Volotea adds a new destination in France to its network from Olbia: the city of Deauville. The famous seaside resort in the Calvados region, and the gateway for visiting Normandy, will be linked by air to the Sardinian city from 10 May with weekly flights every Tuesday. On offer are more than 6,100 seats, and the new route to Deauville brings to 21 the number of destinations operated from Olbia airport.

In ten years Volotea has brought 1.9 million passengers to Olbia

Since 2012, the date of its debut on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda coast, Volotea has transported some 1.9 million passengers to Olbia, on a total of 16,200 flights and with a total offer of 2.3 million seats on sale.  "From 10 May passengers departing from the airport will have many convenient options at competitive prices to take off an discover Deauville and Normandy, a very attractive region and suitable for all types of travelers,” said Valeria Rebasti, Volotea’s Country Manager Italy & Southeast Europe.  

Supporting the local economy 

“Thanks to these new flights we will also boost the number of foreign arrivals into Olbia to discover the beauties of Sardinia.  With our flights we are backing tourism on the island, and we are supporting the local economy that suffered so badly in the last couple of years due to the pandemic."

Summer 2022 will see Icelandair open a new seasonal route from Rome Fiumicino, the capital's primary airport, to Reykjavik on the Icelandic coast, the country's capital and largest city.

The connection will operate twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays from 6 July to 4 September. 

Connections with North Atlantic routes

The new route will also allow passengers traveling for business and leisure the chance to take advantage of travel connections on the Icelandicair network via Reykjavik. The Rome-Reykjavik route will also allow important connections between the Eternal City and North Atlantic routes, allowing transit passengers to take advantage of a stopover in Iceland without any additional airfare. In addition to Rome, the Icelandic airline will launch two other new destinations this summer: Nice and Alicante.

“More choice and convenient connections”

"As we enter 2022, we can see signs of recovery for the travel industry -  said Bogi Nils Bogason, President and CEO of Icelandair – and we are thrilled to be able to add Rome to our already extensive network of destinations. With the addition of Rome, Nice and Alicante for the summer, Icelandair is committed to offering our European and North Atlantic customers more choice and convenient connections."

Rome’s strategic role for the European market

Ivan Bassato, Chief Aviation Officer of Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) added: "We are really pleased to welcome Icelandair to Fiumicino airport. The inauguration of the direct connection to Reykjavik scheduled for the summer confirms the effectiveness of the initiatives implemented by ADR, as well as the strategic role of Rome as a reference for both the European market and the world’s most important cities."

Wizz Air will add two new flights from Italy to the United Kingdom with the introduction in March 2022 of routes from Venice and Palermo to London Gatwick. The airline is also doubling the frequency of flights on the existing route between Milan Malpensa and London Gatwick.

A constant expansion on the Italian market

The two new routes are part of the wider expansion plan from London Gatwick announced by the low cost airline at the end of last year. The new routes, departing from Venice’s Marco Polo and Palermo’s Punta Raisi airports, will be added to the five, announced in December, to Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino, Naples Capodichino, Bari Palese and Catania Fontanarossa airports.

Five weekly Venice-London flights

The Venice-London route will be served by five weekly flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays starting from 27 March. The Palermo flights will be twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 29 March.

Improved on-board sanitation measures

"These new routes give our passengers even more opportunities to travel safely - said Paulina Gosk, corporate communications manager of Wizz Air - and we would like to emphasize our commitment to offering the lowest possible fares as well as an excellent on-board experience. Moreover, thanks to Wizz Air's improved on-board sanitation measures, passengers will be able to enjoy their journey feeling absolutely safe and comfortable.”

Air Corsica returns to Italy this summer, investing in a new seasonal route from Ajaccio – the company’s home base - to Rome, the only direct air link between the French island and Italy.

The airline will operate the two weekly flights, each Monday and Friday, from 1 July to 29 August. The flights will be operated by Airbus A320s. Air Corsica was the first carrier in France to use it this type of aircraft.

