Lufthansa is examining the opportunities created by the transatlantic open skies agreement scheduled to take effect at the end of March, yet remains unsure about the economic viability of launching flights from outside its home market to the US.
Southwest Airlines reached agreement last week with the City of Chicago that Mayor Richard Daley's office said is "a very big first step" toward its planned privatization of Midway Airport. US legislation enacted in 1996 created a pilot program for five airport privatizations, but under the law a city needs the approval of 65% of an airport's airline tenants in order to use proceeds from a privatization for nonaviation-related purposes, which has been a historical stumbling block.
AirTran Airways last week launched a daily Indianapolis-Las Vegas service. Frontier Airlines last week launched daily Denver-West Palm Beach service aboard an A319.
The European Commission has concerns about the neutrality and functional independence of the slot coordinator at coordinated airports in the EU, it said last week as part of its assessment of the amended slot allocation regulation adopted in 2004.
Continental Airlines will launch twice-daily flights to London Heathrow from Newark and Houston Intercontinental beginning March 29 aboard 777s and 767-200ERs, subject to government and slot approval, it announced yesterday. Wizz Air will launch flights from Bucharest Baneasa to Cluj (four-times-weekly), Brussels Charleroi (thrice-weekly) and Milan Orio al Serio (thrice-weekly) on Feb. 28.
China Eastern Airlines expects to improve its financial and operational performance greatly on international routes through its planned cooperation with Singapore Airlines, according to CEA Board Secretary Luo Zhiping. "Currently we [lose] between CNY1 million ($134.000)-CNY2 million in one flight from Shanghai to New York," Luo said. "And our average load factor of business class/first class is 30%-40% in international routes while this figure is more than 90% [for] SIA, so we hope to raise our figure to 70%-80% in partnership with SIA."
ExpressJet continued to expand its branded flying, launching flights from Reno to Ontario, Long Beach, Spokane and Tucson. It also started Monterey Peninsula-Long Beach service as well as Santa Barbara-San Diego-Sacramento and Omaha-Tucson flights.
US Air Transport Assn. warned of crowding at airports over the 12-day period starting Nov. 16 and ending Nov. 27 as an average of 2.3 million passengers fly daily during the country's Thanksgiving holiday period, up 4% over last year.
Air China launched thrice-weekly Beijing-Sydney flights aboard A330s. The carrier now offers 10 weekly flights between China and Australia. XL Airways will launch flights from London Luton to Cyprus and Egypt from May 23 "in response to huge customer demand from the North London area," according to the carrier. It will introduce five weekly flights to Larnaca, three to Paphos and two to Sharm El Sheikh.
Doha's new international airport is on track to open for intitial operatons by the end of 2009, Bernardo Gogna, director of the facility's steering committee, told ATWOnline in Doha this week. Total investment in the airport, which will span 22 sq. km., will reach $10 billion by the end of 2009, he added. Construction began in January 2005. The airport will have an initial capacity of 12 million passengers annually, increasing to 50 million by the time it is fully operational in 2015. It will feature two parallel runways, one 4,800 m. and the other 4,500 m.
Aer Lingus said it will add three new aircraft and expand capacity by 10% across its European network in 2008, including the addition of new Belfast International-Nice (twice-weekly), Dublin-Ibiza and Cork-Jersey services. It plans to operate 59 routes from Dublin, 18 from Cork and nine from Belfast next year. Frequencies across the network will be raised, including on flights to San Francisco, Orlando International and Washington Dulles.
Ryanair yesterday opened its Bristol base ( ATWOnline, May 25) with flights to Budapest, Derry, Knock, Milan Orio al Serio, Porto, Riga and Wroclaw. Today it will begin flying to Bratislava, Dinard, Poznan and Rzeszow, with Katowice coming on line Nov. 10. Salzburg starts Dec.19 and Turin Dec. 22. The LCC is basing two 737-800s at the airport, from which it expects to transport 1 million passengers next year.
