The leading European and US airport trade organizations called for "urgent" progress on European-US open skies when the two sides meet today in Washington.
Reduced Vertical Separation Minima were implemented over four states in the Caucasus area last week, ICAO announced. They are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the high seas portion of the Russian Federation Rostov Flight Information Region.
Lufthansa will base 16 long-haul aircraft, including three A340-600s, at its fast-growing Munich hub this summer and projects it will handle 19 million passengers there in 2005, 1 million more than in 2004. "Our target is to base 30 long-haul aircraft in Munich by 2010," Lufthansa Group representative and Head of Hub Management-Munich Karl Ulrich Garnadt told ATWOnline. However, the carrier is running out of capacity at Terminal 2 in Munich. According to Garnadt, if LH continues its annual 7% growth rate, it will reach the capacity level at the airport by 2009 at the latest.
Swiss International Air Lines will add four more cities to its network this summer, bringing its total to 74 consisting of 47 points in Europe and 27 intercontinental destinations. The carrier will launch several new flights from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, including four weekly services to Valencia and five to Mallorca. Two or three weekly seasonal services will be offered between June and September to Ajaccio, Olbia and Naples. Swiss will add a fourth daily frequency to London City Airport, but service to Birmingham will be withdrawn.
Southwest Airlines will add several new flights from Chicago Midway this summer. Beginning May 4, the carrier will launch one more daily nonstop flight to San Jose and one additional daily nonstop to Tampa Bay for a total of seven. Also, it will begin a daily nonstop flight to Austin and New Orleans May 31. On the same day, it will launch two additional flights to Philadelphia for a total of seven and a second daily nonstop to Albuquerque.
US Airways will launch new daily seasonal flights from Philadelphia to both Barcelona and Venice using 199-seat 767s as part of its summer 2005 schedule. Venice service will begin May 9 while service to Barcelona will start May 16. Additionally, daily A319 flights to Bermuda from Boston, Charlotte and New York LaGuardia will be launched, as well as a second daily Philadelphia-Bermuda flight. A seasonal Orlando-Bermuda Saturday service will resume in June and service to Glasgow, Dublin and Shannon will resume in May.
All Nippon Airways, which serves nine cities in China with 92 frequencies per week, wants to start flights to Guangzhou as soon as possible. "After that, we want to extend our network to the inner cities of the Chinese mainland," Executive VP-International Relations Katsuhiko Kitabayashi told ATWOnline at the Star Alliance meeting in Lisbon earlier this week. ANA, which is looking to increase its Asian network, wants to begin flights next to Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and points in India, as well as to destinations in eastern Russia like Khabarovsk.
Aeroports de Paris will demolish and rebuild the entire roof of the departure area of Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle, which collapsed last May. "On the basis of internal and external studies, Aeroports de Paris has chosen the solution of rebuilding the roof," the state-owned operator said in a statement.
Australia's largest international airport has joined the push to establish Singapore Airlines on the lucrative corridor to the US in direct competition with Qantas. Sydney Airport head Max Moore-Wilton said that "at the appropriate time" the airport will be "strongly supportive" of SIA's plans to take up services between Sydney and Los Angeles. "Undoubtedly we support Singapore Airlines; the trend in world aviation is opening up the markets," Moore-Wilton said.
Thai International announced details of its new Bangkok-New York nonstop service that will begin May 1. The 17-hr. flight will operate six times a week and the A340-500 will be configured for 215 passengers. Airbus will deliver two A340-500s in March and July and two A340-600s in June and August to the carrier. The aircraft are part of a 2003 commitment for three dash 500s and five dash 600s.
Cathay Pacific Airways will expand service to several cities in the upcoming summer schedule. It plans to add seven more weekly flights from Hong Kong to Beijing and a third daily nonstop to Los Angeles. Also, service from Hong Kong to Amsterdam and Johannesburg, now at five and six flights a week respectively, will become daily, and flights to Ho Chi Minh City will rise from daily to double-daily. In addition, the carrier will boost flights to Nagoya from double-daily to thrice-daily while service to Perth will jump from three to four weekly flights.
Lufthansa will expand service to Washington with a daily A340-300 flight from Munich scheduled to begin May 2. The new service will feature LH's new business class product, which includes its FlyNet inflight wireless Internet service. The flight will complement its twice-daily flights to Washington from Frankfurt and daily service to Munich provided by Star Alliance partner United Airlines.
Air Canada, in light of the recent shutdown of Jetsgo ( ATWOnline, March 14), will add new daily flights between Toronto and Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg and Halifax for the peak summer travel season. The carrier said the flights will be implemented in stages as plans are finalized. Additionally, beginning this month AC will boost Rapidair shuttle service between Toronto and Ottawa with an additional 10 one-way flights per week for a total of up to 38 one-way flights per day.
Estonian Air will make several changes to its schedule for the summer season, which begins March 27. It will launch two weekly flights between Tallinn and Milan March 30 and three weekly Tallinn-Manchester flights May 10. The carrier will increase service on the Tallinn-Oslo route to daily, and from April will add a third weekly flight on the Tallinn-Dublin route. In addition, beginning April 19, Estonian will boost service on the Tallinn-Moscow route.
Qatar Airways will boost its service between Doha and Bangkok to twice-daily from March 27. The flights will be operated with A330-200s. Also, the airline on May 2 will begin three weekly nonstop A319 flights between Doha and Tunis, which will continue on to Algiers.
Continental Airlines will begin twice-daily nonstop service between Bangor and Newark June 9. Continental Express will operate the service using ERJ-145s.
Bmi said it intends to begin thrice-weekly service from London Heathrow to Riyadh "shortly" after it launches its first scheduled long-haul flights from LHR to Mumbai on May 14. The exact start date for the Riyadh flights is not yet known--"We don't even have a month yet," a bmi spokesperson told ATWOnline. She added that the carrier hopes to be able to start the Riyadh service somewhere in the next summer schedule depending on regulatory approvals that still have to be obtained.
Continental Airlines began twice-daily service between Del Rio, Tex., and Houston. The flights are operated by Continental Connection partner Colgan Air.
Northwest Airlines will launch one daily nonstop flight between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Idaho Falls June 9. The service will be operated by Northwest Airlink partner Pinnacle Airlines Corp. using a 50-seat CRJ.
Emirates will expand service to Accra with two nonstop weekly flights from Dubai that will begin March 27. The flights are in addition to the four weekly services Emirates operates to Accra via Lagos.
