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.
Spirit Airlines will launch twice-daily Detroit Metro-Boston service aboard A319s Aug. 15. The carrier added its 16th A319 Thursday. It will take nine additional A319s this year and will operate an all-Airbus fleet by fall. Wizz Air will launch thrice-weekly Katowice-Lubeck service on Sept. 18. Hawaiian Airlines will add a third weekly Honolulu-Pago Pago flight from June 14 to Aug. 23.
Aer Arann quietly abandoned plans to start operating from Liege to London Luton, Birmingham and Lorient. The Irish Regional announced in February that it would launch the services May 15. Hainan Airlines confirmed that it intends to offer four weekly 767-300 services from Shanghai and Beijing to Brussels from the end of July in cooperation with SN Brussels Airlines. Brussels will be the Chinese carrier's first international destination, yet Hainan Airlines Group VP Zhao Zhongyin admitted the launch needs some fine-tuning.
A380 will visit London Heathrow on May 18 to conduct airport and ground handling compatibility checks. LHR likely will be the aircraft's first European destination, according to Airbus. It will park at the airport's new 280-m.-long, three-story Pier 6 at Terminal 3. The pier is designed to accommodate up to four A380s simultaneously and seat 2,200 passengers at four gates. Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic plan to operate the A380 at LHR.
SAS Cargo signed an outsource agreement with Total Airport Services for the handling of its cargo and mail at Newark. TAS said it foresees using SAS's 62,000-sq.-ft. facility at EWR to handle as much as 56,000 tons of SAS cargo annually, up from the 26,000 tons currently handled by the facility.
Aer Arann announced it will launch twice-daily Dublin-Cardiff service May 1, the same day Ryanair will cancel the route because Cardiff International Airport reportedly is increasing its passenger charges by 350% ( ATWOnline, April 26). Aer Arann previously announced it will begin serving Cork and Lorient from Cardiff this summer. It also will launch a daily Dublin-Knock service from May 28 aboard a 50-seat ATR 42.
AeroMexico will launch twice-daily service May 2 between Mexico City and Chicago O'Hare using 737-700s. It also plans to start a daily 737-700 flight between Mexico City and New York JFK on May 15. Virgin Atlantic Airways launched four-times-weekly flights between London Heathrow and Dubai using A340-600 and A340-300 aircraft. Frequency will rise to daily from June 1. Dubai is Virgin's first Middle East destination.
Royal Jordanian is moving from Terminal 3 to Terminal 4 at New York JFK. It begins service from the airport's only privately operated terminal on May 1.
Emirates is boosting its presence in the Middle East with additional services from Dubai to Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Following the Kuwait government's decision to open its skies, Emirates will introduce five additional weekly flights starting July 1, bringing its weekly total to 23 operated with a mix of 777-200s, A330-200s and A310s. On March 26, it added one flight to Amman, bringing its total to 10 services per week. On May 1, Emirates will introduce a sixth weekly service each to Jeddah and Riyadh and starting Oct.
Aviapartner signed a contract with four Star Alliance members--Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines and TAP Portugal--to provide full handling activities at Amsterdam Schiphol effective May 1. Value of the contract was not disclosed, but the Brussels-based ground handler said it is "one of the largest contracts" it has signed and covers more than 10,000 flights per year for three years. SAS Ground Services signed an agreement to provide ground handling for Asiana Airlines at London Heathrow beginning May 4.
BAA for the third time advised its shareholders to reject a hostile takeover bid from Ferrovial, which again offered £8.75 billion ($15.62 billion) for the UK airport management company. The BAA board said Friday that it will be writing to shareholders "within the next 14 days" to explain the reasons the offer was rejected and urged shareholders to "take no action" in respect to the offer. "The Ferrovial Consortium's offer cannot be taken seriously," BAA Chairman Marcus Agius said.
American Airlines and American Eagle announced yesterday a $25 million series of upgrades at their Boston Logan facilities. Improvements include the combining of mainline and Eagle gates and US Transportation Security Administration facilities, shifting Eagle departures from the Amelia Earhart General Aviation Terminal to AA's facilities in Terminal B, renovating retail space to include a 15,000-sq.-ft. food court and an increase in the number of concessions from 17 to 23, renovation of AA's 10,000-sq.-ft. Admirals Club and an increase in the number of self-service kiosks.
Bmi will consolidate its operations at Manchester into Terminal 3 effective June 1. It currently operates its long-haul flights and a regional route to Toulouse out of Terminal 1.
Swissport International signed a comprehensive five-year ground handling agreement with Air Malta covering its operations at 23 airports beginning this month. Swissport also agreed to assume WestJet's ground operations at Toronto Pearson effective immediately. Swissport already works with WestJet in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Honolulu.
Southwest Airlines will launch new flights from Philadelphia to Columbus (thrice-daily) and Nashville (twice-daily) from July 2. It will add daily frequencies the same day from PHL to Providence (to six from five) and Orlando International (to seven from six) and from Chicago Midway to San Antonio (to two from one) and Portland, Ore. (to two from one). Frontier Airlines is increasing frequency and/or capacity from Denver, including the launch of a new service to Calgary on May 25 and the resumption of flights to Anchorage on May 6.
TAM received authorization from Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency to operate seven weekly flights to London, its second European destination after Paris. It will announce service details "in the following months." TAM also received permission to increase capacity to Argentina by 172,166 seats per year. It currently operates six daily flights to Buenos Aires.
National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. yesterday said it "accept[ed]" FAA's "public offer to return to the contract bargaining table." According to NATCA President Jonathan Carr, "FAA's official spokesperson" offered to resume negotiations "in a published account on April 17" on the website avweb.com.
Gol last week increased frequencies from Porto Alegre to Rosario (from three weekly to four) and Cordoba (from twice-weekly to four). Qatar Airways boosted frequency on the Doha-Manila route to nine-times-weekly from seven. It uses A330-200s on the route. It also introduced a third daily flight to London Heathrow and increased service to Manchester from five-times-weekly to daily. It now operates 35 flights per week to England, codesharing with bmi on flights to LHR and MAN.
Thomas Cook Airlines will add 17 new flights for its summer schedule, including new services to Hurghada from Manchester and London Gatwick, to Preveza from Manchester and to Lemnos from Gatwick. In addition, it will increase capacity at Nottingham East Midlands with a 757 to be based there year round.
BAA confirmed Sunday that it received and rejected a "preliminary highly conditional and confidential approach" last month from a consortium led by Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Group making a cash offer at 870 pence per share, valuing the UK-based airports operator at £9.4 billion ($16.46 billion). "The Board of BAA rejected this approach because it clearly fails to reflect the true value of the Company. Since then, BAA has received no further communication from the Consortium," the company said in a statement.
China Southern Airlines and KLM expanded their codeshare agreement to include twice-weekly 777 service between Chengdu and Amsterdam operated by KLM. Separately, China Southern signed Carlson Marketing China to renovate and upgrade its Sky Pearl Club loyalty program. The airline said it now is selling at least 20% of its tickets on its website at a rate of 570,000 per month. It sold more than 600,000 tickets in March worth in excess of $41 million.
Icelandair and SAS signed an interline agreement. Icelandair will double its frequency to Copenhagen to four daily flights this summer. Allegiant Air will launch twice-weekly Orlando Sanford-Roanoke service on May 24. Eurofly of Italy will launch twice-weekly service between Naples and Moscow Domodedovo using A320s beginning April 29. It also will introduce a weekly flight between Catania and Moscow in the near future, according to East Line Group, which manages the airport.
