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2002 Air Transport News
News Center & ArchivesAC Getaways through Ryan International Airlines will start nonstop jet service between Pittsburgh and Atlantic City on May 17, 2002. The company will offer vacation packages in addition to standalone air service.
Aero Airlines, the Estonian startup backed by Finnair, has launched operations with six daily weekday ATR 72 flights plus three Saturday and four Sunday flights between Helsinki and Tallinn. The plan is eventually to transfer other 68-seat ATR 72s from the Finnair fleet to Aero as it gradually expands service in the Baltic area and Finland. Additional Aero routes are expected in the fall of 2002.
Aer Lingus plans to resume direct scheduled flights from Dublin and Shannon to Baltimore/Washington International Airport on March 30 2003 using an A330.
Aer Lingus will commence a twice-weekly Dublin-Faro service June 3, 2002. It also will increase weekly frequencies on its Malaga route from five to seven, boost service to Nice from three to four flights weekly and increase the recently launched Barcelona service from five to six flights per week. It will add a new Sunday service to Brussels.
Aer Lingus will extend its interlining and ticketing agreements with Aer Arann Express after the latter said it will increase frequencies on the Cork-Dublin route by three flights per day. Aer Lingus will reduce its service on the route.
AeroMexico will add six weekly nonstop morning services from Chicago to Mexico City on Nov. 3. SkyTeam partner Delta Air Lines will add its code to the new flights. AeroMexico will begin twice-weekly nonstop service between San Diego and Mazatlan on Nov. 11 2002 and Delta will add its code to those flights as well.
AeroMexico will begin twice-weekly nonstop service from San Diego to Loreto Nov. 14 2002. SkyTeam partner Delta Air Lines will add its code to the new flights, which will use MD-80s and continue on to Mexico City.
AeroMexico will add a fourth nonstop from Miami to its Mexico City hub the week of April 8, 2002. The airline is also adding a nonstop flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Mexico City for a total of 21 a week, starting May 6.
Air Algerie introduced a new direct weekly flight from Manchester to Algeria using a 101-seat 737-600.
Air Berlin City Shuttle added nonstop flights the week of Dec. 23 2002 from Berlin Tegel to Rome, Zurich and Vienna to its schedule for all-inclusive one-way fares of eur29 ($29). Heretofore, City Shuttle served Rome only from Muenster/Osnabrueck and Vienna from Dortmund. Zurich is a new destination.
Air Berlin unveiled plans for its City Shuttle budget airline service that will start Sept. 30 2002 using 737s with flights from Berlin, Dortmund, Paderborn, Duesseldorf, Muenster, Hamburg and Nuremberg. It will operate to London Stansted, Milan, Barcelona and Vienna. One-way fares for the Hamburg-London route will start at eur39 ($38) and it will serve snacks and drinks on its flights.
Airbus selected Geneva-based business aviation specialist PrivatAir to operate a corporate shuttle from April between Toulouse and production sites in Hamburg and Filton/Broughton in the UK. The routes will be served Monday through Friday with two new A319s leased from CIT Aerospace.
Air Canada and Destina.ca, a new Canadian online travel site, said Transport Canada dismissed the complaints of Sabre and Travelocity, supported by the Assn. of Canadian Travel Agencies, alleging Destina.ca is a CRS biased in AC's favor.
Air Canada and Thai Airways International are expanding services on a codeshare basis between Vancouver and Bangkok via Tokyo.
Air Canada and Regional subsidiary Air Canada Jazz introduced new "simpler," lower fares, some of which are 86% less than regular one-way fares, for 340 of their markets in western Canada.
Air Canada may continue to charge obese passengers for two seats, the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled. According to the Financial Post, the agency found that obesity is not a disability under provisions of the Canada Transportation Act.
Air Canada inaugurated thrice-daily nonstop service between Montreal and Atlanta. Air Canada Jazz operates the route using CRJs. Also, Air Canada's code will be placed on Air Dolomiti services between Venice and Munich under a new codeshare agreement signed by the two carriers and Air Canada inaugurated thrice-daily nonstop service between Montreal and Atlanta the week of Nov. 4 2002.
Air Canada will begin service to Bilbao, Valencia, Alicante, Tenerife and Las Palmas on a codeshare basis via Madrid in cooperation with its partner Spanair the week of Nov. 11 2002.
Air Canada chose to retrofit its fleet of A319s/A320s/A321s and equip its new A340-500s with the AmSafe Aviation Inflatable Restraint version 1.5, a head restraint product.
Air Canada and bmi british midland extended their codeshare with services from London Heathrow to St John's, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver; Manchester to Toronto, and Glasgow to Toronto. Under the new agreement, the eight routes will be marketed and sold jointly by both airlines and carry the bmi designation.
Air Canada redesigned its international business-class product, Executive First, with new cocktails and menus, an upgraded wine selection, more legroom and seat recline, 15-volt power ports at each seat and enhanced headsets with improved audio quality and ambient noise reduction. The new service began in Sept. on flights to Europe and will be added on flights to Asia, Australia and South America soon. AC's premium product on flights in the US and Canada, Executive Class, is undergoing a similar redesign with a 2003 launch.
Air Canada's new Calgary-based low-fare subsidiary Zip Air is set to start service Sept. 22 2002 with 15 flights per day among Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg using 737-200s.
Air Canada began daily nonstop service between Anchorage and Vancouver. It is scheduled to operate until Sept. 15, 2002.
Air Canada plans to hike its domestic fuel surcharge to C$15 ($9.44) for a one-way ticket starting April 11 to combat higher fuel prices. The carrier had decreased its surcharge to C$7.50 in Nov. 2001 as fuel prices dropped.
Air Canada will resume daily services between Manchester and Toronto and between Glasgow and Toronto as of April 8 2002. The routes will be operated with 767-200s.
Air Canada, encouraged by improving conditions in the Canadian market, said it will increase domestic capacity and add two new destinations to its low-fare Tango network. The airline will boost US trans-border services for summer 2002, including new daily nonstop A319 service between Vancouver and Anchorage from May 13 through Sept. 15. Seven other routes will be affected.
Air Canada said it will add nine destinations and 14 new routes to its low-fare Tango network with this summer's schedule. To accommodate the growth, Tango will expand its fleet of six A320s to eight A320s and eight 737-200s. It will begin daily service on the following routes May 1: Kelowna-Toronto, Winnipeg-Edmonton, Quebec City-Montreal-Winnipeg, Quebec City-Toronto and Fredericton-St. John-Toronto. As of June 1 it will begin flying from Toronto to Abbotsford, Deer Lake, Gander and Charlottetown. It also will operate a daily Toronto-Calgary-Victoria flight and a daily trip between Ottawa and Winnipeg.
Air Canada Jazz will discontinue service to several small communities to coincide with the expiration of its three-year commitment to the Minister of Transport to provide such service. Effective Jan. 4, 2003 Jazz will halt service to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia; St. Leonard, New Brunswick, and Stephenville, Newfoundland. Effective Jan. 8 it no longer will fly between Goose Bay-St. John's, Goose Bay-Deer Lake, Deer Lake-St. John's and Deer Lake-Wabush. As a condition of its acquisition of Canadian Airlines in early 2000, Air Canada committed that communities previously served by AC or Canadian Airlines or their wholly owned subsidiaries would continue to be served until Jan. 4, 2003.
Air Canada Jazz, the recently rebranded regional carrier, said it will switch to a CRJ from a Dash 8 on one of its 10 flights each weekday from Baltimore/Washington to Toronto beginning May 6, 2002. It plans to replace more Dash 8s with CRJs on the route as the summer progresses. The new carrier also began twice-daily nonstop regional jet services between Halifax and Boston yesterday. It uses a 77-seat BAe 146 on the route.
Air Canada subsidiary Tango will begin daily nonstop service between Toronto and Las Vegas on Dec. 26 2002 using an A320.
Air China will become the first Chinese carrier to operate regularly scheduled flights over the North Pole when it launches thrice-weekly nonstop 747-400 services Sept. 27 between Beijing and New York JFK.
Air France, over the last year, has emerged as one of the world's more financially sound airlines. It has picked up where grounded and bankrupt Swissair and Sabena left off in Africa and now has more flights to that continent than any other carrier. Also, Air France has beefed up its flight frequencies between mans U.S. destinations and Paris using a fleet of new wide body aircraft like the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330.
Air France could face another strike on Oct. 24. Seven unions, none of which represent the airline's pilots, are considering calling a 24-hr. work stoppage to protest privatization plans by the French government after meetings with Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta proved "unfruitful." Meanwhile, AF employee representatives requested a meeting with the minister of finance to demand "that privatization plans for the company be abandoned," arguing that the airline "could and should remain a public company." The last strike called by the employee representatives on Oct. 3 had only a minimal effect on the carrier's traffic.
Air France, under pressure from the TGV and low-fare competitors, unveiled a new range of domestic business and leisure fares including "off-peak" business fares. According to the airline, the number of Evasion leisure fare levels was raised from four to eight, including same-day-travel fares and special weekend-only fares. Off-peak business fares feature a 15% reduction on flights between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the entire domestic network except for flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Corsica. AF also introduced an Alternative card offering a 40% discount for customers "who are willing to adapt their departure to obtain the lowest possible fares."
Air France could be headed for another strike following a call by seven unions for a 24-hr. work stoppage on Oct. 3 to protest privatization of the carrier. The seven AF unions will join employees of France's gas and electricity sector in a national day of social action "to defend public service." Late in July the French government announced its intention to reduce its stake in the carrier from 54.4% to around 20%.
Air France will start three daily services from both Aberdeen and Bristol to Paris Charles de Gaulle on Oct. 27 2002. Flights will be operated by AF subsidiary Regional using ERJ-145s on the Bristol route and ERJ-135s on the Aberdeen service.