New European routes 

The launch of these seasonal routes is part of Air Corsica’s development plan following two years marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes the opening of new routes to Europe and the restart of those suspended during the health crisis. For the summer of 2022, starting from 2 April, the network will in fact have twelve international routes to six countries. This totals 150,000 seats in addition to the twelve permanent public-service routes and domestic routes outside the public service.

“We are at the heart of Europe” 

"Air Corsica is pursuing its network diversification objectives to go beyond public service routes - said President, Luc Bereni - we are taking on a new dimension that places us at the heart of Europe.” The new 2022 operations position the airline as the leading carrier operating international flights from Corsica, both in terms of the number of routes and of the countries directly connected to the island.

Vueling is gearing up for the Italian summer with five new Paris Orly flights, frequencies on 58 routes to 16 airports and with 11 flights from Florence and 25 from Rome Fiumicino. The network also includes five new routes from Paris Orly, operated for the first time in the summer months from Italy.

These are direct flights, which started operating last November, from Paris Orly to Milan Bergamo, Turin, Genoa, Bologna and Bari.

Vueling flies to 16 Italian airports 

The IAG Group airline also confirms its presence in 14 other Italian airports: Milan Malpensa with 5 flights to Barcelona, Ibiza, Bilbao, Alicante and Paris Orly; Bergamo Orio al Serio with Paris Orly; Catania and Palermo with Barcelona and Florence; Bologna, Bari, Genoa and Turin with Barcelona and Paris Orly; Venice, Naples, Pisa, Olbia, Alghero and Cagliari with Barcelona.

Rome Fiumicino is one of Vueling's international hubs

From Rome Fiumicino, which is one of Vueling's international hubs, the airline offers a total of 25 routes this summer. Among the key flights are direct connections with 10 Spanish cities, including the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, as well as to Greece, Croatia, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

A global network of 120 destinations in over 30 countries

From Florence, where Vueling has been based since 2012, the airline will offer 11 routes to destinations in Spain, Greece, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom, in addition to maintaining two domestic frequencies to Catania and Palermo. Globally, the carrier's summer operating schedule – 26 March to 29 October  - includes 120 destinations in more than 30 countries increasing the frequencies, compared to 2021, with a similar capacity to pre-pandemic 2019.

Remember the good old days when the word ghost immediately brought to mind Patrick Swayze and his great performance in the 90s cult film? Nowadays the word ghost rhymes with flights, and is one of the many downsides of the pandemic. Not just for its negative impact on strained airline budgets but - alas even more so - on our increasingly fragile environment.

In order to hold on to their precious airport slots EU regulations require airlines to use a fixed quota, the so-called use-it-or-lose-it rule. Usually hovering around 80%, the pandemic has brought slots down to 50%, though this summer, with a recovery of travel, they should rise to 64%.

Airlines are proud of their commitment to the environmental sustainability of their business, but they now they are having to turn a blind eye to the waste of fuel and the consequent pollution of our skies. The EU  - that same Europe of the Green Deal that aims to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 - has quite a different view, saying that consumers need to be protected from cancellations and other such inconveniences. 

In the meantime, with the pandemic still not over, and the demand for travel well below pre-crisis levels, the number of carriers stepping up ghost flights (i.e. with practically no passengers) continues to grow. The question is, can we really afford to go on operating unnecessary flights in a world increasingly pressured by pollution and the climate emergency? 

Mariella Cattaneo
Journalist

British Airways will operate new daily London City Airport to Milan Malpensa flights from March. The new British Airways entry is part of a wider plan to expand the network operated by the airline from London City Airport.

In addition to Milan with the introduction of the summer schedule, three other new routes will be introduced to Barcelona, Luxembourg and Thessaloniki. These fights will all be operated with Embraer E190 aircraft belonging to the BA CityFlyer subsidiary.

