Unlike a number of congested European hubs, Munich Airport traditionally has rolled out the welcome mat for Regional airlines. For this reason, the eighth-busiest airport in Europe was honored by the European Regions Airline Assn. at its annual meeting here in October as Airport of the Year.
The underlying reason for airports and airlines' clashing perspectives on the installation and management of airport wireless networks can be summed up in a few words: "Airports can be served by 20 or 30 airlines; each airline can serve hundreds of airports."
Australian Airlines will fill the void left by the failure of Air Paradise ( ATWOnline, Nov. 24) by adding a fourth weekly service between Sydney and Bali Dec. 19 and commencing weekly service between Perth and Bali Dec. 26. Further Bali service increases are planned for the end of January.
JetBlue Airways signed a 30-year lease for the new 635,000-sq.-ft., 26-gate Terminal 5 under construction at New York JFK. In a Form 8-K filed last week with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the carrier said it will pay a minimum of $110 million in rent through 2010 and $1.23 billion thereafter. JetBlue will be responsible for construction of the terminal, set for completion in early 2009, as well as a parking garage, roadways and a light rail connector.
Finnair launched thrice-weekly direct service between Helsinki and Delhi aboard MD-11s. The carrier said a quarter of its scheduled service revenue comes from its Asian routes. Estonian Air will start twice-weekly service between Talinn and Dubrovnik in April.
Norwegian will expand service to Eastern Europe from spring 2006. The LCC will add daily flights between Oslo and Prague, Warsaw and Budapest. Oslo-Krakow will increase to five-times-weekly and Oslo-Gdansk to thrice-weekly.
Southwest Airlines will double its presence next year at Philadelphia International Airport from six to 12 gates. It will assume leases on four gates from Delta Air Lines and two from United Airlines, the Associated Press reported. Southwest currently operates 53 daily flights at PHL.
DBA and Air Berlin announced yesterday that they are exploring an alliance and/or marketing cooperation that may include linking to each other's websites. "Both networks combine perfectly. Ours is based on the domestic point-to-point traffic. Air Berlin's focus is on European routes," DBA owner Hans Rudolf Woehrl said in a statement. DBA pilots already operate some Air Berlin aircraft.
US Dept. of Transportation approved $337 million in new federal funding Monday for Chicago O'Hare's planned expansion. "O'Hare must expand to keep pace with the growing demand for air travel," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said. "If it doesn't, our entire national aviation system will suffer." Most of the money will be paid out in $20 million annual installments for the next 15 years. A separate $37.2 million payment will be made to the City of Chicago over the next five years.
LAN Argentina will launch its first international service Dec. 1 with a daily flight between Miami and Buenos Aires. Comair applied to begin direct service between Reagan Washington National and Savannah aboard 50-seat CRJ200s. Continental Airlines will discontinue its daily service between Houston and Kahului Feb. 16, replacing it with Los Angeles-Kahului service.
Southwest Airlines will take four more gates at Chicago Midway from ATA Airlines under terms of an agreement presented to the bankruptcy court in Indianapolis, a Southwest spokesperson confirmed Friday. If approved, the deal will give Southwest control of 29 of the airport's 43 gates, leaving ATA with one. In exchange for the four gates, Southwest will forgive $20 million of a $47 million debtor-in-possession loan it granted ATA.
Negotiators for the EU and US, after five days of talks in Washington, achieved a tentative air services agreement that will provide airlines from the US and EU member states open access to each other's markets "with freedom of pricing and unlimited rights to fly beyond the EU and US to points in third countries," according to a joint statement (see text below). If approved by both sides, the agreement could take effect with the 2006 IATA winter season, which traditionally begins in late October.
JetBlue Airways will launch service between Boston and Washington Dulles Jan. 17 with six roundtrips during the week and five on weekends. It also will begin nonstop service from Boston to Austin (Jan. 19), Nassau (Feb. 2 ) and Richmond (March 31).
European Commission VP for Transport Jacques Barrot yesterday unveiled the EC's Sesar program for updating Europe's air traffic management infrastructure. The project is expected run through 2020 and consists of three phases. The definition phase (2005-07) was launched yesterday and "sets out the road map" for the new organization, including technologies to be deployed and methods of organization, according to the EC. It is budgeted at €60 million ($70 million).
Emirates launched its second daily New York JFK-Dubai flight Wednesday using an A340-500. Cathay Pacific will launch thrice-weekly freighter service from Hong Kong to Atlanta and Dallas Saturday.
Moscow Domodedovo plans to invest $500 million over the next five years to continue its dynamic growth and become a major transfer point between East and West. "Our goal is to have all quality carriers which serve Moscow here at Domodedovo," Director-Business Development Daniel Burkard told ATWOnline. The addition of Thai Airways on Nov. 1 means that the airport is served by 15 foreign airlines, up from just one in 2001.
"Crown Rent Policy Madness," a headline on a statement released yesterday by IATA, was emblematic of the vitriol directed toward the Canadian government and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority following GTAA's proposal to increase landing fees 6.9% and terminal fees 8.9% for 2006, making Pearson International Airport the most expensive in the world, according to IATA.
American Airlines launched daily service from Chicago O'Hare to Delhi yesterday, becoming the second US carrier to operate nonstop to India after Continental ( ATWOnline, Nov. 1). AA is using 777-200ERs on its longest nonstop route. Air New Zealand will suspend direct service between Auckland and Taipei after March 24. It said the number of passengers has declined by approximately one-third.
Cathay Pacific will operate daily service from Hong Kong to Delhi (direct) and Mumbai (through Bangkok) Dec. 1-Jan. 31. It currently operates four flights per week to each destination. India has lifted its capacity limit during the peak travel season. American Eagle will add nonstop service between Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis., and New York LaGuardia beginning Jan. 9 aboard 37-seat Embraer jets.
Hapagfly will operate a winter-season hub at Stuttgart serving holiday destinations throughout Europe and North Africa, with feeder services from several German airports. TAM launched four-times-weekly service to New York from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo aboard A330-200s. The Brazilian carrier has a codeshare agreement with American Airlines to operate direct Sao Paulo-New York service thrice-weekly. Icelandair will launch thrice-weekly direct service between Keflavik and Orlando Sanford March 27 aboard 757-200s.
Irish and US governments reached agreement on a revised framework for air services between the countries that will see a phase-in of an open skies policy by April 2008, subject to the ongoing negotiations between the US and EU on transatlantic open skies. Irish airlines will be allowed to fly to three additional US gateway cities (the limit currently is five) as well as to increase frequency on Dublin nonstop services from November 2006. Aer Lingus will be the obvious beneficiary.
Ryanair announced Friday a $1 billion commitment to its operations at Frankfurt Hahn, which will become the carrier's second-largest base behind London Stansted by 2012 at which point the Irish LCC said it expects to have 18 aircraft operating more than 50 routes from Hahn carrying 8 million passengers annually and creating more than 8,000 jobs. Ryanair will have a maintenance facility at the airport and also plans to provide a €12.5 million ($14.6 million) loan toward a new passenger terminal.
AirTran Airways announced four new daily flights between Boston Logan and Washington Dulles beginning Feb. 15 and two daily flights between Dulles and Orlando starting Jan. 4. Iberia increased frequency between Madrid and Rio de Janeiro from four-times-weekly to daily. It will use A340-300s and dash 600s.