Air France Group said a pilot strike planned for this weekend will "severely" disrupt its flight schedule, in particular medium and long haul operations, over the four days Sept. 6 to 9 2002.
Air France and British Airways, confirmed they are cutting schedules on the Sept. 11 anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks as demand drops for travel on that day. "I can tell you we've already canceled 26 transatlantic flights for Sept. 11, which comprise 24 to or from the US and two to Barbados," a BA spokesperson told Reuters. BA normally operates 78 transatlantic flights daily. AF said it canceled two roundtrip flights for Sept. 11 so far, one to New York and the other to Washington, because of "weak reservations." Both airlines said their Concordes will make scheduled flights to New York on Sept. 11.
Air France resumed daily Paris Charles de Gaulle-Cincinnati service, bringing the number of weekly flights between Paris and Cincinnati in codeshare with Delta Air Lines to 14 2002. AF also started a twice-daily Brussels-Nantes service operated by Brit Air with CRJ100s.
Air France is dropping thrice-weekly nonstop service between Paris and Santiago on March 31, 2002. The Chilean capital will be served with a once-weekly 777 that will operate via Buenos Aires.
Air France and Atlantic Southeast Airlines began codesharing on 19 daily ASA flights between Atlanta and nine destinations in the southeast and south central US. ASA is a Delta Connection regional.
Air France will keep summer capacity at last season's level. The new schedule includes boosting Concorde service between New York JFK and Paris from five times weekly to daily beginning June 1, 2002 marking the first time in about two years that the service has been daily.
Air India , after an absence of more than three years, is resuming thrice-weekly 747 flights Dec. 8 2002 from Frankfurt to Mumbai via New Delhi in codeshare with Lufthansa.
Air Jamaica will launch its second daily nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Montego Bay on April 10 2003 using an A320 in a two-class configuration.
Air Jamaica will launch nonstop service four times a week from Montego Bay to Belize beginning Nov. 21 2002 and will add a second daily nonstop between Chicago O'Hare and Montego Bay on Feb. 12 2003.
Air Jamaica plans to boost its service between Jamaica and Boston, New York JFK and Orlando and expand its eastern Caribbean flights. Starting June 20, 2002 it will increase its Boston-Montego Bay service from five times a week to daily and service from Orlando to Montego Bay and Kingston from four flights a week to daily. It will offer daily service between JFK and Kingston and will increase service between JFK and Antigua, Grenada and Barbados.
Air Lib will spin off its no-frills domestic activities in France into a separate legal entity to be called Air Lib Express.
Air Liberte, which is beginning flights from Paris to Algiers in Jan., will inaugurate twice-weekly service today between Paris Orly and Tripoli as part of its expansion in North Africa.
Air Macau launched a twice-weekly service to Kuala Lumpur the week of Nov. 11 2002, bringing the number of airlines using KLIA to 43. Last year the airport mounted a massive effort to attract airlines by offering free landing fees, but only a handful have taken up the offer.
Air New Zealand enhanced its Airpoints frequent-flier program effective Nov. 1, 2002. Key new features include a minimum of 1,000 points earned on all domestic one-way flights, a 500-point incentive for booking travel online, a gifting provision and retention of the points-for-kilometers formula and the Companion Ticket scheme.
Air Paradise International, which deferred its startup to Australia after the terrorist bombings in Bali, is to commence flights from Feb. 16 2003 with two ex-Singapore Airlines A310s. New Bali airline Air Paradise International , which was due to start service on Oct. 27, suspended its launch by at least six months. The carrier announced the suspension yesterday in the wake of Saturday's terrorist attacks in Bali that killed at least 188 and injured 300. It had planned to lease two A310s from Singapore Airlines. It is providing a full refund to all passengers.
Air Tahiti Nui received approval to operate two flights a week between Papeete and Paris via Los Angeles. It already holds US rights and plans to begin twice-weekly Los Angeles-Paris service May 5. The carrier said it has acquired a second A340-300 to help serve the route and accommodate other expansion.
Air Tahiti Nui will increase its Los Angeles-Papeete service from three to five weekly flights as of May 5, 2002. The flights will use A340-300s configured for three classes.
AirTran Airways will add another daily nonstop flight between Tallahassee and Atlanta beginning Jan. 7. AirTran also will add two nonstops between Tallahassee and Tampa and two new direct flights between Tallahassee and Miami. Beginning March 4 it will add two daily nonstops between Akron-Canton and New York LaGuardia.
AirTran Airways launched a service that allows most customers to check in, select seats and print boarding passes, receipts, frequent-flier vouchers and drink coupons via the Internet between 90 min. and 24 hr. before a flight's scheduled departure. Passengers may only obtain boarding passes for originating and connecting flights. Unaccompanied minors and passengers requiring special assistance must use the standard method of checking in.
AirTran Airways will begin four daily flights between Myrtle Beach and Atlanta. AirTran JetConnect affiliate Air Wisconsin will operate the service using CRJs. the airline also began three daily nonstop services the week of Oct. 21 2002 between Kansas City and Atlanta using a 717.
AirTran and Air Wisconsin announced a codeshare agreement Sept. 2002 under which the closely held Regional will provide complementary and replacement feed in markets currently served by AirTran.
AirTran is introducing service between Atlanta and West Palm Beach, offering three daily roundtrips beginning Dec. 10 2002.
AirTran Airways started daily nonstop service to Wichita Mid-Continent Airport using 717s. There will be three daily nonstops between Wichita and Atlanta and two between Wichita Chicago Midway. AirTran will add two daily nonstop flights between Chicago Midway and Atlanta and an additional daily nonstop between Midway and Pittsburgh on June 5. With the additions it will operate 10 daily nonstop flights from Chicago to Atlanta and three from Chicago to Pittsburgh.
AirTran Airways will begin flying to General Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee with a daily nonstop flight from Orlando and two daily nonstops from Atlanta. The services will be operated with 717s and begin June 19. On Oct. 5, AirTran will begin a daily nonstop between Milwaukee and Tampa. It will add a daily nonstop between Milwaukee and Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 5, 2002.
AirTran Airways also began new nonstop service the week of April 8, 2002 from Akron-Canton to Orlando and will add a daily flight between Akron-Canton Regional Airport and Orlando beginning April 9, 2002. The flight will use a 717.
AirTran Airways plans to add a fourth daily nonstop flight between Minneapolis/St. Paul and its Atlanta hub beginning Feb. 14, 2002. All flights use 717s.
Alaska Airlines began daily nonstop service between Seattle and Newark using a 737-700 on October 28 2002.
Alaska Airlines will build and strengthen its Seattle hub, and will begin one daily nonstop between Seattle and Newark on Oct. 28 2002 and another daily flight between Seattle and Miami on Nov. 21, using 737-700s on both routes. Within the past year, the airline introduced service from Seattle to Boston, Denver and the Washington, D.C., area. Two of Alaska's codeshare partners, Continental Airlines and American Airlines, operate large hubs at Newark and Miami respectively.
Alaska Airlines launched daily 737-700 nonstop service from Orange County to Vancouver. The airline has further requested three flight slots to serve Long Beach this fall, when it plans to begin three flights to Seattle on Sept. 8. It stopped serving Long Beach in 1995 after flying there for 13 years.
Alaska Airlines will add a daily nonstop flight from Seattle to Washington Dulles on June 9, giving it three daily nonstops to Washington, D.C. It currently operates daily flights to Dulles and Washington Reagan National airports.
Alaska Airlines will expand its summer schedule by 3.7% versus the same period last year. The growth will be driven by two additional aircraft and the carrier's new transcontinental routes. Alaska said the most notable year-on-year changes are new services from Seattle to Washington, D.C., Boston and Denver; Los Angeles to Cancun and Calgary, and Orange County to Vancouver. According to the airline, initial demand for these new long-haul routes is meeting or beating its expectations.
Aloha Airlines plans to expand its service from North America to Maui. The increase is made possible by the acquisition of three 737-700s. The aircraft will boost Aloha's 737-700 fleet to 10, up from five a year ago. It will add a daily flight from Phoenix to Maui via Orange County starting July 2, 2002. Nonstop service to Maui from Vancouver will begin Nov. 1, and nonstops from Burbank will begin Feb. 1, 2002. On June 1, Aloha will start daily nonstop service between Honolulu and Burbank June 1 and between Honolulu and Vancouver June 15, 2002. It will use 737-700s on the routes.
All Nippon Airways and United Airlines reached an agreement to place ANA's code on United's flights between Kansai and Honolulu. The codeshare will go into effect on March 30 2003 when United resumes its service on the route. The service was suspended in Oct. 1998. ANA and United currently codeshare on 17 services with 144 roundtrip flights a week.
All Nippon Airways will unveil a new first-class product on its 747-400 services from Tokyo to the US and Europe beginning in Dec., incorporating "wide bed seats" that will be enclosed for complete privacy. The new seat is roughly 50% wider than the current lie-flat seat beds in ANA first-class cabins. The airline also has reduced the number of seats in first class from 14 to 10 to allow for enclosing the seats, which will be arranged single file with two in the center section. A movable divider separates the two center seats, which can be adjusted to make a single pair seat. Each seat will be equipped with a 15-in. personal television with digital audio and video on demand. Additionally, each seat has a telephone and an electrical outlet for computers. The lavatory also will be enlarged. A new a la carte food service will be introduced in the spring. The new cabins will be introduced on 747-400 flights to London, Frankfurt, Paris and New York, starting with Tokyo-London on Dec. 1, 2002 ANA's 50th anniversary.
All Nippon Airways prepared for the 2002 FIFA World Cup by hiring in-flight security personnel, to make sure sports fans don't trash the airplanes. The carrier hired the "sky guards" from an EU-based company with prior experience preventing and combating hooliganism on air carriers during previous World Cups.
