Is Vilnius still the worst-connected capital in the EU?

In 2009 Bloomberg published a story bringing attention to the fact that, after the collapse of Lithuanian carreir FlyLaL, Vilnius, Lithuania, had become the capital city in the EU with the least air connections.

Is this still true? possibly....but, despite the fact that it has proven really hard for a national airline sector to take-off in Lithuania (FlyLal's bankruptcy was followed by that of Star1 Airlines and the closure of AirBaltic's, Air Estonia's and Skyway's Vilnius mini-bases), traffic numbers are back on the rise (getting close to pre-2009 levels). The explanation is very simple and it is the same that is happening all over Europe when a flag carrier has gone bust (for example, Malev), low cost airlines step in.

 Wizz Air, to the rescue

In the case of Vilnius it has been mainly Wizz Air, that opened a base in 2010, and Ryanair, that offers flights to 9 destinations from the Lithuanian capital.

Having low cost carriers fill the vacuum left by collapsing network carriers might not be a solution everyone likes, as low cost carriers are far from fulfiling the flag-carrying role that was usually reserved to national network carriers, premium passengers might also ressent the lack of a full-service airline on most routes...but, hey! this is the reality of the market and this is a substitution process that I would expect to see in more places in the near future, as msot European network airlines are a legacy of an era that is not coming back!

Aviation news of the week (15-7-12)

As you might imagine, the Farnborough air show generated most of the top aviation news this week. Part of the routine of each major air show is the stream of aircraft order announcements, and this time it was no exception:

Boeing announced a  150-strong order for its Boeing 737 (100 737 Max and 50 737 NG) from United Airlines. By the way, with this order Boeing passes the 10,000th aircraft mark in the history of its Boeing 737 family. A truly remarkable achievement!

AirAsia confirmed it is talks with Bombardier to order up to 100 CS300 aircraft. If this order materializes it is going to be a really important achievement for the CSeries programme, that really needs new orders soon! On another page, AirBaltic announced an order for 15 CS300. So not a bad show for Bombardier after all.

Cathay Pacific confirmed it is going ahead with the A350-1000, a vote of confidence in this aircraft programme after it went througha  redesign last year.

And on non-Farnborough news, the government of Uruguay is going to auction the assets of bankrupt flag carrier Pluna, that has stopped flying. Bidding for the airline's Bombardier CRJ900 Next Generation aircraft will start at $135M.

Finally, I thought you might like this video fro the Farnborough air show, where you will be able to see how an Airbus A380 looks like when maneuvering at low altitude.

Have a great week!

More on social seating for airlines: Satisfly takes off with airBaltic

Not long ago I wrote about the phenomenon of social seating. Several airlines and start-ups are exploring different ways to develop and implement this type of service.

While it is not clear yet what model is going to prevail, one of the pioneers in this field, Satisfly, led by Sergio Mello, has reached a significant milestone and announced its first airline partnership, with airBaltic.

The Riga, Latvia-based carrier is usually quite keen to implement innovative marketing initiatives, it is a regular on Airlinetrends' rankings of most innovative airlines, so it is not totally unexpected that it has jumped on the social seating band-wagon, with its airBaltic SeatBuddy service.

What I find interesting about Satisfly's system is that it is not airline-specific, like similar airline social seating schemes developed by KLM and Malaysia Airlines, and also that, by partnering with the airlines, it can be put in front of the travelers every time they interact with the airline, during booking or online check-in. The concept might still take some time to take-off, and might not be for everyone, but as social networks become more entangled with everyone's daily activities I think social seating might end up being one more feature (a segment of) passengers will come to expect when they book a flight.

Planespotting at Barcelona airport (BCN)

Here are some pics taken while waiting to board my flight at BCN. They were taken from T2 terminal (the old and now almost empty terminal), that has a nice view of one of the runways and of the brand-new T1 terminal, although the distance is considerable, as you can see from the size of the planes in the image.


Norwegian Boeing 737




Luxair's De Havilland DHC-8 400 just arrived from Luxemburg


A Vueling A320 heading for Terminal 1, Vueling is now the airline that carries more passengers at BCN


An AirBaltic Boeing 737 from Riga


Lufthansa A320 from Munich


Airbus 320 from Czech airline CSA arriving from Prague-Ruzyne