Qatar Airways launched its Australian service Monday, a thrice-weekly Doha-Melbourne flight aboard a 777-200LR. Service becomes daily on Jan. 1. QR plans to fly to Sydney next year. Cathay Pacific Airways will launch four-times-weekly Hong Kong-Milan Malpensa flights on March 28 with a 777-300ER. It currently operates six-times-weekly freighter service to MXP. In addition, daily HKG-Toronto service will be increased to 10-times-weekly from March 28 and twice-daily HKG-Los Angeles service will become 17-times-weekly on May 1.
FAA announced Friday that it is soliciting bids for NextGen support contracts with a combined value of around $7 billion, which it said will be "the largest award in the agency's history." It said it will issue as many as five separate contracts "for research and development and systems engineering work that will help the agency deliver NextGen." They will come under an umbrella program called System Engineering 2020.
US Airways will launch daily Charlotte-Rome Fiumicino service on May 13 aboard an A330-300. AirTran Airways ceased its Charleston, S.C., service on Dec. 3. The LCC had served the airport since mid-2007. It also announced the start of twice-weekly Orlando International-Des Moines service on March 6. Delta Air Lines will operate flights to Honolulu from both Detroit (thrice-weekly from June 2) and San Diego (daily beginning June 3) using either 757s or A330s.
London Gatwick owner Global Infrastructure Partners, which completed the acquisition from BAA last week ( ATWOnline, Oct. 4), plans to sell a stake in LGW to an institutional investor. GIP said it would seek an "equity syndication" similar to the 25% London City share it sold to Highstar Capital, Bloomberg News reported.
As the domestic cargo market recovers, China Southern Airlines is boosting capacity on routes from Shanghai Pudong and moving toward making the airport its cargo hub. The Guangzhou-based carrier introduced two new 777 freighters last week, adding to the pair of 747-400Fs it already operated from PVG. A new 747 service to Frankfurt launched last week and the 777s are expected to fly to Chicago O'Hare starting this month. CZ also operates a 747F to Amsterdam.
World Routes, the global airline and airport networking event, is celebrating yet more success following the announcement from three major international carriers that they plan to launch new routes as a result of key meetings during the recent gathering in Beijing, China.
Aeroflot announced the sale of a controlling stake in its Aeroflot Plus charter subsidiary to Jet Alliance of Austria. Aeroflot Plus operates out of Moscow Sheremetyevo's business terminal with three Tu-134s and two Yak-42s. Terms were not disclosed. Separately, SU launched the following A320 services Wednesday: from Vladivostok to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (thrice-weekly), Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (twice-weekly) and Khabarovsk (twice-weekly) and from KHV to UUS (thrice-weekly) and PKC (twice-weekly).
Dnata announced a deal with Go-Ahead Group under which the Dubai-based company purchased certain ground handling operations at London Heathrow and Manchester. The deal, valued at £15 million ($24.9 million), comprises Plane Handling, which provides cargo and ramp handling at LHR and cargo handling at MAN, and Aviance's passenger and ramp handling operation at LHR's Terminals 3 and 4. Transaction is scheduled to be complete on Jan. 30 and marks Dnata's entry into the UK market. It currently operates at 17 airports in seven countries.
Niki plans to increase capacity by more than 30% next year as it endeavors to fill the void left by SkyEurope Airlines and a restructuring Austrian Airlines. "This is my chance and I'm going to take this opportunity," President Niki Lauda told ATWOnline. On Feb. 1 the LCC will begin daily flights from Vienna to Belgrade, Sofia and Bucharest Otopeni and on March 26 it will launch daily services to Barcelona and Nice and a six-times-weekly flight to Copenhagen. Its fleet will grow from the current 11 aircraft to 17 A320 family jets and E-190s next year.
BAA yesterday announced the formal completion of the £1.51 billion ($2.51 billion) sale of London Gatwick to the Global Infrastructure Partners consortium ( ATWOnline, Oct. 22).
Wizz Air will begin serving Latvia next spring with flights from Riga to London Luton (thrice-weekly), Oslo Torp (thrice-weekly) and Turku (twice-weekly) launching on March 28. Twice-weekly Prague-Bari and Budapest-Turku flights will begin at the same time.