All Nippon Airways applied to regulators to introduce discount business-class fares for the first six months of 2002 beginning April 1. The discounts would affect 39 European and North American cities and include codeshare flights with United Airlines and Lufthansa.
All Nippon Airways will introduce an upgraded economy product on international flights that also offer business class beginning April 2 on its daily Tokyo-London service. Premium economy seating targets "frequent business travelers who fly economy class at full-fare prices and would appreciate the enhanced amenities and working opportunities," ANA said. The new seats feature 20% increases in pitch and width, data ports and a 6.5 in. audio and video on demand system. ANA said it plans to extend the product to other European and North American flights.
Amadeus said it would raise segment fees by an average of 2.9% for 2003. In a letter to airline executives sent out last week, Amadeus became the first GDS to reveal its pricing for next year. Last year, in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Amadeus increased fees by 2%, ending years of consecutive annual increases in the 6% range. It reserved the right to hike fees by 5.6% midyear, but it did not exercise that option. Sabre raised fees by 2.9% and Worldspan by about 2% for 2002.
America West Airlines will operate one additional flight between Columbus, Ohio, and Phoenix on Dec. 31, Jan. 2, Jan. 4 and Jan. 5 2003.
America West Airlines and British Airways renewed and expanded their codeshare arrangement that has been in place for six years. BA will add its code to America West's Phoenix-Sacramento service, extending the carriers‚ codeshare agreement to 14 destinations.
America West initiated new nonstop flights between Phoenix and Billings, Calgary and Pittsburgh the week of Oct. 28 2002. The Billings service is being provided by America West Express operated by Mesa Air Group.
America West Airlines will codeshare on Hawaiian Airlines daily nonstop flights between Phoenix and Honolulu beginning Oct. 11 2002. Flights can be booked through America West.
America West Airlines will reinstate a third daily nonstop flight between Las Vegas and Dallas/Fort Worth and initiate a second daily nonstop between Las Vegas and Miami using A320s.
America West and Hawaiian Airlines signed a codeshare and marketing agreement. America West will codeshare on Hawaiian flights that link AWA's Phoenix hub with the islands of Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai and Molokai. The two carriers also will have reciprocal participation in each other's frequent-flier programs. The deal becomes effective Oct. 11, 2002.
America West will begin service between its Las Vegas hub and Fresno and Santa Barbara. It will also add a flight to Colorado Springs. America West Express operated by Mesa Air Group will provide the service using 50-seat CRJs. America West will also initiate twice-daily CRJ flights between San Luis Obispo and Phoenix July 1, replacing turboprop service. The flights will be operated by America West Express.
America West will inaugurate flights from Raleigh/Durham to both Phoenix and Las Vegas. Starting May 31, 2002, there will be a pair of daily nonstops to PHX; and four weekly departures to LAS.
America West will resume daily nonstop service between its Las Vegas hub and Reagan Washington National Airport on Feb. 27, 2002. The flights were suspended following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
America West will add daily nonstop regional jet flights between its Las Vegas hub and new destinations Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City beginning Feb. 27 and May 1, 2002 respectively. The flights will be performed by America West Express, which is operated by Mesa Air Group and Chautauqua Airlines.
American Airlines will launch new seasonal services this summer from New York JFK to two destinations in Europe. Daily service to Rome will begin on May 1 2003 and daily service to Barcelona will commence on June 15, both subject to government approval. AA will use 767-300s on the services, which will end on Oct. 24. Additionally, it will begin a seasonal second Dallas/Ft. Worth-Paris flight four days a week on April 6, increasing to five weekly flights on May 1 and to daily service on June 1, using 767-300s. Also on June 1 2003 it will add a 12th weekly service from DFW to Tokyo using a 777.
American Airlines and American Eagle reduced their overweight baggage fees from $80 to $50 on checked items over 70 lb. on domestic flights. Checked items weighing 50-70 lb. will be subject to a $25 fee.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines signed an agreement with T-Mobile to provide Wi-Fi wireless broadband Internet access in each airline's airport clubs and lounges across the country. In addition, T-Mobile plans to install HotSpot, which allows customers with wireless-enabled laptops or PDAs to access the Internet or corporate intranets while away from their home or office, at approximately 100 of the most frequented of the airlines' clubs and lounges over the next year. Coverage may be extended to airline gates as airport approvals are secured.
American Airlines during early fall , using a fleet of small regional jets flying between New York, Boston and Washington D.C., the airline took aim at East Coast shuttle giants Delta and US Airways. As the three airlines fight for increasingly elusive business travel dollar. While their walkup prices remain at about $225 each way, all three airlines now offer 1,500 frequent flyer miles per segment, up from the standard 500 miles. Delta and US Airways say that if the shuttle departs more than five minutes late, all passengers will get an additional 1,500 miles, this only until Dec. 31, 2002.
American Airlines, in line with its plan to "increase emphasis on enhancing the depth of its cooperation with its strategic alliance partners," will expand its codeshare with Swiss to a half-dozen additional destinations out of Zurich: Johannesburg, Accra, Lagos, Dubai, Budapest and Tirana. American flies to Zurich from Dallas/Ft. Worth and New York JFK. It said that in the near future it hopes to add codeshare service to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific via Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York as well as codeshare service with Japan Airlines to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi via Tokyo. Government approvals for these agreements are pending.
American Airlines will eliminate its $5 in-flight entertainment charge and begin offering complimentary IFE on all audio/video-equipped flights systemwide. "This change will allow us to greatly reduce headset distribution costs while continuing to focus on services our customers tell us add value to their travel experience," said MD-In flight Products Veronica Lopes. Passengers will be encouraged to bring their own headsets onboard and headsets will be available for purchase for $2.
American Airlines will add a second daily flight between Miami and London Heathrow beginning Oct. 27 using a 777. On Nov. 1 it will begin new service between Miami and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, using a 757.
American Airlines launched a new version of its aa.com Web site that includes proprietary reservation and booking technology from Orbitz, the online travel agency founded by five US Majors. The move is notable for AA's step away from Sabre, which the airline created nearly 40 years ago. The Orbitz booking engine allows AA to offer users a simpler, more intuitive booking process.
American Airlines and Swiss Air Lines received approval for their codeshare agreement that was signed in March. The airlines plan to introduce codeshare service to the first 35 destinations on May 15 2002. It will apply to 128 Swiss and 234 AA destinations and calls for frequent-flier program collaboration. Swiss said the carriers plan to intensify their collaboration in all fields of activity.
American Airlines began daily nonstop service between New York JFK and Tokyo Narita last week. The carrier, which is building a $1.3 billion terminal at JFK, uses 223-seat 777s on the route. AA will also add a second daily nonstop flight from Miami to Tegucigalpa beginning July 2. A 176-seat 757-200 will serve the route.
American Airlines sees business picking up for the spring-summer travel period and has hiked services accordingly. Adding to its schedule out of Los Angeles International will be two more daily roundtrips to New York's JFK beginning May 1; three more to Chicago's O'Hare International starting April 17; as well as daily flights to Torontao and Orlando. Entirely new runs will be inaugurated May 1 from LAX to Boston, Hartford/Springfield, Lihue, Hawaii on June 15. American's Terminal 4 at LAX is undergoing a $270 million renovation scheduled for completion this fall.
American Airlines will run a seasonal service between Anchorage International and Chicago's O'Hare International. Runs will operate June 15 through September 30 and will be made with the 176-seat 757 Boise, Idaho will get twice daily roundtrip service to Dallas/Fort Worth by America Eagle Airlines starting May 15. Service will be operated with the 70-seat Canadair regional jet. AA also plans to begin daily nonstop service using MD-80s between Chicago and Vancouver, June 15 through Sept. 30 2002.
American Airlines will add two new destinations in the Dominican Republic, Santiago and Punta Cana. They will be served from New York JFK starting June 15 2002. AA also will serve Santiago daily from Miami and added a weekly direct flight from Boston to the Turks and Caicos Islands. The service complements three daily flights from Miami and four weekly frequencies from New York.
American Airlines has added six self-service check-in kiosks at its St. Louis ticket counter and two more units at the customer service center there. The increase is intended to help reduce hassles without compromising security.
American Airlines, implementing previously announced plans to rebuild capacity, will add nine flights to its New York schedule and two from Boston. Most of the flights will increase frequencies to existing destinations, but they will include new daily service between New York JFK and Oakland and Tokyo. In Boston, AA will add second daily flights to Orlando and to San Jose. The Boston flights will begin March 2, 2002.
American Airlines, moving to restore some of the capacity it shed following the Sept. 11 attacks, said it will reinstate 41 flights from Dallas/Fort Worth, add two daily nonstop flights between Oakland and New York JFK and on its Raleigh/Durham-London Gatwick service. The resumption of DFW operations comprises flights to 37 destinations by March. They include late-evening connecting flights, primarily westbound, and some short-haul services, such as to Austin and San Antonio. AA will use 176-seat 757s on the Oakland-JFK flights, which begin March 2. It will shift back to 777s, it switched to 767-300s last year, for its daily RDU-Gatwick service beginning April 1, 2002.
American Airlines will discontinue its AT&T in-flight phone service by March 31, 2002 a spokesman for the airline said Wednesday. "Almost since their installation in 1996, we've seen a dramatic decrease in the use of these phones," said American Airlines spokesman Todd Burke, who added that the service averages about three calls a day per aircraft. The airline will keep other communication services working. Passengers on Boeing 777 and Boeing 767-300 aircraft, which mainly fly international routes, will continue to offer an in-flight phone service that connects to an orbiting satellite for a $5 connection fee and a rate of $10 a minute.
