International Airlines Group (IAG), parent of British Airways, Iberia and Vueling, plans to convert up to five Airbus A330-200 and eight A350-900 options into orders for Iberia as well as open new long-haul routes.
China’s Xiamen Airlines has launched international long-haul services to Amsterdam from Xiamen and plans to open new services to Sydney at the end of the year as it picks up its international expansion pace.
Fire has once again disrupted operations at Rome Fiumicino Airport, triggering a backlash from Alitalia, which is demanding at least €80 million ($87.6 million) in compensation for recent upheavals.
The network growth will be facilitated by the expansion of the airline’s Embraer E-Jet fleet, which is flown on its behalf through a capacity purchase agreement with SkyWest Airlines. The first three E175 aircraft arrived earlier this summer and were introduced into passenger operations at the start of this month, including launching a new link between Portland and St Louis.
July has seen a number of start-up carriers taking shape across the world, including the proposed successor airline to the former national carrier of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo Airways, and Zimbabwe start-up, Rainbow Airlines.
Iberia says the improved economic outlook has led the airline to seek new opportunities both in its traditional markets and in new territories. Destinations now under study include Tokyo, Doha, Johannesburg, Toronto, Guadalajara, Managua, San Juan de Puerto Rico, Brasilia, and Asunción with flights to the selected destinations being launched in 2016 and 2017.
The US majors will not give up on their campaign against the Gulf carriers, which present the biggest-ever threat to the future of US airlines, the CEO of United Airlines said in a speech in New York Thursday.
New York JFK International Airport may also get an overhaul, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced simultaneously with plans to transform LaGuardia Airport on July 27.
European low-cost carrier, Wizz Air has reported a record first quarter and has subsequently raised its profit forecast for the year by as much as €20 million.
Aeroflot subsidiary Aurora Airline operated its first Boeing 737-500 technical flight to the Kuril Iturup Island airport in Russia’s Far East to test the new runway with a narrowbody medium-haul aircraft.
The route to Spain’s third largest city will start on November 6 with four flights per week, which will increase to six per week for the summer 2016 season.
As well as a new route between Edmonton and Nanaimo, the Canadian carrier will increase frequencies on a number of routes including Regina, Grande Prairie, Kelowna and Saskatoon.
Gulf carrier, Qatar Airways, has once again been forced to deny it is interested in acquiring a stake in independent Indian carrier SpiceJet, just two and a half years after previous rumours had serviced that it was in talks to develop a marketing partnership.
The new link to New Chitose Airport, located to the southeast of Chitose and Tomakomai, and the largest facility on Hokkaido, Japan’s second largest island will be introduced from October 1, 2015 and is targeted to attract the mobile inbound Japanese tourist market and support their interest in exploring the wider Asian market via the airline’s own network and its short-haul AirAsia Group partners.
The Polish flag carrier will introduce two additional weekly frequencies to both Chicago and New York from late October 2016 as it aims to become the leading carrier in New Europe (Central and Eastern Europe).
In the first six months of 2015, Changi Airport handled 26.6 million passengers, an increase of 0.2 per cent compared to the corresponding period in 2014, while aircraft movements totalled 169,890, one per cent lower than a year before as larger aircraft such as the A380 are being deployed on more routes.
