Latest news with #Cirium
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Morocco to spend billions on airports ahead of World Cup
Morocco is set to invest 38 billion dirhams ($4.2 billion) over the next five years to overhaul its main airports, preparing for the World Cup it will co-host with Portugal and Spain. The Moroccan government announced on Thursday that an agreement has been signed with the national airports authority, ONDA, to facilitate this extensive project. Under the deal, 25 billion dirhams will be allocated for airport expansion, with 13 billion dirhams designated for maintenance and land acquisition. The government plans to expand its airport capacity to 80 million passengers by 2030 from 38 million currently. In May, Morocco issued two expressions of interest to identify bidders for its plan to build a new terminal that will increase capacity at its largest airport in Casablanca by 20 million passengers. British tourists are increasingly choosing north Africa as a holiday destination, with travel firms reporting a shift away from traditional European hotspots. The rise in popularity is due to the availability of high-quality hotels in countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, which are significantly cheaper than similar options in Spain, France, and Italy, experts say. Aviation analysts Cirium have reported a significant increase in flights from UK airports to north Africa, with 19,847 flights projected for this year. Tui has increased its flights from the UK to north Africa this summer to meet growing demand, with new routes from Stansted to Enfidha in Tunisia and from Newcastle to Agadir, Morocco. Online accommodation marketplace said it recorded a 68 per cent increase in the number of searches for summer breaks in Tunisia during the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2024. Egypt and Morocco saw rises of 64 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Morocco to spend billions on airports ahead of World Cup
Morocco is set to invest 38 billion dirhams ($4.2 billion) over the next five years to overhaul its main airports, preparing for the World Cup it will co-host with Portugal and Spain. The Moroccan government announced on Thursday that an agreement has been signed with the national airports authority, ONDA, to facilitate this extensive project. Under the deal, 25 billion dirhams will be allocated for airport expansion, with 13 billion dirhams designated for maintenance and land acquisition. The government plans to expand its airport capacity to 80 million passengers by 2030 from 38 million currently. In May, Morocco issued two expressions of interest to identify bidders for its plan to build a new terminal that will increase capacity at its largest airport in Casablanca by 20 million passengers. Morocco reported a record 17.4 million visitors last year, up 20% from 2023, and it expects to attract 26 million tourists in 2030. (Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi) British tourists are increasingly choosing north Africa as a holiday destination, with travel firms reporting a shift away from traditional European hotspots. The rise in popularity is due to the availability of high-quality hotels in countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, which are significantly cheaper than similar options in Spain, France, and Italy, experts say. Aviation analysts Cirium have reported a significant increase in flights from UK airports to north Africa, with 19,847 flights projected for this year. Tui has increased its flights from the UK to north Africa this summer to meet growing demand, with new routes from Stansted to Enfidha in Tunisia and from Newcastle to Agadir, Morocco. Online accommodation marketplace said it recorded a 68 per cent increase in the number of searches for summer breaks in Tunisia during the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2024. Egypt and Morocco saw rises of 64 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.