American Eagle affiliate of American Airlines will end service to Worcester Regional Airport effective Sept. 4, 2002. The airline said the route "failed to perform to expectations."
American Airlines said it offer two daily nonstop flights between New York JFK and Ontario, Calif., beginning July 2, 2002. The flights will use 176-seat 757s. AA Regional affiliate American Eagle said it will boost the frequency of scheduled non stops from San Juan to Bonaire to daily. They will be operated with a 64-seat ATR 72.
American Eagle said it will begin six-times-daily regional jet service between Oakland and Los Angeles on Feb. 5, 2002. It will use 44-seat ERJ-140s on the route.
American Eagle plans to resume service between Burlington, Vt., and Chicago O'Hare with two flights a day.
American Trans Air and Chicago Express, which flies as ATA Connection, said they will offer daily nonstop service between Chicago Midway and Lexington, Ky. The regional will operate four flights daily on the route starting August 28. The carriers also will begin four-times-daily service between Midway and Cedar Rapids in mid-August 2002. ATA Connection will add new flights between Chicago Midway and several other cities as well: four daily nonstops to Toledo starting June 28 2002; four daily nonstops to Flint starting July 1; and as of July 18, Charlotte, N.C., will get three flights a day, Monday through Friday, and two flights a day on weekends. ATA Connection said they will also provide nonstop service between Chicago Midway and Moline beginning May 28, 2002. The regional will operate five daily flights Sunday through Friday and four flights on Saturday.
Ariana Afghan inaugurated the only scheduled air service between Europe and Afghanistan with weekly A300B4 flights from Kabul to Frankfurt via Istanbul and Sharjah.
Asiana Airlines flyers can purchase their air tickets at any on of 19 subway stations in Seoul. Asiana Airlines now code-shares with China Eastern on the Daegu-Shanghai run. The Korean carrier is also code-sharing with China Eastern between Cheongju and Shanghai.
Asiana Airlines is preparing for membership in the Star Alliance in time to help mark Star's 5th anniversary in May 2002. Integration into the alliance, currently comprising 13 full members and 15 brands including Lauda Air and Tyrolean under the Austrian Airlines Group umbrella, is a lengthy, complex procedure of up to 18 months.
Atlantic Coast Airlines operating as United Express will offer six daily CRJ flights from Chicago O'Hare to Wichita and five daily flights to Moline starting June 7, 2002. The Chicago-Wichita service will replace three flights now offered by United Airlines, while the Moline route is currently served by United Express partner Air Wisconsin.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a Delta Connection carrier, is adding two daily nonstop flights between Montreal Dorval and Atlanta in Nov. ASA now operates 16 flights to Dorval from four US destinations: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Boston and New York LaGuardia. In addition, the airline will upgauge two of its three daily flights between Atlanta and Newport News from CRJ 200s to CRJ700s. ASA will add a daily nonstop between Brunswick/Golden Isles, Ga., and Atlanta on Nov. 4 2002 using a CRJ200.
Australian Airlines took to the skies Oct. 27 2002 offering daily service to Nagoya and Osaka from Cairns. The airline is a wholly owned, separately staffed subsidiary of Qantas and is intended to operate on routes that cannot be served profitably by the parent, with a focus on inbound visitors. Thrice-weekly services from Cairns to Singapore and Fukuoka commence Nov. 21 while Taipei and Hong Kong come on line the following day, also with thrice-weekly service.
Australian Airlines, Qantas's low-cost affiliate, received its first of four 767-300s scheduled for delivery over the next month. The new airline's first services from Cairns to Nagoya and Osaka will begin Oct. 27. Qantas will begin operations from Sydney Airport's Terminal 2, the former Ansett domestic terminal, on Sept. 24 2002.
Austrian Airlines resumed its temporarily suspended thrice-weekly nonstop Vienna-Montreal and Vienna-Toronto service. It also is targeting business travelers with early-morning roundtrips linking Vienna and Budapest.
Austrian Airlines began serving Poznan, its third destination in Poland after Warsaw and Krakow. The four-times-weekly service to the Polish commercial and banking center is bundled with connecting services via AUA's Vienna hub.
Belair Airlines, a newly formed, wholly owned subsidiary of Hotelplan of Switzerland, is adding a 767-300 to its existing fleet of two 757-200s.
Bmi british midland is to suspend its Manchester-Washington service from Dec. 2 2002 until June 2003 owing to weak forward bookings.
Bmi british midland will launch a daily direct service between Manchester and Toulouse Oct. 27. The route will be operated by bmi regional, a wholly owned subsidiary, with an ERJ.
Bmi british midland followed British Airways by announcing a major overhaul of its domestic fares on flights to and from London Heathrow. Bmi removed Saturday night and minimum stay requirements and will allow name changes to tickets up to 2 hours before departure. Earlier this month, British Airways scrapped all Saturday night stay and advance purchase restrictions on domestic flights into and out of London.
Bmi british midland will add 52 weekly flights from London Heathrow beginning March 31, boost regional service and suspend some underperforming routes. Services from Heathrow will expand with additional daily return flights to Stuttgart, Brussels and Paris and two extra daily services to Belfast.
Bmi british midland introduced its new low-fare airline, bmibaby, the week of January 14, 2002 at East Midlands Airport and took a swipe at rival Go, which recently said it would establish a base at the airport. The low-fare unit will fly a dedicated fleet of 737-300s and serve destinations including Barcelona, Nice, Palma, Malaga, Faro and Alicante. It will launch service March 23, 2002 with seats going on sale the end of January.
Bmibaby will launch a "five-star business package" to attract business travelers to its low-fare flights. The offering includes increased baggage allowances and dedicated check-in desks at both East Midlands and Cardiff International Airports, allocated seating booked in advance for all passengers, and "no overbooking of flights to allow business travelers a fast-track check-in system." Additionally, name and flight changes will be allowed for all tickets subject to a £15 administration fee and a £50 travel credit compensation will be given for delays of more than 4 hr. on any bmibaby flight. "Bmibaby will use a dedicated backup aircraft to maintain its punctual operation," the budget spinoff of bmi said in a statement.
Bmibaby will introduce a daily roundtrip service between East Midlands and Cork from Dec. 1 2002. The airline is also launching service from East Midlands Airport to Ibiza, its ninth international destination. The route will be served five times a week beginning May 15, 2002.
Bmi regional is laying on additional flight frequencies out of its East Midlands hub in the United Kingdom. As of March 31, 2002 there will be extra runs from East Midlands Airport to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast City, Amsterdam, and Paris.
Bmi regional will add 94 weekly flights to and from regional airports in the UK. Frankfurt and from Manchester to Brussels will be suspended effective March 3, 2002. It also will abandon the Manchester-Dusseldorf route previously operated by bmi regional and hand the slots over to codeshare partner Lufthansa.
Big Sky Airlines will initiate service to Boise from Billings beginning May 5, 2002. It will operate two nonstop flights Monday through Friday and reduced weekend service.
British Airways and oneworld partner Iberia expanded their code sharing for the upcoming winter season, marking the first phase in their commercial agreement signed in July. On Oct. 27 the Iberia code will be added to all BA flights from London Heathrow to Madrid and Barcelona and the BA code will be added to Iberia services on the same routes.
British Airways is launching first-ever air service between the UK and Angola with weekly flights starting Nov. 1 to Luanda utilizing 777s. "Start of services follows extensive negotiations with the Angolan government and its national carrier TAAG."
British Airways franchise partner GB Airways will begin daily service between London and Girona on March 1 2003.
British Airways will suspend its daily service between Charlotte and London effective Oct. 27, saying the flight could not be "justified in the current economic climate." BA launched the service in 1994.
British Airways and Air France, confirmed they are cutting schedules on the Sept. 11 anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks as demand drops for travel on that day. "I can tell you we've already canceled 26 transatlantic flights for Sept. 11, which comprise 24 to or from the US and two to Barbados," a BA spokesperson told Reuters. BA normally operates 78 transatlantic flights daily. AF said it canceled two roundtrip flights for Sept. 11 so far, one to New York and the other to Washington, because of "weak reservations." Both airlines said their Concordes will make scheduled flights to New York on Sept. 11.
British Airways has announced its latest discounting campaign, with savings of up to $300 / £200 on long-haul flights this winter. The offers applies to 49 destinations.
British Airways announced several changes to its winter schedule for 2002-03. Beginning Oct. 27, services to San Diego, Denver, Phoenix, Harare and Lusaka will be operated out of Heathrow's Terminal Four. A sixth daily service to New York JFK will be added. Three short-haul routes--St. Petersburg in Russia, Tripoli and Sofia, will move to Heathrow and a third daily Athens service will be added. Two weekly services will be added from Gatwick to Antigua. Cape Town service from Heathrow will be increased from seven to 10 flights per week. The Cairo, Dhaka and Calcutta routes will be served with 747-400s instead of 777s. On the Jeddah route, 767s will be replaced with 777s. Flights to Islamabad will remain suspended and frequencies to Tobago will go from two to three a week and to Grenada from one to two per week.
British Airways continued the rollout of short-haul initiatives as part of the Future Size and Shape program. Low fares without Saturday night stay and advance purchase restrictions now are available on 108 routes. Since introduction of the new fares on domestic routes in April, load factors have "shown improvement." The group's manpower reduction since Aug. 2001 totals 9,177.
British Airways is responding to mounting competition from no-frills carriers by reshuffling pricing on its UK routes from London as part of the Future Size and Shape restructuring strategy unveiled in February. Some domestic fares will be cut as much as 70% to recapture shrinking market share.
