comes despite the loss of Armenian
Airlines, when it was taken over by Armavia in 2003, the latter then
becoming the nation's flag carrier, but which subsequently failed
itself in March this year. The growth prospects of the airport are
therefore borne out by the fact that passenger traffic is only down
just over 3% in the first six months of 2013.
S7 now market leader after Armavia's exit
The collapse of Armavia has dramatically altered the airline
landscape at Yerevan. When comparing schedules for this August to
those operated in the same week last year, the impact of Armavia's
83 weekly services is marked - as they represented nearly 40% of all
the airport's flights. The airport has bounced back to some extent,
as the drop in weekly frequencies is only 16% lower than 12 months
ago. The loss of Armavia has partly been responsible for a surge in new
carriers in Yerevan, as the airport has welcomed nine new airlines,
including two now in the top 10 - Ukraine International Airlines
and Georgian Airlines - in the last year. However, the net number of
airlines at the airport has only increased by four (from 27 to 31)
as five airlines have stopped flying to Yerevan (three altogether -
Armavia, AeroSvit Airlines and Kuban Airlines), including British
Airways' daily Heathrow and Meridiana's twice-weekly Rome Fiumicino
services (replaced by Alitalia in December 2012), both of which were
terminated last October.
The top 10 airlines represent over 70% of all flying at Yerevan,
with all of them showing year-on-year frequency growth. Leading the
annual growth table is flydubai, which has grown by 133% in the last
12 months, with Transaero Airlines not far behind, adding a daily
Moscow Vnukovo service this week (LINK TO NIBS) to its existing daily
Moscow Domodedovo operation.
SVID's appraisal of Zvartnots is "good"
Entering Yerevan's monthly passenger data for 2012 into anna.aero's
Seasonal Variation in Demand (SVID) calculator, the airport performs
well, producing a score of 6.25, giving it a "good" rating. Against
its airport peer from the region Tbilisi, its 2012 score is marginally
better than the Georgian capital city (6.56 - good). However, when
compared to Armenia's second largest airport, Shirak International,
serving Gyumri in the north-west of the country, it performs worse
than the 70,000 annual passenger facility, which scores 3.72,
but still only a "good" result. Since we started doing SVID scores,
anna.aero has now evaluated over 50 airport's seasonality performance
for 2012, and Yerevan has entered the rankings at #38 spot overall,
lodging itself between Barcelona (5.4) and Birmingham (7.33).
Forget Dubai (again), Yerevan is centre of world (but not as good
as Baku)!
Most of us have done it - used a MEB3 hub to get from Europe to
countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal or China. But the reality is
that flying via Yerevan offers a shorter alternative than hubbing
through one of these better known airports. This something which
anna.aero discovered last year, when we looked at Baku in Azerbaijan.
While journey distances from Heathrow via Dubai to destinations
like Mumbai, Ahmedabad or Karachi are comparable to those achieved
through Yerevan (although the Armenian capital is still better)
the variance become increasingly stark when looking at points like
Urumqi, Islamabad and Beijing. The average distance to this basket
of routes via Dubai is 8,409 kilometres, whereas for Yerevan it is
just 7,435 kilometres, representing nearly a 12% saving. However,
when comparing the average distances of the Armenian capital to the
Azerbaijani capital (just over 480 kilometres away), Baku narrowly
beats it neighbour by just 78 kilometres. All Armenia needs now is
a global mega-carrier with deep pockets and an insatiable desire to
connect the world to set-up a base in Yerevan.
See tables and graphs at
http://www.anna.aero/2013/07/24/yerevan-airport-better-located-than-dubai/