When Turkish Airlines opened a direct daily route to war-ravaged Somalia, industry insiders were sceptical. Not anymore. "Somalia is one of our most profitable destinations worldwide," a Turkish Airlines official said. "Because we are the only (international airline). The first and the only one." The Istanbul-based carrier is replicating the move across Africa, expanding to destinations shunned by others. In 2011, Turkish flew to 14 African cities. By the end of this year, it will operate 52 routes from Istanbul across Africa. Despite challenges like poor security or electricity cuts at some airports, African flights feed passengers into Turkish Airline's hub, making routes like Istanbul to London profitable.<br/>
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United is adding seasonal service on four new routes to Europe, the carrier announced Tuesday. The new routes – two from United’s hub in Newark and one each from its hubs in Washington and San Francisco – continue a recent international growth spurt for the company. The routes from Newark will begin in May, connecting the city to two new destinations for United: Reykjavik, Iceland, and Porto, Portugal. United’s new service from Washington Dulles also will begin in May, when the carrier adds non-stop service to Edinburgh, Scotland. And from San Francisco, United will launch non-stop flights to Zurich beginning in June. The new seasonal routes follow a number of other high-profile routes unveiled by United during the past year.<br/>
In August, United Continental’s traffic grew 1.2% YoY, slightly lower than its capacity growth in the same period. YTD, United’s traffic had grown 3.3% YoY, again slightly lower than its capacity growth. As can be expected, traffic growth was driven mainly by domestic market traffic growth thanks to capacity growth in the region. In August, United’s domestic traffic grew 4.0% YoY. YTD, the domestic region had witnessed 5.1% YoY traffic growth. international traffic grew by just 0.2% YoY in August, contributed to by Atlantic growth. Latin America’s traffic fell 2.8% YoY, and Pacific traffic fell 1.1% YoY, despite growth in capacity. Atlantic market traffic, on the other hand, grew 2.5% YoY, despite lower capacity.<br/>
THAI is set to increase frequencies on its existing popular routes or add new destinations in East Asia and Europe to cope with the expected increase in tourists during the coming high season. A THAI official said more flights or new direct services will be introduced mainly to China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Vienna during the winter season, starting October. "China is becoming more important for THAI. We plan to operate a direct flight from China to Phuket in October to cope with the high season," he said. The airline is also considering increasing flights from other major cities in East Asia. THAI is resuming its regular service to Vienna in November after a 24-year hiatus.<br/>