KFlyer From Sri Lanka, joined Mar 2007, 1211 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 year 11 months 1 week 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 1215 times:
With the dawn of peace in 2009, many airlines have launched/ resumed flights into CMB, Sri Lanka. Recent announcements include, Aeroflot ( resumption) and Aerosvit (new) who will begin services in W11/12. GF, EY and a number of others have resumed services since the end of war. Does anybody know whether any leading airlines, particularly from Europe, are planning to launch CMB services? I know that the market is primarily leisure focused and rather low yielding, but most European carriers tend to serve places that are worse. The premium demand now seems to have recovered to a good level, with UL refurbishing its wide-body fleet to include full flat seats in J and EK having added F on all of its 20+ weekly 777 flights to CMB.
Why not LH or BA? UL has been getting very good loads (and yield) into LHR and are now planning an increase to 21 weekly flights, with 14th frequency due to begin next year. Though I agree that it will be rather difficult to take a share of this market away from UL. But how about LH? UL seems to be having a very good demand to FRA, with its sixth weekly flight just added eff Mar 2012. DE too has resumed FRA-CMB with two weekly flights. Perhaps a thrice weekly PrivatAir flight could work for LH?
TK last year stated their intention to serve CMB, however no details have been revealed yet.
I understand that CMB is not one of the hotspots that the airlines are looking at, but I believe that there is more demand for CMB than what they believe. Would be happy to hear your opinions.
The opinions above are solely my own and do not express those of my employers or clients.
directorguy From Egypt, joined Jul 2008, 1569 posts, RR: 11 Reply 1, posted (1 year 11 months 1 week 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1111 times:
Quoting KFlyer (Thread starter): Why not LH or BA? UL has been getting very good loads (and yield) into LHR and are now planning an increase to 21 weekly flights, with 14th frequency due to begin next year. Though I agree that it will be rather difficult to take a share of this market away from UL. But how about LH? UL seems to be having a very good demand to FRA, with its sixth weekly flight just added eff Mar 2012. DE too has resumed FRA-CMB with two weekly flights. Perhaps a thrice weekly PrivatAir flight could work for LH?
TK last year stated their intention to serve CMB, however no details have been revealed yet.
There are a ton of routes that BA has cut over the years that 'could' be profitable for them. Examples include KUL, CMB, some Pakistan/India routes etc. It's simply a lack of resources (slots) that makes BA pretty conservative when it comes to opening/re-opening new routes. The 77W and the 747 would obviously be overkill for LHR-CMB-so perhaps VS could one day be interested in LHR-CMB using the A340?
LH could also open FRA-CMB, however I don't think the O&D market warrants two airlines flying a relatively thin route. Perhaps TK IST-CMB could work with their A330s.
gardermoen From Australia, joined Jul 1999, 1518 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (1 year 11 months 1 week 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1060 times:
I agree, TK could make a go of CMB ( it has with practically everywhere else in the sub continent/Asia). Perhaps even KLM, they do after all leisure cities like DPS and MNL, so can't see why CMB could not work.
LH/Privatair to CMB, I can't see it. Privatair is solely aimed at the high-yield, market, correct? I can see, however, Air Berlin making it work, and am surprised why they have not already done so. Berlin-Colombo is a city pair that should warrant enough holiday traffic on its own.
From the Asian side, don't forget Hainan Air will soon lauch Beijing-Colombo via Bangkok, some sources say A330, others the B738. Not sure what it will be.
Im surprised that JetStar Asia have not looked at CMB (CMB is blatantly absent from the entire QF group, so this woudl be a good addition). Given the vast labour traffic between SIN and CMB, they could easily carve a market out from that.
Back in the 1980s, KE flew to CMB. Would be nice to see them there too, possibly with a 2 or 3 times weekly A330 service. They see to make other smaller Asian ports work, so I can't see why not with CMB.
KFlyer From Sri Lanka, joined Mar 2007, 1211 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (1 year 11 months 1 week 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 928 times:
I believe it's mostly an image issue. There is now a good demand into CMB, but most airlines have not yet fully realised this.
Re BA, a thrice weekly 772 or in fact a tag on to their MLE flight could work. LTU used to fly almost daily into CMB (from MUC,HAM,FRA&LEJ but never TXL IIRC) so can't see why AB won't be able to make it work.
Re KL, they will have to rely almost solely on tourist traffic as there's very low O&D between CMB& Netherlands. However this is not the same for LH&BA. AZ could make it work, but UL&GJ have already taken the market in their control. In the past among the airlines that served CMB include AF,BA,LH,KL(747s!),KE,CY,AY & many others. It would be nice to have all of them back, though this would not be realistic.
TK is inevitable, but just when is not clear. I would think that it'd be a 737 if they had the legs. Since it'd be too much a stretch, they should start a IST-MLE-CMB-IST 332 IMHO.
The opinions above are solely my own and do not express those of my employers or clients.
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