After nearly three decades of frustration, Southwest Airlines will have to wait only eight more years to unleash itself from its Love Field base. The mayors of Dallas and Ft. Worth, along with Southwest and American Airlines, yesterday unveiled a long-awaited compromise that--subject to approval and appropriate legislation from the US Congress--will dilute and eventually repeal the Wright Amendment. Through-ticketing will be made available to DAL passengers as soon as Congress acts, and all flight restrictions will be removed in 2014.
European low-cost carriers operated 16.3% of all flights in May, according to a market analysis issued yesterday by Eurocontrol. In the past 12 months, LCCs added 2.4 points to their market share through re-branding and organic growth. The number of flights operated by LCCs in the first five months of 2006 increased 23% year-over-year to more than 3,700 per day and there are now 15 low-cost operators with more than 50 daily flights compared to 13 a year ago. Overall, Europe now has 50 LCCs, down by two since last year, with low-cost companies operating out of 22 countries.
United Airlines will lay off at least 1,000 salaried workers by year end, CEO Glenn Tilton said yesterday at the Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference in New York. The figure represents approximately 11% of UA's salaried employees. Overall, the airline is targeting savings of $400 million in 2007 ( ATWOnline, May 9).
US Airways was awarded two daily slot exemptions at Reagan Washington National Airport for a new service to Sarasota/Bradenton to be launched by Aug. 15. The slots became available when Spirit Airlines ceased service to Myrtle Beach on Nov. 10, according to the US Dept. of Transportation, which said AirTran Airways and Comair also applied for the exemptions.
Air France and Ryanair are at odds again, with AF initiating legal action to prevent Ryanair from benefiting from lower charges at Marseille-Provence and Ryanair filing another complaint to the European Commission concerning "Air France's latest attempt to block competition from low fares airlines in France." "We filed a case at the Conseil d'Etat in Paris last Friday against the CCI [Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie] Marseille-Provence, which holds the concession to operate MRS, claiming it is breaching the law by offering lower airport charges to Ryanair than to us for similar se
Delta Air Lines said it received US approval to launch Atlanta-Leon Del Bajio flights from Dec. 1 aboard Atlantic Southeast Airlines CRJ700s. Mexican approval is pending. North American Airlines will launch thrice-weekly New York JFK-Lagos service from July 17 aboard 767-300ERs. NAA already flies to Accra and Banjul.
Aer Arann appointed Garry Cullen as its new chief executive, ending a months-long search for a successor to the airline's founder and outgoing MD, Padraig O'Ceidigh. He will take up the post of executive chairman while outgoing chairman Paul D'Alton will become a nonexecutive director. Cullen was chief executive of Antigua-based LIAT. Separately, Aer Arann will launch four-times-weekly London Luton-Newquay service from July 3 aboard a 66-seat ATR 72. It already serves Newquay from Cork.
Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. issued a statement Sunday protesting Cathay Pacific's acquisition of Dragonair ( ATWOnline, June 12) and application for a self-handling air cargo facility at Hong Kong International, saying the combination would "create a dominant, vertically integrated air cargo operation" that would "negatively impact airlines, cargo terminal operators, freight forwarders and other participants in one of Hong Kong's key business sectors." HACTL said CX and Dragonair account for 40% of cargo vo
US Airways yesterday announced a significant expansion of frequencies across its domestic network. It will add 106 one-way flights to its schedule beginning Aug. 21 to/from its bases at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington National and New York LaGuardia. Largest increase is at Charlotte with the addition of frequencies on 13 city-pairs and the launch of thrice-daily service to New York JFK. US also will launch a daily Orlando International-Key West service on Sept. 6 to be operated by a Republic Airways Embraer 170.
Japan Airlines and Finnair will expand their codeshare agreement to include thrice-weekly JAL-operated flights from Nagoya Chubu to Sapporo and Fukuoka. China Airlines will launch a twice-weekly cargo service between Taipei and Osaka on July 4 with a 747-400ERF. Hapag Lloyd Express will start a twice-weekly Cologne-Innsbruck service by December. It also is looking to start flights from Cologne to Linz in the first half of 2007.
Nine SkyTeam member carriers signed an MOU with BAA Friday confirming their co-location at London Heathrow's Terminal 4 in 2008, when the new T5 opens and the airport reorganizes ( ATWOnline, March 28).
European Union Friday advanced its aim to liberalize international air transport broadly, reaching terms with Singapore and opening for signature an agreement to create a single European air market by 2010. The "horizontal" agreement with Singapore, which removes nationality restrictions contained in bilateral accords between that country and individual EU member states, is the first the EU has signed with an Asian economy.
