132 scrapped in last year
Major European flagship airlines have closed 132 routes in the last year, according to new research.
Jet Republic, a private jet company, said only four of the 15 major airlines in its survey opened more routes than they closed.
The survey included BA, Lufthansa and Air France KLM.
During the period of the survey, from last March to the end of last month, 59 new routes were started, leaving a deficit of 73 routes.
Jet, about 60% of whose passengers are on business, said the closures were affecting the travel arrangements of senior individuals and entrepreneurs.
Jonathan Breeze, Jet's ceo, said the survey was launched after a growing number of clients said they were being affected by the route cuts.
He said airlines had actually begun cutting routes during the rise in fuel prices which reached a peak last summer. This was before the economic downturn hit home.
"Airlines are pretty good at measuring the value of a route and I think they thought people would stop flying as much because of the price of fuel.
"What we can't tell is whether some of these routes would have been closed anyway regardless of the recession. One can only assume it was the lack of profit that made them act.
 |
| Jonathan Breeze |
"If a route struggled in 2007 and 2008, then it was not going to do well in 2009," he said.
The destination city most affected by the closures was London which lost 193 weekly services, amounting to 24,599 seats.
It was followed by Berlin which lost 91 weekly services, amounting to 11,083 seats and Barcelona with a respective loss of 84 and 9,257.
Other cities hit by the closures included Dublin, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam.
The origin city which closed most services was Copenhagen which scrapped 264 weekly services amounting to 35,271 seats.
It was followed by London which stopped 224 weekly services amounting to 30,552 seats.
Among other cities with substantial closures were Milan, Oslo, Berlin and Stockholm.