Milan flights start on March 27

The routes to Luxembourg and Milan will start on 27 March, both served by daily frequencies. The one weekly flight to Thessaloniki will start on 18 June, operating every Saturday, while on 19 June the flights to Barcelona will also be introduced, operating daily except Saturdays. "As customers start to plan their upcoming summer travel, we wanted to offer new routes to some of Europe's most popular destinations - said Tom Stoddart, Managing Director BA CityFlyer – and these are a significant addition to our extensive network.”

Volotea expands its network from Cagliari with the addition of two new routes to Nice and Lille in France, starting on 30 May and June 2 respectively. The Nice flights will operate twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, providing more than 10,000 seats, while the weekly flight to Lille is scheduled every Thursday, and puts a total of approximately 4,400 seats on sale. With these two routes, operated exclusively by Volotea, the Spanish airline’s destinations from Cagliari will stand at 21.

Volotea has three bases in Sardinia

Since 2012, the date of its debut in the island's capital, Volotea has carried over 1.69 million passengers to Cagliari, amounting to a total of over 13,000 flights and 1.95 million seats on sale.  Sardinia has always been a strategic destination for the growth of the low-cost’s network, and it has three of its operating bases on the island, in Cagliari, Alghero and Olbia.

More options for Sardinians and foreign visitors

"These two routes provide new options for passengers wishing to take off to discover the wonders beyond the Alps,” said Valeria Rebasti, Country Manager Italy & Southeastern Europe.   The flights will also give new opportunities to foreign visitors who want to reach Cagliari and visit the beauties of the region, thus supporting and strengthening the local economy, she added.

“Sardinia must expand its network to France” 

"In this phase of restart for the tourism sector - commented David Crognaletti, Chief Commercial Officer of Sogaer, the management company of the Sardinian airport - it is essential for Cagliari and southern Sardinia to expand their networks towards the north and south of France, which is one of our most strategic markets."

Singapore Airlines has put tickets on sale to fly between Milan Malpensa and Barcelona. The airline received approval for the route from the Italian regulatory authorities. The route has been active for some time but without the possibility of selling tickets and carrying passengers between the two cities.

Flights every Monday, Wednesday and Friday 

The three weekly flights are already on sale through all the carrier's distribution channels and will be operated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting from 17 January.

Flying on a SIA Airbus A350-900 

"We are proud to add the Milan-Barcelona route to our global network," says Dale Woodhouse, Singapore Airlines’ General Manager Italy. "It offers Italian travelers an opportunity to experience the pleasure of flying on Singapore Airlines' twin-aisle Airbus A350-900. It has 3 classes, a state-of-the-art in-seat entertainment system and world-renowned in-flight service.”

British Airways raises the curtain on the network of its new BA EuroFlyer division, starting with 35 destinations, seven of which are Italian cities  - Bari, Verona, Catania, Turin, Cagliari, Venice and Milan Malpensa. Tickets went on sale mid-December, and flights will start on 7 March 2022. The new network will be operated initially by British Airways, but by autumn 2022 it will be managed under the company's trading name BA Euroflyer, while the brand name will remain British Airways.

18 aircraft and premium service

The fleet will first consist of three Airbuses, rising to 18 aircraft by the end of May. Short-haul flights from Gatwick were suspended at the outbreak of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, with several routes being transferred to Heathrow. Some of these flights will also operate from Gatwick, giving passengers a second option. "Today is a historic moment for British Airways - commented Sean Doyle, president and CEO of the British airline – with the creation of a new short-haul division, passengers at Gatwick will benefit from access to a premium service at competitive prices from the UK's flag carrier."

Competitive fares and holiday packages

Club Europe-class passengers will have complimentary catering while Euro Traveller class passengers can use the airline's Speedbird Café to purchase a selection of food and beverages on board. Tickets start from £39, a competitive offer compared to low-cost airline fares and a series of British Airways Holidays packages are also on sale, starting from £119.