Marking the end of a 10-year effort to manage the UK's controlled airspace more efficiently through new technology and ATC systems, NATS' Prestwick Center entered full operational service last week and will be inaugurated officially on Feb. 5.
Riga International home carrier and largest operator airBaltic reiterated its call for the urgent construction of a new passenger terminal and is pressing for private financing as a result of the Latvian government's delay in moving forward. RIX last year bucked the trend of falling passenger traffic and reported solid 10% growth to 4.1 million on a 5% rise in flight movements to 60,087. AirBaltic alone added routes to 12 new destinations. Cargo volume rose 22.9% to 9,429 tonnes.
Auckland Airport reached an agreement to purchase a 24.6% stake in North Queensland Airports, which runs Cairns Airport and Mackay Airport, for A$132.8 million ($117.3 million). AKL Chairman Tony Frankham called the acquisition a "significant milestone. . .for our strategy to grow beyond our core business."
Dubai International expects to grow passenger traffic in 2010 by 13.6% to 46 million. DXB welcomed 40.9 million passengers in 2009, up 9.2% from 2008. That growth rate was the highest in the world, according to Airports Council International figures cited by the airport. Cargo volume rose 5.6% to 1.9 million tonnes.
Winnipeg Airports Authority, which operates Winnipeg Richardson International, reported a C$7.4 million ($6.9 million) profit in the 2009 fourth quarter, up 39.6% from C$5.3 million in the year-ago period. Revenue fell 6.6% to C$19.9 million despite a 5.5% increase in passenger traffic. President and CEO Barry Rempel said airlines cut capacity and that "in response, we were able to implement cost-constraint measures and increase other campus revenue which positively impacted our bottom line."
Dublin Airport, with one of its two principal tenants (Aer Lingus) struggling to survive and the other (Ryanair) cutting capacity in a dispute over charges and taxes, announced a "major new financial incentive scheme" designed to stimulate traffic in 2010. Under the so-called Dublin Airport Growth Incentive Scheme, Dublin Airport Authority will refund airlines for all airport charges for passenger traffic beyond a combined 19.5 million. DUB handled 20.5 million passengers in 2009 and 23.5 million in 2008.
Turkish airports operator TAV Havalimanlari Holding, which operates a combined 10 airports in Turkey, Georgia, Macedonia and Tunisia including Istanbul Ataturk, enjoyed an increase in 2009 EBITDA of some 20% to €160-€170 million ($221.7-$235.6 million) on a 3% lift in revenue to €630-€640 million, CEO Sani Sener told Bloomberg News. "Our profitability. . .has grown bigger than sales because of measures we took to cut our spending, especially in energy. We started producing our own energy," he said. Passenger traffic at the 10 airports rose 2% last year, driven by a 5% increase at IST.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano warned last month that airports must diversify their security regimens in order to keep terrorists off balance, while governments and airports continued to respond to the failed Christmas attack and the role full-body scanners will play in the future.
Austrian Airlines is asking provincial governments for financial support to help prop up its loss-making domestic network. It operates up to 23 weekday flights between Vienna and Graz, Linz, Klagenfurt, Innsbruck and Salzburg. Although the flights provide valuable feed, OS said it no longer can absorb the losses. It also is evaluating the possibility of offering the services under Public Service Obligation agreements. "There are currently 255 PSO air routes established in Europe, so this would be nothing unusual," COO and executive board member Peter Malanik told ATWOnline.
EgyptAir is considering the reorganization of its Cairo International flight schedule into multiple banks from the present two starting with the 2010-11 winter schedule, EgyptAir Airlines Chairman and CEO Alaa Ashour told ATWOnline in Cairo, as it attempts to increase transfer traffic.
Varsity Express will launch commercial service on March 1 with a five-times-weekly Oxford-Edinburgh flight aboard an 18-seat Jetstream 31. The regional startup, owned by British and Spanish investors "whose interests center around property development and the entertainment industry," said it intends to "deliver fast, affordable air travel" and bring "an end to the frustration of crowded, congested airports, baggage charges and endless additional fees that the big airlines charge." It said it has sufficient funding to launch several UK routes in the next 12 months.
Abu Dhabi International Airport joined Jordan's QAIA and Dubai as being among the few aviation hubs in the world to have achieved a healthy growth in 2009. Figures released today show it has considerably outperformed the global average of minus 3.0% with a growth of 7.3% and achieving 9.7 million passengers for the year
