US Transportation Security Administration will deploy Advanced Technology X-ray and Passenger Imaging at 21 airports before year end and said it will purchase and deploy an additional 300 AT X-rays and 80 PI units next year. Airports already designated to receive the systems are Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta, Newark, Boston, Indianapolis, New York LaGuardia, Tampa, San Juan and San Francisco.
Ryanair will cut its winter schedule at Dublin, reducing based aircraft to 18 from 22 and the number of weekly flights to 1,190 from 1,352. It estimated a passenger decline of around 500,000 from winter 2007-08. It said DUB is the second most expensive of its base airports and that a written request to the airport to have fees reduced was "dismissed by the DAA monopoly." It said the airport charges up to €15 ($23.84) per departing passenger.
US FAA said it will award a contract this fall to install Runway Safety Lights at 20 additional airports across the country over the next three years. RSLs, which warn pilots when it is unsafe to cross or enter a runway, are being tested at Dallas/Fort Worth and San Diego and will be installed at Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, DFW, Denver, Detroit, Washington Dulles, Fort Lauderdale, Houston Intercontinental, New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St.
Boeing said it realized considerable reductions in fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions with its Tailored Arrivals ATM concept, which is based on continuous descent approaches. It said TA approaches can reduce 777 fuel consumption by 34% (1,303 lb.) per approach and by 39% (2,292 lb.) for 747s, according to findings from flights evaluated at San Francisco from Dec. 4, 2007, to March 23, 2008.
Cathay Pacific Airways said the "first stage of its redeployment of services driven by the continuing rise in fuel prices" will comprise four new weekly Hong Kong-Dubai-Bahrain frequencies and a new four-times-weekly HKG-Riyadh beginning Oct. 1. On Sept. 16 it will reduce HKG-Vancouver to 17 weekly flights from 21 and discontinue its thrice-weekly HKG-Anchorage-Toronto, replacing it with daily HKG-YYZ. With the start of the winter schedule, flights to Auckland will increase to 14-times-weekly from 10.
Dublin Airport was operating at 80% capacity Friday following days of disruptions owing to a fault in the radar system. "The cause of the problem with the ATC system has been identified and a comprehensive system evaluation process by the suppliers, Thales ATM, is ongoing," the Irish Aviation Authority said in a statement.
The initial problems at London Heathrow's new Terminal 5 that resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations and delays and an overwhelming luggage pileup that cost sole tenant British Airways some £16 million have been resolved, officials claimed.
Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht told ATWOnline alongside the EgyptAir induction ceremony in Cairo that Star is committed to increasing its presence in Africa and better coordinating the continent's fragmented network. "Now we have a dual gateway with MS and [South African Airways] in Cairo and Johannesburg. There are 305 airports and a population of 900 million people, but just 16,000 weekly flights are offered within Africa," he said.
Austrian Airlines Group said yesterday that it will cut overall capacity by 5% for the coming winter season. Citing high fuel prices and weak demand, AAG said it will close its double-daily Vienna-London City service from Aug 18. In the winter, VIE-Chicago O'Hare flights will cease and frequencies from VIE to New York JFK and Mumbai will be reduced. Its fleet will be lowered by three aircraft in 2009. It did not announce any layoffs but warned that further cost-cutting actions could become necessary in the future.
US National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating a "near midair collision" between a Cayman Airways 737-300 and a LAN Airlines 767-300 over New York JFK on July 5. It said the Cayman aircraft was executing a missed approach and "conflicted" with the departing LAN flight. It said closest proximity was undetermined and the parties involved presented conflicting versions of the incident. Both airlines said the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. report, which described the evening incident as "very scary," was incorrect.
V Australia, the international arm of Virgin Blue, announced that Brisbane-Los Angeles will be its second route. Service will start March 1, 2009 with a 777-300ER. It will launch operations Dec. 15 with daily Sydney-LAX ( ATWOnline, April 1). Transaero launched four-times-weekly Moscow Domodedovo-Vladivostok aboard a 767-300ER.
