Gol announced the expansion of its Gollog cargo operation to Rosario, Cordoba, Montevideo and Asuncion. Gollog is a pre-paid, online freight service the carrier unveiled earlier this month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 6). It already was available on Gol flights to 38 Brazilian destinations and Buenos Aires.
SkyEurope Airlines denied forcefully last week any assertion that it is decreasing its service to the Polish market, announcing it will base four of the six new 737-700s it will add this year at Krakow Balice. Rival Wizz Air said it would offer free tickets to SkyEurope passengers left "stranded" by the Slovakian carrier's decision to cancel service from Warsaw to London Stansted and Bratislava and to postpone two additional flights from Poland ( ATWOnline, Feb.
Air Canada Jazz and Toronto Port Authority exchanged broadsides over the former's eviction from Toronto City Centre Airport Wednesday. Jazz, which operates five weekday roundtrips to Ottawa and is the airport's only scheduled commercial carrier, said it would be suspending service there during March due to "continuing uncertainty" and the "surprising unwillingness of the [TPA] to assist its longest-standing commercial airline in finding alternate facilities at the Island Airport." The carrier said it was served a notice of termination on Jan.
Northwest Airlines will increase service from Indianapolis, adding a daily San Francisco flight from June 1, an additional daily frequency to Los Angeles from June 8 and seasonal service to Seattle June 8-Aug. 21, all aboard A319s.
UK's National Air Traffic Services and its Spanish counterpart Aena officially launched a joint venture company, cementing a memorandum of cooperation signed last year to develop an air traffic management system for both countries. It is the first time two national air navigation service providers have collaborated in such a commercial venture, both parties stressed. The new company, to be called SACTA ATM, will develop the Spanish ATC system SACTA to a point where it also is capable of managing UK airspace. The system will be introduced first in Gran Canaria in 2007.
EasyJet is adding four direct routes from Glasgow, bringing the number of destinations served from its Scottish base to nine and increasing capacity by 19%. A daily flight to Berlin Schoenefeld commences May 3, dailies to Alicante and Malaga start July 7 and a weekly service to Palma begins May 20. The route to Berlin is a result of investment from the Scottish Executive in the form of a route development fund. EasyJet also will benefit from funding and marketing support from VisitScotland and the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau.
WestJet announced the following new daily services: Vancouver-Hamilton from May 1, Toronto-St. John's from May 1, Edmonton-Abbotsford from April 23, Calgary-Halifax May 1-Oct. 28 and Toronto-Victoria May 12-Oct. 28. It also announced frequency increases on 10 additional routes. Gol launches daily Buenos Aires-Asuncion service today.
United Airlines will add 32 departures from its Denver hub by June, an increase of more than 7% from its current schedule, the carrier announced yesterday. UA credited its resource optimization program ( ATWOnline, Jan. 31) focused on, among other things, reducing turnaround times by an average of 8 min. for making the service increase possible.
SkyEurope Airlines is shifting capacity from Poland, where low-cost competitor Wizz Air holds sway, to the Czech Republic, where the Slovakian carrier will open its fifth base at Prague Ruzyni. "In spite of being influenced by the low-cost revolution mostly from the UK, the market in Prague remains underserved and missed a dedicated low-cost, low-fare airline based there," SkyEurope said. It will take delivery of 16 149-seat 737-700s over the next two years and will base a pair in Prague.
Germany's DBA announced that investor Lutz Helmig has taken a 25.1% stake in the airline through his company Aton GmbH. DBA said the deal will double its capital to €20 million ($23.9 million). Helmig founded the Helios Kliniken hospital chain before selling it to Fresenius AG, according to the Associated Press. Helmig becomes DBA's second-largest shareholder after owner Hans Rudolph Woehrl (59.9%), who bought the airline from British Airways in 2003. Remaining investors are DBA's two MDs, Martin Gauss and Peter Wojahn, each of whom holds 7.5%.
The US East Coast's first heavy storm of the winter played havoc with airline schedules Sunday as domestic carriers cancelled more than 2,000 flights in the face of a blizzard that dumped a record 26.9 in. of snow on New York City and more than 17 in. on Boston, with heavy accumulations recorded in Philadelphia and Washington as well.
Royal Air Maroc is adding three weekly flights from New York JFK to Casablanca from the week of May 14 through the week of Oct. 22 and a fourth flight from the week of June 18 through Sept. 5. Weekly frequency will increase to nine. United Airlines' Regional operation United Express launched the following new or expanded services last week: San Francisco-Edmonton and Denver-Knoxville (no frequency provided on either route); Los Angeles-Albuquerque (thrice-daily); Washington Dulles to Daytona Beach (twice-daily), Myrtle Beach (increased to thrice-daily) and St.
