Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International has surpassed Chicago O'Hare as the busiest airport in the US, FAA said. ATL logged 980,197 takeoffs and landings in 2005 compared to 972,246 at ORD. Dallas/Ft. Worth International finished a distant third with 718,291. Growth at Atlanta largely reflects Delta Air Lines' increased activity there, while DFW's declining position similarly is a result of Delta's closing its hub last year.
EasyJet will add 14 new routes across its European network this spring as it takes delivery of nine A319s. It also will convert its bases in Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow to all-Airbus operations, replacing its current fleet of 737s in a move signifying its "commitment to future investment and expansion." It will operate 116 A319s by this summer.
Southwest Airlines launched service from Denver International Airport yesterday with 13 daily nonstops to Chicago Midway, Las Vegas and Phoenix. It also announced it will begin new services March 4 with a daily flight from DEN to Baltimore/Washington International Airport and four-times-daily service to Salt Lake City. It will increase DEN service to Phoenix from four daily flights to five and to Las Vegas from five to six on the same day.
Virgin Express will launch twice-weekly Brussels-Palermo service from April 1. Air Berlin will launch Sunday-Friday London Stansted-Helsinki service via Dusseldorf from Feb. 3. Gol starts service from Sao Paulo Guarulhos to Asuncion via Curitiba today. It began a nightly Sao Paulo-Montevideo flight via Porto Alegre on Tuesday.
Delta Air Lines asked the US Bankruptcy Court last week for permission to shut down 16 of its 24 gates at Orlando International Airport, breaking a lease due to expire at the end of 2008. The carrier's sway over Orlando began to erode earlier this year as Southwest Airlines took the lead in market share there, but a Delta spokesperson said the company has no intention of reducing its commitment to the market, according to media reports. It will maintain its average of 115 flights per day although capacity will decrease by about 6%.
Aer Lingus countered Ryanair's Dublin expansion ( ATWOnline, Dec. 22) with an announcement yesterday of six new routes from Dublin and Cork. It will base a fourth A320 in Cork from June and launch service to Berlin (thrice-weekly), Birmingham (thrice-weekly) and Tenerife (weekly). It will add frequencies on routes to Amsterdam, Rome, Nice, Warsaw, Alicante and Malaga. From Dublin it will begin service in March to Poznan, Palma (thrice-weekly) and Rennes (twice-weekly).
Air Canada will operate daily Denver-Montreal service from June 16 aboard Embraer 190s. Gol will launch daily Sao Paulo-Montevideo service Jan. 1. Flights will stop in Porto Alegre. Air Berlin will start daily Dusseldorf -Helsinki service from Feb 3.
Delta Air Lines will launch service from New York LaGuardia to Miami (twice daily) and New Orleans (daily) beginning Feb. 16. Bmi will launch thrice-daily Aberdeen-Amsterdam service March 27 aboard ERJ-135s and dash 145s. Iberia will add a third flight to its Madrid-Athens service. The nonstop will operate five days per week beginning Jan. 9. United Airlines will launch Denver-Toronto service June 12 aboard Embraer 170s. Daily flights will be operated by United Express partner Shuttle America.
Ryanair announced a major expansion at Dublin with the unveiling of 18 new routes and additional frequencies on eight existing routes. It will base five new 737-800s at DUB beginning in April and will launch service to Marseille, Nantes, La Rochelle, Baden, Hamburg, Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw, Milan, Venice, Gothenburg, Malmo, Valencia, Porto, Salzburg, Bratislava, Kaunas and Humberside. The carrier said its traffic at Dublin will increase from 5.5 to 7 million passengers annually and that it will create 250 jobs.
China Southern Airlines announced a $134 million upgrade to its operations at Beijing Capital International Airport, including a new international terminal equipped to handle the five A380s and 10 787s it has ordered. Those aircraft will begin arriving in 2007. It already owns and operates a domestic terminal at PEK from which it flies 43 routes and 9 million passengers annually.
Jetstar Asia will launch service to Bangalore from Singapore on Jan. 23. Its merger partner, Valuair, will start flights from Singapore to Bali on Jan. 27. Wizz Air will operate a weekly Budapest-Corfu service between June 17 and Sept. 22. Kaliningradavia will start twice-weekly Kaliningrad-Berlin Tegel service Dec. 28.
FAA announced that it commissioned a Required Navigation Performance approach to Reagan Washington National Airport's Runway 19 following the Potomac River to the airport. The GPS-based approach, which allows planes to land with considerably lower ceilings and visibility than are required for traditional precision approach methods, is being used first by Alaska Airlines, which pioneered the use of RNP procedures to improve its completion rate at difficult airports in Alaska.