British Airways plans to reinstate most of the flights to the US that it canceled after Sept. 11 2001. The summer schedule that launches April 1 includes six daily subsonic flights from Heathrow to New York JFK, up from five, while Concorde service will move from six times weekly to daily starting April 21, 2002. BA will restore three of the five weekly frequencies that were cut from Heathrow to Washington, D.C., and add a third daily service to Boston. However, it is not restoring services that were cut from London Gatwick to the US, including reduced frequencies to JFK, Houston and San Diego.
British Airways began offering a second daily flight from Houston to London, giving Heathrow and Gatwick one daily trip apiece from the Texas city. The flight will feature BA's new flat-bed seat, which is equipped with laptop power port, telephone and 18 channels of inflight video entertainment. BA also said it rescheduled its daily Concorde service to depart New York JFK at 8:30 a.m. instead of 12:15 p.m.; the change will allow passengers to take advantage of the evening in London. BA closed its Gatwick London Terminal at the Victoria railway station on March 30 after 40 years of operations. As more and more of its long-distance flights transfer from Gatwick to Heathrow, BA decided GLT, which housed check-in facilities for passengers catching the Gatwick Express train to the Surrey airport, had become superfluous.
British Airways will add a morning flight to London Heathrow from Washington Dulles for a total of three a day starting March 31, 2002. The flight will leave at 8:40 a.m. EST, making it the earliest daily departure on the route. It will use a 777 configured for four classes.
British Airways' CitiExpress Regional operation will eliminate its operating bases at Cardiff and Leeds-Bradford and cut 21 routes from its network by March 2003.
British European has reinstated its daily service between Birmingham and Cork using Q300 50-seat turboprops. BE is also starting a new daily flight from Newcastle to the Isle of Man effective March 31, 2002. The new route will be operated with Dash 8-Q200s.
Buzz will stop operating its routes from its London Stansted base to Rouen and from Toulouse to Grenoble because they are not profitable. "The French market will, however, continue to be developed through the creation of new routes," the budget carrier added.
CanJet will begin nonstop service between Moncton and St. John's and Moncton and Toronto Sept. 9. The Moncton-St. John's service will operate four times a week and the Moncton-Toronto service will be daily.
Cathay Pacific Airways took delivery of the first of three A340-600s. The aircraft is fitted with eight first-class seat beds, 60 business-class beds and 220 economy seats. Cathay plans to use it to open nonstop service between New York and Hong Kong on a year-round basis.
Cathay Pacific plans to activate in Jan. 2003 a 1999 codeshare agreement signed with American Airlines to serve a host of US cities. Cathay can codeshare with American to 20 cities next year and 25 in 2004. It is expected to launch nonstop flights later in 2002 to New York with A340-600s that will be delivered in late Nov. 2002.
Cathay Pacific will add a sixth daily flight between Hong Kong and Manila on Jan. 1 2003 and a fifth weekly flight between Hong Kong and Johannesburg on Jan. 6 2002 using a 747-400 and will add four flights a week from Hong Kong to Melbourne commencing Oct. 29, bringing its total weekly flights between the cities to 11. Additionally, it will boost service from Hong Kong to Brisbane from eight to 10 flights per week on Oct. 31 2002.
Cathay Pacific added a fifth daily flight to Tokyo and four more weekly flights to London, which now is served by 18 flights each week. Capacity will be increased further with the delivery later this year of three A340-600s, which are being leased from ILFC. The airline also has a total of six 777s and A330s on order for delivery by the end of 2003.
Cathay Pacific will resume twice-daily nonstop 747-400 flights between Los Angeles and Hong Kong starting Aug. 1, 2002. It has been operating single daily service. The carrier said it will reinstate a number of flights to North America that were suspended last year as demand shows signs of recovery. It will boost its Los Angeles-Hong Kong service from seven to 10 flights a week and increase its Vancouver-Hong Kong service to 14 weekly flights from 11. Flights from San Francisco will gain capacity by using 747-400s instead of A340-300s.
Cathay Pacific will add a fifth daily return flight between Hong Kong and Narita starting June 1. The nonstop service is due in part to the opening of a second runway at Narita on April 18, 2002.
Cathay Pacific's new business-class product will be installed on a third of its long-haul fleet by April 2002. The product was launched at the end of last year. Cathay Pacific also launched an exclusive website designed for use by travel agents in Hong Kong, Australia, Germany and the UK. The site, www.cxagents.com, eventually will be available to agents across Cathay's network.
A remodeled Cheap Tickets website was unveiled the week of Nov. 11 2002 with new features, more discounted inventory and enhanced resources for travel consumers.
China Southern Airlines will begin a third weekly flight from Guangzhou to Sydney via Melbourne Nov. 1 2002 using a 777 and will expand its service between Los Angeles and Guangzhou with a Saturday-only flight beginning Nov. 2 2002.
China Southern Airlines launched its daily 777 service between Guangzhou and Tokyo last week. The addition marks CSA's third service to Japan, joining flights to Osaka and Fukuoka. However, CSA now offers Wednesday-only service from Guizhou to the former Portuguese colony of Macau.
China Southern Airlines expanded its nonstop service between Guangzhou's Baiyun International Airport and Ho Chi Minh City. It will continue to codeshare on the route with Vietnam Airlines five days a week, but will add two daily A320 flights.
China Southern Airlines will resume its fourth weekly 777 flight to Los Angeles on April 1 2002. The flight was suspended following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Cirrus Airlines, a Lufthansa Regional partner, on Oct. 27 2002 will launch ERJ-145 services linking Leipzig-Halle and London Stansted daily except Saturdays.
City Airline will launch a twice-daily service between London Gatwick and Gothenburg continuing to Linkoping with ERJ-135s and ERJ-145s. The service, which starts April 22, 2002, follows British Airways' decision to withdraw from the route. The new privately owned Swedish regional started a Manchester-Gothenburg service Sept. 10, 2001.
Continental Airlines is adding a sixth weekly flight to its New York-Hong Kong 777-200ER service, which was started in Aug. 2000. Cathay Pacific plans to compete with the nonstop service from May with an A340-600.
Continental Airlines has completed installation of 864 new BusinessFirst sleeper seats throughout its fleet of 18 Boeing 777 aircraft by Dec. 2002. The new BusinessFirst seats feature several significant design improvements that provide more comfort for customers. The new seat, measuring 22 inches between the armrests, is wider than business class seats on any competing airline. It offers a 170-degree recline from seat cushion to seat back and 6 1/2 feet (2 meters) of sleeping space in the fully extended position. The seats also have privacy hoods, individual dual-level reading lights, adjustable winged headrests, power ports for laptop personal computers and personal multi-channel entertainment systems and satellite telephones.
Continental Airlines will introduce twice-daily nonstop service between Augusta Regional Airport and Newark and Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Continental Airlines expanded the capabilities of its eService self-check-in kiosks. Passengers now can use the kiosks to check in for connections from a Continental flight to a Continental codeshare flight operated by Northwest Airlines.
Continental Airlines will begin weekly service between Newark and Belize City with continuing service to San Pedro Sula. Also, the airline will start new nonstop service between Newark and Guatemala. Both will begin Dec. 14 and the Belize flight is pending government approval. The airline will renew daily nonstop service between Newark and Caracas beginning Dec. 12 2002 using a 737-700.
Continental Airlines unveiled its redesigned website that includes new features like real-time OnePass customer account information and online reward travel booking.
Continental Airlines will introduce a fifth daily service between Southeast Texas Regional Airport and Houston on Sept. 5 2002 using an ERJ-145. The airline will begin service between Alexandria, La., and Houston on Sept. 5 using an ERJ-145. Continental Express, which currently offers four daily flights with ATR 42s, will operate the new RJ service.
Continental Airlines' regional carrier, Continental Express, will start twice-daily nonstop flights between Des Moines and the hubs of Newark and Houston on July 8. It will use 50-passenger ERJ-145s on the routes.
Continental Airlines is slated May 1st to begin daily nonstop service between Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Amsterdam. The transatlantic flights will be operated with 767-400s configured for two classes. Continental will also resume daily nonstop service between its Houston hub and New York JFK beginning June 13, 2002 using 737-500s.
Continental Airlines has also resumed its daily nonstop service between London Gatwick and Cleveland yesterday. The 757 service was suspended last September.
Continental Airlines will operate its first transatlantic flight with its new business-class seats today on a trip from Newark to London Gatwick. It began installing the seats on the first of eighteen 777s that serve transatlantic and transpacific routes on April 4, 2002.
Continental Airlines will start nonstop flights from its Newark hub to Omaha and Oklahoma City on Nov. 1, 2002. It will offer three daily flights on the Omaha route and two on the Oklahoma City route, all with 50-seat ERJ-145s operated by Continental Express.
Continental Airlines plans to resume daily nonstop service between Newark and Tokyo Narita beginning April 18, 2002. The route, which is operated with 777s, had been cut to five weekly flights because of weak demand.
Continental Airlines plans to start daily nonstop service between Newark and Montego Bay with continuing service to Kingston. The flight will use a 737-800 and begin operating Dec. 12, 2002.
Continental Airlines and Amtrak launched their air/rail codeshare deal announced earlier this year. The agreement allows CO to place its code on Amtrak's Acela Regional and Keystone trains for connecting itineraries between Newark and four Northeast cities.
Continental Airlines and American Airlines have introduced interline electronic ticketing, which allows customers to use a single e-ticket when their itineraries include travel on both carriers. The deal also allows customers with e-tickets to be rebooked between the carriers' flights without having to obtain a paper ticket. It follows a similar agreement between American and United Airlines).
Continental Connection will introduce twice-daily, nonstop flights between Ottawa and Albany beginning Dec. 2 2002 and said it will begin flying between Allentown and 12 other northeastern cities via its new "micro hub" in Albany on March 25, 2002. The new service includes connections to Syracuse, Rochester, Long Island/Islip, Plattsburgh, Saranac Lake/Lake Placid, New York LaGuardia, White Plains, Buffalo, Burlington, Portland, Manchester and Providence.
