Vueling: Barcelona-Marseille

Barcelona (BCN) to Marseille (MRS) is another of the endless routes that Vueling (VY) will be throwing at France next March, hoping a few will stick. The jury is out on this one though. From 25 March 2012, the Spanish low-cost airline will be launching a four-times-weekly route between the second-largest cities of both France and Spain with its standard of fairly-cramped-but-not-horrendous 180-seater Airbus A320 aircraft.

Vueling's flights are usually aimed at the leisure market, or sometimes also at business passengers on routes where its parent company Iberia (IB) does not operate. In this case, traffic is most likely to be leisure-oriented, including passengers visiting friends and family. With the current schedules, weekend breaks in either city are quite feasible.

1.3.5.7/ VY1508/ BCN11.00-12.05MRS/ VY1509/ MRS12.45-13.40BCN

Out of Vueling's new routes, this route faces quite possibly the most competition, as two other Spanish airlines also operate the route. Air Nostrum operates the 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft for Iberia on its five-times-weekly route to Marseille, while Spanair operates a wide variety of aircraft on this route, which it serves four times weekly. Marseille (MRS) vers Barcelone (BCN) est une nouvelle ligne qui sera lance par Vueling (VY) lors de sa prochaine expansion en France, le 25 mars 2012. La ligne sera effectuée quatre fois par semaine en appareil Airbus A320. Les passagers devraient être en bonne partie des voyageurs loisirs. Les concurrents sur la ligne sont Iberia et Spanair, qui volent 5 et 4 fois par semaine respectivement.

Ryanair: Rome Ciampino – Marseille

Marseille (MRS) to Rome Ciampino (CIA) is one of the new routes from Ciampino Airport in Rome that Ryanair (FR) has launched with the beginning of the winter season. The route is operated three-times weekly with, as ever, Ryanair's single type of aircraft, the Boeing 737-800 with 189 seats. 

This is one of the routes that Ryanair used to operate wen it had a base in Marseille. Although it was abandoned last year due to disagreements on taxes with the French government, Ryanair maintains a large presence in Marseille's MP² low cost terminal. Summer flights are operated to Cagliari in Italy, in addition to the recently launched flights to Milan Bergamo.

.2.4.../ FR9795/ CIA09.45-11.15MRS/ FR9796/ MRS11.40-13.10CIA

.....6./ FR9795/ CIA11.55-13.25MRS/ FR9796/ MRS13.50-15.20CIA

These flights will probably attract mostly tourists, due to the fact that they are not really very well-timed for business trips and Air France operates this route at higher frequency from its new Marseille base, with flights are to Rome Fiumicino, Rome's larger airport.
Marseille (MRS) vers Rome Fiumicino (FCO), une nouvelle ligne Ryanair (FR) qui vient d'être inaugurée, sera effectuée trois fois par semaine en Boeing 737-800 de 189 places. C'est une des lignes que Ryanair opérait lorsqu'elle avait toujours une base opérationnelle à Marseille. La ligne cible surtout le trafic loisirs entre ces deux villes, les vols Air France étant mieux optimisés pour les voyageurs affaires.

Ryanair: Marseille – Milan Bergamo

Marseille (MRS) to Milan Bergamo (BGY) is a new route that was launched by Ryanair (FR) on 30 October 2011. It is flown 10 times weekly (very frequently for a Ryanair route, especially a new one) with the standard 189-seater Ryanair Boeing 737-800 equipment. Bergamo airport is situated about an hour's drive outside of Milan.

The route links the second-largest cities of France and Italy, separated by 400km (250mi) of quite mountainous terrain. The trip can take up to five and a half hours by car. The route has a decent leisure and business potential, and the schedules take full advantage of this. Unusually well-timed for Ryanair flights, the scheduling permits day returns on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and a choice of flights which would be handy for weekend breaks. 