Continental Airlines launched service to five new Caribbean/Latin destinations over the weekend: From Houston, weekly service to Bonaire and twice-weekly flights to Punta Cana on Dec. 16; and from Newark, weekly service to Liberia, Costa Rica, and Curacao the following day. It also began weekly New York LaGuardia-Aruba service. All flights use 737-700s. American Airlines will end service to Asuncion Feb. 2. It flies to the Paraguayan capital daily from Miami through Sao Paulo.
BAA finalized its acquisition of Budapest Airport Rt. Sunday, agreeing to take a 75%-minus-one-share stake in the company from the Hungarian government plus a 75-year asset management contract for Budapest Ferihegy International Airport for a cash consideration of £1.255 billion ($2.22 billion). BAA pledged an additional €261 million ($313.4 million) for capital improvements over the next six years. It outbid Fraport and Hochtief, with the latter filing a lawsuit in Hungary yesterday contending BAA did not comply with all the terms of the bidding process.
Singapore Changi Airport will open its dedicated low-cost carrier terminal on March 26, offering passenger charges that are nearly 40% below those at Terminals 1 and 2, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said. The total per-passenger charge will be S$13 ($7.77) versus $21 for the full-service terminals. The fee covers two components comprising a S$7 passenger service charge and a S$6 passenger security charge.
European Parliament announced regulations last week requiring EU airports to provide greater assistance to disabled travelers, including free wheelchairs at departure and arrival points and assistance with moving between parking lots and check-in facilities. An Airports Council International spokesperson told Reuters that airlines will have to cover much of the cost associated with the new directives and that fees will be in proportion to the amount of traffic an individual carrier contributes to a given airport. The new policy will be implemented over the next two years.
DBA will start twice-daily Munich-Paris service from March 6. It will begin a five-times-weekly service from Munich to Athens and Saloniki on March 27. Rimini will become a twice-weekly service from March 28.
Metropolitan Airports Commission, which runs Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, voted unanimously Wednesday to raise user fees by $14.64 million--18%--per year, ignoring pleas from principal tenant Northwest Airlines.
Singapore Airlines will launch thrice-weekly service to Moscow Domodedovo via Dubai from March 1 aboard a 777-200. Qatar Airways launched direct, four-times-weekly Doha-Berlin Tegel service using A319s. Cathay Pacific will increase its five-times-weekly Hong Kong-Rome service to daily beginning March 27.
Ryanair signed an agreement committing it to help develop Brussels Charleroi Airport through 2016. It will base a fourth aircraft there and launch service to Faro, Nimes, Malaga, Salzburg and Valencia from April, bringing the total number of routes it operates from Charleroi to 16. The five new routes will deliver another 250,000 passengers per year and increase Ryanair's annual traffic at CRL to 2.3 million. The airport recently announced plans to open a new terminal in 2007 able to handle 5 million passengers annually.
BAA is implementing a range of options to avoid a shortage of fuel supplies for the airlines operating from London Heathrow following Sunday's explosion at the Buncefield oil depot, which provided LHR with one-third of its aviation fuel. BAA has increased the amount of fuel it receives from its three other suppliers. No flights have been canceled. "The airport continues to operate as normal and our contingency plans are regularly being reviewed as we learn more about the level of disruption," a BAA Heathrow spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline.
Independence Air, also known as FlyI, continued to trim its sails by announcing the elimination of service to four more cities effective Jan. 5. Chicago, Jacksonville, Buffalo and Manchester (N.H.) will be dropped and frequencies will be reduced in "almost all of our markets," spokesperson Rick DeLisi told ATWOnline. He said approximately 50 jobs at the four locations are being eliminated
Air France and TAM signed an agreement this week to develop jointly Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro as connecting hubs to Brazilian and Latin American destinations on TAM's network. The accord covers an increase in frequencies from seven to 10 per week from Paris CDG to Sao Paulo and daily flights to Rio de Janeiro, with onward connections to 10 Brazilian destinations via Sao Paulo and seven through Rio. TAM will offer passengers departing from Brazil flights to eight French cities via AF's CDG hub.
Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport will lose service to five US cities and one international market and see flights to several additional cities pared as American Airlines reapportions assets at its principal hub following this month's action to open Missouri to flights from Dallas Love Field. Southwest Airlines launched service to Kansas City and St. Louis yesterday and American countered with the announcement of its schedule from Love Field to the Missouri cities, San Antonio and Austin beginning March 2 ( ATWOnline, Dec. 13).
