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.
Phoenix Sky Harbor received US government approval Friday to proceed with an enhancement program comprising a new, 33-gate West Terminal, demolition of Terminal 2, an automated people-mover, realignment of Sky Harbor Blvd. west of Terminal 3, two new taxiways and improvements to the Terminal 4 International Concourse. Approval from the Phoenix City Council still is required. The airport said its three runways should be sufficient "well into the future."
Mesa Air Group's new Hawaiian Regional carrier go! is prepared to launch inter-island service June 9 following an agreement with state authorities for use of facilities at Honolulu International Airport's Commuter Terminal. "The state has been very supportive of our project and we greatly appreciate their efforts in helping us move our plan forward expeditiously," go! COO Greg Stephens said. Separately, Mesa announced it is looking to hire more than 100 captains and first officers for immediate openings in the Northeast US.
Delta Air Lines will increase fuel surcharges effective today by $10 each way on transatlantic routes (except France and Italy), by $15 on flights to or from India and by $19 on services to or from Israel. Separately, DL will boost its presence in New York this summer with the following new routes: LaGuardia-Las Vegas Saturdays from June 10 aboard 757s, LGA-Los Angeles Saturdays from June 10 aboard 757s, JFK-Burlington twice-daily from July 5 aboard CRJ200s and JFK-Richmond twice-daily from July 5 (originally scheduled to begin Sept. 9) aboard CRJ200s.
Canada's air navigation services provider, NAV Canada, said it will reduce the weight factor used in calculating its terminal services charge from 0.9 to 0.85 beginning May 1.
Construction of a second main runway at Dublin Airport was approved by the Fingal County Council Planning Dept. earlier this week. Dublin Airport Authority welcomed the decision, calling the runway "a vital component of the overall future development plans to enable the airport to handle in excess of 30 million passengers per annum." DAA said that based on current forecasts, the runway needs to be operational within the next 6-7 years. However, "it is expected that [it] will not be brought into operation until usage of the current runway is maximized."
Netherlands and Surinam agreed to liberalize air traffic between the countries effective May 1. Two Dutch carriers, Martinair and ArkeFly, will be allowed to operate the Amsterdam-Paramaribo route. At present, only KLM and Surinam Airways have the right to fly between the capitals. Both TUI-controlled ArkeFly and Martinair reportedly intend to commence twice-weekly services using 767-300ERs.
Ryanair will launch nine new routes from its Frankfurt-Hahn base on Oct. 25 and 26, bringing the destinations it serves from HHN to 36. New routes include Ryanair's first services outside the EU, to Fez (thrice-weekly) and Marrakech (four-times-weekly). EasyJet will become the first European no-frills carrier to fly beyond the EU when it launches service to Istanbul and Marrakech this summer. Other new Ryanair routes are to Granada (thrice-weekly), Kaunus (four-times-weekly), Krakow (daily), Murcia (daily), Trieste (thrice-weekly), Verona (daily) and Wroclaw (daily).
Cirrus Airlines, a Lufthansa Regional partner, will start a twice-weekly Munich-Kiel service from May 2 aboard Dash 8s. Malev Hungarian Airlines will re-launch a Budapest-London Gatwick route from May 1 with two daily flights. Malev flies to Heathrow twice-daily. Aeromexico will operate a thrice-weekly Los Angeles-La Paz service through April 30, which it said would target passengers affected by Aerocalifornia's suspension by aviation authorities.
The on-again-off-again relationship between Air New Zealand and Qantas is back on, with the carriers announcing yesterday a comprehensive codeshare agreement for their routes across the Tasman Sea. Both airlines will file shortly seeking authorization from the New Zealand Minister of Transport and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Regulatory approval is expected to take approximately six months. The agreement replaces the more ambitious equity tie-up that ran foul of competition regulators in both countries in 2003.
North American Airlines will launch weekly Baltimore/Washington International-Banjul-Accra service June 4, pending Gambian government approval, aboard a 767-300ER. AirBaltic launched twice-weekly Riga-Simferopol service yesterday aboard 737-500s.
Irish Aviation Authority, LFV Group (Sweden) and Naviair (Denmark) signed a contract with Thales ATM marking "the initiation of a purchasing agreement known as COOPANS." Each of the air navigation service providers previously procured under separate contracts Thales' Eurocat ATM System. Under the COOPANS agreement, the ANSPs jointly will procure upgrades to their existing common ATM systems.