Mint
4 days ago
- Business
- Mint
How Indian airlines are benefiting from Look East Policy
For years, successive governments have had the 'Look East' policy to work with the South East Asian nations and offer a counterbalance to China's influence in the region. In 2014, this 'Look East' was converted to 'Act East' with a focus on economic connections, defence co-operation, and most importantly, people-to-people connect. The people-to-people connect part has greatly benefited the airlines, with the winners being Indian carriers in some cases, while foreign carriers in others. The change has been drastic from pre-COVID times to today and has been fuelled by the need from ASEAN to replace or hedge Chinese tourists, who remained away for a longer period due to restrictions in place by the Chinese government on travel. This meant that tourism-heavy economies like Thailand started offering incentives like free visas for Indians to travel, leading to a spurt in tourist traffic. Overall, the India-ASEAN market has been a mix of new connections, increased services and a growth like no other. Data obtained from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article, shows that there has been a giant leap in connectivity, with Indian carriers also benefiting from this. In December 2019, the last full month of operations in the world before COVID started taking its toll, India did not have a connection with Brunei, Laos, the Philippines and Cambodia among the 10 ASEAN nations. Today, Royal Brunei operates a thrice-a-week service to Chennai; Air Cambodia flies twice a week to Delhi; Air India is starting flights to Manila in September while Laos remains the only blank spot right now. Among all the countries and connectivity, the India-Vietnam connectivity has seen a new high. From just 21 flights a week in December 2019, the connectivity has now gone up to 82 weekly flights. However, only 21 out of these are operated by Indian carriers — 14 by IndiGo and seven by Air India. The rest are being operated by the two Vietnamese carriers, Vietnam Airlines and VietJet. Their network in India has spanned to Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Delhi and Hyderabad to connect to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, after having tried a few other variations. Overall, the seats went up nearly four times, and frequencies have gone up three times. While the India-Vietnam sector has seen the foreign carriers rule over Indian ones, the story is exactly opposite to Indonesia. By December 2019, all the Indonesian carriers had pulled out of India where multiple variations like non-stop and one-stop flights via Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok had been tried to connect Jakarta and Bali to points in India. On the other side of COVID, IndiGo and Vistara (later Air India) have 21 weekly frequencies to Indonesia, with IndiGo operating a daily flight to Jakarta from Mumbai and to Bali from Bengaluru while Air India operates to Bali from Delhi. The India-Malaysia market has remained more or less the same, with a slight drop. There are 42,124 weekly seats each way across 222 frequencies between India and Malaysia. While IndiGo reduced its presence at Kuala Lumpur, it added flights to Penang and Langkawi from Chennai and Bengaluru respectively, while Air India returned to Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian carriers have shrunk 11 per cent even though they have tried multiple options having maxed out on seats to metros due to bilateral restrictions. The India-Singapore market comprises 57,611 weekly seats across 247 flights this August, a slump of 10 per cent compared to 2019. The Singaporean side has shrunk by 8 per cent since 2019, while the Indian side has remained constant. August also sees seasonal variations to Singapore and often sees drop in capacity by seats or frequencies. The biggest gainer for seats in the market between pre-COVID and today has been Thailand. This also is the biggest market among the three nations by seats on offer. There was an addition of 35 weekly frequencies and a growth of 10 per cent in connectivity between India and Thailand. The connectivity recalibrated with new points being connected, like Surat-Bangkok, Pune-Bangkok, Bhubaneshwar-Bangkok, Bengaluru-Krabi, Kolkata-Phuket, among others. The Indian carriers grew close to 25 per cent in the India-Thailand market, taking a fair share even after the fall of Go Air, while the Thai carriers shrank about 5 per cent. The total seats on offer each week between India and Thailand stands at 71,350. The people connect is driven by affordability and opening up of new connections, making it far easier to visit tourist destinations like Krabi, Phuket, Langkawi, Penang or Bali. The total cost, often a true measure of holiday expenditure, dictates the travel plans and Indonesia, Vietnam or Thailand stand out compared to the Maldives, where there was a diplomatic row last year, or European destinations which not only are expensive but also have challenges and lead time issues for visa. The strategic dependence on Indian tourism bodes well for the country as a whole, even when we struggle to attract as many foreigners and the international traffic is dominated by Indians travelling abroad.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
American Airlines Cancels Hundreds of Flights for August
