UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch said its initial findings on last Thursday's British Airways 777-200ER crash landing at London Heathrow revealed that the two Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines did not respond to attempts to increase thrust during the aircraft's descent.
Bmi will launch a second daily London Heathrow-Moscow Domodedovo flight on March 30 with an A320. Lufthansa will launch twice-daily Frankfurt-Bergen service on March 30 aboard a Lufthansa CityLine CRJ700. LH will operate a twice-weekly Hamburg-Bergen service during the summer schedule. TACA will launch four-times-weekly San Jose-David service on Feb. 18 onboard a 48-seat ATR 42.
Europe's airlines are disappointed with the European Parliament's adoption of a legislative report that sets out common principles for the levying of charges at airports in the 27-member EU bloc. The proposal for a directive on airport charges is part of the European Commission's so-called Airport Package released in January 2007 and aims to prevent any abuse of a dominant position in the market by individual airports ( ATW, April 2007) .
Air New Zealand will launch six-times-weekly Wellington-Whakatane service on May 19 aboard an Eagle Air Beech 1900D. United Airlines and Austrian Airlines expanded their codeshare agreement to cover 20 domestic UA flights from Chicago O'Hare.
Philippine Airlines said it will continue to operate flights to the US despite FAA's downgrading of the country to a Category 2 safety rating. PAL said it will be restricted by FAA to the 33 weekly flights it currently operates to the US and will not be able to change aircraft types used on the routes, meaning that six 777-300ERs scheduled to begin delivering next year will not be able to be deployed as planned unless FAA upgrades the country's status.
UK Dept. for Transport yesterday announced it intends to de-designate Manchester Airport because it "does not have, and is not likely to acquire, substantial market power," but that London Stansted will continue to be regulated. The decisions follow advice from CAA and two public consultations. In July, CAA recommended to DfT that STN also should be de-designated.
Ryanair will set up its 25th European base at Birmingham International in the spring with two 737-800s operating on 20 new routes to Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. This will be followed by a further eight 737-800s representing an investment of $560 million that the LCC said will deliver 5 million passengers annually.
Moscow Domodedovo announced the end to its renovation project on Runway 1, which began in 2003 and was part of a modernization project costing approximately RUB12 billion ($492.2 million). A temporary third runway was opened in May 2006 to handle traffic during the work. The new Runway 1 will handle up to 45 operations per hr.
US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters yesterday issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would allow airports to base charges assessed to airlines on "the time of day and the volume of traffic" rather than just aircraft weight, raising the possibility that "congestion pricing" could be imposed by airports. The proposal threatened to unravel the truce Peters reached with US airlines last month over managing congestion at New York JFK ( ATWOnline, Dec.
Aer Lingus yesterday launched thrice-daily Belfast International-London Heathrow service aboard an A320. It is EI's fourth route from its new base ( ATWOnline, Dec. 11, 2007), from which it will start flights to Rome Fiumicino, Budapest, Malaga and Faro on Feb. 25 and Nice on April 1. Lufthansa CityLine launched twice-daily Berlin Tegel-London City flights. Horizon Air will operate a second daily Seattle-Santa Rosa flight April 6-Oct. 26.
Kingfisher Airlines Chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya told Mint business daily that the airline, likely through its acquisition of Air Deccan, has "secured all necessary clearances for flying overseas" and that as a result it will convert its five A380 options to firm orders. Kingfisher already has five A380s on order. "We will be operating all nonstop flights to international destinations," Mallya told the paper. Indo Asian News Service quoted him as saying that the first long-haul flight will operate Aug.
Singapore Airlines will start four-times-weekly Singapore-Moscow Domodedovo-Houston Intercontinental flights on March 20 aboard a 777-300ER. Blue1 will replace its current Helsinki-London Stansted service with a daily London Heathrow-Helsinki flight from March 30. Route will be operated with an MD-90. Etihad Airways will begin a four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Beijing service on March 30 aboard an A330-200 in two-class configuration.
