Ryanair will base two new 737-800s at Dublin from November, bringing its fleet at the airport to 22 aircraft. It will invest $140 million, launch six new routes and increase frequencies on a further 12. New routes starting in October will be Budapest (daily), Szczecin (twice-weekly) and Basel (thrice-weekly). New November destinations will be Nice (daily), Prague (daily) and Katowice (thrice-weekly). Frequencies will increase to Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bratislava, Edinburgh, Gdansk, Kaunas, Krakow, Manchester, Riga, Rzeszow, Tenerife and Wroclaw.
With an eye on next summer's Olympic Games and the potential safety issues associated with saturated skies, CAAC yesterday announced that it will not approve any new entrants before 2010 and will impose stricter conditions and procedures for new carriers after that in order to slow the rapid growth of commercial aviation.
WestJet, which this summer won authority to operate to four Mexican destinations ( ATWOnline, June 28), yesterday announced scheduled seasonal service to two, San Jose del Cabo and Mazatlan, from three Canadian cities starting in December. From its Calgary base, the LCC will operate twice-weekly to San Jose del Cabo from Dec. 20 and weekly to Mazatlan from Dec. 22. It will launch weekly flights from Edmonton to both destinations on Dec. 21-22 and from Vancouver to San Jose del Cabo on Dec. 21.
Condor Airlines will launch thrice-weekly Frankfurt-Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen flights in November. Jet Airways will launch five-times-weekly Delhi-Brussels-Toronto service on Sept. 5 aboard a two-class, 220-seat A330-200.
Aer Lingus pilots are planning a two-day strike next week to protest the carrier's plan to set up a base at Belfast International Airport, where the Impact Trade Union claims the proposals for pay and work rules "are less favorable" than in the Republic.
Air New Zealand's ongoing battle with local airports continued yesterday with the airline forced turn to the courts, this time to protest increased landing charges at Wellington. ANZ is seeking a Judicial Review of recent charges imposed by Wellington International Airport Ltd. and had filed proceedings with the High Court in the capital. Last month it filed for a Judicial Review of charges imposed by Auckland International Airport Ltd. ANZ Counsel John Blair claimed that the airline's costs will increase by 34% over the next four years.
UPS and Shanghai Airport Authority broke ground on construction of the cargo carrier's new hub at Pudong ( ATWOnline, April 13). The facility is expected to open next year.
Etihad Airways will increase its number of weekly flights to 716 from 564 at the end of October, when it will also "bid to attract more travelers with the introduction of new flight timings to improve connecting service." Key additions will be on flights from Abu Dhabi to Bahrain (to 28 weekly frequencies from 14), Muscat (to 21 from seven) and Doha (to 14 from seven). It also will increase flights to Frankfurt (to 10 from seven), Geneva (to four from three), Dublin (to six from four) and London Heathrow (to 19 from 14).
TAV Airports Holding broke ground for Enfidha Airport in Tunisia. The Turkish airports operator has a 40-year concession to operate the airport. It will invest €400 million in the first stage of development. It is one of two airports TAV plans to commission in 2009.
In response to the increasing competition posed by railroads, CAAC asked Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Hainan Airlines to cooperate on the Golden Route of Beijing-Shanghai and help make transport more efficient.
AirBridge Cargo said in a filing with the US Dept. of Transportation that it intends to operate 747-400ER freighter services beginning Nov. 1 to Atlanta, Houston Intercontinental and New York JFK and beyond to Toronto from Moscow and Krasnoyarsk. EasyJet announced seven new routes, including its first service to Bulgaria: Thrice-weekly Geneva-Marrakech, Basel-Marrakech and Basel-Porto from Oct. 30; four-times-weekly Liverpool-Lisbon from Nov. 2; thrice-weekly London Gatwick-Sofia and Milan Malpensa-Marrakech from Nov. 6; thrice-weekly Liverpool-Innsbruck from Jan. 8.
Ryanair will open bases in Valencia and Alicante this fall, each requiring an investment of $140 million. The LCC will base two 737-800s and launch 11 new routes from each airport. It already operates 10 routes from Valencia. In October it will launch daily flights to Paris Beauvais, four-times-weekly service to Baden Baden, Bologna, Eindhoven, Liverpool and Porto and thrice-weekly flights to Basel, Billund, Malta, Maastricht and Santiago. It flies from Alicante to six destinations.
