IATA is making strides with US and European acceptance of electronic and home-printed bag tags (HPBT), according to IATA airport, passenger, cargo & security division director Paul Behan.
Major US carrier, Delta Air Lines has announced its plans to add a non-stop service to Kona on the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii, as well as increasing services from its hub at Seattle-Tacoma.
The carrier has traditionally focused almost exclusively on connecting small and medium-sized cities to its focus airports located mostly in leisure destinations across the United States. However, this latest expansion continues a recent trend of introducing flights into larger markets.
Helsinki Airport is set to welcome its long-awaited train connection this July, when the Ring Rail Line opens. The new rail line will provide a convenient connection between the airport and the city centre.
Thomas Cook Airlines will further expand its UK long-haul programme in summer 2016 building on the airline’s growing long-haul summer programme this year, which sees its first flights to New York and Miami from May 2015. Next year’s programme will see further growth at Manchester and more frequencies from Glasgow, London (both Gatwick and Stansted airports), Belfast and Cardiff.
Košice International Airport is among the fastest growing airports in Europe. It achieved a 50 per cent increase in passenger traffic in 2014 compared to the previous year, also recording its strongest charter season in its history, and a 13 per cent increase in aircraft movements for the year.
Air China is seeing slight a slot drop in premium cabin corporate traffic to North America, but has made up for it with a “surge” in paid travel from individuals, including for first class, the airline’s top US executive told ATW.
Icelandic low-cost carrier (LCC) WOW air has acquired two Airbus A321s on a finance lease to service its new Reykjavik to Boston and Washington DC routes.
This latest growth sees Virgin America adapt its business model a little from Dallas as alongside its traditional point-to-point offering it promoting the new route as offering convenient connecting service via Love Field to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, San Francisco International Airport and New York's LaGuardia Airport.
Air Arabia signed a strategic partnership with the Ras Al Khaimah Department of Civil Aviation to become the Emirate’s designated carrier for passenger services from Ras Al Khaimah International Airport in spring 2014 following the collapse of RAK Airways.
The revised schedule will see the airline boost its inventory by more than ten per cent to offer up to ten daily flights in the spring, eleven during the peak travel months of July and August, and nine in the autumn.
The expanded schedules for summer 2015 will see easyJet launch the route six weeks earlier than last year from May 14, 2015, offer a third weekly rotation in July and August and deploy a larger Airbus A320 on almost two thirds of the flights.
In an investor update providing guidance for the first quarter and full year ending December 31, 2015 preliminary estimates show that Spirit expects to grow capacity by 25.8 per cent in the first quarter, 31.5 per cent in the second quarter, 33.5 per cent in the third quarter and 30.5 per cent in the fourth quarter for a year-end increase of 30.4 per cent.
Visa on arrival policies in particular have become implemented in more areas, and this largely reflects an increased awareness among governments of the positive impacts of visa facilitation on tourism and economic growth.
The airport is hoping to connect to destinations such as Aruba, Colombia, Amsterdam and major hubs in the UK, as well as increasing frequencies to Canada and across the United States following successful discussions earlier this monthat Routes Americas in Denver.
The new flights from the Iraqi flag carrier will be the first non-stop scheduled links between Manchester and the country, although a previous charter series have linked the markets previously via a one-stop offering. Both routes will be flown using a new Boeing 737-800 configured with 162 seats.
The aircraft will be delivered to WOW air in mid-March in a single-class 200-seat configuration. They will enter into service on the airline’s new routes between Reykjavik and the United States, with flights to Boston beginning on March 27, 2015 and to Washington DC on May 8, 2015.
The regional operators Djibouti-based Daallo Airlines and Kenyan carrier Jubba Airways have profited independently for years in one of the world's toughest markets, competing on routes to war-torn Somalia that most others have avoided. Yet as the guns have fallen silent, a new danger has forced their hand as foreign airlines look to serve the local market.
Lufthansa, which is transforming its Eurowings subsidiary into a pan-European platform to operate low-cost flights from several bases outside Germany, will launch its first foreign base in Vienna, Austria.
Delta Air Lines has issued an apology after remarks made by its CEO about Gulf carriers seemed to suggest they or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) governments were linked to the 9/11 terrorists.