Continental Airlines has established designated security checkpoint lanes for frequent fliers and some premium passengers at its hubs in Houston, Newark and Cleveland. One checkpoint lane has been designated at each of the hubs for OnePass Elite, BusinessFirst, domestic first class and Latin business class customers. Those travelers need to show their tickets, boarding passes, e-ticket itineraries or OnePass Elite membership cards to use the lanes.
Continental Airlines plans to begin four-times-weekly service between Newark and San Salvador in May. The new flights, prompted by strong demand for the airline's Houston-El Salvador service, will use 124-seat 737-700s.
Continental Airlines will add a second daily nonstop between Honolulu International and Houston's Bush Intercontinental on February 15, 2002. Service will be operated on the 767 with two-class &endash; BusinessFirst and Economy &endash; configuration. Among the aircraft's features are computer power ports at every seat up front and in "some" rows back in coach.
Seems people who were planning to vacation in foreign lands are venturing closer to home these days &endash; to places like Hawaii. In response to "strong demand," Continental plans to add a second daily Bush Houston Intercontinental-Honolulu nonstop effective February 15.
Copa Airlines of Panama joined Northwest Airlines' frequent-flier network, which also includes alliances with Continental Airlines and KLM. The deal allows Northwest WorldPerks members to earn and use miles on Copa flights throughout Latin America. Members of Copa, Continental Airlines' OnePass and Northwest's WorldPerks have reciprocal frequent-flier benefits, allowing members of any of the programs to earn and use miles on any of the four airlines. KLM members can earn and use miles on Copa flights through LatinPass.
DAT, the former regional operator for defunct Sabena and now the new national airline of Belgium, plans to change its name to SN Brussels Airlines. SN was the former Sabena code taken over by DAT. The new brand will be implemented gradually and the first aircraft with new livery is expected to take to the skies by the end of Feb. 2002.
Delta Air Lines announced on Dec, 10, 2002 the launch of interline electronic ticketing (ET) with Northwest Airlines, extending the convenience of electronic ticketing to customers who travel on Delta and Northwest in the same itinerary. Today, almost 90 percent of Delta customers worldwide take advantage of electronic ticketing. In support of our goal to reach 100 percent ET usage by the end of 2004, this enhancement facilitates Delta‚s efforts to create customer-focused technology solutions that reduce hassle and add convenience for its customers,‰ said Lee Macenczak, senior vice president - Sales & Distribution. Today's product launch follows the August 2002 introduction of interline ET between Delta and United Airlines.
Delta Air Lines will begin daily nonstop service between Reagan Washington National Airport and Salt Lake City on Jan. 31 2003 using a 757 in two-class configuration.
Delta Air Lines amended its low-fare experiment by reducing walkup and other business fare classes and simplifying the structure. According to JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker, the walkup fares now average 35% below typical full Y levels versus an earlier 21% discount. The revised structure "more closely resembles American's low-fare experiment."
Delta Air Lines expanded its lower business fare test to 11 more cities, creating around 1,550 new city-pairs where the reduced walkup and advance purchase fares are available. Delta's experiment dates to last Aug. 2002, when it cut business fares from three cities. American Airlines followed with its own test in mid-Nov. Unlike American's experiment, which is taking place in "highly concentrated big markets," Delta "has chosen small, largely unconcentrated markets to experiment with," according to JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker. Delta's new fare structure in the selected markets includes "a typical 22% discount to traditional walkup fares" plus nine new price points within each market, versus just for four American, Baker stated. AA's new walkup fares also typically are lower than Delta's.
Delta Air Lines will add its code to Air Jamaica's four weekly services from Montego Bay to Belize and its three weekly flights from Montego Bay to Bonaire effective immediately and will introduce daily seasonal service between Boston and Rome from May through Sept. and will expand its summer service between Cincinnati and Rome to year-round. Both routes will be flown with 767-300ER equipment.
Delta Air Lines will add its code to SkyTeam partner CSA Czech Airlines' flights between Prague and Riga on Nov. 15 2002.
Delta Air Lines beginning Nov. 11 2002 will expand its standby upgrade product that gives customers the opportunity to stand by for upgrades to first class for a fee on select off-peak flights within the US as well as to San Juan and St. Thomas on which Delta "expects empty first class seats to be available at departure time." The charge will range from $50 to $150 based on mileage.
Delta Air Lines launched an E-mail Notification System under which customers automatically can receive via e-mail information regarding any schedule change that affects their itineraries.
Delta Air Lines will begin Saturday-only nonstop service from Atlanta to Curacao on Jan. 11 2003 and will replace 737-200s with 757s on its flights between New York and Florida for the upcoming winter season owing to "strong customer demand." Additionally, Delta introduced its New York Chefs In-flight program to US BusinessElite customers beginning yesterday. The new meal service will be available on "most Delta BusinessElite flights" between New York JFK and Los Angeles International or San Francisco International airports.
Delta Air Lines will cancel its daily nonstop services from Atlanta to Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro owing to "lower demand for air travel worldwide and the continued weak US and global economy."
Delta Air Lines on Dec. 1 2002 will introduce new, seasonal and expanded service to points in the Caribbean and Latin America including Costa Rica, Providenciales, St. Maarten, Aruba and Nassau.
Delta Air Lines and Europcar announced a new marketing partnership under which Delta SkyMiles members will earn miles for renting vehicles from Europcar.
Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways signed reciprocal agreements to join each other's frequent-flier programs effective Oct. 1. 2002. This enables Delta SkyMiles members, effective on that date, to earn and redeem miles for flights on Virgin Atlantic and vice versa. Additionally, also effective Oct. 1 Delta will become a member of Virgin Atlantic's flying club loyalty program.
Delta Air Lines will begin selling its tickets through Hotwire, which now will sell "specially negotiated discount fares" from the seven largest US carriers. "Hotwire has become a major consumer Internet brand, and our new partnership allows Delta to offer customers yet another opportunity to find travel values," the carrier's VP-revenue management, Harlan Bennett, said.
Delta Air Lines teamed with MilePoint to introduce a new system that allows Delta SkyMiles members to buy and gift frequent-flier miles online. Corporations also can purchase miles online for use either as employee incentives or for consumer promotions. Minneapolis-based MilePoint provides technology and customized solutions to the travel and loyalty industries.
Delta Air Lines began code sharing on South African Airways' thrice-weekly services between Johannesburg and Kampala in July using a 737.
Delta Air Lines is adding frequent-traveler security lines in nine new locations for a total of 17 cities. The lines are open to members of the airline's frequent-flyer program and customers traveling in first, business or BusinessElite class.
Delta Air Lines will introduce nonstop service to Jackson Hole from Atlanta and 737-300 service to the popular skiing destination from Salt Lake City. The flights on the Atlanta route will use 757s and operate twice a week from Dec. 14 through April 5. Delta will add two daily flights to the Salt Lake City-Jackson Hole route starting Dec. 1, 2002 for a total of seven flights a day.
Delta Air Lines will add a Delta Connection flight between Great Falls and Salt Lake City beginning April 7. SkyWest Airlines will operate the flights with 50-seat CRJs. Delta also will replace a summer-only 737-300 service from SLC to Helena and Kalispell with two new flights, a nonstop 737-300 service between SLC and Helena beginning June 1, which will change to a CRJ during the winter, and a year-round nonstop CRJ flight between SLC and Kalispell beginning April 7, 2002.
Delta Air Lines' summer schedule includes increased frequencies for travel from its Atlanta hub, New York JFK and Florida. It will offer a thrice-weekly flight in addition to its daily service between Atlanta and London Gatwick. The additional Atlanta-London service will be instituted as it drops nonstop Boston-London service on June 1, 2002. It will also increase domestic flights from Atlanta to Baltimore, Chicago Midway, Colorado Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, Providence, Manchester, NH, Raleigh/Durham, San Diego, San Antonio, Tallahassee, and Tampa. JFK will get a fourth daily flight to Los Angeles starting June 1, 2002.
Delta Air Lines and Delta Express plan to expand service between New York and Florida. Starting May 4, 2002 Delta will add one more 737-800 flight from New York LaGuardia to both Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando and two more to West Palm Beach. Delta Express will add two flights from New York JFK to Ft. Lauderdale and single flights from JFK to both Orlando and Tampa.
Delta Air Lines will add two MD-88 flights between Atlanta and Tallahassee, for a total of five daily plus three Delta Connection flights a day. The new flights begin June 1, 2002. And a daily MD-88 flight between Atlanta and Milwaukee on July 1 2002, give that airport a total of five flights a day.
Delta Air Lines reached a codeshare agreement with partner Alitalia for flights from the latter's Milan hub to Anacona, Zurich and Vienna beginning June 1, 2002. Delta also will add a codeshare flight between Milan and Florence. Also, Delta will launch its Cincinnati-Rome service on July 1, 2002, and will use 268 seat MD-11s on the route. Alitalia will offer codeshare service on the flights as well.
Delta Air Lines and SkyTeam partner Korean Air will begin codesharing on three flights per week between Atlanta and Seoul on May 20 2002, linking their two hubs with nonstop service. The week of April 29 2002, Delta will also start codesharing on other flights offered by Korean Air. The deal covers KAL flights from Anchorage, New York JFK, Los Angeles, Washington Dulles, DFW, Chicago and San Francisco to Seoul and from Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita. Delta and KAL will also codeshare on trips from Seoul to Osaka and Narita. Within Korea, they will codeshare on flights to Pusan, and when KAL adds nonstop Incheon - Atlanta service, that route will be included.
