China Southern Airlines will launch seven international routes from Guangzhou between July and November. New destinations are Yangon, Phuket, Siem Riep and Vientiane (July); New Delhi (September); Sendai and Sapporo (late October).
TAM signed an MOU yesterday with Lufthansa to explore "possible close cooperation" that will include "the implementation of codesharing on domestic and international routes" as a first step.
Delta Air Lines yesterday launched daily Atlanta-Vienna 767-300ER service. It is the second of 14 new international routes DL will start this summer. Icelandair launched thrice-weekly seasonal service between Reykjavik and Halifax.
Mexican airport operator ASUR inaugurated the $100 million Terminal 3 at Cancun International last week. The facility, which took just 18 months to build, has 84 check-in counters, 11 attached gates and 42 immigration counters and offers 100% hold-baggage screening. It can handle 2,200 departing passengers per hr. and an equal number of arriving passengers.
Jordanian government awarded a 25-year concession to operate Amman's Queen Alia International Airport to a consortium led by Aeroports de Paris. The agreement includes construction of a new 100,000-sq.-m. terminal, representing an investment of $500 million, that will be capable of handling 9 million passengers per year against 3.5 million today. Aeroports de Paris Management will run the airport throughout the duration of the concession.
AirTran Airways was awarded the right to operate a fifth daily Washington National-Atlanta service beginning July 10, the US Dept. of Transportation announced, saying AirTran's application for the two DCA slots was selected over those of ATA Airlines (to Chicago Midway), Comair (to Little Rock), Midwest Airlines (to Milwaukee) and US Airways (to Pensacola) "because it would provide the greatest competitive benefits." The slot exemption was made available when Spirit Airlines ended its DCA-Detroit service on Jan.
Japan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines will expand their codeshare agreement to include flights the Chinese carrier operates four-times-weekly between Nagoya and Beijing. The airlines currently codeshare on 12 routes linking China and Japan. Emirates will start thrice-weekly Dubai-Houston Intercontinental flights from Dec. 3, marking its second destination in the US. It is using 777-200LRs and plans to increase the frequency to daily in February. Estonian Air will launch four-times-weekly Talinn-Vienna service in June.
American Airlines last week moved its international service at New York JFK into Concourse B of its new $1.3 billion terminal, which is near the new US Customs and Immigrations facility. With the opening of Concourse B, AA increased its gates in the new facility from 18 to 28, with 15 able to handle arriving international flights. When the terminal is complete in early 2008, it will have 36 gates including 19 capable of handling international arrivals. AA offers 92 daily flights to 38 destinations including 23 international destinations from JFK.
US airports need to invest $87.4 billion over the next five years in new infrastructure to keep pace with rising passenger and cargo demand, according to Airports Council International-North America, which this week called for Congress to raise the $4.50-per-segment cap on passenger facility charges.
AirTran Holdings extended its tender offer to Midwest Air Group shareholders to June 8 following Wednesday's expiration, the third time it has pushed back the deadline on a bid that repeatedly has been rejected by the Milwaukee-based carrier since it first was made public last December. Meanwhile, Midwest strengthened its position by entering into a codeshare agreement with longtime rival Northwest Airlines.
American Airlines will offer thrice-weekly Miami-Montevideo service from July 1 aboard 767-300s. AA currently operates the route on a seasonal basis but Senior VP-Miami, Caribbean and Latin America Peter Dolara said yesterday that "our seasonal nonstop service. . .has been so encouraging that we believe the route can be successful on a year-round basis as well." Ryanair will add a fifth and sixth aircraft to its Milan Orio al Serio base and launch nine new routes in December and January.
Bmi Group Chairman Michael Bishop confirmed the March transfer of 51 slots at London Heathrow to British Airways for £30 million ($59.4 million) but said the transaction was not a sale, as reported in the mainstream press, but a condition of bmi's acquisition of BMED. "They weren't our slots," Bishop explained. "The deal was that BA had a right to cancel their franchise with British Mediterranean and operate the routes themselves in the case of financial default, which is what happened, and they also had a preemptive right on the slots."
American Airlines yesterday said it will enhance its US-Colombia service with 14 additional weekly flights from Dec. 13, including launching daily Miami-Barranquilla service aboard 737-800s configured to carry 148 passengers in two classes.
Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, the private Mexican airport operator known as ASUR, said yesterday that its board approved Chairman Fernando Chico Pardo's MXN56 ($5.2) per share offer to acquire 42.6% of ASUR's capital stock. Chico Pardo's stake in the operator of eight southeast Mexican airports including Cancun would rise to more than 50% with the purchase, giving him a controlling interest in the firm.
Pinnacle Airlines, a Northwest Airlines regional partner, will launch daily Minneapolis/St. Paul-Ottawa service from Aug. 1 aboard 50-seat CRJs. Northwest currently operates three daily Detroit-Ottawa flights.
Southwest Airlines said Friday it initially will serve three cities with 18 daily nonstop flights from San Francisco when it launches service there on Aug. 26. Destinations are Chicago Midway (thrice-daily), San Diego (eight-times-daily) and Las Vegas (seven-times-daily). It will offer direct or connecting service to 46 other destinations.
Aeroflot this week confirmed that it achieved a RUB7.98 billion ($309.4 million) profit in 2006, a figure nearly identical to a third revision reported last month ( ATWOnline, April 19) and representing a 32.3% increase from 2005 earnings of RUB6.03 billion. "Reliability of annual financial statements is confirmed by the conclusions of the auditing commission and corporate auditor," SU said. Revenue rose 13.5% to RUB71.35 billion on an 8.7% gain in passenger numbers to 7.3 million.
Norwegian will launch twice-weekly Warsaw-Munich, four-times-weekly Warsaw-Stavanger and twice-weekly Szczecin-Oslo Gardermoen flights at the end of October. WAW-Copenhagen flights will become daily on Aug. 31.
TAM and LAN yesterday announced agreement on a formalized business alliance for services in South America, to be implemented "within the next months," that apparently will include codesharing, linking loyalty programs and lounge sharing. "TAM will expand its flight [offerings] in South America to include a more complete and diversified network for its passengers. In addition, clients of LAN Alliance companies will enjoy the ease of traveling routes operated by TAM and TAM Mercosur, with multiple hours and frequency options," the companies said.
Calling it a "tipping point for performance-based navigation," US FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said at a briefing at Washington National Airport yesterday that Southwest Airlines informed the agency that it will equip its entire fleet for RNP, including retrofitting its 737 Classics. The airline confirmed the plan, which Air Transport Assn. President and CEO James May said was an indication that "the entire industry is migrating as rapidly as possible to NextGen."
AirTran Airways yesterday launched service at St. Louis, from which it will operate four daily flights to Atlanta. Twice-daily flights to Orlando International begin June 7. Korean Air and Delta Air Lines will increase the number of codeshare flights between Atlanta and Seoul to 11 each week from seven, using DL aircraft for the first time beginning June 4.
United Airlines last week announced an expansion of its long-haul network with new flights to Hong Kong and Brazil starting in October. New services are Los Angeles-HKG aboard three-class 747s and seasonal Washington Dulles-Rio de Janeiro Galeao aboard three-class 767s. Qatar Airways confirmed that its US service will begin July 19 with flights to Washington Dulles (frequency not announced). It will launch four-times-weekly Doha-Geneva-Newark service on June 28. It also announced the addition of an eighth daily Doha-Dubai flight.
US Senate Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) proposed FAA reauthorization legislation last week that emphasizes air traffic control modernization and would force general/corporate aviation to fund a greater share of system costs. The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), proposes a $25-per-flight surcharge on all system users with the exception of piston-engine aircraft, turboprops operating under visual flight rules, military and other public aircraft, air ambulance aircraft and noncommercial aircraft owned by foreign governments.
Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines yesterday expanded their codeshare arrangement covering each airline's Munich-Istanbul and Munich-Ankara services and LH's MUC-Izmir flights. THY will operate out of MUC's Terminal 2 in a joint venture with the German carrier. Effective with the winter schedule, THY will place its code on more than a dozen LH services to the US and LH will do likewise on THY flights to the Middle East, CIS countries and within Turkey.
Jet Airways will establish a European hub at Brussels Airport, the expanding Indian carrier announced yesterday. Jet anticipates operating up to 10 daily flights through BRU within two years, launching service from Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Chennai to Los Angeles, Chicago O'Hare and New York JFK via its new hub in addition to the daily Mumbai-BRU-JFK and Delhi-BRU-Toronto flights scheduled to start later his year.
