Air travel in Poland is likely to expand rapidly in the coming years and the total number of passengers could triple to 100m by 2022, Ryanair CE Michael O'Leary said. Ryanair was considering entering the Polish charter market, O'Leary said, expanding its low-cost operations. O'Leary also criticised plans to build a new airport in central Poland. Low-cost Ryanair is currently a market leader in European Union member Poland with a roughly 30% share of the market. Its rivals include Polish state airline LOT and Eastern Europe-focused Wizz Air. "I think the Polish market is probably going to be the fastest growing market in Europe if you take the next 5 to 10 years," O'Leary said. Poland's economy has grown by over 40% in the last decade and economists polled by Reuters expect it to expand by 3% this year. "I would be surprised if in 5 years' time annual traffic numbers to and from Polish airports isn't 100m passengers a year," O'Leary said, calling on authorities to speed up approval to extend Modlin.<br/>
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Asky Airlines plans to extend its route network to Paris and Johannesburg from its home region of West Africa as the carrier part-owned by Ethiopian Airlines seeks to increase passenger numbers and revenue. The airline plans to start direct flights between the French capital and its hub in Lome, the capital of Togo, this year or next, CEO Henok Teferra said. A Johannesburg service could be introduced by mid-2017, while Asky is also considering a route to Beirut, Lebanon. Passengers could travel from the new cities through Lome to the airline’s 23 other destinations in West and Central Africa, including Accra and Lagos. “Paris is among our priority destinations,” Teferra said. “There is significant traffic between France and francophone countries in west and central Africa.” The new routes will help Asky grow independently of Ethiopian, which owns a 26% stake in the Togolese carrier and uses Lome’s Gnassingbe Eyadema airport as a stop off for transatlantic routes to New York and Sao Paulo. Asky will become the second carrier after Air France-KLM to operate a direct Lome-Paris service. The airline is also adding sub-Saharan Africa routes, to Mauritania and Cape Verde.<br/>
All-you-can-fly membership airline Surf Air plans to begin offering commuter service between Hawthorne Municipal Airport and San Diego’s Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. Although the Santa Monica-based airline is confident the expanded service will begin sometime in this year’s second quarter, it is not ready to commit to a definite start date. “As we move forward and see what demand looks like, we will confirm a date, but based on the research and interest we’re getting, I don’t see it not happening,” said Barry Holmes, Surf Air’s chief revenue officer. The planned move to offer business travelers with as many as five daily flights to Hawthorne from San Diego — and as many as five in the opposite direction — was fueled by increasing inquiries from both existing and prospective members, Holmes said. Surf Air currently operates one daily flight to Hawthorne out of Carlsbad in San Diego County. The airline’s network of destinations also includes Burbank, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, Napa, Monterey and Lake Tahoe.<br/>