As European Commission VP-Transport Jacques Barrot was touting last week's tentative open skies agreement with the US and telling a London audience yesterday that the UK would enjoy "the biggest gains" if the deal is ratified, British Airways claimed it is "significantly imbalanced in favor of the US" and urged the Transport Council "not to sell Europe short."
JetBlue Airways will launch daily Boston-Charlotte service and twice-daily Washington Dulles-Orlando International flights on May 1. It also will add daily frequencies from New York JFK to CLT, Raleigh/Durham and Portland (Maine) and between Las Vegas and Long Beach. In addition, it announced a Caribbean expansion including twice-daily JFK-Santo Domingo flights beginning May 24 aboard A320s, BOS-Bermuda service starting May 1 and MCO-Ponce flights from May 24. Further details on the latter two services were unannounced.
Germanwings will open a base in Dortmund, its fifth. It will base an A319 at DTM from June 29 and operate flights to Vienna, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, Palma, Ibiza and Faro. Frequencies and launch dates were not provided.
Ethiopian Airlines will increase Addis Ababa-Washington Dulles service to six-times-weekly from four from June 1. Iberia today will launch twice-weekly Madrid-Bucharest service onboard 170-seat A320s, becoming thrice-weekly from March 28.
Increased competition from low-cost carriers has resulted in a drop in the percentage of US airports served exclusively by regional airlines, according to a new report from Velocity Group. During the first quarter of 2007, regionals exclusively served 257 of the 434 airports that handle scheduled traffic in the lower 48 states, representing 59.2% of the airports receiving scheduled air service, a drop from 65.1% in the year-ago quarter. This represents the first decrease "in nearly two decades," Velocity said. "I expect this trend to continue," the company's Doug Abbey said.
US Airways announced yesterday that its proposed Shanghai service, scheduled to launch in March 2008 if approved by the US Dept. of Transportation, will originate in Philadelphia ( ATWOnline, Feb. 12). It would be both the airline's and the airport's first service to Asia. US said it is "close to making a decision on acquiring aircraft suitable" for the route and that it has "ample time and financial resources to do so."
American Airlines applied to the US Dept. of Transportation for authorization to begin codesharing with future oneworld partner Royal Jordanian from March 25. RJ's code would be placed on 15 AA domestic routes out of New York JFK as well as operations to and from Chicago O'Hare. AA would place its code on RJ flights to Amman from ORD, JFK, London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt as well as on services from Amman to Aqaba and Dubai. Brussels Airlines will launch five-times-weekly flights from Brussels to Krakow on March 30 and to Cagliari at the end of April.
Icelandair chose SAS Ground Services as its new provider at Paris Charles de Gaulle. Aviapartner started handling Iberia's flights at Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate.
The city of Krasnoyarsk is investing $550 million in the rebuilding of its airport, which it intends to transform into a transportation hub for central Russia. Private investors contributed 45% and the remainder is coming from the government. Construction will commence this year.
KLM and Malaysia Airlines are strengthening their codeshare cooperation to include MAS flights from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, Langkawi and Kota Kinabalu. KLM passengers arriving from Amsterdam will have access to the flights from March 1. Hawaiian Airlines is adding flights this summer from Honolulu to Los Angeles, Seattle and Pago Pago in conjunction with the introduction of four 767-300s into its transpacific fleet. Service to LAX will become 21-times-weekly, to Seattle 14-times-weekly and to Pago Pago five-times-weekly.
Twenty-two additional carriers reportedly have joined AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, ATA Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Midwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines and US Airways Group in filing a joint complaint with the US Dept. of Transportation opposing new terminal charges at Los Angeles International Airport, which this week broke ground on a $723.5 million renovation of its Bradley International Terminal. LAX raised fees on Feb.
Norwegian will launch service from Oslo Gardermoen to Antalya (weekly from May 5) and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (twice-weekly from June 2). Separately, AWAS announced the delivery of a second 737-300 to Norwegian in the past six months. Both are powered by CFM56-3s. It now operates 22 -300s. EasyJet will launch daily Bristol-Milan Malpensa service on April 23 and double its daily BRS-Paris Charles de Gaulle service in October.
