Air Canada unveiled plans to launch a number of new routes in Canada this summer and fall that will be operated by Air Canada Jazz. Effective Aug. 1, AC Jazz will begin twice-daily nonstop flights between Edmonton and Regina using 37-seat Dash 8-100s and twice-daily nonstop flights between Edmonton and Saskatoon using 50-seat Dash 8-300s. From Sept. 18, the Regional will begin four daily nonstop flights between Hamilton and Montreal and three daily nonstop flights between Hamilton and Ottawa using 50-seat CRJs. In addition, AC released its new Las Vegas schedule. Beginning Oct.
Swissport finalized a four-year ground handling agreement with Air France that initially covers 11 airports but is expected to be extended to other destinations. According to Swissport, the accord will generate revenue of CHF10 million ($12.1 million) a year. Last year, Swissport inked comprehensive deals with KLM--now a part of Air France-KLM Group--and Swiss International Air Lines.
Aeroports de Paris invested €2 million ($2.4 million) to upgrade Paris Le Bourget, of which a large part was spent to adapt the tarmac, runways and taxiways to handle the A380. The aircraft arrived Sunday for the Paris Air Show, which officially starts today, making Le Bourget the first commercial airport besides Airbus's home base in Toulouse to accommodate the A380. Work took place in several phases between October 2004 and May 2005, ADP said, and included an additional 3,000 m. of tarmac to station the giant aircraft and facilitate its maneuvering.
Aeroports de Paris Management signed a new management consultancy agreement with Beijing Capital International Airport earlier this month to assist BCIA in preparation of operating procedures for the new airport facilities that will go into service at the beginning of 2008. The three-year deal follows the initial five-year contract signed in 2000 allowing ADPM to become a strategic partner and shareholder of BCIA with a 6.6% stake.
Northwest Airlines will begin two daily nonstop flights between Memphis and Columbia, S.C., Oct. 2. They will be operated by Northwest Airlink partner Pinnacle Airlines using 50-seat CRJs.
Japan Airlines will launch scheduled late-night domestic air cargo flights between Tokyo and Kumamoto in central Kyushu on July 7. They will use the belly holds of the A300-600Rs that JAL uses for passenger flights during the day.
American Eagle launched several new services from Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, including three daily flights to Savannah, two daily flights to both Madison and Mobile and once-daily service to Evansville, Green Bay, Moline, Rochester (Minn.) and Toledo. It also began seasonal daily service between DFW and Traverse City, which will operate through Oct. 29; a second flight will be added on the route July 2-Aug. 22. All flights will use 44- or 50-seat Embraer regional jets.
Southwest Airlines released results of a three-month study by consulting firm Campbell-Hill Aviation Group that says the gain to local economies should the Wright Amendment be repealed would be at least $4.2 billion annually.
Air Berlin will increase its presence at its Spanish hub at Palma de Mallorca. By Nov. 1 it will boost frequencies to Lisbon, Porto, Seville and Madrid to double-daily. During the coming summer season, the carrier will operate 262 weekly flights from Palma to continental Europe, mainly to Germany, plus an additional 93 weekly flights to cities on the Spanish mainland and in Portugal.
Germanwings will grow its schedule from its recently opened hub at Berlin Schoenefeld this winter. It plans to base a fifth A319/A320 there and will add flights to Prague and Warsaw. It also will increase service to Oslo, Stockholm and Zagreb.
United Airlines launched daily nonstop 767 service between Chicago O'Hare and Munich yesterday. UA's Star Alliance partner Lufthansa already serves the route. Both also operate to Munich from Washington Dulles.
EasyJet yesterday announced that it has teamed with Servisair/GlobeGround to launch easyJetLounges. The venture sells access to Servisair/Globeground's lounges at 33 airports throughout Europe, including all but three (Belfast, Basel and Paris Orly) of easyJet's 14 European bases.
French slot coordinator COHOR said that successive allocations of slots, mainly released by bankrupt airlines, in the past three years have "substantially modified the traffic distribution" at Paris Orly. In what has to be seen as a response to easyJet's frequent complaints that it is denied access to slots at Orly so that the dominance of Air France Group is maintained, COHOR recently performed a study on all of the slot pool allocations made between February 2002 and February 2005.
National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. President John Carr claimed last Thursday that FAA charges of excessive overtime at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control Center are "disingenuous" and without merit because the overtime is owing to the fact that the facility employs "only approximately 76% of its authorized staffing complement by the agency's own standards."
Narita International Airport Corp., touting efficiencies and savings gained through last year's privatization, announced it submitted a proposal to IATA to reduce landing charges. The steepest reductions would go to operators of the quietest aircraft--those listed as Category A in the ACI Noise Rating Index. The airport operator proposed a sliding scale of charges ranging from ¥1,650 ($15) per ton for aircraft in Category A (some A340s and 777s) to ¥2,150 per ton for the noisiest Category F aircraft (747-200s/300s). The current across-the-board rate is ¥2,400 per ton.
EasyJet will add five new summer sun routes--Belfast-Faro, Gatwick-Mahon, Newcastle-Ibiza, Liverpool-Ibiza and Bristol-Mahon--bringing its total routes to 210 to 63 airports throughout Europe during the peak months from mid-July to early September. London Gatwick also will see an increase in frequencies this summer on routes to Marseille and Athens to meet increased seasonal demand.
