Singapore Airlines will open a new front in the increasingly heated competition for premium travelers, announcing yesterday that it will reconfigure its five A340-500s with 100 lie-flat business class seats for use on transpacific routes to the US. Since the routes were launched several years ago, SIA has operated the A340-500s in a business class/premium economy configuration seating 181. Owing to range shortfalls, it never was able to incorporate a first class cabin into the aircraft. The all-business-class configuration will feature a 1-2-1 arangement.
Sterling Airlines named JPMorgan executive Reza Taleghani as president and CEO succeeding Almar Orn Hilmarsson, who has held the posts for the past 2.5 years and is resigning. "We are very pleased to get Reza on board to lead Sterling to the next level on its future growth path. Reza's extensive experience within the airline industry, both from the strategic as well as the financial perspective, is very valuable for the company," Chairman Thorsteinn Orn Gudmundsson said.
Wizz Air will launch Sofia-Brussels Charleroi on July 24, bringing to eight the number of destinations served from the Bulgarian capital. American Airlines will begin daily Fort Lauderdale-Kingston on June 1 aboard a 737-800. ABSA Cargo Airlines of Brazil launched a weekly Viracopos-Valencia, Venezuela. It serves Caracas thrice-weekly.
Emirates unveiled its initial A380 schedule yesterday, announcing that the aircraft will enter service on its Dubai-New York JFK route Oct. 1. Flights to London Heathrow follow on Dec. 1 and service to Sydney begins Feb. 1, 2009. Aircraft on these routes will seat 14 in first class, 76 in business and 399 in economy. "While we are still debating our first commercial A380 route, it has always been our intention to fly the aircraft on capacity-constrained trunk routes. The cities that we have now scheduled for A380 services bring our plans to fruition," President Tim Clark said.
Dusseldorf International will invest €300 million in infrastructure upgrades in order to offer shorter connecting times and compete more effectively with other European hubs. DUS is looking to increase the percentage of passengers flying long-haul to 20% from 10%. It is the third-busiest airport in Germany with 17.8 million passengers last year.
Norwegian is taking its low-cost model long-haul and will launch twice-weekly flights from Oslo Gardermoen and thrice-weekly flights from Stockholm Arlanda to Dubai on Oct. 26 aboard new 737--800s. "We see no reason not to launch long-haul routes based on our low-cost model," CEO Bjorn Kjos said. "Our new fleet of 737-800s from Boeing enables us to look even further when analyzing future markets and we aim to make good use of the opportunities the extra range gives us."
Beijing Capital International Airport's new $3 billion-plus Terminal 3 opened Friday as Shandong Airlines flight SC1151 arrived from Jinan at 8:39 a.m. UK architect Norman Foster claimed it is the largest covered structure ever built--3.25 km. long and 1.3 million sq. m. of floor space. Construction began in March 2004. The airport said the three-concourse facility welcomed Shandong, Sichuan Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, British Airways and El Al Friday.
Gulf Air will launch four-times-weekly Bahrain-Shanghai Pudong on June 16 aboard A340-300s. Service becomes daily in the winter 2008 schedule. EgyptAir will transfer its Paris operation from Orly to Charles de Gaulle on March 30. Wizz Air launched four-times-weekly Bucharest Baneasa-Cluj Napoca, its first Romanian domestic service, as well as thrice-weekly BBU-Brussels Charleroi, BBU-Bergamo and Cluj Napoca-Dortmund. Wizz will base an A320 in Cluj from May and will launch flights to Valencia and Bergamo.
AS THE INDUSTRY DEBATES THE TITANIC 787 VERSUS A350 XWB battle, it would do well to remember that two of the most successful aircraft programs in history, the 737 and 777, were last out of the blocks. When the 737 was launched, the competing DC-9 and BAC 1-11 were already in flight test, while the 777 was committed to production well after the MD-11 and A340-200/-300 had "sewn up" the market for long-haul 300-seaters.
The open skies treaty between the EU and US that takes effect at the end of this month might better have been called the "Open Heathrow" treaty, since that is where 99% of the action is taking place, with five new entrants set to begin serving the airport come April 1. That Heathrow should be the vortex of activity is not surprising given that for the purposes of the US-UK market it has been closed to all but four airlines for decades. Plus, as Senior Editor and Europe Bureau Chief Cathy Buyck notes in her fine feature beginning on p.
AIR TRAVELERS TODAY ARE MORE technologically savvy than ever, quickly embracing any new breakthrough that enables them to access information both on and off the ground. In a very real sense, passengers now can manage much of their flight experience from start to finish. They have taken the lead in this techno-revolution, with airlines playing a supporting role by implementing more self-service options.
