Privately owned low-cost carrier Norwegian will increase its four-days-a week timetable for flights from Scandinavia to Dubai to a daily service during the winter season 2009-10, Gulf News has reported.
Wizz Air will add a third A320 to its Sofia base in May 2010 and will launch new thrice-weekly flights to Madrid, Paris Beauvais, Frankfurt Hahn and Forli on May 22. Frequencies to Eindhoven and Valencia will increase and passenger numbers at the airport are expected to rise 37% over 2009.
Australia's airlines were thrown into chaos yesterday as unprecedented dust storms in Sydney and Brisbane and wild weather in Melbourne closed and restricted runway operations at the country's three largest airports. The disruption was caused by an intense low-pressure frontal system with winds up to 100 miles per hr. that blew 75,000 tonnes of dust per hr. over New South Wales and southern Queensland. Pollution levels were 1,500 times normal, the highest on record, and visibility fell to as low as 100 ft. Hundreds of flights were diverted, disrupted or canceled.
Emirates may be in the market for more aircraft at November's Dubai Airshow and is revisiting the prospect of operating up to 30 A330s during off-peak periods, President Tim Clark hinted when speaking to ATWOnline yesterday. EK signed a letter of intent for 30 A330s in July, 2008 when it took delivery of its first A380, but the order was never confirmed and eventually lapsed as fuel prices soared and the economic downturn took hold ( ATWOnline, July 29, 2008).
Aer Lingus may stop operating its loss-making routes to the US, especially those from Shannon, and transfer them to a third party or codeshare partner as part of initiatives to address its long-haul deficits, according to Irish press reports. EI CEO Christoph Mueller stated that he appreciates the "national importance" of the carrier's American routes but said his airline is "not a charity," suggesting that the Shannon-New York JFK route has survived only because of pressure from the Irish government, IrishCentral reported.
United Airlines will launch twice-daily Chicago O'Hare-Duluth, ORD-Asheville, Denver-Midland/Odessa, Los Angeles-El Paso and daily DEN-Louisville service on Dec. 17 aboard SkyWest Airlines CRJ200s. Midwest Airlines will launch 19-times-weekly Milwaukee-St. Louis flights on March 1 aboard an E-135. It will operate daily MKE-Fort Lauderdale and six-times-weekly/daily Kansas City-Fort Myers flights Dec. 17-April 19 aboard E-170s.
Honeywell said Memphis International will become the first US airport to deploy its Smartpath Precision Landing System early next year following approval this week by FAA. The ground-based augmentation system initially will supplement legacy instrument landing systems and later replace ILS by augmenting GPS equipment "to provide precision approach guidance to all qualifying runways," FAA said.
Air France KLM Group will trim winter ASKs by 2% year-over-year, comprising a 1.8% reduction in its long-haul network and a 2.9% cut in medium-haul flying. Air France and its subsidiaries will lower winter capacity by 1.7%, while KLM will cut by a more comprehensive 4%. The carriers insisted that connectivity at their Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam hubs will be maintained.
Baboo will launch service from Geneva to London City (11-times-weekly), Milan Malpensa (12-times-weekly) and Marseille (12-times-weekly) on Oct. 25 aboard E-190s or Q400s. Air France will codeshare on the LCY and MRS routes. Etihad Crystal Cargo launched twice-weekly Abu Dhabi-Baghdad service aboard an A300-600F. Brussels Airlines and bmi announced an expanded codeshare agreement under which bmi will add its code to SN's twice-daily Brussels-London Gatwick service and SN will place its code on bmi's seven-times-daily BRU-Heathrow flights.
TAP Portugal will launch flights from Lisbon to Valencia (twice-daily on Oct. 25) and Algiers (thrice-weekly from Nov. 25). Five-times-weekly LIS-Casablanca service will increase to 12 on Oct. 25. Blue1 will resume operating seasonal service from Helsinki Vantaa to Kuusamo (Nov. 29-April 11), Ivalo (Dec. 6-April 11), Kittila (Nov. 6-April 18) and Rovaniemi (Dec. 4-April 11) and from Kittila to Paris Charles de Gaulle (Dec. 16-April 3) and Dusseldorf (Dec. 17-March 11).
Spring Airlines plans to establish a base in Shenyang and signed an agreement with the municipal government detailing plans to build the city into an aviation hub for northeast Asia.
