Ryanair announced the closure of its Valencia base, following through on its threat in a dispute with the Valencian regional government ( ATWOnline, April 21). The LCC said it will pull more than 70 weekly flights from the airport on Nov. 4 and invest $140 million in another base set to be unveiled this week.
Aeroflot informed Russia's Ministry of Transport that it wishes to bid for the state's 25.5% stake in rival S7 Airlines. SU CEO Valery Okulov wrote in a letter to Transportation Minister Igor Levitin, "For the consolidation of domestic flights, we are working out the possibility of obtaining the S7 airline," Russian media reported. An S7 spokesperson told reporters that the carrier had received no notification from Aeroflot.
British Airways yesterday completed the move of flights designated for London Heathrow's Terminal 5 over to the new facility, including services to/from Denver, Boston, Montreal, Calgary and Toronto. More than 80,000 flights and 11 million passengers have used T5 since its March opening ( ATWOnline, July 14).
JetBlue Airways operated its first flights from New York JFK's new Terminal 5 yesterday, with an arrival from Burbank at 5:05 a.m. inaugurating the facility. All JetBlue departures, in addition to all domestic and international arrivals that pre-clear US customs, will operate out of the new facility. The 635,000-sq-.ft. terminal has 26 gates on three concourses, 65 self-serve kiosks, 40 check-in counters and a central security checkpoint with 20 screening lanes. It can accommodate up to 250 daily departures.
Delta Air Lines will launch weekly Atlanta-Cape Verde (Sal Island)-Monrovia in June aboard a 757. US Airways will launch daily seasonal service from Philadelphia to Birmingham, UK, (on May 12) and Oslo Gardermoen (May 21) aboard a 757.
Aeroports de Paris, which operates the main Paris-area airports, and Schiphol Group, operator of Amsterdam Schiphol, yesterday agreed to enter into an alliance that will include each acquiring an 8% stake in the other, establishment of a "dual hub" philosophy for Paris CDG and AMS that is expected to produce annual airside synergies/savings totaling €89 million ($119.4 million) and "joint ventures" to acquire and develop airports around the world.
Smiths Detection yesterday reached a $6 million deal with the US Transportation Security Administration to provide Ionscan 500DT trace explosives detectors for use at airport checkpoints. Desktop device facilitates screening for air cargo facilities and other critical infrastructure. In August TSA placed the detectors on its Qualified Products List. SD currently has trace detection and x-ray technology installed at about 80% of airports worldwide.
Ryanair will open bases in Alghero and Cagliari in March, creating eight domestic and 11 international routes to/from Sardinia. AHO and CAG become the LCC's sixth and seventh Italian bases. It will base two new 737s at CAG and launch service to Brussels Charleroi, Genoa, Karlsruhe Baden, Paris Beauvais, Rome Ciampino, Trieste, Brescia (all start March 30), Cuneo, Dusseldorf Weeze, Edinburgh, Marseille, Seville, Treviso (March 31), and Manchester (April 1).
Worldwide Flight Services won a contract from Royal Jordanian for cargo handling at London Heathrow and Ireland's regional airports. Contract includes ramp transportation and loading and unloading for A310Fs as well as coastwise trucking in the UK and Ireland. Agreement takes effect next month.
Austrian Airlines Group launches four-times-weekly Vienna-Amman flights on May 6 aboard a Premium Service A320 ( ATWOnline, Aug. 11). Wizz Air will launch thrice-weekly Kiev Boryspil-Katowice Jan 3.
Qantas yesterday launched A380 service to the US West Coast when its inaugural Melbourne-Los Angeles flight, QF93, departed Australia at 11:15 a.m. local time and landed at LAX at around 7:30 a.m. QF94 was scheduled to depart LAX late last night. Qantas will operate its first Sydney-LAX A380 flight Friday and it said using the A380 on routes to the US is "a mark of its commitment to growing the transpacific market." It currently offers 47 weekly flights to the US.
FedEx Express yesterday broke ground on its new European air hub at Cologne/Bonn. The express carrier's primary Central/Eastern European hub currently is located at Frankfurt, but a potential ban on night flights at the airport led it to make the move. The new hub is slated to be completed in 2010.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh last week reiterated his call to move forward with the second phase of EU-US open skies and to remove all current ownership and control restrictions so airlines can consolidate. "It is absolutely clear to me that one of the solutions to the problems this industry is facing is consolidation. We've got to be able to move beyond artificial restriction," he said at the Routes Leaders Forum in Kuala Lumpur.