Royal Jordanian will increase service to the US from Amman starting next month. It will launch twice-weekly service to Detroit while flights to New York JFK rise to five weekly from four and service to Chicago O'Hare goes to six weekly from three. All flights are aboard A340s. ATA Airlines launched twice-daily Houston Hobby-New York LaGuardia service aboard 737s. It is the only nonstop service offered between the airports. Martinair started a weekly Amsterdam-Barbados service on March 29.
Germanwings starts weekly services from Cologne to Pristina and Tirana from June. Air New Zealand will become the only round-the-world airline with its new service to London via Hong Kong that commences on Oct. 28. ANZ already operates a daily flight to London via Los Angeles. It will fly the new route with newly refurbished 747-400s.
BAA once again rejected a takeover bid by Grupo Ferrovial. The Spanish construction and services conglomerate, along with a consortium including Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and GIC Special Investments, offered on Friday the same 810 pence per share that BAA rejected last month ( ATWOnline, March 20). The "hostile" offer valued BAA at £8.75 billion ($15.3 billion).
Emirates SkyCargo launched new scheduled freighter services to Zurich, Rome and Vienna last week using A310-300Fs. Services to Zurich will run twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays, flights to Rome will operate on Wednesdays and Fridays and services to Vienna will operate on Saturdays.
Southwest Airlines' announcement that it plans to serve Washington Dulles International ( ATWOnline, April 5), an airport it rejected last fall as being too expensive, signals that "all major domestic airports are fair game," wrote Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Linenberg in a research note Friday. Earlier this year, Southwest began service at Denver International Airport, historically viewed as being among the most expensive in the US.
East Line Group, which manages Moscow Domodedovo, plans to invest $180 million in expansion, renovations and upgrades to its passenger terminal this year. Among new security measures, starting from July the airport is introducing the GK-1 Voice Recognition System, which will ask selected passengers a series of questions and determine whether they should be cleared or subjected to additional screening based on the voice characteristics of their answers. Domodedovo also is installing a new Hold Baggage Screening system, SafeDock docking system and building management system.
EasyJet is on the warpath again over Public Service Obligation routes, this time in Italy. The London Luton-based LCC confirmed yesterday that it lodged a formal appeal with the regional administrative court in Rome against the Italian Transport Ministry and Civil Aviation Authority over the right to operate service on the Milan Malpensa-Olbia, Sardinia, route.
Norwegian has decided to invade an already-crowded Polish low-cost market and intends to hire Polish flight crew for the operation. The LCC announced yesterday that it will open a base in Warsaw and operate flights to three Spanish cities, France and its Oslo hub. It will base two aircraft at Warsaw, where it will compete with LOT Polish Airlines subsidiary Centralwings, SkyEurope Airlines and Wizz Air, among others.
AirTran Airways will commence twice-daily Boston-Rochester service from July 6 aboard 717s. On April 4 it resumed twice-daily Myrtle Beach-Atlanta service using 717s, increasing to four-times-daily on May 9, and launched service from White Plains to Atlanta (twice-daily, increasing to thrice from June 7), Orlando (daily) and West Palm Beach (daily).
Ryanair announced it will base two additional 737-800s at its Liverpool John Lennon base and launch 11 new routes in October, bringing the total number of destinations served to 32 and the number of aircraft to eight. From Oct. 3, it will fly to Aberdeen, Inverness (each seven-times-weekly), Alghero, Ancona, Kaunas, Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw, Santander, Santiago (each thrice-weekly) and Tampere (four-times-weekly).
United Airlines launched daily San Francisco-Seoul service on April 2. US Airways will increase its weekday Boston-Buffalo service to seven-times-daily from three and its Sunday service from two flights to five from June 19. Saturday service remains once-daily. Services are operated by Chautauqua Airlines aboard Embraer 145s.
US FAA said it ended contract negotiations with the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. after receiving a "best and final" proposal from NATCA that was "more costly than what the air traffic controllers union indicated publicly last week." According to the agency, "Negotiations stalled on the issue of base pay and two types of premium pay that together have escalated the average controller's salary and benefits to over $170,000 annually" since the last contract was signed in 1998.