Ryanair was granted an injunction Friday from the TAR Lazio court stopping the diversion of flights to Rome from its base at Ciampino to Fiumicino. Seven Ryanair flights arriving after midnight have been diverted to FCO in the past six weeks, affecting more than 1,000 onboard passengers with a further 1,000 delayed the following morning at CIA as aircraft arrived from FCO. Ryanair bases five aircraft at CIA. "Ryanair is committed to using its new quieter aircraft to minimize noise generation at Rome Ciampino.
US Airways will launch flights from Philadelphia to Milan, Lisbon and Stockholm. Daily Milan service will begin May 30 aboard 767s, daily Stockholm service will operate June 3-Oct. 8 aboard 767s and four-times-weekly Lisbon service will run June 7-Oct. 28 aboard 757s. Finnair will launch twice-weekly Helsinki-Krakow service on Apr. 13 and double its service to Warsaw with the addition of five weekly flights from March 26. All flights will be operated using Embraer 170s. It will launch weekly flights to Kiev from March 30 with a 170.
Delta Air Lines is seeking approval to become the only US airline operating scheduled service to Africa with the prospective launch of a daily Atlanta-Johannesburg service via Dakar beginning in December aboard two-class 777s. Delta said it received US approval to operate Atlanta-Quito-Guayaquil service from June 8 aboard 757-200s. It is awaiting Ecuadorian approval. Cathay Pacific said its thrice-weekly service to Manchester via Moscow has been postponed from a scheduled startup of March 27 owing to a delay in securing regulatory approval for the Manchester segment.
Ryanair will operate thrice-weekly Bournemouth-Pisa service beginning June 8. Etihad Airways will launch service to Islamabad, Peshawar and Manila on Feb. 13 and to Lahore on Feb. 20.
Grupo Ferrovial, a Spanish construction and services conglomerate whose portfolio of companies includes Swissport, said yesterday it is considering acquiring BAA, the world's largest operator of airports including London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
Emirates will launch a second daily service to Perth. It will operate the flight four times weekly from March 2 aboard A340-300s, increasing to daily Sept. 2 aboard 777-200s. It has been operating a single daily flight on the route since May 2003. Separately, Emirates SkyCargo launched eight-times-weekly service to Thiruvananthapuram on Feb. 1 using belly capacity of passenger A330-200s and 777-200s. It also will increase service to Cochin from five-times-weekly to daily and to Chennai from four-times-weekly to eight.
EasyJet introduced "all night check-in" on flights from London Gatwick. Passengers with scheduled departure times prior to 8:30 a.m. can check both themselves and their luggage from 10 p.m. the previous evening using the normal easyJet check-in areas in the South Terminal's zone A.
Lufthansa is strengthening its position in Asia. Starting with the summer schedule, it will add three frequencies from Frankfurt to Shanghai, two flights from Munich to Hong Kong and four weekly flights between Munich and Beijing. In total, LH will offer 35 weekly nonstop flights to China. It also will add four weekly services on the Frankfurt-Hyderabad route. Doha will be added to the network with three weekly A340 frequencies from Frankfurt. In total, LH will boost its system capacity this summer by 1.3% compared to the summer 2004 schedule.
Delta Air Lines will start Atlanta-Kingston service from June 1. Delta and Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines will operate the service aboard 737-800s and CRJ700s. JetBlue Airways is planning to launch twice-daily New York JFK-Bermuda service from May 4. OzJet will offer its all-business-class 737 service six-times-weekly between Melbourne and Perth beginning next month.
Emirates launched four-times-weekly service to Abidjan via Accra aboard three-class A330-200s. Swiss said it will end codeshare operations with CSA Czech Airlines and Qantas from March 26, as it is set to join the Star Alliance. Frequencies to Cairo will be increased to six times per week, London City will see seven daily services from Zurich, while Athens and Budapest will be linked three times per day. Nok Air will launch a daily Bangkok-Trang service from Feb. 1 using 737-400s.
SITA's efforts to reach small and mid-sized airports around the world took off yesterday when it concluded an agreement with Turkish aviation operations and airport construction company TAV certifying it as the exclusive Turkish reseller of SITA's AirportConnect CUTE, AirportConnect Kiosk, BagManager and BagMessage products. The deal marked the launch of SITA's new strategy to establish a "global network of partners" to provide the company's IT solutions to airports handling 5 million passengers or fewer per year.
Defunct Independence Air was granted approval by the US Bankruptcy Court to sell its lease at Washington Dulles to United Airlines for $4.3 million. The lease includes 35 gates on Concourse A, which serves commuter flights. The move comes a day after UA exited three years in bankruptcy. While there has been speculation that the gates would be used to increase Regional flying, United spokesperson Jeff Green told ATWOnline the airline is "not providing any details" on future operations at Dulles. Independence Air, which declared bankruptcy in November, shut down Jan. 5.