Dnata, the Dubai-based airport services provider, said yesterday that it has acquired Jet Aviation Handling, the airport handling division of Switzerland-based Jet Aviation Group. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquired company will be Dnata's first airport handling business in Europe and is "consistent with its strategy of developing an international network," it said in a statement. With the buy, Dnata now has handling operations at 16 airports in seven countries: Australia, Singapore, China, Pakistan, the Philippines, Switzerland and the UAE.
With market reforms taking hold in China's commercial aviation industry, CAAC plans to relax its control over Chinese carriers' domestic route networks and allow them to launch new services freely by 2010, according to Minister Yang Yuanyuan. CAAC is committed to cutting the number of cities for which new flights still must be approved. "Our target is to reduce this number to zero by 2010, when all the domestic routes should be open to Chinese carriers without formal approval from CAAC," Yang said.
Oman Air will launch five-times-weekly Muscat-Bangkok Suvarnabhumi service Nov. 28 aboard a 767. It also confirmed it will begin London Gatwick flights on Nov. 26. Angola Airlines will start twice-weekly Luanda-Beijing service on Nov. 23 using 777-200ERs. Nok Air launched a double-daily Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Hanoi service using 737-800s.
Singapore-based Tiger Airways and Incheon city authorities inked a deal to establish a new Korean low-fare airline called Incheon Tiger Airways with an initial fleet of five A320s based at Incheon International. The carrier will serve the China and Japan markets. No launch date was provided.
Lufthansa on Friday said that Russian authorities had reconsidered their decision to suspend Lufthansa Cargo's overflight rights immediately and opted to reinstate them until Nov. 15. The reason for Russia's decision appears to be a dispute over the location of LHC's cargo hub, currently in Astana ( ATWOnline, Nov. 1). LH said it needs "long-term and sustained permission" to overfly Russia after Nov. 15 but that "the granting of overflight rights cannot be tied to demands that its cargo hub be relocated."
Air New Zealand launched thrice-weekly Auckland-Vancouver service on Nov. 2 aboard a 777-200ER. Originally scheduled to be a seasonal route, the flight will be operated year-round due to strong customer response, Manager-International Airline Ed Sims told ATWOnline. EasyJet launched four-times-weekly Liverpool-Lisbon flights. Spirit Airlines will launch thrice-weekly Fort Lauderdale-Panama City flights on Jan. 31.
SAS Cargo subsidiary Spirit Air Cargo Handling Sweden and Nordic Airport Properties reached agreement on construction of a 15,000-sq.-m. air cargo terminal in Cargo City at Stockholm Arlanda. The facility is scheduled to open in spring 2010.
United Airlines, taking advantage of the US-EU open skies agreement, will launch daily Denver-London Heathrow flights aboard a three-class, 258-seat 777 on March 30, the day the new agreement takes effect. Skybus Airlines will launch twice-daily flights to New York Stewart from Columbus (starting Jan. 6) and Greensboro (Feb. 25) aboard A319s. CityJet launched thrice-daily London City-Strasbourg service. The new route replaces twice-daily Strasbourg-London Gatwick flights operated by Regional, another Air France subsidiary.
Dragonair officially joined oneworld yesterday in Hong Kong, becoming the alliance's 11th member carrier. Its affiliation will add 15 new destinations to the oneworld network, including 12 in mainland China. "Our strong market presence in the mainland will give passengers greater access to this fast-growing market, and at the same time we can help people connect with our growing network of niche destinations around the region," CEO Kenny Tang said.
IT IS DAZZLING, ALMOST INTIMIDATING, and for Western airport operators who often have to lobby for a decade or more to obtain planning permission for a new terminal, let alone a new runway, probably very frustrating. Yet it is a fact that airports across the Middle East are in the process of adding enough capacity to handle 300 million more passengers by 201550% more travelers than all the region's airports processed last year.
United Airlines is abandoning testing of dual-end jetbridges following a malfunction in which a double-ended bridge hit and damaged the wing of a 757 at Denver International ( ATWOnline, Sept. 8, 2006). "The technology [tested mainly on Ted flights at DIA] did not meet our needs," a UA spokesperson told The Denver Post.
