With light at the end of the tunnel thanks to the news that COVID-19 vaccines could be rolled out in some countries as early as next week, airports and airlines are firmly focused not just on restarting but also on seeking out opportunities to expand their services.
Speaking during the Routes Reconnected conference earlier this week, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said that now is a “fabulous time to experiment”. The New York-based carrier has announced 62 new routes since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and recently secured landing slots at two of London’s secondary hubs – Gatwick and Stansted – for its transatlantic routes that it plans to launch in early Q3, 2021.
Referencing how JetBlue’s growth of about 5–7% each year is based on adding capacity to current markets, Hayes said, “but suddenly, we have airplanes sitting on the ground and we have business travel demand that’s likely to be suppressed for a while, so we have a tremendous amount of assets to try new things.” He added, “it’s really about taking advantage of cash-positive flying based on demand in certain markets.”
Hayes also acknowledged that in an environment where there’s very little demand, airlines are currently chasing after the same ball. So it’s important for airlines to look at local insights and regional-specific data for a destination, which is something airports can help with.
Also speaking at the Routes Reconnected conference, airBaltic’s CEO, Martin Gauss, revealed that he expects to see demand for travel returning in March next year. “A lot of people are desperate to go somewhere else and to have a different experience. It is in our DNA as humans,” he said.
Going forward the Riga-based carrier plans to operate with more flexibility and speed when it comes to route planning. “Typically in the past it would take a couple of weeks to open a route, but now we have the capacity, the aircraft are on the apron and the crew are ready. So, from a commercial perspective, that means we can make a decision and open a route the next day,” said Gauss. He also referenced that in the absence of big marketing campaigns the airline is using social media to help gauge the level of demand from customers, particularly on leisure routes.
Gauss also revealed that the airline is now looking at various airports across Europe that had been dismissed previously. AirBaltic has replaced all its turboprops with a fleet of A220s, which are key to the airline’s survival strategy in a post-coronavirus market. As well as being able to land at most airports the A220-300 “is easier to fill with just 145 seats as opposed to 230, so we will be able to fly to destinations where a competitor might feel there isn’t enough demand,” Gauss added. Noting that flexibility is now more important than ever, he said airBaltic “will consider medium- and long-haul routes – if you have the capacity and have done your homework you have to be flexible with the routes you fly.”
Gauss also referenced the importance of ongoing collaborations between airports and airlines in understanding each other’s needs. “There are many regional hubs struggling because they didn’t get the same sort of support as airlines from their government. So it’s about airlines understanding what an airport is capable of offering and how they can support them and airports need to understand what airlines have had to go through as well as what can and needs to be done to attract those airlines back.”
But the messaging was clear – the end of the crisis is now in sight!
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Chloë Greenbank
Editor, Regional Gateway
