South African Airways announced the launch of a daily Johannesburg-Washington Dulles service via Dakar beginning July 1 aboard an A340-600, replacing a four-times-weekly flight aboard a 747-400 stopping in Accra. Times have been adjusted to conform more closely with United Airlines' Dulles schedule. SAA will discontinue its daily service to Atlanta the same day and but will continue to operate to New York JFK. Emirates will increase its Dubai-New York JFK service to thrice-daily with the addition of a new flight via Hamburg on Oct. 29.
Ryanair will open its 16th European base at Marseille Provence, where it will base two new aircraft and fly to 13 destinations from November. The carrier said it expects to deliver 1 million passengers per year to MRS, which since 2000 has experienced a 10.8% decline in passenger throughput to 5.8 million. It will serve Brussels Charleroi, Dublin, Eindhoven, Fez, Frankfurt Hahn, Glasgow Prestwick, Karlsruhe Baden, London Stansted, Marrakech, Oujda, Sandefjord, Porto and Rome Ciampino. Separately, Ryanair will launch a daily Dublin-Berlin Schoenefeld service on June 1.
Shanghai Airlines accepted a formal invitation to join Star Alliance at a ceremony yesterday in Shanghai, becoming the second Chinese carrier to commit itself to a global airline partnership. China Southern Airlines signed an MOU with SkyTeam two years ago and since then the three alliances have been angling for the best foothold in one of the world's fastest-growing commercial aviation markets. Air China also appears to be on the verge of joining Star.
Dallas/Ft. Worth International Board of Directors unanimously approved an expanded Air Service Incentive Program to entice new international passenger, international cargo and domestic passenger service to the airport. The new program will be capped at $7 million per year and $20 million in total through December 2009. In addition to service incentives, it includes landing fee rebates and marketing support. DFW said each new daily international passenger flight can generate upward of $350 million in annual revenues for the North Texas economy.
Delta Air Lines launched its five-times-weekly New York JFK-Budapest service last night. Flights will be daily from Aug. 3 to Sept. 30. Daily Atlanta-Nice service starts this evening. All flights are aboard 767-300ERs. Delta also announced the launch of a twice-daily ATL-Killeen-Fort Hood, Tex., service from Sept. 7 aboard Atlantic Southeast Airlines CRJ200s and addition of a second daily flight to its yet-to-begin Aspen-Salt Lake City service from July 1. Daily flights begin June 8.
Hawaiian Airlines announced a "significant" expansion of its service to the western US from this fall, when it will add four 767-300s to its fleet, recall 22 furloughed pilots and hire some 100 new flight attendants. New or expanded services are: Kahului to San Diego (increasing from a summer-only schedule to year-round daily flights from Sept. 6), Seattle (from four-times-weekly to daily from Oct. 13) and Portland, Ore. (from thrice-weekly to daily from Oct. 13); Honolulu to Sacramento (from daily to 11-times-weekly from Nov. 19), Seattle (from daily to 10-times-weekly effective Nov.
FedEx Express unveiled an expansion plan for its Indianapolis hub yesterday that includes construction of up to 14 widebody gates. The project will boost its processing capacity at the airport by 30% to 99,000 packages per hr. and is expected to be completed by late 2008. As part of its agreement with IND, FedEx extended its lease by 12 years to 2028. Indianapolis Airport Authority will fund, construct and lease back to FedEx five widebody gates by December, with options for nine more. Construction on the initial five will begin this month.
Wizz Air launched services from Ljubljana to Brussels Charleroi and London Luton this week. The airline said it expects 80% load factors on the routes this summer. Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium) today launches a seasonal Brussels-Tivat service, operating weekly aboard an A320 through Sept. 29.
AirTran Airways is relocating its two-gate Minneapolis-St. Paul operations from the main Lindbergh Terminal, home to Northwest Airlines and other Major carriers, to the Humphrey Terminal on May 18 in order to "further streamline our operating costs." AirTran flies from MSP to Atlanta five times daily, Chicago Midway four times daily, increasing to five on May 9, and Orlando International daily.
American Airlines notified the Chicago Dept. of Aviation that it will cease operations at Midway on Sept. 1, according to press reports. AA operates a five-times-daily MDW-Dallas/Ft. Worth service. ATA Airlines will continue to operate the route nonstop. Separately, AA chose ARINC's Web-based OpCenter to serve as a backup to its flight operations host computer, a move the carrier said will allow it to maintain its full flight schedule without interruption if its host system shuts down.
