Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz are boosting capacity in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador by 16% through more frequencies and fleet reallocation, the carriers announced yesterday. The increase will equal more than 10,000 additional seats per week and will cover 21 additional weekly flights to/from and within Newfoundland and Labrador, 27 in New Brunswick and 73 in Nova Scotia. Centralwings will launch twice-weekly flights from Lodz to Rome Ciampino and Paris Beauvais from Feb. 19 aboard 737-300s/-400s.
Jet Airways announced that it received permission to operate flights to Thailand. It will launch 737-800 services to Bangkok from both Kolkata and Delhi in January. It also said it will launch a daily Kolkata-Port Blair service from Nov. 11 aboard a 737-700 and a fourth daily CCU-Delhi flight beginning Dec. 1. WestJet will operate weekly seasonal Halifax-Tampa service March 13-May 1.
Lufthansa generates half of its transatlantic sales from US-based customers, new VP-Americas Jens Bischof told reporters in Washington Friday, a fact that makes the airline particularly supportive of an EU-US open skies treaty. The negotiations are "a very long and tough process," he said. "But it has to happen--better sooner than later. The strong airlines will benefit and the weaker will struggle. The weakest will not survive, which is needed to get rid of excess capacity.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last week issued a draft decision denying authorization of the Tasman Networks Agreement reached seven months ago by Qantas and Air New Zealand ( ATWOnline, April 13).
Royal Air Maroc launched service from Casablanca to Brazzaville and Accra (each thrice-weekly) and Malabo (twice-weekly). Finnair will launch four-times-weekly service from Helsinki to Gdansk, its third Polish destination, in April aboard Embraer 170s.
Austrian Airlines said yesterday that it will cut its long-haul fleet from 16 to 10 aircraft, resulting in route eliminations and likely job reductions. The carrier's supervisory board on Nov. 1 approved a proposal to eliminate four A330-200s in 2007. With the sale of two remaining A340-300s slated to be completed next year, the long-haul fleet will consist of four 777-200ERs and six 767-300ERs by no later than the end of 2007.
Delta Air Lines yesterday launched daily New York JFK-Mumbai flights aboard a 777-200ER, becoming the only carrier to offer direct service on the route. The dash 200ER has a capacity of 268 passengers including 50 business class seats. Swiss International Air Lines said it plans to add six new routes from Basel, comprising five weekly flights to Barcelona, four weekly flights each to Nice, Prague and Budapest and three weekly services each to Manchester and Warsaw. Malev will launch twice-weekly Budapest-Bangkok service from Nov. 15 aboard 767-200ERs.
BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT is petite compared to some of its neighbors and rivals in the Middle East region. Last year it handled 5.6 million passengers. Dubai Airport by comparison had 24.8 million and Jeddah, which benefits from Hajj traffic, handled 13.3 million. Doha Airport in Qatar had 9.4 million passengers.
Aviapartner will invest in excess of €2 million ($2.5 million) to expand its warehouse capacity at Frankfurt International Airport's South cargo terminal with a new 3,000-sq.-m. facility that will increase capacity by some 30,000 tonnes per year. The building is planned to be operational May 1, 2007.
Ryanair will operate a twice-weekly Shannon-Lodz service beginning Dec. 4. It is the LCC's third Polish destination from SNN. Etihad Airways last week launched daily Abu Dhabi- New York JFK service aboard a three-class A340-500. It is Etihad's first US destination.
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines launched operations, albeit a day late, last Thursday. Its inaugural flight to London Gatwick, scheduled for the previous day, was canceled when Russian authorities temporarily denied overflight rights ( ATWOnline, Oct. 26).
JetBlue Airways yesterday unveiled its schedule from Chicago O'Hare, its 50th destination. Flights begin Jan. 4 with five daily weekday flights and four on Saturdays and Sundays to New York JFK and twice-daily flights (once on Saturdays) to Long Beach. It will use both A320s and Embraer 190s.
US FAA needs to find an equitable and long-term funding solution that will provide for needed modernization of the ATC system as well as pay for next-generation technologies, Horizon Air President and CEO Jeff Pinneo said yesterday at the Aero Club in Washington.
JetBlue Airways will launch daily flights from Newburgh, NY (about 55 mi. north of New York City) to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando from Dec. 15, becoming twice-daily on Jan. 5. It also will start a daily Newburgh-West Palm Beach service on Jan. 5. All flights will be aboard A320s. Thai Airways will introduce service from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Johannesburg, Hyderabad, Gaya and Varanasi for its winter schedule starting Oct. 29. The Johannesburg flight will be operated thrice-weekly aboard an A340-600 and the Hyderabad service will be thrice-weekly aboard an A300-600.
Aeroflot is forging ahead with its fleet renewal plan, announcing Tuesday in Moscow that it will pull its nine IL-86s from service next month and revealing yesterday that it has finalized a lease agreement for the seven A321s ordered a year ago.
Cathay Pacific Airways will launch a twice-weekly 747-200 freighter service to Beijing on Nov. 15, it announced yesterday. Flights will depart Hong Kong on Wednesdays and Thursdays. CX currently operates 14-times-weekly passenger service to Beijing and a 12-times-weekly cargo service to Shanghai.
German President Horst Koehler surprised the airline industry yesterday when he said he refused to sign a law allowing the sale of a stake in the Deutsche Flugsicherung air traffic control provider ( ATWOnline, Dec. 23, 2005). German media is reporting that the bill was approved by parliament in April and the government had hoped the sale would generate €1 billion. Koehler's office said the law was not consistent with the German constitution.
Wizz Air announced it will add from its Warsaw base thrice-weekly flights to Oslo Torp and Durham Tees Valley from July 28. It will launch weekly services to Bourgas from June 2 and Corfu from May 29. The carrier will base a third A320 in Warsaw.
Ryanair was forced to postpone introduction of flights from Marseille and Frankfurt Hahn to Morocco owing to a delay in execution of the Euro-Mediterranean air transport agreement between the EU and Morocco. The deal would give EU carriers unrestricted third and fourth freedom rights as well as the right to operate from any point in Europe to any point in Morocco including co-terminal operations. Originally expected to come this month, the signing has been pushed back to Nov.
BAA has launched a "major campaign" to recruit 100 women and 60 men to work as permanent part-time security officers at London Stansted, which currently employs 800 security officers. Ryanair released a statement on Oct. 20 accusing BAA of failing to staff all security checkpoints during the morning peak, causing delays to 34 Ryanair flights. "Passengers should not suffer flight delays simply because the BAA is incapable of providing the requisite security service at Stansted," the airline said. BAA's recruitment campaign began earlier this month prior to the Ryanair complaint.
Porter Airlines launched its inaugural flight out of Toronto City Centre Airport yesterday. The startup carrier will operate up to 10 weekday roundtrips to Ottawa with a fleet of 10 Q400s. Company officials said they will add other destinations that are within a 500-mi. range of YTZ. Protesters were on hand to voice their opposition to Porter, but travelers were undeterred, according to the Toronto Sun. The protesters reportedly are concerned about safety issues involved with operating an airline in an urban setting and the environmental impact.
AirBaltic's winter schedule will include a new Kaliningrad-Copenhagen flight and thrice-weekly services from Riga to Zurich and Gothenburg starting Oct. 29. A codeshare agreement with Uzbekistan Airways will cover a twice-weekly Riga-Tashkent flight. AirBaltic will increase Riga-Berlin Tegel frequency to twice-daily during the week and add a Sunday flight. Riga-Tbilisi will operate thrice-weekly, flights to St.