1.3.56./ FR6061/ BGY07.00-08.10MRS/ FR6062/ MRS08.35-09.45BGY

.2.4..7/ FR6061/ BGY14.10-15.20MRS/ FR6062/ MRS22.45-23.55BGY

1....../ FR6063/ BGY19.20-20.30MRS/ FR6064/ MRS20.55-22.05BGY

..3..../ FR6063/ BGY19.40-20.50MRS/ FR6064/ MRS21.15-22.25BGY

....5../ FR6063/ BGY20.55-22.05MRS/ FR6064/ MRS22.30-23.40BGY

Historically, the route has not seen a great deal of traffic. The route to Milan Malpensa (MXP), Milan's main airport has been continuously served for almost a decade by the almost-completely-unheard-of airline Twinjet (T7), which despite its name operates only tiny 19-seater Beech 1900D aircraft on a variety of marginal French routes. It has 9 flights a week (double-daily Monday to Thursday, one on Friday) but the pricing makes the flights only really suitable to business travellers.

A couple of years ago, Baboo (F7) started flights on the same route, with a double daily frequency on a triangle route from Geneva (GVA-MRS-MXP-GVA in the mornings, the opposite direction in the evenings)with considerably larger 74-seater Dash 8-Q400 aircraft. However, the route did not last more than a couple of seasons.
Now, Ryanair will also face competition from the recently launched Air France flights, which also operate directly into Malpensa airport. Originally scheduled to be operated with mainline Air France aircraft (therefore much larger aircraft), for an undisclosed reason (probably lack of demand because of Ryanair competition) the flights have been downgraded to the much smaller 46-seater ATR 42 aircraft of Airlinair, which link the two cities twelve times a week.


Marseille (MRS) vers Milan Bergame (BGY) est une nouvelle ligne de la compagnie à bas coûts Ryanair (FR), qui a été lancé le 30 octobre 2011. La ligne est effectuée avec un appareil Boeing 737-800 de 189 places, à raison de 10 vols hebdomadaires.

Ce vol reliera les deuxièmes villes de la France et l'Italie, qui sont distants de 400km. Les horaires de vols permettent un retour dans la journée les lundis, mercredis et vendredis, et un ample choix de vols pour partir un weekend.

La concurrence sur cette ligne vole sur l'aéroport de Malpensa (MXP), plus proche de Milan que celui de Bergame ; des vols sont proposés par Twinjet, 9 fois par semaine et par Air France, une nouveauté récente qui relie les deux villes douze fois par semaine.

Passengers boarding a Ryanair Boeing 737-800

New Winter Schedule Routes

On Sunday 31 October, the IATA Winter schedule came into effect and, as every year, with the change in timetables comes a whole raft of new routes, which are summarised below by airline:

Air France (AF) launched one new route the day before the schedules came into effect: Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) in Vietnam is now served 3 times weekly along with Vietnam Airlines' (VN) 2 flights.

Air France, through its subsidiary CityJet (WX), also launched flights between Paris Orly (ORY) and Nantes (NTE), near the mouth of the Loire River and the Atlantic coast. Another subsidiary, Régional (YS), launched flights between Toulouse (TLS) and Düsseldorf (DUS), while yet another subsidiary, Britair (DB), launched a connection between Toulouse and Hamburg (HAM).


Ryanair (FR) launched a total of 15 new routes last week, with new services from Paris Beauvais (BVA) to:

• Marrakech (RAK), Morocco
  
• Nador (NDR) , Morocco
  
• Fez (FEZ) , Morocco
  
• Tangier (TNG) , Morocco
  
• Verona (VRN), Italy
  
• Seville (SVQ), Spain
  
• Valencia (VLC), Spain
  

From Marseille (MRS) to:

• Tenerife South (TFS), Spain (Canary Islands)
  
• Düseldorf Weeze (NRN), Germany
  
• Rome Ciampino (CIA), Italy
  
• Seville (SVQ), Spain
  
• Valencia (VLC), Spain
  
• Venice Treviso (TSF), Italy
  
• Palermo (PMO), Italy (Sicily)
  

And from Rodez (RDZ) in southern central France to:

• Porto (OPO), Portugal

EasyJet (U2) and EasyJet Switzerland (DS) together launched 9 routes last week.
From Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), EasyJet launched a route to :

• Zagreb (ZAG), Croatia
  

From Lyon St-Exupéry (LYS), EasyJet launched 4 routes to:

• Agadir (AGA), Morocco
  
• Nice (NCE), France
  
• Brest (BES), France,
  
• Milan Malpensa (MXP), Italy
  

From Toulouse (TLS), EasyJet launched a route to:

• Milan Malpensa (MXP), Italy

 From Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg EuroAirport (BSL), EasyJet Switzerland launched two routes to:

