Airports & Networks

World airport traffic rose 5.6% in August compared to the year-ago month to 328.3 million passengers, according to Airport Council International's latest PaxFlash traffic report. Domestic traffic was up 4.9% to 165 million passengers while international increased 6.3% to 160.9 million passengers. Airfreight traffic rose 15.1% year-over-year for the month to 5.4 million tonnes including a 7.1% domestic lift to 1.6 million tonnes and a 19% international surge to 3.5 million tonnes.

Airports Council International-North America President Greg Principato said some US airports are "missing whole construction seasons" because of the US Congress's failure to pass a long -term FAA reauthorization bill including the Airport Improvement Program, which provides funding for numerous infrastructure projects at airports across the US.

Even as government agencies--particularly the US Transportation Security Administration--scramble to install more high-tech screening equipment in airports, airport operators are urging governments around the world to take a second look at their security regimes.

The following is DELTA's latest International W10 long-haul changes as of 05OCT10. Only those with new changes, not mentioned in previous posts, are

Gulf Air commenced its services to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka today.

Etihad Crystal Cargo, a division of Etihad Airways, will launch a twice weekly service from its hub at Abu Dhabi International Airport to Hong Kong, China, from October 13 2010, using its new A330-200 freighter with a payload of 60 metric tonnes.

Viking Hellas Airlines will launch a new weekly service from its base in Athens to Frankfurt. The route will be operated on a weekly basis with MD-83

The airline Norwegian opens a Finnish base at Helsinki's Vantaa airport. At the same time it introduces two domestic routes and expands the current

Bangkok Airways from 31OCT10 is to increase Bangkok - Luang Prabang service from 1 to 2 Daily. Service operates with ATR72 turboprop.LAO Airlines also

Korean Air from 31OCT10 is adding a 3rd Daily Seoul Gimpo - Tokyo Haneda service. 3rd Daily flight operates with Airbus A330-300 aircraft.Korean faces

Alaska Airlines launched daily San Diego-Maui service. Cathay Pacific Airways said it will begin codesharing with WestJet for travel beginning Oct. 20. Under the agreement, Cathay's "CX" code will be placed on WestJet flights between Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg, plus the Hong Kong carrier's two Canadian gateways, Toronto and Vancouver.

AirAsia X hopes to add two more Japanese airports to its international service by 2012 after it launches flights to Tokyo Haneda in December. CEO Azran Osman Rani told Kyodo News in Tokyo that the airline "was interested in other airports in Japan…I have always said Japan is a market where we can operate at three different airports, including Haneda." On the airline’s radar are Osaka, Sapporo and Fukuoka.

Route Exchange member, Jacksonville, has secured new international service with the annoucement that JetBlue Airways will begin new non-stop service

From 02FEB11, DELTA starts to operate 3 weekly Nagoya - Saipan service, which will increase to Daily from 01MAR11. IATA BSP data shows that over 50

Qatar Airways today announced a huge expansion in Thailand with the introduction of a third daily flight to Bangkok, effective November 1st.

Etihad Airways will launch flights to its eighth destination in India and 66th destination worldwide, the city of Bangalore, India.

One of Britain's leading airlines, bmi, is to launch a new, daily service from London to the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Viking Hellas Airlines the Greek airline associated with Viking Airlines of Sweden, has launched a new three-times weekly scheduled service from Athens to Manchester to coincide with flights from three Iraqi cities

Ethiopian Airlines is to become the third Star Alliance member carrier on the African Continent, joining Egyptair and South African Airways.

From 10DEC10, COPA is introducing 3rd Daily Panama City - Cancun flight, operated by Embraer E190. In total it is to operate 2 Daily E190 and 1 Daily

V Australia from 24FEB11 launches Sydney - Abu Dhabi service on board Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which operates 3 times a week.V Australia will

Effective March 27th 2011, OLT is starting 4 weekly Nuremberg - Copenhagen and 9 weekly Bremen - Copenhagen service. OLT will be the only scheduled

In a busy week for Spanair the carrier also announced two new services to Africa from Barcelona From December 18th it will launch service to Bamako

From 31OCT10, Air Bosna is offering service out of Banja Luka. With the service introduction, 2 of 4 weekly Sarajevo - Frankfurt, 2 of 4 weekly

Singapore Airlines from 27MAR11 will be expanding its presence to Sao Paulo in Brazil, becoming the 6th Asian carrier to offer service in all 6