US Airways said it will reduce mainline Pittsburgh service to 22 daily flights from 31 from Jan. 6 and expects service provided by regional partners to drop to 46 daily flights from 77 as it "continues to maximize the financial stability of its Pittsburgh operation." Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said the PIT operation cost the company more than $40 million over the past year. US will close its pilot and flight attendant bases but will not furlough those employees, leaving approximately 500 to bid for trips originating from alternate US bases.
Aloha Airlines will launch daily flights from San Diego to Kauai and Kona on Jan. 7. Flights to Kauai will operate nonstop four-times-weekly and via Kona thrice-weekly. Flights to Kona will be nonstop thrice-weekly and stop in Kauai four-times-weekly. Wizz Air yesterday launched thrice-weekly Katowice-Brussels South Charleroi flights. Hawaiian Airlines will launch Honolulu-Manila service in March aboard 767-300ERs. Frequency was not announced. MyAir will commence twice-weekly Bari-Amsterdam service on Dec. 15 aboard CRJ900s.
Barcelona International Airport's new Sur terminal will be used by 42 airlines, including oneworld members and "associates" Clickair and Air Nostrum and Star Alliance members plus affiliates Air Comet and Aerolineas Argentinas, Spanish airports operator Aena announced yesterday. Vueling Airlines also will operate from the new terminal. SkyTeam carriers, which requested to operate out of T Sur, instead will have exclusive use of the existing Terminal A, while other low-cost operators and airlines without intercontinental flights will operate out of the B and C terminals.
MyAir of Italy will launch twice-weekly Bari-Brussels service on Dec. 20. Bmi regional will add an eighth weekday Manchester-Edinburgh service beginning Oct. 28.
US FAA yesterday revised its definition of a "runway incursion," adopting ICAO's characterization of "any unauthorized intrusion onto a runway" as what it will label an incursion going forward. The primary difference is that FAA's prior definition required that an aircraft present "a potential conflict" with another aircraft or moving vehicle in order to be classified as an incursion. The agency, for example, previously would have described an unauthorized aircraft crossing an empty runway as a "surface incident" and not a runway incursion.
In a perfect world, Clickair would procure its ground handling services from less than a handful of providers. In this imperfect world, however, the Spanish LCC deals with some 25 different companies for a network that spans 45 stations. "I believe that the nirvana solution would be to have two major network ground handlers," CEO Alex Cruz tells Airline Procurement.
Continental Airlines today will launch Newark-Mumbai flights. It initially will operate the service four-times-weekly with frequency increasing to daily from Oct. 28.
Moscow Domodedovo announced that Air Berlin is the first non-Russian airline to join the Domodedovo Transfer Service Project to offer special interline fares for passengers transiting the airport.
Lufthansa will launch weekly Saturday flights from Dusseldorf to Newquay Cornwall in June, Newquay Airport Project Director Chris Cain revealed this week. KLM will launch daily Amsterdam-Dallas/Ft. Worth service aboard A330-200s from March 30.
BAA is investing £20 million ($40.3 million) in Smiths Group's Advanced Threat Identification aTiX explosive detection machines, The Times of London reported. It already has installed 11 of the machines at London Heathrow, where the airport operator has come under fire from airlines for slow-moving security lines. BAA said the new equipment, which it plans to install at all seven of its UK airports, will speed passengers' passage through checkpoints.
Kunpeng Airlines, the Xi'an-based JV regional carrier created by Shenzhen Airlines and Mesa Air Group, is scheduled to launch services today by opening 11 routes to destinations including Taiyuan, Tianjin, Yichang, Huhehaote, Nanchang, Zhengzhou and Hefei. It is noteworthy that Kunpeng was registered in Beijing but its operating base is located in Xi'an. Chinese industry analysts suggest that this "western attraction" for regional startups is driven partly by CAAC's policy of encouraging growth in the region through subsidies.
EasyJet will launch four-times-weekly East Midlands-Barcelona service from Dec. 7. The LCC expects to carry more than 70,000 passengers on the new route in the first 12 months of operation. Virgin America yesterday started twice-daily Washington Dulles-San Francisco service aboard its new A319s/A320s. The startup, which launched last month, plans to begin thrice-daily SFO-Las Vegas service from Oct. 10. Routes currently served include SFO-New York JFK, SFO-Los Angeles and JFK-LAX.