• Venice (VCE), Italy
• Copenhagen (CPH), Denmark

From Geneva (GVA), EasyJet Switzerland launched a route to:

• Hurghada (HRG), Egypt
  

Japan Airlines (JA) launched a route from Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to:

• Tokyo Haneda (HND), Japan
  

 
Air Arabia Maroc (3O) launched 4 routes last week. From Montpellier (MPL), they launched one route to:

• Fez (FEZ), Morocco
  

From Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to:

• Fez (FEZ), Morocco
  
• Nador (NDR), Morocco
  
• Oujda (OUD), Morocco

Today's New Routes / *Les Nouvelles Liaisons d'Aujourd'hui*

   Today we had the pleasure of witnessing the number of French airports with scheduled airline service grow from 62 to 63. Eastern Airways' (T3) French subsidiary (also called Eastern Airways, but with a different website), has launched its first route from Dijon (DIJ) in Burgundy to Bordeaux (BOD) in the South-East of France. This service will operate 11 times per week (2x Mon-Fri, 1xSun) with a BAe Jetstream 41 aircraft configured with 29 seats that the airline has based at the Burgundy airport. Incidentally, this is (and will be until next Monday), the only scheduled service that the airport offers.
   The whole of Burgundy, including Dijon, has been devoid of airline service for several years, so this route is full of business and tourism interest. The first flight operated with a promising load of 15 passengers, according to France 3 News.


   Aujourd'hui nous avons eu le plaisir d'annoncer que l'aéroport Dijon-Bourgogne (DIJ) est maintenant le 63e aéroport français à accueillir des liaison aériennes régulières. La compagnie britannique Eastern Airways (T3) a lancé son subsidiaire français ce lundi sur la liaison Dijon-Bordeaux (BOD), opéré 11 fois par semaine, deux fois par jour ouvrable et une fois le dimanche avec des appareils BAe Jetstream 41 de 29 sièges. Ce sera jusqu'à lundi prochain la seule liaison aérienne depuis l'aéroport de Dijon.
   La Bourgogne entière (y compris Dijon) a été sans liaison aérienne régulière depuis un nombre d'années. Une quinzaine de passagers ont utilisé ce premier vol selon France 3, fait prometteur.



France 3 news:http://bourgogne-franche-comte.france3.fr/info/bourgogne/dijon-21--eastern-airways-decolle-pour-bordeaux-64909923.html
Dijon Airport: http://www.aeroport.dijon.cci.fr/
Eastern Airways (France): http://easternairways.fr/

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In the most unlikely of coincidences, another subsidiary launched flights within France today. CityLine Swiss, a subsidiary of CityLine Hungary (ZM), today launched flights from Pau (PUF) at the foot of the Pyrenees in South-East France to Rome-Fiumicino (FCO) via Marseille (MRS) on France's Mediterranean coast. The flights will be operated with the airline's sole McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft, which is fitted with 146 seats. Given Pau's proximity to Lourdes, an important catholic pilgrimage site, it seems that the airline hopes to nab some pilgrimage traffic on this route, which will be operated 6 times weekly (Daily except Sat).
   The airline allows bookings on the separate legs of the flight, so a passenger in Marseille can now fly to Pau, a route unserved by any other airline, or to Rome-FCO, a route that is also operated by Airlinair (A5). Ryanair (FR) also operates to Rome-Ciampino (CIA) from Marseille.
   CityLine Swiss was initially announced this Spring following Ryanair's decision to withdraw from its London Stansted (STN) to Angoulême (ANG) route. Cityline Swiss planned to operate from Angoulême to London Gatwick (LGW), Marseille and Pau; this plan was later abandoned in favour of the current one. Another mystery surrounding the airline is why 'Swiss' was included in the airline's name, despite it not serving (or having any plan to serve) Switzerland.


