Wizz Air will begin serving Prague on Feb. 19 with flights to London Luton (four-times-weekly), Rome Fiumicino (four-times-weekly), Bergamo (four-times-weekly), Brussels Charleroi (thrice-weekly), Paris Beauvais (thrice-weekly) and Eindhoven (thrice-weekly). Frequencies to LTN, BGY and CRL will increase on July 25. Wizz CEO Jozsef Varadi said the carrier intends to become the "leading" LCC in the Czech Republic "in the coming years." It carried 5.9 million passengers in total last year, up 41% from 2007, and launched more than 40 new routes.
Metropolitan Airports Commission, which manages Minneapolis-St. Paul International, last week declined to approve a tentative agreement reached in December with Delta Air Lines that would have allowed DL to retain many of the financial benefits subsidiary Northwest Airlines received for basing its headquarters at MSP.
Cebu Pacific Air soon will take delivery of a seventh new ATR 72-500 and launch flights from Manila to Catarman and Virac (each four-times-weekly) on Feb. 14 and Calbayog and Cauayan (each thrice-weekly) on Feb. 18. It also will increase service from Manila to Naga and Busuanga. American Eagle will launch a third daily Miami-Tallahassee flight on March 2 aboard an ERJ-140. Transaero launched twice-weekly Moscow Domodedovo-Krasnoyarsk service using Tu-214s and 737s.
Disgruntled with what it believes is an overcrowded low-cost airline terminal at Kuala Lumpur International, AirAsia revealed plans to shift its operation to its own new airport just 30 min. outside the capital.
AeroMexico will launch daily flights from Mexico City to Toronto and San Francisco, both on Feb. 2, and to Denver on March 2. Cebu Pacific Air will operate thrice-weekly flights from Cebu to Cotabato beginning Jan. 10 and to Dumaguete from Jan. 12. Frequencies to Tacloban, Ozamiz and Iliolo will be increased in the coming weeks. EVA Air will relaunch thrice-weekly Taipei-Paris Charles de Gaulle passenger flights on Jan. 21 aboard a 777-300ER. Route has been operated as a cargo service since November 2007.
US Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) this week introduced legislation to abolish the "perimeter rules" that restrict flights to/from Washington National and New York LaGuardia. Federal statute prohibits flights between DCA and airports beyond 1,250 mi., though several notable exceptions have been made. A similar 1,500 mi. restriction is imposed on LGA with an exception made for service to Denver.
Finnair will launch twice-weekly Helsinki-Istanbul Ataturk flights on March 3, doubling to four-times-weekly on March 30. Route will be operated with both A319s and E-190s. Swiss International Air Lines will launch a four-times-daily Zurich-Lyon service on March 29 using RJ100s. Japan Airlines announced an expanded codeshare agreement with British Airways under which JAL will place its code on BA flights from London Heathrow to Lisbon, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow International beginning Jan. 14.
Finnair CEO Jukka Hienonen told the daily Iltalehti that he is hoping a 9% reduction in the carrier's route network will allow it to remain stable during the current market downturn but that a worst-case scenario could result in its cutting up to one-third of its approximately 100 routes. Several hundred employees already have been laid off and another 300 will be downgraded to part-time status in the first few months of this year ( ATWOnline, Nov. 3, 2008).
Garuda Indonesia said it plans to launch "at least" 18 new routes this year as it begins taking delivery of 14 new 737NGs in mid-year. Thrice-weekly Yogyakarta-Singapore already has begun and this month flights are expected to begin from Jakarta to Tanjungkarang, Malang and Kendari (via Makassar) and to Hong Kong from Surabaya and Denpasar, with more to follow. President and CEO Emirsyah Satar said Garuda expects to be operating 128 aircraft by 2013 as it adds 50 737s and 10 777-300ERs.
Turkish Airlines late last month announced the acquisition of four new A321-200s. Source of the aircraft was not announced. They will seat 20 in business class and 158 in economy. Two joined the fleet last month, one is scheduled to arrive this month and the fourth will be delivered in February. Separately, THY announced the launch of services from Istanbul Ataturk to Nairobi (thrice-weekly from Feb. 23), Sao Paulo Guarulhos via Dakar (twice-weekly from March 22), Lviv (thrice-weekly from April 20) and Mashad (thrice-weekly from March 15).
Lufthansa Flight Training and Moscow Vnukovo signed an MOU to form a joint venture to establish and operate a simulator center for pilot training. LFT said Vnukovo already has funded preparatory work for construction, which is slated for completion by year end. Training is scheduled to begin in January 2010.
Etihad Airways carried just over 6 million passengers in 2008, a 34% increase on 2007, as it expanded its fleet with nine aircraft to 42 and launched six new routes on a network now spanning 50 cities. Load factor soared 7 points to 75%, with business class loads rising to 63%. Etihad Crystal Cargo reported a 16% increase in freight to 202,430 tonnes. EY will launch new service to Melbourne and Lagos in March. This month it officially will open a new passenger terminal at Abu Dhabi International. Terminal 3 is a 550,000-sq.-ft.
Tiger Airways scrapped its plan to launch a low-cost airline at South Korea's Incheon International, which announced a delay to the project last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 27, 2008). Tiger (49%) and the Incheon city government (51%) cited "the global economic situation" and "continued regulatory uncertainty in Korea," according to press reports.