Delta Air Lines yesterday rolled out an ambitious international expansion program for New York JFK that will include nine destinations not served by any other carrier operating at the airport. DL's new JFK schedule, which includes 14 new international destinations, will be launched next summer. "We are bringing service to new and unique locations around the world," CEO Richard Anderson said. "This is profitable and sustainable flying.
Dublin Airport Authority and Macquarie Airports Group completed the joint sale of their 48.25% shareholding in Birmingham Airport Holdings for a gross consideration of £420 million ($850 million). "This has been a highly successful investment for the DAA and indirectly for the Irish taxpayer," Chairman Gary McGann said.
Austrian Airlines Group plans to launch 10 weekly Vienna-London City flights on Oct 29 using F70s. TAM said yesterday it will launch daily Sao Paulo Guarulhos-Montevideo service from Nov. 5.
The US Dept. of Transportation yesterday awarded coveted new China route authorities to all six US legacy carriers. Two of the route awards, going to Delta Air Lines and United Airlines for service that can begin on March 30, are "final decisions," DOT said. Four additional routes, on which service can begin in 2009, are "proposed" designations that likely will become final "in the near future."
Emirates will launch daily 777-300ER service between New York JFK and Dubai via Hamburg on Oct. 29. Emirates enjoys fifth freedom rights between the US and Germany and is offering an introductory NY-Hamburg roundtrip fare of $425. Also, from Oct. 1 the carrier will substitute a 777-300ER for an A340-500 on one of its two daily nonstop services between New York and Dubai.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh does not expect the first stage of EU-US open skies, set to take effect at the end of March, to have a major impact. "I expect nothing radical and nothing like the predictions of [European Commissioner of Transport Jacques] Barrot," he said at the Routes Leaders Forum in Stockholm. He foresees a move of some capacity from London Gatwick to London Heathrow, but nothing far-reaching and nothing that will cause BA to lose significant transatlantic market share.
Lufthansa will increase ASKs by 5.7% on its global network for the winter season starting Oct 28, including the launch of new services to Orlando, Karachi and Lahore. Additionally, it is resuming five-times-weekly nonstop service to Buenos Aires. The winter timetable includes 13,272 scheduled flights, 2.9% more than in the year-earlier period. Beginning Oct.
Moscow Domodedovo announced two new services. Aviaprad commenced thrice-weekly flights to Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia aboard Yak 42s and VIM-Avia began operating two weekly flights to Khabarovsk using a 757.
British Airways will end daily service between London Heathrow and Detroit effective March 30 after 50 years of operating the route. "It's just that the nature of Detroit has changed," spokesperson John Lampl told ATWOnline. He said the automotive industry, a major economic engine for the area, has become fragmented over the years. "They give us almost no business. The premium-class passenger is just not there anywhere.
After extensive deliberation, Southwest Airlines said yesterday it has decided to maintain its "legendary" open-seating policy but will change its boarding process to eliminate "the perceived cattle call" experience at gates in which its passengers "camp out in their boarding line."
Qatar Airways upgraded the aircraft on its 10-times-weekly Doha-Kuala Lumpur route to A330s offering passengers in every seat fully interactive IFE. EasyJet launched twice-daily London Luton-Zurich service and said it expects to carry more than 160,000 passengers on the route over the next 12 months. Norwegian will start four-times-weekly London Gatwick-Stavanger service from Nov. 2. Silverjet will launch daily London Luton-Dubai flights from Nov. 19 aboard 100-seat 767s.
The official death toll from Sunday's One-Two-Go Airways MD-82 crash in Phuket rose to 89 as investigators focused on windshear as a possible cause. "It is possible that the plane crash was caused by windshear," One-Two-Go parent Orient-Thai Airlines President Kajit Habnanonda told reporters, according to the Associated Press. The aircraft attempted to land at Phuket in a heavy rainstorm and skidded off the runway ( ATWOnline, Sept. 17).