Austrian Airlines Group last week took another step in its Focus East strategy when it formally switched its Moscow operation to Domodedovo after 47 years at Sheremetyevo. "It was not an easy decision for us," Austrian CCO Josef Burger told ATWOnline in Russia. "With our new partner AiRUnion, we have access to 41 destinations from DME."
AiRUnion President Alexsandr Abramovich is expecting approval soon from the Russian government to complete the merger of the alliance's five constituent airlines. "We are in the final phase. The application is at the table of the president of Russia," Abramovich told ATWOnline last week in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. The tie-up would be the largest of its kind in Russia.
Porter Airlines increased its Toronto City Centre-Montreal service to nine roundtrips each weekday from four. Weekend service features two frequencies on Saturdays and four on Sundays. Porter recently took delivery of a fourth 70-seat Q400. It also announced the installation of a C$1.85 million ($1.59 million) instrument landing system at YTZ that will allow a straight-in approach over the water.
EasyJet will launch service from Dortmund to Edinburgh (four-times-weekly from May 30) and Thessaloniki (thrice-weekly from May 31). The former will receive support from the Scottish Executive's route development fund. Emirates will launch thrice-weekly Dubai-Houston service on Dec. 3, becoming daily in February 2008. The 777-200LR flight will be EK's second US service.
AirTran Airways launched daily Orlando International-Charlotte and daily MCO-Richmond service. Daily Baltimore-West Palm Beach flights will operate March 6-April 16. AirTran is operating Saturday Buffalo-Fort Lauderdale service through April 15, a second BWI-Fort Myers flight March 6-April 16 and a fifth daily Atlanta-New Orleans flight. Royal Jordanian launched A310 freighter services to Beirut (weekly) and Cairo (twice-weekly). Korean Air will launch twice-weekly Incheon-Vienna service on March 28, becoming thrice-weekly on June 1.
US Airways chose Pittsburgh International Airport for a new $25 million, 60,000-sq.-ft. flight operations control center that eventually will house approximately 600 employees and monitor 1,400 daily mainline flights. Groundbreaking is scheduled for later this year and the center is expected to go live in early 2009. US also considered Phoenix and Charlotte.
Air France KLM Group will increase summer schedule capacity 5.4% year-over-year, including a 5.6% hike on the long-haul network and 4.3% on medium-haul. Long-haul increase will include 11.4% growth to Latin America, 7.3% to Asia and 10.1% to North America owing mainly to the launch of new daily Paris Charles de Gaulle-Seattle service on June 11 aboard an A330-200. AF's domestic network will see only a 0.2% ASK increase. Both airlines are pursuing fleet modernization programs. By June, the entire AF long-haul fleet will be equipped with new interiors.
Aer Arann released a summer schedule that will include four new services beginning May 14: Six-times-weekly Waterford-Birmingham and four-times-weekly Galway-Newcastle, Galway-Bristol and Sligo-Manchester. It also will operate seven routes to France: To Lorient from Waterford, Galway, Cork and Kerry and to Nantes from Cork, Bristol and Cardiff. Alaska Airlines will launch daily flights from Portland, Ore., to Boston and Orlando International beginning Sept. 9 aboard 124-seat 737-700s. New routes will be airline's first nonstop transcontinental service from Portland.
Bmibaby will base an additional 737 at Birmingham, lifting its BHX fleet to nine. It will launch four-times-weekly service to Jersey and increase daily frequencies to Edinburgh and Glasgow International.
Pegasus Airlines will start a twice-weekly Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen-Zurich service on March 20. The Turkish carrier said it will open new routes to Germany, Austria and Denmark this summer. It operates 16 737s, including 12 737-800s, to 16 destinations. It will take delivery of 12 new -800s through the end of next year. Spanair launched 12-times-weekly Girona-Madrid service. Armavia will start weekly Yerevan-Cologne service on March 29 using A320s.
China Southern Airlines announced this week that it will launch international service to 10 destinations from its Guangzhou hub in 2007. New markets are Dubai, Luanda, Sendai, Sapporo, Kathmandu, Delhi, Siem Reap, Phuket, Yangon and Vientiane. Launch dates were not provided. The carrier plans to take delivery of 68 aircraft this year, increasing its fleet to 440.