Air Canada Jazz launched daily Toronto-Salt Lake City service Friday aboard a 75-seat CRJ705. Lauda Air will start a weekly Vienna-Reykjavik service from June 13. Cimber Air launched a Copenhagen-Norrkoping service aboard a 50-seat CRJ200. It will operate four-times-daily on weekdays and twice-daily on weekends.
Ferrovial Group moved closer to completing its takeover of BAA yesterday as rival Goldman Sachs pulled out after the Spanish firm purchased an additional 12.9% of the UK airports operator's shares. Goldman had been considering increasing its rival bid for BAA but announced yesterday that it no longer was interested after Ferrovial upped its stake to 28.7%.
JetBlue Airways will launch a six-times-daily New York JFK-Washington Dulles service beginning Aug. 17 at regular fares of $50-$145. Flights will be operated with 100-seat Embraer 190s. Hapag Lloyd Express will launch its first African service, a twice-weekly Cologne-Nador (Morocco) flight, beginning June 23.
EasyJet said it is "targeting British Airways' business passengers" with an expansion at London Gatwick, adding thrice-daily flights to Glasgow (it already flies there from Stansted and Luton) from Oct. 2 and increasing frequencies to Amsterdam to five-times-daily, Berlin Schoenefeld to twice-daily, Athens to 11-times-weekly, Madrid to four-times-daily, Milan to five-times-daily and Cologne/Bonn to thrice-daily. EasyJet will fly up to 500,000 passengers per month on 33 routes from LGW by this summer, accounting for 18% of the airport's capacity.
Emirates will increase its Dubai-Abidjan service to five-times-weekly from four starting today. JAT Airways resumed weekly flights from Belgrade to Monastir and Tunis. It will add a twice-weekly Belgrade-Cairo service this summer. Flights will be operated with two CRJ200s leased from Adria Airways that eventually will be replaced by two purchased CRJ700s.
Air Transat ground handling subsidiary Handlex opened a base at Vancouver International last month and hired 80 new employees. Handlex already operates at Montreal Trudeau, Montreal Mirabel and Toronto International airports. Separately, Transat said it has partnered with Canadian tour operator Nolitours to offer flights from Toronto and Montreal to Madrid.
Royal Jordanian intends to make a decision before year end on the replacement of its long-haul fleet, President and CEO Samer Majali told ATWOnline during the IATA AGM in Paris. He said the initial version of the A350 "could have worked for us" but that deciding between the 787 and A350 has become problematic as "it is difficult to base an analysis on an aircraft that is not yet defined." The long-haul fleet renewal should start in 2010 and comprise 8-10 aircraft. RJ currently deploys three A310s and four A340s on its long-haul network.
AirAsia will develop Kota Kinabalu and Kuching into fully operational hubs by July as part of its takeover of Malaysia Airlines' domestic network. It will have four bases in Malaysia. AirAsia also announced it will launch a daily Kuala Lumpur-Bandar Seri Begawan service from July 11. It said it will be the first low-fare carrier to fly into Brunei.
Lufthansa Cargo in a significant operational change is closing its station in Fairbanks, which was used for 16 years for technical stops on flights to Japan, in favor of routing all services through Astana in Kazakhstan for refueling and crew changes. The move should reduce flying time and complexity. The station at Almaty also will be closed. From July, 40 weekly LHC flights will take off and land in Astana, making it the cargo giant's second-biggest airport.
BAA's board accepted Ferrovial Group's increased bid for the airports company early Tuesday and is recommending that shareholders approve the Spanish firm's takeover by a June 26 deadline. Ferrovial's earlier bids were dismissed by the operator of London Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow airports as "on the cheap" ( ATWOnline, May 29), but a revised, final bid of £10.1 billion ($19 billion), up from an original bid of £8.75 billion, "represents an attractive price," BAA said in a statement.
Japan Airlines on Sunday in Paris received a formal invitation to join the oneworld alliance seven months after the world's largest unaligned carrier announced its intentions ( ATWOnline, Oct. 26, 2005).
MAT Macedonian Airlines hopes to establish Skopje Airport as a regional hub for the Balkans and southeastern Europe. The carrier is evaluating Saab 340s/2000s for feeder services from cities like Sofia, Istanbul, Pristina and Podgorica. "We are also joining IATA's IOSA program, which should be completed by September this year," MAT MD Bojan Sodnik told this website. The airline operates one CRJ900, one 737-300 and one MD-80 during the summer season. It carried 200,000 passengers in 2005 and expects 7% growth this year.