Some American Airlines passengers might see changes at the airport, as the airline canceled some routes for August. The airline has been canceling hundreds of flights out of O'Hare Airport in Chicago, according to AZ Central. American Airlines' routes were crunched by a site called Cirium, which found that "more than 80 routes out of O'Hare will operate with fewer flights and/or fewer seats starting in August," AZ Central reported. The route between O'Hare and Phoenix was especially affected, with 30 fewer flights, according to AZ Central. American "canceled about 800 flights scheduled for August between Chicago O'Hare and other airports, representing a loss of about 76,000 seats," AZ Central reported, citing the Cirium data. American Airlines Offers Context However, the airline touts the number of daily flights it still offers. "American has not made any recent adjustments to its flight schedules for August. We are proud to offer up to 6,700 daily flights, more than any other airline, to help connect travelers to their next vacation before the summer season starts to wind down," the airline told Men's Journal in an email on July 23. The key word in American Airlines' statement is "recent." In May, the airline cut at least 70 routes, with the changes going into effect in August. However, the airline offers some context. "American's approach to network and schedule planning is consistent with industry practices. A placeholder schedule is published 331 days in advance and then adjustments are made closer in based on the schedule we intend to operate," a spokesperson for American Airlines told Men's Journal. "We publish our final schedule approximately 100 days in advance. American is proud to offer customers the largest network of any U.S. airline, with up to 6,700 daily departures," the airline noted. "In August: American offers up to nine flights per day between PHX and ORD, twice as many as our closest competitor who offers only four daily flights on that route." They continued, "We also want to emphasize that there is no customer impact as a result of these changes as the changes were made several months prior. This year alone we've added more than 20 new routes from Chicago including the only nonstop from Chicago to Naples, Italy (NAP) – the gateway to Italy's picturesque Amalfi coast – and have added new flights to Spain and more flights to popular destinations in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America (including recent additions of Mexico City and Queretaro)." The most affected cities were "Detroit, Newark, Phoenix, Cleveland and Albuquerque," AZ Central reported. All the same, American will operate 16.5% more weekly flights out of Chicago-O'Hare in August. It's an aviation trend. According to Travel and Tour World, other airlines have also announced "drastic reductions" to their flights and routes starting in August. United, JetBlue, and Avelo were the airlines listed. "These adjustments come as a result of shifting demand patterns, economic pressures, and operational constraints," the site reported. Cirium also analyzes airlines for their on-time percentages. Aeromexico performed best in that review. "Mexico's flag carrier topped the global category, followed by Saudia, and Delta Air Lines," Cirium Airlines Cancels Hundreds of Flights for August first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 23, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Air Canada climbs rankings for most on-time airline in North America as U.S. carriers' performance tanks
Air Canada was ranked the most on-time airline in North America in June, but one expert warns there's more behind the numbers than meets the eye. A new report from aviation analytics company Cirium ranked Air Canada number one in on-time performance against nine other North American Airlines, including Canadian competitor WestJet Airlines Inc., and U.S. giants Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. Cirium said Air Canada had an on-time arrival score of 77.15 per cent. Its nearest competitor, Spirit Airlines, scored 75.77 per cent. Delta was third at 75.62 per cent, while WestJet placed seventh at 71.73 per cent. 'To say that Air Canada topped one statistic is nice, but my view is that there are a basket of other measures that kind of tell a different story,' said John Gradek, an aviation expert who previously worked at Air Canada, and is now a lecturer and program co-ordinator in aviation management at McGill University in Montreal. 'Air Canada has improved. There's no doubt about it,' Gradek said. 'They've done a number of initiatives in the organization to get their staff to improve their on-time performance.' He added that those include closing the boarding of planes earlier and planes departing earlier. Another practice Air Canada is turning to to improve on-time performance is cancelling flights when it appears they will be late and recoding them and changing their departure time. 'If a flight is going to be late at Air Canada, and there is a high probability that the delay could be significant, what Air Canada does is cancels its flight,' he said. Passengers then receive notification that they are booked on a flight with a different code but in the same seat but departing an hour later. However, Kevin O'Connor, senior vice-president of global airports and operations control at Air Canada, rejects that claim. 