Singapore Airlines will add a fourth daily flight to Sydney beginning in April aboard a 777-300ER. JetBlue Airways yesterday started daily New York JFK-Puerto Plata flights aboard an A320. It will launch daily Boston-Jacksonville service on March 15, daily Orlando International-Santo Domingo flights on March 8 and daily MCO-Cancun on March 13 with E-190s.
Ryanair will establish its 24th European base at Bournemouth on England's south coast. From April the LCC will base one 737-800 there and launch service to Malaga, Murcia, Nantes, Palma and Wroclaw, lifting to 12 the number of routes it serves from the airport. It also will add a second daily flight to Glasgow Prestwick. It expects to bring 1 million passengers per year to Bournemouth. Separately, Ryanair said its proposal to establish operations at Milan Malpensa has been rejected by airports operator SEA, which is 84.5% controlled by the municipality of Milan.
British Airways will launch its new transatlantic subsidiary, OpenSkies, in June with daily flights from New York JFK to Brussels or Paris Charles de Gaulle using 757s carrying up to 82 passengers in business, premium economy and economy sections.
Southwest Airlines released a summer schedule that features the elimination of 57 roundtrip flights and the addition of 40 new flights, including service to six new destinations from Denver. The schedule takes effect May 10 and reflects the fact that the airline is "concerned about slowing economic growth, and we want our flight schedule to be built around flights that are in high demand," according to CEO Gary Kelly ( ATWOnline, Jan. 9).
Singapore Changi's new Terminal 3 opened for operations yesterday after months of intensive preparatory tests, which included 50 trial flights of which 20 were actual flights. First arrival was SQ001 from San Francisco at 11:50 and first departure was to London Heathrow at 12:50 ( ATWOnline, June 18, 2007). T3 will increase SIN's annual capacity to 70 million passengers.
British Airways will launch five-times-weekly London Heathrow-Hyderabad flights on Oct. 27 aboard a 777. Hyderabad becomes BA's sixth Indian destination. Austrian Airlines Group announced the expansion of its Russian network with thrice-weekly flights to Sochi starting April 1 and Nizhny Novgorod the following day. Both routes will be operated by F70s. AAG currently serves five Russian destinations and will be the Western carrier with the second-largest presence in the country behind Lufthansa.
Singapore Airlines today will become the first carrier to operate from Changi's new Terminal 3. First outbound flight is SQ318 en route to London Heathrow. SQ will continue to operate out of T2 as well. The airline's flights to North America, Northern/Western Europe, East Asia (save certain Japanese services) and Oceania will operate out of T3.
UK Dept. for Transport lifted the restriction limiting passengers to one piece of hand luggage effective today at 22 of the domestic airports ( ATWOnline, Nov. 16, 2007). Airports where passengers will be allowed to take two bags into the cabin include London Heathrow, Stansted, London City, Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham and Aberdeen, according to a list on DfT's website. Airports where the one-bag rule will stay in place include London Gatwick, Luton, Leeds Bradford, Nottingham East Midlands and Liverpool.
Skybus Airlines launched flights from Portsmouth, N.H., to Punta Gorda/Fort Myers and St. Augustine. JetBlue Airways launched daily Burbank-Salt Lake City service aboard A320s. It will start a daily New York JFK-St. Maarten service on Jan. 17 and a daily JFK-Puerto Plata flight on Jan. 10, both aboard A320s.
US Airways received final approval from the US Dept. of Transportation to launch its first service (Philadelphia-Beijing) to China in 2009. DOT granted additional rights to American Airlines (Chicago O'Hare-Beijing), Continental Airlines (Newark-Shanghai) and Northwest Airlines (Detroit-Shanghai) as well. The agency issued a tentative decision in September ( ATWOnline, Sept. 26, 2007).
Oman is planning to build three new regional airports in Adam, Haima and Shaleem. The government has allocated $43.9 million for consultancy studies, design and supervision of the proposed airports, the Arab Air Carriers Organization reported. The country also is planning to expand facilities at Muscat and Salalah.
