Northwest Airlines will offer dedicated boarding lanes for its premium customers starting next week at its Detroit hub and airports in Bismarck and Fargo, N.D., Phoenix and Portland, Ore. The lanes will be introduced at all Northwest loading bridge-equipped gates at US airports within the next two months.
Edmonton International, the beneficiary of a 21st century gusher, has become Canada's fastest-growing airport and expects to handle 5-5.5 million passengers this year, a number it did not expect to reach until 2015, according to VP-Marketing Peter McCart. The airport, located about 20 mi. south of Alberta's capital city, handled 4.5 million passengers in 2005, up 10.5% over 2004, and averaged 15% growth through the first five months of this year. Driving the boom is the development of Alberta's oilsands.
Dutch legislators, after more than a decade of debate, decided that Schiphol Group can be privatizad. The Upper House of Dutch Parliament yesterday ratified an Aviation Act amendment regarding the operation of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, allowing the state to sell 49% of its holding in the group, which operates AMS. "Schiphol Group's Supervisory Board, Board of Management and Central Works Council are pleased that parliamentary discussions regarding legislation that is required to be passed to privatize the company have been finalized," the group said in a statement.
Aeroflot is increasing its St. Petersburg operation. It intends to boost its summer service to Moscow to nine daily flights, including night flights. It also will introduce A320s onto routes to Europe and plans to restore long-haul flights to destinations in North America and Japan. Separately, the Aeroflot board elected Viktor Ivanov as chairman.
JetBlue Airways will launch thrice-daily New York JFK-Houston Hobby flights from Sept. 6 aboard A320s. Houston becomes the New York LCC's 43rd city. Croatia Airlines signed a codeshare agreement with SN Brussels Airlines on its Dubrovnik-Brussels service.
Lufthansa said it is opposing plans by Deutsche Flugsicherung, Germany's air navigation services provider, to increase user charges by 13% in 2007. "Our goal is a cut in fees per flight," an airline spokesperson told Reuters. DFL has lowered user fees in each of the last three years.
FlyBE will launch service to 13 new destinations in Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK for its winter schedule. "This is one of our most important new schedule announcements to date, demonstrating our aggressive expansion policy in the UK and across Europe," CCO Mike Rutter commented. New routes include Amsterdam, Hannover and Dusseldorf from Southampton as well Amsterdam, Aberdeen and Salzburg from Exeter. The Regional-turned-LCC also will commence daily Norwich-Amsterdam and Leeds Bradford-Aberdeen service Oct. 29.
Board of Airline Representatives in the Netherlands sent a letter to the Dutch Upper House voicing its concern over the pending privatization of Amsterdam Schiphol, de Volkskrant reported. The 78 BARIN members operating at AMS oppose the privatization, claiming the airport will behave as a "monopolist," keeping prices and tariffs artifically high. BARIN also argues the legislation, on which the Upper House is scheduled to vote today, does not offer adequate protection to airlines as it does not foresee a maximum price cap or minimum requirements for service levels.
Norwegian, which will open its first non-Scandinavian base July 13 in Warsaw ( ATWOnline, April 7), announced it will expand its Polish operation with the addition of eight new routes. From Warsaw the LCC will operate a four-times-weekly service to Rome Ciampino from Aug. 10 and four-times-weekly flights to Milan Malpensa, thrice-weekly flights to Athens and Dublin and a daily flight to Stockholm Arlanda, all from Sept. 14.
US Dept. of Transportation yesterday tentatively selected Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines and JetBlue Airways to operate new US-Mexico flights that were granted in last December's revised air services treaty between the countries. Delta was selected to operate Los Angeles-Puerto Vallarta flights, Frontier was awarded LAX-San Jose del Cabo service and JetBlue was given New York JFK-Cancun flights. Any objections to the tentative awards are due within 10 days.
Varig said yesterday that it is suspending some flights to the US, Europe and three cities in South America after being forced by a US Bankruptcy Court judge to ground leased aircraft. In a statement on its website, the airline said it will stop serving New York, Los Angeles (leaving Miami as its only US gateway), Mexico City, Montevideo, Asuncion, Bogota, Milan, Munich, Paris and Madrid. Operations are suspended until at least June 28, according to press reports. The carrier has grounded 20-35 aircraft, according to various sources.