Delta Air Lines expanded its codeshare deal with Air France, also a SkyTeam carrier, to Niamey, Niger, starting May 9, 2002. The deal allows Delta customers to buy tickets to fly beyond Paris on AF's flights between Paris and Niamey. Delta will also codeshare with South African Airways on SAA flights using a 737 from Johannesburg to Lusaka beginning June 1, 2002.
Delta Air Lines will codeshare on Aerolitoral's four-times-weekly Ontario, California, and Hermosillo service, as well as its four-times-weekly flights between New York JFK and Monterrey. The Ontario-Hermosillo deal is effective immediately, while the JFK-Monterrey service starts July 8, 2002.
Delta Air Lines will begin codesharing with Air Jamaica on flights between New York JFK and Antigua as of June 20. The US carrier also announced that it will offer codeshare service to Antigua and Curacao through Air Jamaica and that carrier's Montego Bay hub on June 20 and May 21 respectively.
Delta Air Lines this spring will begin service between Salt Lake City and the three Montana cities of Helena, Great Falls and Kalispell. In past years, the Salt Lake-Helena-Kalispell run was operated with the 737. This year there will be a Delta 737 nonstop between Salt Lake City and Helena starting on June 1 and the 50-seat Canadair regional jet from SLC to Kalispell on April 7 2002. That service will be operated for Delta by Skywest Airlines.
Delta Air Lines reached an agreement with weather.com, the website of the Weather Channel, to allow customers to check weather conditions for destination cities directly through Delta's website. The deal also covers customized weather content for Delta's gate information display screens, ticket confirmation e-mails and employee intranet.
Delta Air Lines will now issue only e-tickets for itineraries that are eligible for such tickets, although customers can ask to convert to paper tickets for $10. The fee is intended to offset increasing costs for paper ticket processing and will be waived for some frequent-flier members and customers buying full-fare, unrestricted tickets. The change is effective immediately. Delta has enhanced its self-service check-in kiosks and plans to install 300 more of the units in the US, more than tripling the number available. The kiosks now can be used by any e-ticketed domestic customer instead of only select frequent-flier program members.
Delta AirElite Business Jets began offering customers the opportunity to earn triple Delta SkyMiles for charter flights operated through Dec. 31 2002.
Delta Connection will add two daily nonstops between Roanoke and Atlanta Feb. 15 2003 using a CRJ. It will add one daily flight between the two cities on Jan. 31 using an ATR 72. Additionally, it will launch two daily nonstop CRJ flights between Charleston, W. Va., and Atlanta replacing turboprop service. It will add one daily CRJ nonstop between Atlanta and Golden Triangle Regional Airport, Miss., beginning Feb. 15 replacing turboprop service. Atlantic Southeast Airlines will operate all of the services. In addition, Delta Connection will begin service between Atlantic City and Boston, operated by Comair using a CRJ, and between Atlantic City and Reagan Washington National Airport, operated by Atlantic Coast Airlines using a 328JET, effective Jan. 31 2003.
Delta Connection will add two daily nonstop flights between Atlanta and Syracuse and Atlanta and Rochester on Jan. 1 2003. Atlantic Southeast Airlines will operate the flights using CRJ700s.
Delta Connection will provide seasonal daily nonstop service between Cincinnati and Melbourne, Fort Walton Beach and Panama City, Fla., from Jan. 21 through April 4 2003. Comair will operate the flights with CRJs. Comair also will offer an additional daily service between Cincinnati and Tallahassee during the same period.
Delta Connection is adding one nonstop flight between its Atlanta hub and both Orlando and Tampa starting Jan. 31. With the new regional jet service, Delta Air Lines and Delta Connection will offer 13 daily roundtrip flights between Atlanta and Orlando and 14 between Atlanta and Tampa.
Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Coast Airlines will operate one additional roundtrip flight between Cincinnati and Toledo for a new total of nine daily. Delta Connection carrier SkyWest will begin twice-daily nonstop service Jan. 31 between Dallas/Ft. Worth and both Lexington and Knoxville. The new schedule also will replace turboprop service with RJs between DFW and Shreveport. An additional roundtrip between DFW and Austin will bring the number of daily flights to six as of Jan. 31. Beginning Feb. 1 2003, SkyWest, Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Comair will begin Delta Connection service between DFW and the beach communities of Panama City, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Fort Walton Beach and Gulfport/Biloxi.
Delta Connection is replacing current turboprop service between Atlanta and Wilmington, N.C., with three daily regional jet flights operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Delta Connection is upgrading service to 70-seat CRJs between Cincinnati and Louisville, Raleigh-Durham, Bangor and Huntsville. Comair will operate the routes. Comair also is expanding RJ service from Cincinnati to Green Bay, Madison, Memphis, Charleston, Tampa and Chicago Midway.
Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines yesterday began two daily CRJ700 flights between Key West and Atlanta. Delta Connection also began three daily nonstop CRJ services between Cincinnati and Atlantic City.
Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines will end service to Worcester, Mass., on Nov. 1 2002. The twice-daily flights began in Feb. 2000 but failed to realize the growth and revenue potential that was anticipated, the company said. Earlier, Delta Connection announced it would add 20 more flights out of Reagan Washington National Airport.
Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines plans to expand its codeshare deal with AeroMexico by placing the Mexican carrier's code on 32 daily ASA flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and 14 other US destinations starting April 17 2002. AeroMexico currently places its code on Delta Connection flights between Atlanta and Monterrey. The expansion includes seven cities in Texas, three in Louisiana, two in Arkansas and two in Oklahoma.
Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines began operating the first 70 seat Bombardier CRJ-700 on Jan. 29. The regional jet is an upgraded version of the smaller CRJ-100/200 series aircraft, and fills a gap between the 50 seat CRJ-200 and the MD-88 operated by Delta Air Lines.
Delta Connection carrier Comair will operate one additional daily nonstop between Cincinnati and Montreal beginning Nov. 27 2002 using a CRJ and will begin two daily flights between Orlando and Huntsville Dec. 16 2002 using a CRJ and the carrier will begin three daily services between Cincinnati and Moline on Jan. 3 2003 using a CRJ.
Delta Connection carrier Comair will upgrade to CRJ700s on one flight each between Cincinnati and Albany, Bangor, Buffalo and Detroit. The new aircraft also will operate two services between Cincinnati and Omaha.
Delta Connection carrier Comair began CRJ service between Atlanta and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, operating three daily flights. Delta Connection began new service on March 18, 2002 between its Atlanta hub and Charlottesville, Va. Subsidiary Comair is operating three daily nonstop CRJ flights on that route as well.
Delta Connection is expanding service at Reagan Washington National Airport with 20 daily non stops starting Nov. 1 2002. The new services, operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Comair, will use CRJs. Frequencies will be added to New York, Atlanta and Cincinnati. New service will be provided to Charleston, Columbus, Huntsville, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Delta Connection will begin six nonstop daily CRJ services between Kansas City and Dallas/Fort Worth Oct. 1, 2002.
Delta Connection will begin three daily nonstop services between Columbus and both Orlando and Tampa using ERJs. Chautauqua Airlines will operate the flights.
Delta Connection carrier SkyWest Airlines, will operate nonstop seasonal service from Salt Lake City to and from Boise and Idaho Falls Dec. 1 2002 to March 30 2003.
Delta Express and South African Airways began code sharing on Delta Express services between New York JFK and several Florida destinations. The new codeshare will offer SAA passengers two daily departures from JFK to Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale. Additionally, two daily departures from Tampa, Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale to JFK are under the codeshare agreement.
Delta Express, Delta Air Lines' low-fare subsidiary, will expand its service Nov. 1 from six to eight daily flights between New York JFK and Ft. Lauderdale from four to five daily flights between JFK and Orlando. Beginning the same day it will add a second daily service from Long Island Islip MacArthur Airport to Ft. Lauderdale.
Delta Express is laying on more Florida-New York flights. June 1 2002, the low-fare, single-class carrier adds two Fort Lauderdale-JFK departures. That makes six daily. With the addition of a new roundtrip to both Tampa and Orlando, there will be three and four flights, respectively, to those cities. On the same date Delta Express will add daily flights between Orlando and both Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, and two new flights between Boston and Tampa.
Delta AirElite Business Jets, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, added two Gulfstream IV-SPs through charter management agreements in an effort to "continue to expand its nationwide charter fleet capacity."
EAE European Air Express launched twice-daily services the week of Nov. 4 2002 with 46-seat ATR 42-300s between Cologne-Bonn and Geneva.
EasyJet launched daily service from London Gatwick to both Alicante and Madrid Sept. 4, lifting its presence at Gatwick to a total of 11 routes with up to 27 daily departures.
EasyJet announced the four destinations it will serve from Paris, where it received only a handful of slots last month despite wanting to base as many as seven aircraft at Orly this summer. The no-frills airline will operate five daily flights from Charles de Gaulle to London Luton starting June 12, two daily flights to Liverpool beginning May 2, and four flights a day to Nice starting June 18. It will launch four daily frequencies from Orly to Geneva beginning May 10. Additionally, the Luton-based airline said it will increase its service from Liverpool to Nice to two daily flights. The Liverpool-Belfast route will move to seven daily flights as of May 1, and Geneva-Nice will get three flights a day from May 10, 2002.
El Al started Fifth-Freedom service this month between Los Angeles and Toronto with three nonstop flights a week. During the summer it will add a fourth flight. It operates 747-400s and a new 777 on the route.
Emirates inaugurated three weekly services between Dubai and Cochin, India, using an A330-200. The airline also inaugurated nonstop passenger services four times weekly with 777-200s between Dubai and Perth. The carrier said it plans to increase winter frequencies between Germany and Dubai, which it already serves daily from Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Munich and it will launch thrice-weekly nonstop service between Dubai and Casablanca March 31 2002 with A330-200s.
