Southwest Airlines yesterday released its spring schedule featuring eight-times-daily service from its newest destination, Minneapolis/St. Paul, to Chicago Midway beginning March 8. Schedule includes 70 new roundtrip flights and cancellation of 39 others. SWA also will begin daily Phoenix-Birmingham. Service will end on Albuquerque-Amarillo, Albuquerque-Tampa, El Paso-Lubbock and Kansas City-Tulsa. Air Algerie will launch twice-weekly Algiers-Beijing in February aboard an A330.
JetBlue Airways will launch service to South America with a daily New York JFK-Orlando International-Bogota flight beginning Jan. 29 aboard an A320. Iberia will add fifth weekly flight from Madrid to Guatemala City and Panama City on Jan. 4 aboard an A340.
The dream of a direct routing across the Taiwan Strait is closer to reality following the signing of an agreement between Beijing's Assn. for Relations Across the Tawian Strait and Taipei's Strait Exchange Foundation. The deal, which will take effect in 40 days, will allow carriers to bypass Hong Kong airspace and reduce flight time, operating costs, fuel burn and emissions.
Bmi will discontinue long-haul operations from Manchester next year and transfer the two A330s currently based at MAN to London Heathrow ( ATWOnline, Nov. 4). It will stop flying from MAN to Chicago O'Hare on Jan. 14 and to Las Vegas, Barbados and Antigua following the mid-April Easter holiday. "Long-haul services from Manchester have never performed to the levels that we had hoped and we see little prospect of change or improvements in their performance," bmi CEO Nigel Turner said.
Sensis Corp. said US FAA is this week discussing a deployment schedule for its runway status lights, for which the agency last month awarded it a $131 million, three-year contract for installation at 22 US airports. RWSL is a system of red lights embedded in runways that are triggered automatically by ASDE-X surveillance radar to warn pilots if it is unsafe to cross or enter a runway. "Takeoff hold" lights embedded in runway centerlines also warn pilots of aircraft already on a runway if it is unsafe for departure.
UK Competition Commission concluded that airports operator BAA should be allowed to increase charges at London Stansted in the five-year period starting next April 1, albeit at a lower rate than it proposed. In its report to CAA, the Commission recommended an increase in the maximum level of charges at STN to £6.56 ($10.57) per passenger in 2009-10, 3.5% higher than projected 2008-09 charges of £6.34.
Air Arabia will open its Casablanca hub "early" next year and operate as Air Arabia Maroc to domestic destinations and "selected" cities in Europe and Africa, the Sharjah-based LCC announced this week. It reached a deal 12 months ago to assume control of Regional Air Lines and originally planned to operate out of Rabat ( ATWOnline, Nov. 9, 2007).
Ryanair will open its Edinburgh base today with new service to Berlin Schonefeld, Billund, Bournemouth, Bratislava, Lodz, Malaga, Poznan, Stockholm Skavsta and Wroclaw. Flights to Krakow and Palma begin next month. The LCC transported 5.4 million passengers in October, up 18% year-over-year. Load factor was level at 85%.
Leeds Bradford International Airport (LBIA) has today unveiled a £28m development of its passenger terminal to deliver a step change in the passenger experience at Yorkshire’s gateway as the airport prepares for the next decade of air travel.
The global economic downturn heightens the challenges to shifting to a satellite-based ATC system, top officials from US FAA and Eurocontrol said yesterday in Washington. Speaking at the Air Traffic Controllers Assn. Conference and Exposition, Executive Director-SESAR Joint Undertaking Patrick Ky and FAA Air Traffic Organization COO Hank Krakowski argued that it is critical to move forward with developing the SESAR and NextGen ATC systems even as traffic growth is slowing and near-term funding may be limited, and pushed for greater transatlantic cooperation.
Hong Kong Airport Services and Hong Kong International Airport Services agreed to a merger forming a single ground-handling company. HAS will have more than 3,000 employees and serve 40 airlines. Financial details were not disclosed.
Bmi declined comment on rumors that it intends to cancel long-haul operations from Manchester. A source told ATWOnline that CEO Nigel Turner will inform unions about the restructuring and make a formal announcement Wednesday. Bmi presently flies to Chicago O'Hare, Las Vegas, Antigua and Barbados from MAN.
Singapore Airlines will cancel its Singapore-Amritsar service on Feb. 4. KLM Cityhopper will operate thrice-daily Amsterdam-Liverpool next summer aboard 80-seat F70s. EasyJet will launch daily London Gatwick-Copenhagen on Jan. 15. Jet Airways started four-times-weekly Bangalore-Brussels. Service will operate daily Dec. 15-Jan. 15. Pacific Blue launched four-times-weekly Brisbane-Port Moresby aboard 737-800s. Airlines PNG is codesharing on the route.