National Transportation Safety Board hearings into the Southwest Airlines 737-700 that overran a runway at Chicago Midway last December concluded yesterday with attention focused on the pilots' calculation of stopping distance before landing and their decision to land in deteriorating winter conditions rather than divert to another airport, an option they discussed during flight. "There are certainly a lot of variables," Capt. Denny Mosseller, Southwest's senior director-pilot training and standards, testified regarding the decision to land.
China Southern Airlines will expand its Guangzhou-Los Angeles service to daily from June 22. The route is operated with a 777. Separately, China Southern, KLM and Sichuan Airlines, in which China Southern holds a minority stake, announced an expanded codeshare agreement covering nine China Southern or Sichuan flights from Chengdu and Beijing, 10 KLM services from Amsterdam Schiphol and all flights between AMS and PEK. Agreement goes into full effect June 24.
Southwest Airlines 737 scheduled to land at Chicago Midway 9 min. prior to the 737-700 that overran the runway last December diverted after its crew determined that the wintry conditions were too unsafe for landing, the National Transportation Safety Board revealed yesterday. The NTSB started a two-day hearing on the Dec.
Wizz Air will transfer its Dutch operation from Amsterdam Schiphol to Eindhoven from Sept. 19. The airline said EIN is "a smaller and more cost efficient airport" and "the savings will be passed directly on to the customers." Wizz serves Schiphol from Budapest. It also announced it will launch the following new services on Sept. 19: Thrice-weekly Katowice-Oslo Torp, thrice-weekly Budapest-Gothernburg and thrice-weekly Katowice-Doncaster Sheffield.
Great Wall Airlines, a joint venture among China Great Wall Industry Corp. (51%), Singapore Airlines Cargo (25%) and Dahlia Investments (24%), a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, started a six-times-weekly freighter service from Shanghai to Amsterdam. The cargo carrier based at Shanghai Pudong initially will operate two 747-400Fs. Services to India, South Korea and Singapore will be launched in coming weeks.
Qatar Airways and Asiana Airlines signed a codeshare agreement under which Asiana will place its code on Qatar's Doha-Seoul flights. QR operates a three-times-weekly service between the capitals via Shanghai. It will add a fourth weekly flight this summer. Delta Air Lines will launch daily New York JFK-Mumbai flights from Nov. 1 aboard 777-200ERs and four-times-weekly JFK-Accra flights from Dec. 11 aboard 767-300ERs. With the start of Mumbai service, it will discontinue the JFK-Paris Charles de Gaulle-Mumbai flights it now operates.
Korean Air will launch thrice-weekly Incheon-Las Vegas service from Sept. 22 aboard a 301-seat 777-200. SkyEurope Airlines will increase frequencies from Bratislava to Bucharest and Sofia to six-times-weekly from four from Sept. 11.
WestJet is consolidating its domestic and international charter operations at Toronto Pearson on Concourse C in Terminal 3 effective June 16. The airline operates more than 300 flights per week at the airport and said it represents 86.9% of enplaned passengers in T3.
AirBridge Cargo added a second weekly IL-76 freighter operation to connect with its international services from its hub in Krasnoyarsk to Sakhalin to satisfy demand from the oil and gas industry in the region and opened an office on the island as well. It launched a weekly service to Sakhalin from Frankfurt and Amsterdam in March last year.
Air Berlin is expanding its presence in Zurich, turning it into a minihub for flights to Spain and Portugal. From Nov. 4, the carrier will start weekly flights from ZRH to Las Palmas, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Madeira. A spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline that flights will be fed by services from Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Vienna. Air Berlin will add a third daily flight from Zurich to Hamburg on Nov 1. It has become the No. 2 carrier at ZRH behind Swiss International Air Lines, serving 700,000 passengers in 2005.
The tentative open skies agreement negotiated last year between the US and EU was dealt a potentially fatal blow Wednesday when the US House of Representatives voted to delay by a year a DOT rulemaking that is seen as key to winning European support for the air service agreement, while Air France-KLM Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta said he does not believe European policymakers will find the rulemaking palatable in the wake of recent changes by DOT.