Thomsonfly will cease operations at Coventry next month in line with parent TUI Travel's strategy to refocus airline operations on leisure routes and reduce low-cost scheduled city-to-city flying ( ATW, October 2008). The UK carrier, which will be rebranded to Thomson Airways following its merger with First Choice Airways, flew to some 10 destinations from the airport. Thomsonfly's decision to pull out of CVT is casting doubts on its future as a passenger facility.
Bmi will double the frequency of its London Heathrow-Riyadh service to six-times-weekly effective Jan. 15 following a revised air services agreement reached by the UK and Saudi Arabian governments. Three weekly LHR-RUK services will continue to Jeddah and three to Damman. Simultaneously, bmi will suspend its thrice-weekly LHR-JED. Separately, it signed a three-year agreement with Sabre Travel Network giving Sabre travel agencies and corporations access to inventory including Web-only fares.
S7 Airlines, Air Berlin and Niki announced a codeshare agreement yesterday in Moscow and promised that "all three airlines intend to deepen their relationship in other areas in the future." The agreement initially covers flights from Moscow Domodedovo to Frankfurt, Hannover (both operated by S7), Dusseldorf, Munich (both operated by S7 and AB) and Vienna (operated by Niki). The airlines "plan to offer unrestricted sales of tickets for each others' flights" and passengers will have access to all three networks with one ticket. Talks among the trio began five months ago.
Chicago City Council unanimously accepted the lease of Midway Airport to a consortium led by Vancouver Airport Services ( ATWOnline, Oct. 2). US FAA is expected to approve the 99-year contract by year end, according to a city spokesperson. The Transportation Security Administration also must okay the arrangement, but no opposition is anticipated. Closing on the contract is expected in the first quarter.
Wizz Air will base a third A320 at Budapest and launch four-times-weekly Madrid and twice-weekly Naples on April 1. It will restart flights to Barcelona (thrice-weekly on April 2) and Oslo Torp (twice-weekly on April 3) and increase frequencies to Paris Beauvais, Eindhoven, Gothenburg, Malmo, Treviso and London Luton. It will launch twice-weekly flights from Poznan to Rome Fiumicino (Dec. 16), Bergamo (Jan. 17) and Cork (Dec. 19), from Bologna to Warsaw and Katowice (both Oct. 27) and from Gdansk to FCO (Oct. 28). On Dec.
Abu Dhabi International's second runway is operational following completion of construction in early September. The new AED1 billion ($272.1 million), 4,100-m. runway is located 2 km. north of the first runway. Project includes development of the airstrip, two major taxiways, two cross-field taxiways and two fire stations.
US State Dept. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs John Byerly once again warned that the liberalization of present rules on airline ownership and control, as sought by the European Commission as part of second-phase EU-US open skies negotiations, will be a "tough case" although he said the US is not totally against it. "We have an open mind, but it cannot be an easy thing to do," he said in Kuala Lumpur. He called for a proactive approach from Europe and asked it to present its case in compelling terms.
Virgin America will add a second daily New York JFK-Las Vegas on Dec. 11. TAM will launch daily A330 Sao Paulo Guarulhos-Orlando International Nov. 21.
Ryanair said it "may" decide to close its Valencia base Friday over a dispute with the regional government, which the LCC claimed "has opted to support other airlines who have not provided a fraction of the growth which Ryanair has to the airport" and has failed to reply to its "proposal on how to ensure the continued growth" at VLC. It set Friday as a deadline for that response. No further details were provided.
Greater Toronto Airports Authority will reduce landing fees at Toronto Pearson by 0.4% next year and terminal charges by 0.6%, offering "projected savings" for airlines of C$28 million ($23.9 million).
AirAsia X hopes to announce its first UK service from its base at Kuala Lumpur International's low-cost-carrier terminal next month and commence the route in March, CEO Azran Osman Rani told ATWOnline at the Routes Leaders Forum in the Malaysian capital.
Jetstar Airways announced plans to launch daily flights from Auckland to Sydney and Gold Coast on April 28. Its transtasman schedule currently comprises 28 weekly A320 return flights from Christchurch to SYD, OOL, Melbourne and Brisbane. The move increases competition on the AKL-SYD route, which currently is operated by seven carriers and will see Pacific Blue, Virgin Blue's low-fare international arm, launch service today with nine-times-weekly flights. It already operates daily AKL-MEL. On Feb. 1, Emirates will replace its daily 777-300ER AKL-SYD with an A380.