   Dans une coïncidence bizarre, un autre subsidiaire de compagnie étrangère a inauguré des liaisons aujourd'hui. CityLine Swiss, subsidiaire de CityLine Hungary (ZM) a commencé une liaison régulière entre Pau (PUF) au pied des Pyrénées dans le sud-est de la France et Rome-Fiumicino (FCO) via Marseille (MRS). Ces vols seront opérés par le seul appareil que possède la compagnie, un McDonnell Douglas MD-83 de 146 places. Gràce à la proximité de Pau à Lourdes, important site de pèlerinage catholique, il paraît que la compagnie souhaite attirer de la clientèle religieuse sur cette liaison qui sera opéré 6 fois par semaine (quotidienne sauf sam).
   La compagnie permet les réservations sur les tronçons individuels de ce vol, donc un passager marseillais peut se rendre à Pau (liaison sans concurrent) ou à Rome-FCO, cette liaison étant déjà opéré par Airlinair (A5); Ryanair (FR) opère également vers Rome-Ciampino (CIA) au départ de Marseille.
   La compagnie était annoncé le printemps dernier, suite à l'arrêt par Ryanair de la ligne Angoulême (ANG)- Londres Stansted (STN). CityLine Swiss voulait initialement opérer des vols depuis Angoulême vers Londres Gatwick (LGW), Pau et Marseille, mais elle changea son business plan. Autre mystère associé à la comagnie: pourquoi s'attribue-t-elle l’appellation 'Swiss' tandis qu'elle ne dessert  pas (ni ne prévoit desservir) la Suisse?

Article about this route (Fr):http://www.sudouest.fr/2010/09/20/aeroport-de-pau-l-avion-pour-rome-parti-a-vide-ce-matin-190058-4344.php

Ryanair MRS-TSF

   Ryanair (FR) does not always announce new routes. In the case of Europoean routes, it seldom announces them if they are just a single route. This was the case for a route that appeared in their booking system earlier this month, from Ryanair’s sole French base at Marseille-Provence mp² (MRS) to Venice-Treviso Airport (TSF), near the famous northern Italian city. Following Ryanair’s policy of serving secondary airports to large cities, Venice-Treviso is located 25km from Venice proper. In comparison to other secondary airports that Ryanair serves, TSF is comparatively close. The route will operate three times weekly starting on 1 Nov. with Boeing 737-800 aircraft in a 189-seat configuration.

   Although Ryanair services are often aimed essentially at budget travellers, the route will likely also attract some people travelling on business. A route to Venice-Marco Polo (VCE), Venice’s main airport will be served by Corsica-based CCM Airlines (XK) from next February. Ryanair will face no competition on the route until CCM introduces this service, which will operate three times per week.

   Incidentally, the times are:

Tue, Thu, Sat: FR7021 MRS 1025-1155 TSF

                          FR7022 TSF 1220-1350 MRS

 

   Ryanair (FR) n’annonce pas toujours ses nouvelles liaisons aériennes. Dans les cas des routes en Europe, uniques, l’occasion est encore plus rare. C’était le cas pour une liaison qui est apparu dans le système de réservation de la compagnie à bas coûts irlandaise, en l’occurrence entre Marseille-Provence (MRS) et Venise-Trévise (TSF), près de la fameuse cité italienne. En accordance avec la tendance de Ryanair de choisir des aéroports plus éloignés que d’habitude des centres-villes, l’aéroport de Venise-Trévise est situé à 25km de Venise. En contraste avec les autres aéroports « secondaires » que dessert Ryanair, cet aéroport est plutôt près du centre-ville. La liaison sera opéré trois fois par semaine avec des appareils Boeing 737-800 de 189 places, dès le 1 novembre.

   Dans la plupart de ses marchés, Ryanair vise les passagers qui cherchent le moindre coût, mais ici il paraîtrait qu’il est aussi destiné aux hommes et femmes d’affaires. Une liaison est aussi proposée par la compagnie CCM Airlines (XK) basée à Corse entre Marseille et Venise-Marco Polo (VCE), mais elle commencera en février prochain; jusque là, Ryanair sera sans concurrent.

   Les horaires seront :

