Lufthansa Italia will launch service from Milan Malpensa to Rome Fiumicino (four-times-daily), Naples (twice-daily) and Bari (daily) on April 1. It began serving Brussels, Budapest, Bucharest and Madrid this week and will add London Heathrow and Lisbon flights at the end of the month ( ATWOnline, Jan. 29). "Advance bookings for the coming months have developed so favorably that we are already in a position to expand our services," Lufthansa Passenger Airlines Executive VP Karl Ulrich Garnadt said.
Afriqiyah Airways will launch long-haul operations from Tripoli with a twice-weekly service to Johannesburg beginning July 15. Twice-weekly flights to Manila via Dubai begin July 17 and thrice-weekly service to both Brazzaville and Kinshasa starts Sept. 7. Thrice-weekly flights to both Beijing and Guangzhou begin Oct. 3.
Iberia Group reorganized and renamed its handling unit as Iberia Airport Services, which it believes "better reflects the unit's activities" and will be "accompanied by a more extensive supply of airport services." IAS is active at 41 Spanish airports and handled nearly 80 million passengers and more than 418,000 aircraft operations for IB and 220 other carriers in 2008.
Germanwings will launch thrice-weekly Cologne-Kiev Boryspil flights on May 16 AeroMexico launched daily Mexico City-Toronto service aboard a 737-700 Monday. Flights to Montreal are scheduled to begin April 2.
Transaero Airlines launched twice-weekly Moscow Domodedovo-Magadan service Sunday aboard a Tu-214. DME-Kazan flights begin March 30. Ryanair yesterday relaunched its daily London Stansted-Newquay Cornwall service. Etihad Airways will operate thrice-weekly Abu Dhabi-Larnaca flights beginning in June aboard an A320. Spirit Airlines launched daily Fort Lauderdale-Medellin flights aboard an A319.
Carpatair Saab 2000 safely executed an emergency landing Saturday in Timisoara, where the aircraft touched down on a 200-m. bed of foam after a nose gear malfunction. The aircraft, en route from Chisinau, circled above the airport for nearly 2 hr. to spend fuel before landing. None of the 47 passengers or four crew onboard was injured. The pilots discovered the landing gear problem some 6 mi. from the airport, the Associated Press reported. Carpatair, based in Timisoara, operates 14 Saab 2000s and three F100s to 30 destinations.
V Australia operated its inaugural flight Friday, a Sydney-Los Angeles service that departed at 3 p.m. local time aboard a 777-300ER. The thrice-weekly flights will become daily on March 20. The Virgin Blue subsidiary also will fly to LAX from Melbourne and said it "has set its sights" on serving South Africa ( ATWOnline, Feb. 10). Qantas will launch thrice-weekly Singapore-Mumbai service on June 2.
China Eastern Airlines is looking to drive load factors by making it easier and more economical for potential passengers to connect. CEA said its point-to-point network has made it difficult to attract more passengers in a declining market, so it has identified some 900 "transit routes" featuring multiple segments between markets that may have growth potential.
BAA is bracing for a final ruling that will force the sale of at least two, and most likely three, of its UK airports. The UK Competition Commission in December "confirmed" that it will require BAA to sell both London Gatwick and Stansted, setting the stage for a breakup of its control of London's airports for which airlines long have pushed.
The European Low Fares Airline Assn. complained that a new European Commission directive on airport charges will place additional regulatory burdens on airlines and airports at a time of "unprecedented industry crisis" coupled with a global economic recession.
Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen International reported a 15% increase in passengers last year to 4.3 million. Airport officials credited the growth to the addition of new routes, frequencies and carriers. A new terminal, which will increase overall capacity to 25 million, will be completed in October, making SAW a major gateway for both Turkey and Eurasia.
KOREAN AIR EXECUTIVE VP-CORPORATE STRATEGY AND PLANNING Kyung Hwan Chang pauses when asked to identify KE executives' primary concern in mapping the airline's direction. After several moments of silence in his office at the carrier's Seoul headquarters, he decides to forego spin and offer candor. "Survival at this point," he admits to ATW, a startling but honest assessment by one of the company's top officials.
Airport officials were reminded once again of the dangers posed by wildlife around airports when a bird strike forced US Airways Flight 1549 to ditch in New York's Hudson River on Jan. 15.
US airports are set to receive $1.1 billion from the just-passed Economic Stimulus bill, but all the funds must be obligated within the year. The bill restricts expenditures to Airport Improvement Program funding, which must be spent airside on safety and runway improvement projects.
London City saw a 12% increase in the number of passengers in 2008, with a record 3.3 million travelers moving through the Docklands airport. But Chief Executive Richard Gooding is expecting a downward trend in traffic that could be as much as a 10% in 2009. "It's entirely a product of global, financial meltdown," he told AT during a recent interview at LCY.