JAL Group is looking to build on its significant financial turnaround ( ATWOnline, Aug. 7) with a greater commitment to routes oriented toward business travelers. From Oct. 28 it will add a 14th weekly Tokyo Narita-Guangzhou flight and increase NRT-New Delhi service to daily from five-times-weekly.
Aer Lingus will establish its first base outside the Republic of Ireland in December when it will base three A320s at Belfast International Airport and launch the first three of eight new routes. Among the new services will be 21-times-weekly flights to London Heathrow beginning Jan. 14, which will mark the end of EI's service to the UK capital from Shannon.
MITIE secured a three-year contract with the Airline Operators Committee at Bristol, making the company the sole supplier for hold baggage screening there.
Qatar Airways said it will launch twice-weekly Doha-Nagpur flights from Sept. 23 and daily Doha-Ahmedabad service from Dec. 12 aboard dual-class A320s seating 144 passengers. The new flights will boost QR's India operations to 51 weekly flights to eight cities, making India the nation with the most destinations in the airline's network. It said it will be the only full-service international carrier offering scheduled service to Nagpur, which has a population of more than 2 million. It currently operates daily service to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Trivandrum, and Hyderabad.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim announced yesterday that Jose Carlos Pereira, head of national airport authority Infraero, will be replaced by Space Agency President Sergio Mauricio Brito Gaudenzi effective immediately as the shakeup of the nation's aviation leadership continued in the aftermath of last month's TAM A320 crash.
Northwest Airlines told travel agents that it will suspend its Detroit-Brussels service in mid-month, citing "operational challenges" with the cockpit crew of the 757-200s that operate the route. NWA launched the service in early May. It previously said it would drop its second Detroit-Frankfurt frequency in order to free up 757 pilots ( ATWOnline, July 2).
While US majors lobby and issue competing press releases touting their proposals to serve China under the expanded aviation agreement signed by the two countries, four small Chinese carriers have applied to CAAC for the right to operate transpacific services in a market traditionally dominated by the country's big three and their US counterparts.
Aer Lingus today will launch four-times-weekly Dublin-Washington Dulles service. IAD is EI's fifth US destination. It plans to begin serving Orlando International and San Francisco from October. Qantas will operate an eighth weekly Darwin-Singapore flight from the end of August until early November aboard an A330.
EasyJet announced the following new routes: Daily London Gatwick-Gdansk and daily Milan Malpensa-Bari starting Oct. 1; daily MXP-Barcelona from Oct. 8; flights from Bucharest Baneasa to LGW (daily) and Madrid (four-times-weekly) from Oct. 29; thrice-weekly flights to Gdansk from Edinburgh and Bristol beginning Oct. 30; daily Madrid-Paris Charles de Gaulle from Nov. 1; daily Nice-Brussels from Nov. 5; flights to Innsbruck from LGW (six-times-weekly) and Bristol (thrice-weekly) beginning Dec. 14.
AirAsia launched daily Kuala Lumpur-Shenzhen A320 service. Frontier Airlines will launch daily Denver-West Palm Beach service on Nov. 15 aboard an A319. JetBlue Airways will start daily Fort Lauderdale-Ponce flights on Nov. 5 aboard an A320.
WHEN IT OPENED IN NOVEMBER 1962, Washington's Dulles International Airport was on the leading edge of airport design and theory, the first built specifically to handle jet aircraft and the first with separate buildings to handle people and airplanes. Passengers were processed in the main terminal, then walked to vehicles (called mobile lounges) that served as both hold rooms and transporters to airliners parked at a long service building parallel to the terminal.
Asiana Airlines yesterday launched weekly Seoul-Moscow Domodedovo-Vienna cargo flights aboard a 747-400F. American Eagle Airlines will launch six-times-weekly New York LaGuardia-Flint service on Nov. 4 aboard ERJ-135s.
New Dubai World Central International Airport under construction at Jebel Ali awarded the meteorological system contract at JXB to Emirati firm International Aeradio LLC, while the UK's Park Air Systems will be responsible for a VHF atmospheric radar implementation. Procurement and installation of the packages has commenced, the airport said.