The first weekend of charter flights across the Taiwan Strait concluded Monday with 11 carriers having offered services, which many regard as an important step toward the opening of scheduled flights between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. The 11 airlines are Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, China Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, TransAsia Airways, Uni Air and EVA Air. ( ATWOnline, July 3)
Emirates launched six-times-weekly flights from Dubai to Guangzhou and Kozhikode this week. It will operate A330-200s on the Guangzhou route and both A330-200s and 777-200s on the Kozhikode route. Guangzhou is EK's fourth Chinese destination while Kozhikode is its 10th in India. Copa Airlines will launch five-times-weekly Panama City-Belo Horizonte on Aug. 21.
SeaPort Airlines, a startup based in Portland, Ore., launched service to King County Municipal Airport (Boeing Field) aboard nine-seat PC-12s. Return flights operate eight-times-daily on weekdays and four-times-daily on weekends. Operating under US FAR Part 135 (general aviation), SeaPort said passengers will not be subject to Transportation Security Administration screening and can arrive 15 min. before departure. Tickets are priced at $149-$224 each way excluding taxes and fees.
El Al will close its thrice-weekly Tel Aviv-Miami service on Sept. 1. It will codeshare on American Airlines flights from MIA to New York JFK, from which El Al serves Tel Aviv. Jet Airways will launch flights from Pune to Hyderabad (daily), Nagpur (six-times-weekly) and Ahmedabad (daily) on July 15 aboard ATR 72-500s. ANA and Turkish Airlines this week launched a codeshare and reciprocal loyalty program agreement under which ANA will place its code on THY's four-times-weekly Istanbul Ataturk-Tokyo Narita and twice-weekly IST-Osaka Kansai services.
Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines is expected to be the first Chinese mainland carrier to operate a charter flight across the Taiwan Strait Friday, with Taiwan's China Airlines following suit later that day from Taipei to Shanghai.
Lufthansa, including its Swiss International Air Lines subsidiary, has become continental Europe's biggest North Atlantic carrier despite its reluctance to take quick advantage of open skies, flying 22 nonstop routes between Germany/Switzerland and North America.
British Airways is retreating from its position that BAA should be broken up ( ATWOnline, March 12), according to a letter the carrier sent to the UK Competition Commission that was obtained by The Independent. BA wrote that it now is "concerned that ownership separation may prove counterproductive in so far as it diverts BAA management attention away from expansion of runway capacity or creates uncertainty around the status of government policy, thereby jeopardizing construction of a new runway at Heathrow.
Bmi is planning to boost services to Saudi Arabia following a new bilateral agreement providing for an increase in weekly flights between the UK and Saudi Arabia to 35. "Bmi intends to take full advantage of the opportunity this provides and will seek to add to its existing services from Heathrow to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam," it said. Porter Airlines yesterday began operating daily flights from Quebec City to both Halifax and Toronto City Centre aboard Q400s.
Alaska Airlines said it now is using diesel-powered preconditioned air units in conjunction with ground-based electricity in place of onboard APUs at 19 gates at its Seattle hub. The ground units burn approximately 10 times less fuel than APUs and are expected to conserve more than 1.1 million gal. per year, saving $2.6 million at current prices. The carrier expects to have 14 more units in place at Anchorage, Portland, Ore., and San Francisco later this year. It also said it completed the retrofit of all eligible 737s with blended winglets in early June.
Northwest Airlines will cancel its Detroit-Dusseldorf and Hartford-Amsterdam flights on Oct. 2 and suspend Minneapolis/St. Paul-Charles de Gaulle from Oct. 2 to March 28, 2009. It cited "high fuel costs and decreased demand" for the decision and warned that "selective frequency reductions and aircraft type changes may also be implemented on additional transatlantic flights, depending on oil prices and ongoing customer demand."
Emirates postponed the launch of its service to Los Angeles and San Francisco because of delays in the delivery of four 777-200LRs. It now will commence Dubai-LAX service on Oct. 1, one month later than planned, and has moved the start of SFO flights to Nov. 20 from Oct. 26. It said the delay was due to late delivery of galley equipment. In addition, it has shelved plans to launch service to Durban in December.
L-3 Security & Detection Systems said its VIS-HR high-resolution automated explosives detection system won STAC approval for compliance with European Union Commission Regulation No. 1448/2006--Standard 2.
Claiming it has a "much different story to tell today than our competitors," Southwest Airlines yesterday unveiled a schedule adjustment that will see it add a net nine roundtrip flights to its network.
