American Airlines will launch service from its Dallas/Fort Worth hub to Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Guanacaste, Costa Rica, effective Feb. 3. Subject to government approvals, AA will operate to Montego Bay four times per week with 142-seat 737-800s. The new service is in addition to its four daily flights from Miami and New York. AA will offer twice-weekly service using 737-800s to Guanacaste. Continental Airlines will begin daily nonstop service between Newark and Ponce Nov. 17. It will serve the route with a 737-800 seating 14 in first class and 141 in coach.
Thai Airways International said it will slash loss-making routes and restructure its foreign operations in a bid to turn its fortunes around. Low-cost subsidiary Nok Air is set to be the big winner by picking up a number of domestic routes. The announcement came less than two weeks after President Kanok Abhiradee was suspended from day-to-day responsibility for managing the airline in the wake of a 7 billion baht ($171 million) loss for the June quarter ( ATWOnline, Aug. 15).
Southwest Airlines will add eight daily nonstop departures from its Pittsburgh base this fall to new and existing markets. New cities are Tampa Bay from Oct. 30 and Phoenix from Nov. 22, each with a single daily nonstop. It will add six flights from Pittsburgh to four other destinations: Chicago Midway (one each Nov. 12 and Nov. 22), Orlando (two more as of Nov. 12), Las Vegas (a second daily flight as of Nov. 29) and Philadelphia (a sixth daily departure as of Nov. 29).
LOT Polish Airlines is planning to resume domestic flights from Warsaw to Zielona Gora and Lodz in September in cooperation with Jet Air Ltd., which will lease two Jetstream 32s to the carrier. LOT also will increase frequencies from both Bydgoszcz and Katowice to Warsaw.
Changi International Airport Services said it will invest S$11 million in its product offerings "to ensure it stays ahead in Singapore's competitive ground handling environment." CIAS, which was acquired by Dnata last year, will open a "Commercially Important Passenger lounge at Changi's Terminal One in a joint venture with Cathay Pacific.
Freedom Airlines, a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group, will begin flying out of Orlando on behalf of Delta Connection in October. Destinations will include Austin, Charlottesville, Chattanooga, Fayetteville, Fort Wayne and Jackson. American Eagle announced that it will initiate nonstop service between Fort-de-France and San Juan Dec. 15. Flights will operate every Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday from Fort-de-France to San Juan using 64-seat ATRs.
Singapore's Changi Airport has at least one gate ready for the A380, although the aircraft is still more than 12 months away from first delivery. Airport operator CAAS announced that it has converted gate F31 and an existing hold room in Terminal 2 into an A380-compatible gate, enlarging it to provide more holding and circulation space. The upgrade is the first of a number that will be done at Terminals 1 and 2. The gates also will feature a new third boarding aerobridge arm for passengers on the A380's upper-deck.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport said it terminated the contract with the Terminal Design Team for the design of the new International Terminal, citing the failure of TDT "to live up to its contractual obligations despite extended deadlines." In a statement, Airport GM Benjamin DeCosta said, "Among the major issues related to this action is the proposed terminal project design presented by the TDT that would have cost an estimated $140 million above the approved project budget.
AirTran Airways will add daily service from Sarasota-Bradenton to New York LaGuardia and Boston. The LGA service begins Nov. 8 and will be operated with a 717. The Boston service will be served with a 737 beginning Nov. 16.
Hemus Air of Bulgaria is planning a Sofia-Hannover service. MAP Jet, a proposed Austrian airline, plans to start operations from Vienna using the single former Helvetic Airways MD-83.
EVA Air added a third MD-11 wet-leased from World Airways and a weekly cargo service between Taipei and the US, boosting the total to 44. EVA freighters operate to Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Load factor on flights to the US is averaging 90% or better.
JAT Airways and Aeroflot will begin codesharing on flights between Belgrade and Moscow Oct 30. The two operate 13 weekly flights between the capitals. JAT marks its 40th anniversary of service to Moscow this week. Ryanair will drop its daily London Stansted-Klagenfurt route on Oct. 29 and the daily Frankfurt Hahn-Klagenfurt service by Oct. 31, citing poor performance.
American Airlines will resume service between St. Louis and Houston Oct. 30. The twice-daily ERJ service will be operated by American Connection partners Chautauqua Airlines and Trans States Airlines. Also, American Eagle will add daily roundtrips from St. Louis to both Cedar Rapids and Des Moines starting Oct. 1 using ERJs.
AirBridge Cargo, the scheduled cargo airline of Volga-Dnepr Group, launched thrice-weekly 747 freighter flights from Amsterdam to Moscow Sheremetyevo "to provide a fast and reliable supply line for Russia's $1 billion import market for fresh flowers." Around 60%-80% of flowers imported into Russia are from the Netherlands. AirBridge Cargo also operates five weekly 747F flights from Frankfurt to Shanghai and Beijing via Moscow and Krasnoyarsk.
Delta Air Lines' Song low-fare unit will add 12 daily frequencies from New York and Boston to Florida in November owing to additional capacity made available through a 20% reduction in turn times. Song also will launch service between San Francisco and Orlando and add a second daily Los Angeles-Ft. Lauderdale nonstop. "This new service and increased flight frequencies are the direct result of Song's efforts to reduce its [757] turn times at the gate from 50 minutes to 40 minutes systemwide," Delta said yesterday. Beginning Nov.
Germanwings, the low-fare clone of Eurowings in which Lufthansa holds 49%, will open a new base at Hamburg this winter. The carrier will base two A319s/A320s at Hamburg and offer services to London Gatwick, Stockholm, Oslo, Krakow, Warsaw, Zagreb, Munich, Toulouse and Istanbul. It also will increase flights on its existing Hamburg-Stuttgart route to thrice-daily. Fares will start at €15 ($18.50) including taxes. It will add another domestic route from Hamburg in the near future and expects to carry around 500,000 passengers in its first year there.
Bmi will add a third weekly Manchester-Barbados service beginning Oct. 24, Finncomm Airlines will launch a five-times-weekly service from Helsinki to Dusseldorf from Oct 30 using ERJ-145s. The route will be in codeshare with Finnair.
Continental Airlines will begin twice-weekly 737 service between George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Punta Cana Dec. 16 subject to government approval.
Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport now is expected to be operational on a commercial basis by July. This is the second major postponement for the airport, which had been slated to open next month.
SriLankan Airlines extended its network with the launch of daily services to Sydney and 10 weekly flights to Cyprus. In addition, the carrier began thrice-weekly service to Beijing. With the new flights, SriLankan now provides service to 48 destinations in 27 countries.
BAA USA reached new terms with the Massachusetts Port Authority on its contract to manage the retail and food and beverage concessions at Boston Logan's Terminals B, D and E until mid-2016. Under the new terms, BAA USA and Massport will share in an investment program in excess of $12 million to develop more than 32,000 sq. ft. of retail space in Terminal B.
Independence Air will launch three daily flights between Washington Dulles and Jacksonville Sept. 6. Two of the flights will be operated with A319s and one with a CRJ.
Japanese government approved an extension of the second runway at Tokyo Narita from 7,152 ft. to 8,202 ft., sufficient to allow 747 and A380 landings. The runway originally was to be 8,202 ft. but local farmers limited the length. The government now is going to extend it in the opposite direction.
