ASIG was selected by JetBlue Airways to provide cabin cleaning services at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International. ASIG also provides JetBlue with aircraft refueling services at FLL.
The fallout over last week's incident in which 47 passengers were stranded overnight on an ERJ-145 operated by ExpressJet Holdings continued yesterday, with House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (R-Minn.) claiming that more than 415 flights had "taxi-out times of three hours or more" in the US in the first half of 2009.
Jet Airways launched daily Mumbai-Jeddah flights using a 737-800. It now operates to seven cities in the Gulf region including Kuwait City, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. On Aug. 16 it will start daily service to Dubai from Hyderabad and add a second daily flight to its Mumbai-Bangkok route. Alaska Airlines will launch daily Portland-Chicago O'Hare service Nov. 16 aboard a 737. Flydubai will launch thrice-weekly Dubai-Djibouti service Sept. 1.
Piedmont Airlines, a wholly owned regional subsidiary of US Airways, stands to lose the most in the slot swap agreement that was announced yesterday between US and Delta Air Lines (see story above). Piedmont, which operates a fleet of 56 Dash 8s, will end all service at New York LaGuardia and eliminate 300 positions when the reduced flight schedule begins. It also will close its pilot and flight attendant domiciles and line maintenance at LGA.
AirTran Airways announced yesterday that it will expand operations at New York LaGuardia and Washington National from Nov. 4, and reportedly it will cease operations at Newark on Oct. 25. The Associated Press reported that AirTran obtained additional slots at LGA and DCA from Continental Airlines in exchange for its slots at EWR. Neither airline confirmed the deal. AirTran did say in a statement that it will begin offering LGA-Indianapolis service and boost LGA-Orlando flights from Oct. 25.
TAM and Air China announced yesterday that they will begin codesharing on flights this month to allow passengers to travel between Sao Paulo and Beijing via Madrid Barajas. TAM passengers originating at GRU will be able to connect to MAD-PEK Air China flights while Air China passengers originating in the Chinese capital will be able to connect to MAD-GRU TAM flights. Both carriers are members of Star Alliance.
Virgin America will launch service to Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 18 with twice-daily flights from both San Francisco and Los Angeles. It will be VX's 10th destination. Separately, President and CEO David Cush told Bloomberg News yesterday that the airline would be interested in Frontier Airlines' A320 family aircraft if the Denver-based carrier is acquired by Southwest Airlines, which operates 737s ( ATWOnline, Aug. 11).
PNG Airlines DHC-6-300 Twin Otter that is believed to have crashed in Papua New Guinea yesterday, killing all 13 passengers and crew onboard, may have been located by search parties near the remote Kokoda airstrip. Flight CF4684, a charter flight that was en route from Port Moresby to Kokoda, is believed to have gone down near its intended destination. According to press reports, villagers told search parties that the wreckage was located nearby.
Ryanair will open its 34th base at Leeds Bradford in March when it will launch 14 new routes with two based 737s. New destinations will be Carcassonne, Faro, Ibiza, Knock, Krakow, Limoges, Malaga, Malta, Montpellier, Murcia, Nantes, Palma, Pisa and Treviso. It currently serves Dublin, Girona and Alicante from the airport and plans to operate 63 weekly flights to/from LBA next spring. It also announced the launch of four-times-weekly Bristol-Malaga service in October, its fourth "winter sun run" from the airport announced in the past week.
ExpressJet Holdings issued an apology yesterday after 47 passengers were held overnight onboard an ERJ-145 at Rochester [Minn.] International following a weather-related diversion.
London Heathrow officials yesterday unveiled plans for a new £1 billion ($1.67 billion) Terminal 2 construction project that will allow the consolidation of Star Alliance operations and provide capacity for an estimated 20 million passengers each year. Construction will take place in two phases, with the initial creation of a terminal building on the site of the existing T2 and Queen's building, both of which will be demolished later this year. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2013.
