Except for one cancelled Emirates Hong Kong-Bangkok flight Tuesday, airline operations into and out of Thailand appear to be operating normally and without disruption despite this week's bloodless military coup. Coup leader and apparent interim head of state Army Chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin said yesterday that Bangkok's long-delayed $4 billion Suvarnabhumi Airport will open next week as planned and a similar statement was offered by Airports of Thailand.
Ryanair yesterday announced the establishment of what will be its 17th base with the placement of two 737-800s in the German city of Bremen from April 2007 with a third dash 800 to be added the following September.
UK Dept. for Transport officials met this week with representatives from London airports operator BAA and UK airlines to discuss easing carry-on baggage restrictions imposed following last month's disclosure of a plot to blow up US passenger aircraft flights originating in London ( ATWOnline, Aug. 10). No resolution was reached despite previous hints from DfT that revised rules would be announced this week. Aviation officials from all 25 EU states are preparing to meet Sept.
All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines Group announced changes to near-term corporate plans to place a higher emphasis on their China networks, with JAL stating that changes including "route suspensions, flight frequency adjustments and a review of aircraft scheduling" will result in a ¥13.5 billion ($112.5 million) income improvement in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2007. In its revised plan for 2006-07, ANA said it will nearly double its flights from Tokyo to Xiamen and Qingdao to a daily service using 767-300ERs and commence daily flights to Tianjing from Nagoya Cen
Delta Air Lines this week started the $14 million second phase of terminal renovation at its biggest hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where it plans to expand the lobby area by 50% as part of an effort to modernize and streamline the passenger check-in process.
Bmibaby announced a further expansion at Birmingham from January. "We will be increasing our capacity by 60% year-on-year as we increase the number of 737s operating from the airport [from five] to eight," Commercial Director Steve Burns said at the Routes conference in Dubai. The LCC will introduce one aircraft at BHX in January with the additional two arriving at the start of the summer season. Separately, bmi said it will invest £2 million ($3.8 million) to introduce lie-flat seats in business class on all of its long-haul routes.
SAS will launch a four-times-weekly nonstop route between Stockholm and Beijing in April using A340-300s. With the direct route to China from Stockholm, SAS intends to counter the growing success of Finnair's Helsinki-Far East services as well as secure its position in the Swedish market. "Sweden accounts for about 60% of the Scandinavian long-haul market," Swedish airports operator LVF Group Director-Aviation Marketing Mats Sigurdson told ATWOnline at the Routes conference in Dubai.
Frankfurt Airport and Lufthansa Cargo agreed to a strategic airfreight partnership that will entail joint investments, modernizing cargo facilities and development of common strategies aimed at speeding up air cargo handling while also meeting higher security standards. Lufthansa holds a 10% stake in Frankfurt airport operator Fraport.
Emirates will launch eight-times-weekly service to Bangalore on Oct. 29, using both A330-200s and 777-200s. It currently serves southern India with 31 weekly flights to Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram. It also launched daily Dubai-Beijing service aboard an A340-300. Bulgaria Air will start a twice-weekly Sofia-Dublin service from October aboard 737s. AirBaltic will place its code on Uzbekistan Airways' twice-weekly Riga-Tashkent service beginning Oct. 29.
SkyEurope last week launched thrice-weekly Paris Orly-Salzburg service. Flybe will launch four-times-weekly Inverness-Belfast service on Dec. 16. It said easyJet will cancel its service on the route next month.
Luxair is moving its operations at Nice Cote d'Azur from Terminal 2 to the smaller and partially renovated Terminal 1 on Oct. 1. Handling services will be provided by MAP Handling.
OAG reported that the world's busiest route by total number of weekly flights is Barcelona-Madrid. The Spanish route edges up from second place at this time last year, bumping Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro to No. 2, OAG said at the Routes conference in Dubai. The third-busiest route is Melbourne-Sydney, ahead of Jakarta-Surabaya and Mumbai-Delhi. "It's interesting to note there is little movement year-on-year among the top 10 busiest routes, with Mumbai-Delhi the only new entry," OAG MD-Business Development Duncan Alexander said.
Shaheen Air hopes to launch its first long-haul routes in December with a four-times weekly Karachi-Doncaster Sheffield service aboard 767s, CEO Arshad Jalil announced at the Routes conference in Dubai. The Pakistan-based carrier, 15% owned by the Pakistani government, currently operates five domestic routes and six international routes in the Gulf. It carried 500,000 passengers in 2005 and has hinted at starting Toronto service next year.
Tokyo Narita started construction Friday on its second runway, 16L/34R, which will be extended to 2,500 m. from 2,180 m. currently. The work, which is limited by ongoing runway operations and thus will not be completed until 2010, also will involve installation of additional taxiways. The project aims to increase the runway's capacity by 20,000 movements a year to 220,000.
Korean Air will today launch thrice-weekly Seoul-Vienna flights aboard 777-200s and said it "initially plans" to operate the service until Oct. 27. Continental Airlines said it plans to launch seasonal Cleveland-Paris Charles de Gaulle flights in 2008, marking the first direct service on the route. AirTran Airways will launch daily services from Chicago Midway to Miami and Palm Beach on Feb. 7 aboard 717-200s and 737-700s.
Bmibaby will expand its operation at Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Nottingham East Midlands next summer with the addition of two 737s and redeployment of another pair, the airline announced, adding it is in "advanced discussions with its airport partners regarding potential route expansion opportunities." It currently has 17 aircraft based at the four British airports, where it is "experiencing proven solid growth in line with our financial forecasts," according to MD Crawford Rix.
JetBlue Airways launched thrice-weekly New York JFK-Houston Hobby service aboard A320s. It also announced it will start daily JFK-Cancun service on Nov. 30, also aboard A320s. Ryanair announced the suspension of thrice-weekly London Luton-Brest, London Stansted-Deauville, Nottingham East Midlands-Nimes and Shannon-Nantes services during the winter schedule starting in November and lasting through February. It cited a dearth of advance bookings for the decision. Specific dates for suspension and resumption vary slightly.
British Airways is offering advance registration for the Clear registered traveler program on its website. Clear is scheduled to launch at BA's New York JFK Terminal 7 this fall. Applicants will complete an online form before going in person to an "enrollment station" where they will submit fingerprints and iris scans. The program is open to US citizens and permanent foreign residents and will cost $79.95 per year, plus a $27-$30 fee to the US Transportation Security Administration. It will be the first private RT program at a US airport, BA said.
Singapore Changi Terminal 2 renovations have been completed. The upgrade includes new commercial areas in the arrival and departure halls, more natural lighting, an extensive curbside canopy, and 15 new retail and 10 new food and beverage outlets. The S$240 million ($152.2 million) renovation began in April 2003.
Iberia will add two weekly frequencies to its Madrid-Sao Paulo Guarulhos service from Sept. 20, bringing the number of operations on the route to 12. In the past six months, it has doubled seat supply to Brazil.
EasyJet CEO Andrew Harrison threw down the gauntlet yesterday, challenging airports to begin their own low-cost revolution and warning that the growing power of the green movement in Europe threatens the growth and well-being of the low-fare airline sector. Airports and potential environment-related taxes are "the two boundaries closing in on our industries," he declared.
Comair pilots who received an updated aeronautical chart of Lexington Blue Grass Airport have been told to exercise "extreme caution" when using the runways and taxiways where a Comair CRJ200 attempted to take off from the incorrect runway before crashing on Aug. 27, killing 49 people. Spokesperson Nick Miller told ATWOnline that the advisory was offered after company officials discovered that an updated chart received Sept.
