City of Chicago will pay United Airlines $163 million to move its O'Hare cargo terminal to make way for the airport's planned new runway scheduled to be constructed this year, the Chicago Tribune reported, adding that city officials are in talks with FedEx regarding a similar relocation.
Wizz Air will transfer its Bologna operation to Forli, from which it will continue to serve Katowice (twice-weekly), Warsaw (twice-weekly) and Cluj (thrice-weekly). Move is effective March 29. Qatar Airways will launch its delayed daily Doha-Houston Interconinental 777-200LR service on March 30. It will take delivery of its first -200LR next month. It currently operates five 777-300ERs. Kingfisher Airlines last week launched daily flights to Colombo from Bangalore and Chennai aboard A320s. Oman Air launched daily Muscat-London Heathrow service.
Okay Airways, the Tianjin-based carrier that was suspended last month following a dispute between management and shareholders, was approved to resume operations Saturday. According to CAAC, Okay is permitted to operate passenger services from Tianjin to Harbin, Chengdu, Sanya, Kunming via Changsha, Sanya via Zhuhai, Chongqing via Taiyuan and Quanzhou via Nanjing this week. From Feb. 1 it is expected to resume operating approximately 20 routes. It is estimated that the company has suffered a CNY100 million ($14.6 million) loss due do the suspension.
Airports of Thailand will cut landing and parking fees by 20% from Feb. 1 to Sept. 30 in an effort to boost tourism, President Serirat Prasutanont said last week, according to Reuters. The operator expects to lose some THB400 million ($11.4 million) in revenue. AOT reported a THB7.32 billion profit in its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2008.
Dubai International Airport has posted its traffic figures for 2008, and that again in 2008 it remained the centre of Middle Eastern aviation with steady growth in passenger and cargo figures.
Ryanair will base a third 737-800 at Reus in June supporting new service to Bournemouth (beginning March 31), Eindhoven (June 4), Poznan (June 5) and Nador (June 6). It also announced the launch of flights from Bournemouth to Faro (March 31) and Limoges (April 2), a Faro-Bremen flight beginning March 31 and a London Luton-Limoges service starting May 3. Austrian Airlines will resume thrice-weekly Vienna-Aleppo service on March 29 aboard an A320.
Aer Lingus and United Airlines announced creation of a transatlantic partnership intended to "capitalize on the growth opportunities presented by the [EU-US] open skies agreement. . .by opening new transatlantic nonstop services." First joint route will be a daily Madrid-Washington Dulles service scheduled to launch in March 2010. EI and UA said it is "intended" that they will share equally commercial and operating benefits and risks, with EI managing operations and UA managing revenue generation.
Emirates will increase service from Dubai to Riyadh (Feb. 1, six-times-weekly to daily), Amman (Feb. 2, 10-times-weekly to 12-times-weekly) and Jeddah (Feb. 3, six-times-weekly to daily).
London City, Budapest and Chicago Midway operators are among the first-round bidders for London Gatwick, which is set to be sold by BAA ( ATWOnline, Dec. 22, 2008), Reuters confirmed. LCY operator Global Infrastructure Partners, Budapest operator Hochtief and the MDW consortium of Citi Infrastructure Investors, Vancouver Airport Services and John Hancock Life Insurance will bid, the latter as Lysander Gatwick Investment Group, spokespeople told the news service.
Singapore Airlines will launch A380 service to Paris Charles de Gaulle on June 1. The daily flight will replace the existing 10-times-weekly 777-300ER service. The SIA A380 is configured with 471 seats. CDG is the carrier's fourth A380 destination after London Heathrow (twice-daily), Sydney and Tokyo Narita (each daily). It has six A380s in service and a further 13 on order. The CDG route will follow the delivery of the seventh and eighth aircraft.
Cimber Air, which acquired bankrupt Sterling Airlines' assets last month ( ATWOnline, Dec. 5, 2008), will relaunch the carrier at Copenhagen as Cimber Sterling "with a few" of the former Sterling's 737s, it announced. It will add 16 new international routes from CPH, comprising 56 weekly flights scheduled to start in late March. Destinations include Montpellier and Bourgas.
ANA announced a number of cutbacks on its international network, citing the current economic downturn. On Feb. 12 it will suspend five-times-weekly Osaka Kansai-Dalian service and a twice-weekly Dalian-Shenyang flight. Daily Tokyo Narita-Mumbai service will be reduced to thrice-weekly on Feb. 2 and thrice-daily NRT-Shanghai will become twice-daily on Feb. 5. Alaska Airlines will launch twice-daily Portland, Ore.-Long Beach service on Feb. 8 and will operate a second daily Anchorage-Chicago O'Hare flight June 7-Aug. 22.
Abu Dhabi International Airport's new Terminal 3 is set to be fully operational in the next few weeks, says Abu Dhabi Airports Company in a statement released on Sunday.
Qantas launched A380 flights on the Sydney-Singapore-London Heathrow "kangaroo route" last Friday. QF31 will operate on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with the QF32 return operating on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Bmi gained approval to operate a five-times-weekly London Heathrow-Kiev Boryspil service. UK and Ukraine recently signed a revised air services agreement permitting increased capacity. Specific airport and launch date were not announced. US Airways will launch daily seasonal Charlotte-Paris Charles De Gaulle on April 21 aboard a 767.
