Ryanair announced an expansion to its Oslo area service comprising new routes from Rygge to Brussels Charleroi (seven-times-weekly), Bremen (thrice-weekly), London Stansted (twice-daily) and Madrid (four-times-weekly) beginning in October and to Alicante (twice-weekly), Girona (twice-weekly) and Bergamo (thrice-weekly) in November. It also will launch flights from Oslo Torp to Paris Beauvais (seven-times-weekly) in September and to Krakow (four-times-weekly) Lodz (thrice-weekly) and Rome Ciampino (thrice-weekly) in November.
London Gatwick's sale by UK airports operator BAA is in doubt after the last remaining bidder reportedly refused to budge from its original £1.4 billion ($2.29 billion) offer. BAA parent Ferrovial apparently wanted £1.5 billion, but a consortium led by Manchester Airports Group and Canadian infrastructure fund Borealis declined to increase its bid, according to press reports. A second bidder, Global Infrastructure Partners, which owns about 75% of London City, reportedly dropped out after BAA rejected its £1.36 billion offer.
Air Arabia Maroc will commence thrice-weekly Casablanca-Amsterdam service Aug. 3 aboard an A320, becoming four-times-weekly Aug. 24. Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines implemented a codeshare agreement under which SN will add its code to LH's five-times-weekly Frankfurt-Libreville service while LH will add its code to SN's four-times-weekly Brussels-Entebbe service. SN said the pair will enhance their African cooperation "in the future."
AirBaltic CEO Bertolt Flick will be one of just a few airline heads to regard 2009 as a success, despite the fact that the "whole Baltic market has been affected by the [economic] crisis," he told ATWOnline, because the carrier has "found our niche with less competition and is expecting a very profitable year."
Singapore Airlines will begin operating the A380 to Melbourne on Sept. 29. The Victoria capital will be the second Australian city, and sixth overall, to which SIA flies the aircraft. Daily service will replace an existing 747-400 frequency, increasing seat capacity by 10% on the 21-times-weekly service. SIA currently has nine A380s in operation.
Sensis said its Low Cost Ground Surveillance was selected for evaluation by US FAA as part of the agency's LCGS Pilot Program aimed at reducing runway incursions at small- and medium-size airports. Sensis will be deploying its initial system at Long Beach.
Spirit Airlines will launch twice-weekly Fort Lauderdale-Armenia, Colombia, service Nov. 13. Wizz Air will launch thrice-weekly Budapest-Dusseldorf Weeze service on Sept. 21 and twice-weekly Sofia-Eindhoven on Oct. 25. AirAsia will launch flights to Singapore from Miri (four-times-weekly on Sept. 9) and Tawau (thrice-weekly on Sept. 10).
Flydubai said its Indian service, scheduled to comprise flights to Lucknow beginning July 13, Coimbatore from July 14 and Chandigarh from July 23, has been delayed "due to operational issues." Passengers who had booked tickets will be given a full refund plus a voucher for a free roundtrip flight, the LCC said.
London City said its application to accommodate up to 120,000 flight movements per year was accepted by the Development Control Committee of the London Borough of Newham last week.
