Ryanair will launch 10 new routes from its Nottingham East Midlands base to Alghero, Bratislava, Granada, Inverness, Knock, Krakow, Milan, Pisa, Santiago and Valencia from February, bringing its total routes from the airport to 27. It will base three additional 737-800s at NEMA and expects to carry 1.8 million passengers there in 2007. Transaero started a twice-weekly Moscow Domodedovo-Amritsar service aboard 767-200/300s.
Spanair will increase its Barcelona service for the summer 2007 schedule to include twice-daily flights to Jerez, Almeria and Munich and daily services to Frankfurt and Algiers. Air Berlin will launch twice-weekly Berlin Tegel-St. Petersburg service from Dec. 18. Adria Airways increased its four-times-weekly Ljubljana-Warsaw service to five.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol confirmed it will not increase airline and passenger charges effective April 1 "in order to strengthen its competitive position in respect to the other European airports." However, it intends to introduce changes to takeoff and landing charges to further discourage the noisiest "marginally compliant aircraft" from using the airport. These will come into force on Nov. 1, 2007, at the earliest.
Alpha Airports Group, the UK-based retail and catering services provider, will form a JV with Pantaloon Retail, part of Future Group of India, to explore opportunities at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi airports. Mumbai Chatrapati Shivaji is expected to issue its request for proposals shortly.
JetBlue Airways yesterday launched daily Washington Dulles-West Palm Beach service aboard an A320. Blue1 introduced twice-weekly Helsinki-Brussels service Monday aboard an MD90. Allegiant Air announced new MD-80 services from Orlando Sanford to Fayetteville (thrice-weekly from Nov. 7), Kinston (twice-weekly from Nov. 10), Shreveport (twice-weekly from Nov. 15), Chattanooga (four-times-weekly from Oct. 31), Huntington (twice-weekly from Nov. 3) and Greenville-Spartanburg (four-times-weekly from Nov. 14).
Germanwings will increase Cologne-Munich service from four to five flights daily from Nov. 6. Finnair will boost its Helsinki-Tokyo service from two to four weekly flights from Dec. 1 and will use A340-300s to operate the added flights. Kenya Airways will launch two weekly flights from Nairobi to Cotonou via Brazzaville from Oct. 26. Qatar Airways will increase winter-season frequencies from Doha to Frankfurt to 10-times-weekly from nine, Munich to daily from five-times-weekly, Shanghai to five-times-weekly and Abu Dhabi to five-times-daily).
South African Airways will launch daily nonstop service from Washington Dulles to Johannesburg effective Oct. 30 using A340-600s. Aircraft will require a technical stop to refuel during July and August
Wizz Air will start new flights to Belfast International from Katowice and Warsaw from May 29 and July 28 respectively. Norwegian will launch twice-weekly service from its newest base in Warsaw to Bergen Nov. 11. In addition, it is increasing service between Warsaw and Oslo to nine weekly flights from eight and to five weekly flights from three between Krakow and Stockholm.
Bmibaby will terminate operations at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northeast England. Flights between MME and Cork, Paris CDG and London Gatwick will be cancelled from Oct. 29; all services between Durham Tees Valley and Alicante, Malaga and Palma will be cancelled from Nov. 6.
New Bangkok Airport opened Thursday morning with a couple of hitches temporarily interrupting service. Passengers arriving on the first few flights to Suvarnabhumi were forced to wait more than an hour for their luggage as ground crews struggled to move bags from planes to conveyer belts owing to a delay in the transfer of ground equipment from the old Don Muang Airport to NBK. Another problem was the crash of Thai Airways' computer system, with airline staff issuing boarding passes and luggage tags by hand. Most flights landed and took off on time.
Ryanair said it will add four new 737-800s to its base at Girona Barcelona and launch 17 routes from March, bringing to 40 the number of routes it operates from the airport, which is located some 103 km. (64 mi.) northeast of Barcelona. The LCC said the expansion represents a $280 million investment. New routes from GRO include three-times-weekly service to Altenburg, Brescia, Fuerteventura, Gothenburg, Marrakech, Pescara, Teesside and Trapani; four-times-weekly flights to Aarhus Bologna, Bristol, Faro, Malmo, Newcastle, Oslo and Tenerife, and a daily to Porto.
AirTran will operate daily seasonal service between Chicago Midway and Southwest Florida International Airport (Fort Myers) from Dec. 21 through April 16 using 717s. Qatar Airways will launch four-times-weekly service from Doha to Dar Es Salaam Jan. 9, bringing its network to 71 destinations. The route will be operated with an A319 in a two-class configuration of eight seats in business class and 102 in economy.
Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport was set to begin full-scale international and domestic operations this morning at 3 a.m. local time ( ATWOnline, Sept. 21). First arrival was expected to be a Lufthansa Cargo flight 5 min. later inbound from Mumbai. The first scheduled departure was to be a Saudi Arabian Cargo flight to Riyadh. The first passenger flight to arrive was to be VV#171 Aerosvit Airlines from Kiev. VV#172 outbound for Kiev will make the first passenger departure.
Bmi is testing a security line reserved for its own passengers at London Heathrow, CEO Nigel Turner confirmed to ATWOnline. The trial started some months ago and was suspended temporarily following the Aug. 10 security alert. The bmi-only line is located in Terminal 1 and aims to speed up the lengthy waiting times passengers face to get through LHR's security. "Heathrow needs to improve its transfer product if it wants to maintain its lead position in Europe," said Turner, who also would like to see "an end to airports behaving in a monopolistic manner.
Ryanair is offering to build a €250 million ($319.5 million) "low-cost, efficient" new terminal at Dublin Airport, operated by itself or an independent operator, and is calling on the Dublin Airport Authority to "scrap" its proposal to build a €760 million terminal that would increase passenger ticket taxes by as much as 25%.
Royal Jordanian will move its Bangkok operations and airport services from Don Muang to Suvarnabhumi tomorrow. The carrier operates five weekly nonstop flights to the Thai capital using A340s.
Finnair plans to add a fifth daily flight from Helsinki to Paris CDG from Nov. 1 and a fifth daily service to Copenhagen from Jan. 1. JAL and Korean Air are expanding their codeshare agreement from Oct. 29 by 40% from the current 133 flights per week over nine routes to 186 flights a week over 11 routes. Under the new agreement, the number of daily codeshare flights from Seoul Incheon to Tokyo Narita increases to seven, to Osaka Kansai to five and to Nagoya Chubu to three. Flybe will launch a four-times-weekly Southampton-Nice service from March 25.
Cathay Pacific Airways plans to launch daily Hong Kong-Shanghai Pudong service from Dec. 1 pending government approval. It would mark the return of Shanghai to Cathay's passenger network after a 16-year hiatus. The carrier currently operates 12 weekly freighter flights on the route. KLM will increase its 777-200ER Amsterdam-Chengdu service to thrice-weekly from twice-weekly on May 28. Korean Air launched twice-weekly Seoul-Miami cargo flights using 747-400Fs. Belavia Belarusian Airlines launched weekly Minsk-Frankfurt Hahn service.
Royal Jordanian started twice-weekly Amman-Moscow Domodedovo service using two-class A320s. It is the 19th international carrier operating regular flights to DME. China Southern Airlines launched daily flights from Beijing to Shanghai Hongqiao and Chengdu aboard 777s and to Hangzhou aboard A330s. Eastern Airways began six-times-weekly Inverness-Newcastle service aboard a Jetstream 41. It will offer twice-daily weekday flights between Durham Tees Valley and Brussels International Airport from Oct. 30, also aboard a Jetstream 41.
Aeroflot opened a new office in Yekaterinburg, which it serves four-times-daily at a 76% load factor. The airline said it "considers the Ural region as the priority one in implementing of the company's strategy aimed at development of domestic conveyances." Separately, Aeroflot launched a thrice-daily Moscow Sheremetyevo-Hannover service aboard a Tu-154M.
Emirates will launch daily 777-300ER service between New York JFK and Dubai via Hamburg Oct. 29. The carrier enjoys fifth freedom rights between the US and Germany and is offering an introductory New York-Hamburg roundtrip fare of $425. Also, from Oct. 1 Emirates will substitute a 777-300ER for an A340-500 on one of its two daily nonstop services between New York and Dubai.
IATA and Cathay Pacific Airways warned Friday that urgent attention is needed to relieve air traffic congestion in the burgeoning Pearl River Delta region, noting that the crowding is capping movements at Hong Kong International Airport at 53 per hr. instead of a potential 75. Speaking at an Aerospace Forum Asia lunch in Hong Kong, IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said the congestion is costing airlines HK$1 million ($128,461) per day.
Qantas plans to offer 12 weekly Sydney-Seoul flights (operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays) aboard 767-300s from Jan. 2 to Jan. 28. It will continue to place its code on Asiana Airlines' daily Seoul-Sydney service. Separately, QantasLink will introduce two 72-seat Q400s on its Sydney-Canberra route by Oct. 29 and has opened a crew base in Canberra for 17 pilots and 16 cabin crew. The Q400s will operate 144 Sydney-Canberra flights per week, boosting Qantas's overall weekly seats on the short route 11%.
