The European Commission (EC) has approved a €1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) capital injection by the public owners of much-delayed Berlin Brandenburg airport.
Finnair will operate 3X-weekly Helsinki-Hanoi service June 14-Oct. 27, subject to regulatory approvals. Norwegian Air Shuttle will launch a weekly Umeå-Alicante service April 3 and a weekly Karlstad-Alicante service April 9. The services will be operated by Boeing 737-800s.
EasyJet will increase 12X-weekly Belfast-Birmingham service to 13X-weekly March 31. It will launch 3X-weekly London Southend-Newquay service June 20. Darwin Airline will launch service to Pristina from Zurich (daily) and Geneva (2X-weekly), Dec. 14. The carrier will use Belle Air Europe Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 aircraft on the routes. US Airways will launch daily Charlotte, N.C.-Sao Paulo Boeing 767-200 service May 5.
Emirates launched 5X-weekly Dubai-Lyon Airbus A340-500 service. Jet Asia Airways will launch 4X-weekly Phuket-Beijing Boeing 767-200ER service in January. IndiGo will launch daily Kolkata-Bangkok service Dec. 21. Taca Airlines will launch 4X-weekly El Salvador-Medellin Embraer E-190 service Jan. 2.
Self-service check-in at Abu Dhabi International Airport is growing at a rapid pace according to the latest figures from the seventh SITA/Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey. The 2012 results found that 17% of passengers surveyed at the airport used self-service check-in; nearly double the rate of 9% recorded last year.