Transaero plans to launch flights this year from Moscow to Vienna and to Rio de Janeiro, possibly via Vienna using 747-200s. It also is considering serving Vienna from Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk and Ufa.
United Airlines will launch daily Chicago O'Hare-Cancun flights from July 5 using A320s. Delta Air Lines began daily Atlanta-Copenhagen service Monday aboard a 767-300ER. Air Canada Jazz launched daily flights between Edmonton and Los Angeles Monday with CRJ705s.
April featured record load factors and significant RASM increases for Continental Airlines. The carrier reported that its estimated consolidated RASM increased 12.5%-13.5% over the year-ago month, while mainline unit revenues rose an estimated 11.5%-12.5%. Consolidated March RASM grew 7.4% and mainline RASM was up 5.3%.
Etihad Airways will launch six-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Paris flights using an A330-200. Separately, Etihad Crystal Cargo, the carrier's cargo division, appointed GSA Cargo Ltd. to provide cargo sales and customer service in Bangladesh for four weekly Abu Dhabi-Dhaka flights scheduled to begin May 4 aboard A330-200s.
Emirates will launch flights between Hamburg and New York JFK this summer when it adds a third Dubai-JFK frequency that will connect through the German city. Emirates President Tim Clark told ATWOnline in Dubai that loads on the Dubai-Hamburg sector have been so high that the carrier decided to use fifth freedom rights to operate from Hamburg to JFK. Separately, Emirates SkyCargo announced the appointment of Scand Air Cargo as its cargo sales agent in Sao Paulo.
Delta Air Lines filed a motion last week with the US Bankruptcy Court to reject a number of leases and agreements for facilities at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The carrier said it remains committed to serving the airport but needs to use airport facilities "in the most efficient and cost effective way possible" in order to emerge from bankruptcy protection. Separately, Delta plans to launch a daily peak-season flight between Atlanta and Puerto Plata on Dec. 15 using 737-800s.
Finnair announced a summer schedule that will feature new flights to Nagoya and Geneva in June; elimination of the Bangkok stopover on its Helsinki-Hong Kong service, which will increase from thrice-weekly to five-times-weekly from July through October, and increases in operations to Osaka, Shanghai, Guangzhou and St. Petersburg. The carrier also announced it will launch a thrice-weekly Helsinki-Kuala Lumpur service, operating via Bangkok, in May 2007. Separately, Finnair said its ground handling subsidiary Northport Oy will close its loss-making Tampere unit this year.
United Express flights moved from Washington Dulles's Concourse G to the newly reopened Concourse A. The transition finished May 1. Concourse G was a temporary structure that eventually will be demolished to make way for future airport expansion.
To go anyplace from South Bend by commercial transportation, head for the airport. South Bend Regional is the terminal for nine Regional airlines, three bus companies and the South Shore Railroad.
Airports in Tokyo, capital city of the world's second-largest national economy, long have been sources of puzzlement and irritation, hobbled by numerous constraints and far too small for such a vibrant area. Now, with Japan's economy reviving after several years of recession and deflation, expansion projects at both airports offer the prospect of at least temporary relief from restrictions, along with unhinderedwell, less hinderedgrowth.
Air Malta elevated COO Joe Cappello to CEO. Air Transport Assn. welcomed Sharon Pinkerton as VP-government affairs. Alaska Airlines elected Benjamin Forrest VP-flight operations and chose Jay Schaefer staff VP-finance & treasurer. Amadeus named Mary Keagul VP-product strategy & operations-North America.
Nottingham East Midlands Airport has all the prerequisites of a regional airport: Located in the middle of nowhere and growing rapidly, mainly owing to low-cost carriers. No-frills airlines generated 60% of passenger traffic in 2005 against only 33% in 2002 and naught in 2001. The 24-hr. airport, which has no slot restrictions, has three LCCs with bases here: bmibaby, easyJet and Ryanair. Located in the heart of England some 140 mi. north of London, it is the UK's 13th-largest passenger airport, according to CAA data for 2005.
With delays creeping back up again and Europe edging ever closer to what Eurocontrol DG Victor Aguado describes as a "capacity wall," the approaching summer peak is expected to put pressure on the region's increasingly congested airport infrastructure.
