Virgin America began selling tickets yesterday on its website and through a toll-free phone number for flights to San Francisco, New York JFK, Los Angeles, Washington Dulles and Las Vegas.
Ryanair yesterday announced 11 new routes and the cancellation of 11 others. Starting Oct. 28 the LCC will operate Dublin-Stockholm Skavsta and the following day it will launch Girona-Brno, GRO-Linz and London Stansted-Billund. GRO-Poznan, Bremen-Budapest, Brussels Charleroi-Pau, Marseille-Fez, Marseille-Marrakech and Milan Orio al Serio-Lamezia will launch Oct. 30 and GRO-Basel will start Oct. 31.
The pilot of the TAM A320 that crashed late Tuesday at Sao Paulo Conganhas apparently tried to abort the landing and pull up as he contacted the rain-slickened, 6,365-ft. runway at Brazil's busiest airport.
Royal Jordanian will launch twice-weekly Amman-Budapest service on July 28. Etihad Airways will start four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Kathmandu service in October aboard A330-200s. Germanwings will add a sixth daily Munich-Cologne flight on Oct. 30.
Clickair has been fined €60,000 ($82,676) by Dutch authorities for not respecting the night curfew at Amsterdam Schiphol. Despite several warnings, the Spanish LCC landed or took off four times within the restricted time period of 11 p.m.-7 a.m.
A TAM A320 skidded off a wet runway at Sao Paulo Congonhas last night, crashing into buildings and bursting into flame, and all 169 passengers and six crewmembers onboard were feared dead, according to Sao Paulo State Gov. Jose Serra. The accident reportedly occurred during a driving rainstorm as the aircraft attempted to land on a runway that has been criticized as being too short. The Sao Paulo fire department said there also were injuries and possibly fatalities among people on the ground.
American Airlines will increase daily frequencies on AmericanConnection services from St. Louis to seven destinations from Sept. 5, when it also will end five-times-daily flights between STL and Dallas Love Field. It will continue to serve STL from Dallas/Fort Worth. New daily flights from STL will be to Cedar Rapids, Charlotte, Dayton, New Orleans, Newark, Springfield (Mo.) and Tulsa. Chautauqua Airlines and Trans States Airlines will operate some services. Lufthansa ended service to Ghana after 40 years. Last Accra-Frankfurt flight took off July 14.
Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and US Airways yesterday launched formal bids to operate new services to China that will become available as the result of the expanded aviation agreement with the US signed last week. The US Dept. of Transportation will award six new routes between 2007 and 2009 ( ATWOnline, May 24) and each of the aforementioned carriers filed official applications yesterday.
HMSHost Corp. said it acquired "substantially all of the assets" of FoodBrand LLC from Mills Enterprises and Panda Express for approximately $13.3 million including liabilities. FoodBrand provides food and beverage concessions at shopping malls and airports including Washington Dulles and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International.
Ryanair has been told by Italian authorities that it must transfer its Rome operation to Fiumicino from Ciampino, Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi told Thomson Financial. Regional authorities reportedly decided to reduce daily operations at CIA to 100 flights from 138 effective with the next winter schedule. Biancho told TF that CIA's annual passenger throughput has risen to 5 million from 800,000 in the past five years and that neighboring airports at Latina, Viterbo and Frosinone are being studied as possible alternatives.
Condor Airlines will become the first carrier to start jet service to Gan International Airport in Maldives when it launches weekly 757-200 flights from Frankfurt via Sharjah on Nov. 6. Lufthansa will start five-times-weekly Munich-Sibiu service on Sept 1 using Dash 8-300s. KD avia launched thrice-weekly Kaliningrad-London Gatwick service aboard 737-300s.
VT Airside Solutions is taking delivery of 70 Terberg tow tractors for the British Airways ground fleet services operation at London Heathrow's new Terminal 5. The tractors, an enhanced version of the Terberg YT182 model, will be used to tow airfreight loads from BA's World Cargo Centre to T5, which opens next year.
US National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a runway incursion involving United Airlines and Delta Air Lines jets that took place July 11 in Fort Lauderdale in which the aircraft came within less than 100 ft. vertically of each other. According to NTSB, the event occurred at about 2:30 p.m. The crew of UA Flight 1544, an A320, received taxi clearance from the terminal to Runway 9L via Taxiway T7.
NAV Canada said it will reduce customer service charges by 4% effective Aug. 1. The cut comprises a previously announced 3% reduction originally scheduled for Sept. 1 and an additional 1% cut good through Aug. 31, 2008. President and CEO John Crichton said customers will save a combined C$50 million ($47.3 million) in FY08 as a result. The 1% temporary reduction is worth C$13 million. NAV Canada also said that due to the introduction of VLJs, daily and movement-based charges will be extended to jet aircraft weighing 3 tonnes or less effective March 1, 2008.
Moscow Domodedovo Director Sergey Rudakov said the airport landscape in the Russian capital, which features three international gateways, is on the verge of significant change.
Qatar Airways will operate its first daily Doha-Washington Dulles flight on July 19 aboard a three-class A340. IAD will be QR's 78th international destination. The carrier said it will be the first Middle Eastern airline to operate a daily nonstop to the US capital. Aer Lingus said it will launch four-times-daily Dublin-London Gatwick service "from the end of October." It already serves Heathrow.
US FAA Administrator Marion Blakey reminded lawmakers in Washington yesterday that the FAA reauthorization deadline is looming and warned that the current ATC system is in dire need of modernization.
EasyJet will launch service from Birmingham International with a daily flight to Geneva beginning Dec. 14 and a twice-weekly Grenoble service from Dec. 22. BHX is the 13th UK airport added to the LCC's operation and takes the total number of airports on its European network to 79. EasyJet also will launch a winter service from Bournemouth to Grenoble on Dec. 13.
Kazakhstan is making a strong effort to develop its major airports in Almaty and Astana into strategic hubs for traffic between Europe and the Far East. "Our country is currently at an important stage for developing [aviation hubs], especially because leading carriers like Lufthansa, KLM and Air France are already here," Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Abdrakhmanov told ATWOnline in Vienna. "We will and we have to compete with the other [hubs], so we must provide good service.
Miami International is offering free landings and other incentives for airlines to start new domestic and international services. The three-year program will spend up to $3 million to attract scheduled passenger flights, with full landing fee waivers for new year-round flights to US or Canadian destinations. The one-year waiver also is available for a year-round flight to an international destination not previously served from MIA, and partial waivers are offered for new cargo service and less than full-year commitments.
Lufthansa yesterday signed an MOU with Moscow Domodedovo operator East Line Group to transfer its 61 weekly flights to the Russian capital to DME from Sheremetyevo beginning with the summer 2008 schedule.
US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Chinese Minister of Civil Aviation Yang Yuanyuan this week officially signed the expanded aviation agreement reached in May. The deal more than doubles passenger flights between the nations by 2012 and removes all restrictions on cargo flights by 2011 ( ATWOnline, May 24).
Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen International Airport will be expanded and operated by a consortium comprised of Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure (40%), Turkey's Limak (40%) and Malaysia Airports Holdings (20%), which was awarded a 20-year contract that includes building a new international terminal capable of handling 10 million passengers annually and managing the existing international and domestic terminals.
