World's airlines already plan over 830 new routes for 2012
20.05.12
While European airlines take nine of the top 12 positions, three US carriers will also be particularly busy with new route launches in 2012. Delta and US Airways’ ‘slot-swap’ at Washington Reagan and New York LaGuardia means that both of these carriers will have multiple route launches to celebrate this summer, while Southwest’s acquisition of AirTran opens up the opportunity to launch several new routes from Atlanta, as well as adding new services between several of its existing airports across the US. In total, we have so far identified over 130 airlines that plan to launch new services in 2012.
US leads way with most new routes followed by Germany
With each route involving two airports (one at each end of the route), we have identified which are the leading countries for new route development. Surprisingly, given the modest growth in the overall market, US airports feature 250 times (out of a possible 1662 times), followed by UK airports (139), airports in Germany (137 times), Spain (128), Italy (118) and France (116). These are the same six countries that led the way in early 2011. Of course, the US and Europe are in many respects the most liberalised regions for air travel, so this should come as no great surprise.
Source: anna.aero