ON MARCH 27, THE FIRST FLIGHTS will start operating through London Heathrow's new Terminal 5, heralded by British Airways as "a new era in overseas travel." The opening of T5, as it is known, launches the biggest reshuffle in the London gateway's history and will see almost 60 airlines participating in a major move that will redistribute carriers among existing Terminals 1, 3 and 4 largely along alliance lines.
HISTORY WILL BE MADE ON MARCH 30 WHEN THE first commercial aviation agreement between the European Union and the US enters into force. The accord, which creates a single transatlantic Open Aviation Area in place of the existing regime of individual bilaterals between the 27 EU member states and the US, was no easy delivery. Negotiations were begun in June 2003 and required 11 rounds to achieve an agreement that was initialed in Brussels on March 2, 2007, and signed at the EU-US summit in Washington on April 30, 2007.
BAA, operator of seven UK airports including London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, announced that CEO Stephen Nelson will be replaced on April 1 by former British Airways Director-Technical Operations Colin Matthews.
Ryanair said it will set up its 27th European and second Scottish base at Edinburgh Airport in September with two new 737-800s operating on 19 routes. Eleven of the new routes were not announced previously. They are Berlin Schoenefeld (four-times-weekly), Bilund (thrice-weekly), Bournemouth (13 weekly flights), Bratislava (four-times-weekly), Krakow (thrice-weekly), Lodz (twice-weekly), Malaga (four-times-weekly), Palma (thrice-weekly), Poznan (thrice-weekly), Stockholm (four-times-weekly) and Wroclaw (twice-weekly).
US National Transportation Safety Board sent two investigators to Jackson Hole to investigate an incident in which a United Airlines A320 "veered off the side of a runway" and "came to rest on its landing gear at about a 90-degree angle to the runway in snow about three feet deep." There were no serious injuries reported.
Emirates will launch six weekly flights from Dubai to Kozhikode from July 1, marking its 10th destination in India. EK initially will operate 777-200s and A330-200s on the route, offering more than 4,000 passenger seats and close to 200 tonnes of belly cargo capacity per week. Gulf Air will launch a four-times-weekly Manama-Shanghai service aboard A340-300s from June 16, upgrading the service to daily with the start of the 2008-09 winter schedule.
With the end of the UK government's consultation on expansion at London Heathrow approaching, rivals British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways reiterated their support for a third runway at the world's largest international airport. "Expansion is crucial for British Airways and all other airlines operating from the airport," BA CEO Willie Walsh said in the latest BA News. "Heathrow is slipping behind. The facts speak for themselves, with a cut in the number of destinations it serves while other European hubs increase and expand."
China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines expanded their codeshare arrangement with an eye toward solidifying their presence at their increasingly competitive Shanghai hub. The new accord, which goes into effect March 1, will see each carrier place its code on the other's flights to Harbin, Tianjin, Chengdu, Chongqing and Shenzhen for a probationary period lasting until March 29. At that point, if the airlines agree, the cooperation will be extended to the end of the summer schedule.
Recaro Aircraft Seating will open a service center in Dubai later this year to accelerate response times and offer direct support to the region's carriers. Services will include technical support, repairs and part replacement.
AirTran Airways and Spirit Airlines were awarded slot exemptions at Washington National for service to either Jacksonville or Milwaukee (AirTran) and Fort Lauderdale (Spirit), the US Dept. of Transportation announced. Routes must be operational by May 3. Midwest Airlines was awarded backup authority for a Milwaukee or Kansas City service if either AirTran or Spirit does not commence service. Bmibaby will launch service from Manchester to Madrid (four-times-weekly from June 16), Lisbon (twice-weekly from June 17) and Barcelona (four-times-weekly from Sept. 8).
British Airways will launch flights from London Gatwick to Poznan (daily from March 30), Antalya (thrice-weekly from April 10) and Genoa (daily from April 4). CSA Czech Airlines will start six-times-weekly Munich-Bordeaux on March 2. Air New Zealand will add a fourth weekly Auckland-Vancouver frequency in early December. It launched the route last November. AirAsia launched flights from Kuala Lumpur to Yogyakarta (daily) and Vientiane (twice-daily). Air Mauritius will launch weekly Plaisance-Bangalore on April 28 using A330-200s.
OpenSkies, British Airways' new transatlantic subsidiary, will operate its first flight between either Paris Charles de Gaulle or Orly and New York JFK, BA said in a filing and application for traffic rights with the US Dept. of Transportation. It also had considered Brussels as an initial European gateway ( ATWOnline, Feb. 7). OpenSkies will fly with both the BA and its own EC code and plans to launch service in June.