'I can say that that is the absolutely false, that we do not try to modify or change the stats in a case like that. We don't try to gamify anything,' O'Connor said. Instead, O'Connor said, Air Canada took a wholistic approach to fixing their on-time performance, including turning landed aircraft around faster, making sure employees are following boarding schedules and adding larger onboard luggage bins, which helps eliminate taking baggage to the plane's hold, just as examples. Air Canada is also employing artificial intelligence to design its flight schedule and predict where delays and potential snarls could arise. 'It's a lengthy list of initiatives that every branch (of the company) can buy into and rally around,' O'Connor said. 'We're starting on a new journey (with) a lot more technology and more AI. But we certainly still want to get a higher OTP (on-time performance score), higher completion, better customer service, better customer satisfaction,' he said. The Cirium results represent a turnaround for Air Canada which scored 54.36 for on-time performance in January 2023. Gradek said Air Canada's improvement represents just a part of what is behind the Cirium data. 'It's not so much that Air Canada and Spirit have done very well. It's that the rest of the crew, Delta, JetBlue American and United have tanked,' Gradek said. Air Canada's May and June on-time performance scores that earned them the top spot are lower than the highs posted in October and November of 80.45 and 80.43 per cent, which were lower than all the American-based carriers during those two months. U.S. airlines 'flights are really, really full. As you increase the load factor and increase the congestion, you have a corresponding drop in your ability to move those passengers,' he said. They also operate more flights. For comparison, Air Canada and runner-up Spirit completed 33,473 and 19,656 flights, respectively, compared with 158,294 flights for Delta and 148,620 for United Airlines and 197,703 for American Airlines. O'Connor argued that while the U.S. carriers grapple with more passengers and planes, Air Canada deals with more longer-distance flights, which he described as a 'a significantly challenging network.' 'But probably the most telling part is air traffic control in the States,' Gradek said. Aviation in the U.S. has been struggling with an extreme shortage of air traffic controllers, which has severely impacted air travel in some parts of the country, resulting in cancellations and flight delays. The shortage of an estimated 5,000 air traffic controllers has been blamed for several deadly accidents, including a crash over the Potomac River in January between a military helicopter and an American Airlines aircraft that resulted in the deaths of 67 people. Gradek also pointed out that Air Canada came in second last in completion factor, which is the number of departures completed divided by the number of scheduled departures. Air Canada also locked-in first spot in North America in May, CIBC Capital Markets analyst Ken Chiang said in an analysis of the Cirium report, noting that May was the first time that Air Canada topped the list in data going back to January 2023. Typically Air Canada ranked seven to 10 over the last year. 'While we would expect AC's on-time performance to improve coming out of the winter season, it also posted a significant year-over-year increase, up 755 basis points and outperforming the other top 10 North American carriers,' Chiang said. 'The improvement in AC's on-time performance highlights that its operations continue to normalize as it recovers from the pandemic, which helps drive improved customer satisfaction.' As recently as the end of 2024, Air Canada was ranked among the 50 worst airlines, according to AirHelp Inc. The company facilitates compensation for passengers by processing customer service claims for flight disruptions and lost luggage. AirHelp ranked Air Canada 91 among 109 airlines basing it on methodology which takes into account customer claims processed worldwide, as well as outside data tracking on-time arrival and departure performance for every plane, plus feedback from passengers from more than 54 countries on the quality of food, comfort and crew service on their most recent flight. Watchdog urges Canada to allow 100% foreign ownership of airlines to spur competition Air Canada says U.S. bookings are down 10% as trade war escalates Chiang in his research note nonetheless highlighted that Air Canada's on-time score significantly lagged those of other regions. For June, the most on-time region was Latin America, which averaged 83.90 per cent, followed by Asia Pacific at 82.06 per cent, Europe at 81.41 per cent and Middle East & Africa Airlines at 80.65 per cent. North America's average was 73.30 per cent. 'No North American carrier cracked the top-10 most on-time global airlines,' he said. Gradek, however, said that most of those air travel markets are much less congested than North America's. 'We run a lot more airplanes, a lot more flights in North America than any other domain in the world. And so we have a congested airspace,' he said. O'Connor also said that Canadian airlines performance improves when agencies such Canada Border Services Agency, NAV Canada, which operates the air traffic control system, and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, responsible for passenger and baggage screening, run smoothly. 'When everybody performs better, it will always come out in the airline's favour,' he said. • Email: gmvsuhanic@
