Aegean Airlines expects 2010 and 2011 to be "very difficult years," but it is targeting growth "even in a tough environment" thanks to the Star Alliance membership expected to take effect next May, MD Dimitris Gerogiannis told ATWOnline last week.
SriLankan Airlines will launch twice-weekly service from Colombo to Milan Malpensa on Dec. 16 and increase flights to London Heathrow, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Tiruchirapalli, Male, Bangalore, Karachi and Bahrain. Frequencies to Doha and Dammam will rise on Oct. 25. Norwegian will launch service from Copenhagen to Malta, Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Sardinia at the beginning of May, as well as Oslo Gardermoen-Malta, Stockholm Arlanda-Athens and ARN-Palermo, which will start at the end of March or beginning of April. Bergen-Tromso service is set to begin in March.
Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen-based Pegasus Airlines has formed a joint venture with state-run Kyrgyzstan Airlines, Pegasus GM Sertac Haybat confirmed to ATWOnline. Pegasus will have a 49% stake in the venture to be named Kyrgyz Pegasus Airlines, which should become operational next month and will begin by offering low-fare flights from Bishkek to Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Turkey aboard 737NGs wet-leased from Pegasus. The number of aircraft has not been determined.
EasyJet will commence operations at Belfast City with a twice-daily service to/from London Luton on Jan. 7 as part of its plan "to assess if easyJet passengers find a benefit in flying to an airport closer to the City of Belfast when travelling on shorter routes." If successful, it will increase LTN-BHD frequencies and consider other destinations, although it stressed that the bulk of its Northern Ireland operation will remain at Belfast International, where it bases five aircraft and flies to 19 destinations.
Southwest Airlines will add more than 100 weekday flights to its network beginning in March, including 21 additional daily flights from Chicago Midway, 18 from Baltimore and nine each from Orlando and Tampa. It emphasized that the increased schedule will "not [be achieved] by adding to our fleet, but by taking advantage of the seasonal decrease in flying time going from winter into spring." AirAsia will launch daily service from Kuala Lumpur to Kolkata, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram in November.
