Research and Markets: Threats of Bankruptcy Encouraging Major U.S. Airlines to Look for Growth Opportunities within Central and Eastern Europe

Business Wire, Dec 1, 2004

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c10350) has announced the addition of The Burgeoning Battle For Travelers To Central And Eastern Europe: As U.S. Airlines Set Their Sights On International Routes, How Will The Contenders Respond? to their offering

Threats of bankruptcy are encouraging major U.S. airlines to look for growth opportunities within Central and Eastern Europe. U.S. airlines are rapidly adding transatlantic routes with a combination of new direct flight options and indirect code-share routes in cooperation with alliance partners. Although Delta is currently the only U.S. carrier flying nonstop to countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Continental is due to begin nonstop flights between Newark and Moscow's newly-renovated Domodedovo airport in May 2005, in time for the busy summer travel season when traffic is typically 40% higher than in other months.

This report examines the nonstop flight options between the United States and 10 Central and Eastern European countries: Austria, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, Russia, and the Czech Republic (where direct traffic is the sum of arrivals and departures between those countries and the United States). The quantitative analysis includes the seasonality of travel by month, nationality of passengers, and volume of traffic per airline.The report findings are based on analysis of direct flight data and interviews with airlines serving the CEE region, including CSA Czech Airlines, Ukraine's Aerosvit, Hungary's Malev, United, Continental, and Delta.

Beyond looking at existing flight offerings, the report predicts how the menu of options to fly to Central and Eastern Europe will change in 2005. The report also examines the measures CEE airlines are taking to modernize their operations and image, steps that help groom them for membership in alliances such as Star, OneWorld, and SkyTeam. LOT Polish Airlines and Austrian Airlines are part of the Star Alliance, and will be joined by CEE neighbors Adria Airways (Slovenia) and Croatia Airways in 2005. CSA Czech Airlines is a member of the SkyTeam, an alliance that will likely be welcoming two new CEE airline partners in 2005: Russia's Aeroflot and Hungary's Maluv.

Special in-depth research sections include "The Race to Capture the U.S.-Russia Direct Flight Market," "AeroSvit's Successful Launch of Nonstop Flight Services to the United States," and "The Underserved Balkan Region."

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c10350