Mar, jeu, sam : FR7021 MRS 1025-1155 TSF

                            FR7022 TSF 1220-1350 MRS

Blue1 HEL-MRS

   Here's another airline that likes to look to the future. Blue1 (IATA code: KF), a Finnish regional airline and member of SAS Group, announced last Friday three new summer seasonal routes from its base at Helsinki (HEL), to Edinburgh (EDI), Pula (PUY) and most interestingly, Marseille-Provence Airport (MRS). Marseille is France's third largest city, located on the Mediterranean Sea at the mouth of the Rhône river. The route seems to be aimed at Finnish tourists seeking a bit of sun and sand on France's southern coast or looking to explore the rolling hills and valleys of the Provence region, famous for its lavender fields. However, it seems possible that the route will also attract a small percentage of business passengers, as Marseille is an important economical centre.
   This new route, currently unserved by any other airline, is scheduled to operate twice per week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, according to the following schedule:
-Tue: HEL1850 - 2120MRS2200 - 0245+1HEL
-Sat: HEL0815 - 1045MRS1125 - 1610HEL
   The route will be operated by Blue1's recently acquired Boeing 717 regional jet aircraft, configured with 120 seats. Interestingly, the flight is scheduled to take 2h30min on the outbound (HEL-MRS) leg and 2h45min on the inbound (MRS-HEL) leg, accounting possibly for the wind direction. The scheduled turnaround of 40min seems quite reasonable, but the Tuesday return flight to Helsinki is quite bizarre among routes from Marseille in that it arrives in Helsinki in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
   No other airline operates to Finland from Marseille, although low-cost behemoth Ryanair (IATA code: FR) operates to 4 destinations in Scandinavia: Torp (Oslo) (TRF), Billund (BLL), Gothenburg-Save (GSE) and Skavsta (Stockholm) (NYO). These four routes are also summer seasonal and cater to the Scandinavian leisure market. It should be noted, however, that Ryanair operates to Marseille's low cost terminal "mp²", whereas Blue1 will operate from Marseille's main terminal, which offers a more comfortable transit experience.
   At the Helsinki end, the only carrier offering flights to this part of the Mediterranean is Blue1 itself, which undertook two weekly flights to Nice-Côte d'Azur (NCE) this summer with its 166-seater MD-90's.

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   Et une autre compagnie qui aime regarder dans son futur. Blue1 (code AITA : KF), compagnie régionale finlandaise et membre de SAS Group (Scandinavian Airlines System), a annoncé vendredi dernier trois nouvelles liaisons saisonnières au départ de Helsinki (HEL): Edimbourg (EDI), Pula (PUY) et (la plus intéressante) Marseille (MRS), la troisième ville de France sur sa côte méditerranéenne. La liaison semble vouloir faciliter le trajet des touristes finlandais vers le sud français en les acheminant vers cet aéroport près de la mer et des collines et vallées provençales, renommées pour leurs champs de lavande, parmi autres. Toutefois, la liaison pourrait attirer du trafic d’affaires, Marseille étant un important centre économique.

   Cette route qui n’est pas desservie par d’autres compagnies est prévu d’opérer deux fois par semaine, le mardi et le samedi, avec les horaires suivants :

-Mar : HEL1850 - 2120MRS2200 - 0245+1HEL

-Sam : HEL0815 - 1045MRS1125 - 1610HEL

La compagnie utilisera ses Boeing 717 de 120 sièges  récemment obtenus pour effectuer la liaison longue de 2 300km. Particularité : le vol aller (HEL-MRS) est prévu de durer 2h30 mais le vol retour (MRS-HEL) durera 2h45, peut-être suite à la direction du vent. Le trajet aller-retour inclut 40min à Marseille, ce qui est une durée raisonnable pour un appareil de taille moyenne ; mais le vol retour du mardi soir atterrira à Helsinki à 02h45 mercredi matin, une bizarrerie parmi les vols au départ de Marseille.

   Aucune autre compagnie a des liaisons régulières entre Marseille et la Finlande, mais le géant low-cost irlandais Ryanair (code AITA : FR) opère quatre liaisons depuis sa base marseillaise à destination de la Scandinavie, elles aussi saisonnières : Torp (Oslo) (TRF), Billund (BLL), Göteborg-Save (GSE) et Skavsta (Stockholm) (NYO). A noter : les départs Ryanair s’effectuent depuis le terminal low-cost « mp² », tandis que Blue1 utilisera le terminal principal.

   Du côté de Helsinki, la seule compagnie opérant des vols à destination de cette région de la Méditerranée est Blue1, qui entretient deux vols hebdomadaires saisonniers sur Nice (NCE) avec des MD-90 de 166 sièges. 
Blue1's route announcement:http://www.blue1.com/en/fi/About-us/News/Blue1s-new-summer-destinations-Edinburgh-Marseille-Provence-and-Pula/
Aéroport Marseille Provence destinations: http://www.marseille.aeroport.fr/fra/vols/vol_dr.jsp