Ethiopian Airlines postponed indefinitely the introduction of direct flights to Paris initially slated for April 2, 2002. Ethiopian is compelled to postpone its flights to Paris as the terminal assigned to the airline at Charles de Gaulle Airport is not adequate for the quality of service the airline was hoping to provide customers.
EVA Air began flying into Tokyo Narita last week with a flight from Taipei and boosted its frequency to the city from two to 14 flights a week. The Taiwan-based carrier uses 767-300ERs on the route and plans to introduce an A330-200 next spring.
Expedia began charging a $5 booking fee for most airline tickets purchased on its US website. However, it is waiving the fee for airline tickets purchased as part of packages. Expedia said it is too early to predict the impact the fee will have on its fourth-quarter earnings.
Finnair and Swiss will start code sharing Dec. 9 2002 on services between Helsinki and Zurich, Finnish domestic flights and flights from Zurich to six south and central European destinations. Finnair flies to Zurich twice daily.
Finnair and Swiss Federal Railways will introduce codeshare cooperation on rail routes within Switzerland starting Nov. 18. Finnair flight numbers will be designated to rail connections from Zurich to Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Lucerne connecting with Finnair's twice-daily Helsinki-Zurich services.
Finnair has been forced by Russian aviation authorities to cancel two of its weekly frequencies to Moscow and to St. Petersburg. The move is ascribed to Russian retaliation in a dispute between Russia and the European Union over restrictions, since April 1, 2002, on Russian planes that do not comply with EU noise standards. Finnair restored daily frequency on its Helsinki-New York services. Flights had been reduced to five weekly after Sept. 11 as Finnair switched excess North Atlantic capacity to Bangkok and other leisure destinations.
Finnair will start daily flights Thursday between Helsinki and Bangkok. Four of the flights will continue to Singapore and three will continue to Hong Kong. Finnair launched a fourth weekly service between Helsinki and Beijing on Feb. 17, 2002; a fifth frequency is expected to be added later this year.
Frontier Airlines Regional partner Frontier JetExpress added Ft. Myers, Oklahoma City, Tucson and Oakland to its route network.
Frontier Airlines affiliate Frontier JetExpress, operated by Mesa Airlines, no longer will serve Lambert-St. Louis International Airport effective Oct. 22 2002.
Frontier Airlines signed a purchase and long-term services agreement with JetBlue's wholly owned LiveTV subsidiary to equip its Airbus fleet with satellite receiving equipment that will bring DirecTV airborne satellite programming to every passenger. Installation of the equipment on the carrier's A319s is scheduled to begin this month. By March 31 2003 all of its in-service A319s will have LiveTV equipment.
Frontier Airlines will begin a daily nonstop service between Denver and Cancun Dec. 20 2002. The airline will end its twice-daily Denver-Boston service effective Oct. 22. "Frontier's service between Denver and Boston has not met our profitability expectations and that, coupled with ongoing facilities and ground handling issues, requires that we make this difficult decision," said President and CEO Jeff Potter. The airline will begin twice-weekly service between Denver and Mazatlan Dec. 21 2002.
Frontier Airlines launched service to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport Friday. It will operate a daily nonstop to Denver before adding a second flight on Feb. 17, 2002.
Garuda Indonesia will suspend all Bali flights to/from London Gatwick from Jan. 15 to March 29 2003. When thrice-weekly service resumes March 31, Garuda will operate Bali flights via Singapore instead of Bangkok as before. Bali's tourist market collapsed after a lethal terrorist attack at a disco on the storied island.
Garuda Indonesia is expected to be hit severely by the attacks that came as it flies into solid profitability for the first time in decades. Bali is a key center for Garuda, bringing in hundreds of thousands of international tourists and hard currency.
Garuda Indonesia plans to reinstate a twice-weekly flight from London Gatwick to Bali beginning Feb. 9, 2002. The service will operate until March 30 to allow the carrier to assess traffic levels. Garuda said it aims to stay profitable ahead of privatization next year.
Garuda Indonesia plans to suspend services between Bali-Denpasar and Frankfurt and London from February until the end of June 2002 because of low load factors.
GB Airways is launching a twice-weekly London Gatwick-Almeria service with A320s and A321s on Nov. 3 2002. This is the British Airways franchise carrier's ninth Spanish destination.
Low-fare carrier Germanwings , banking on the large ethnic Turkish community in Germany, said it will start thrice-weekly flights Dec. 3 linking its Cologne-Bonn hub with Istanbul. The Eurowings clone starts its other operations Oct. 27 2002, using A319s on flights from Cologne-Bonn to Barcelona, Berlin Tegel, London Stansted, Madrid, Milan Malpensa, Nice, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Zurich.
Go Air Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of KnightHawk, will begin four daily scheduled services between Pembroke and Toronto Oct. 15 using a Beech 1900.
Great Lakes Aviation will add a fifth weekday flight between Waterloo, Iowa, and Chicago O'Hare beginning Oct. 1 2002. Weekend service between the two points will be increased to three flights on Saturdays and four on Sundays.
Gulf Air launched four weekly Paris Charles de Gaulle-Bahrain flights and three weekly CDG-Abu Dhabi services, operating A330-200s on both.
Hawaiian Airlines has a promotion that includes a 5% discount for buying tickets online and will resume daily nonstop service between Los Angeles and Maui and add nonstop service between San Francisco and Maui beginning June 15. The flights will be operated with 767-300ERs configured for two classes. Hawaiian also will add a fourth daily flight between Los Angeles and Honolulu from June 15 through Sept. 2 2002.
Helios Airways will start five weekly services from Cyprus to London Luton Dec. 13 2002. The privately owned carrier started scheduled flights to Sofia and Dublin earlier this year. The airline will also start new scheduled services out of London Luton to Larnaca and Paphos in early Nov. 2002. It will use 737-800s for the flights. Initially the Cypriot carrier will fly four times a week to Larnaca and once to Paphos.
Horizon Air launched nonstop daily service between Los Angeles International Airport and Sun Valley Sunday using a Q400. The airline will begin installation of onboard defibrillators (an electrical device used to counteract fibrillation of the heart muscle and restore normal heartbeat by applying a brief electric shock) and upgraded medical kits on its fleet of 60 aircraft and expects to complete the project by summer, well ahead of FAA's April 2004 deadline.
Horizon Air will introduce Q400s on Oct. 27 from Portland and Seattle to Eureka and Redding. The airline also launched service between Seattle and Long Beach Sunday using a CRJ700 and will begin a daily nonstop service between Boise and Sun Valley starting Dec. 15 and continuing through March 30 2003. The airline will launch daily service between Portland, Ore., and Billings and between Boise and Phoenix beginning Oct. 27. The Portland-Billings route will be operated year round, while the Boise-Phoenix service will operate seasonally through April 27 2003.
Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum launched a daily service connecting Madrid to Pisa/Florence using a CRJ200.
Iberia and Swiss International Air Lines signed a code sharing arrangement that will start Nov. 1 2002. Under the agreement, Iberia and swiss flights between Madrid and Barcelona and Zurich and between both Spanish cities and Geneva will be marketed under the code of both airlines. Iberia's code also will be added to services operated by swiss from Madrid and Barcelona to Basel.
Iberia and Aer Lingus enhanced their code sharing agreement for the winter season. Beginning Oct. 27, the airlines will share codes on both carriers' flights between Dublin and Barcelona. Additionally, the Iberia code will appear on Aer Lingus services between London and Dublin and the Irish carrier's Shannon and Cork flights from Dublin and London.
Iberia will cancel its flights to and from Mexico City and Cancun May 1-3 because of a strike planned by company employees in Mexico. Iberia stated that negotiations for a new union contract are underway with Iberia employees in Mexico, where union representatives have put forward demands that would raise operating costs by about 60%. The airline stated that it intends to exhaust all negotiating possibilities in hopes of reaching an agreement, thereby forestalling additional inconvenience to customers.
Iberia reportedly is mulling moving its Latin American hub away from Miami International Airport because of passenger delays caused by tighter security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Iberia, which operates two daily flights from Spain to Miami and four from Miami to Latin America, may switch to another country, Reuters reported.
International Armenian Airlines took off last week in competition with Armenian Airlines. The new carrier has inaugurated services between Yerevan and Paris using an Airbus A320. Further services are planned to Amsterdam, Athens, Dubai and Frankfurt. The private company intends to add further aircraft this year.
Iran Air expanded its flight schedule linking Germany with Tehran. There are now two non stops weekly from Hamburg in addition to five from Frankfurt. New services are to be launched later this year from either Duesseldorf or Cologne-Bonn, according to an Iran Air marketing executive in Frankfurt.
Japan Airlines Group will partially resume flights to Guam from Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya that have been disrupted since Dec. 13 2002 by the impact of Typhoon Pongsona.
Japan Airlines and Air New Zealand will extend their codeshare with two weekly flights between Nagoya and Auckland beginning Oct. 28. The carriers will codeshare on a weekly Monday flight between Nagoya and Auckland using an ANZ 767. From Nov. 29 frequency will increase to two services a week.
Japan Airlines and Japan Air System fleets will adopt a new common brand identity and livery as part of the integration of the companies that begins next month. Gone from JAL tails will be the familiar crane logo in favor of a swath of color described as "the arc of the sun." A 777-200 that will take to the skies in Nov. 2002 will be the first aircraft to sport the new logo and livery.
Japan Airlines and Japan Air System, continuing their path toward integration, will begin to link their frequent-flier programs on Oct. 1. As of that date, members of the programs will be able to earn and redeem mileage on either carrier on domestic routes. In April, the loyalty programs will be integrated fully as the new JAL Mileage Bank.
Japan Airlines filed its proposed 2002-03 winter season schedule, which covers Oct. 1-March 31, with the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau. JAL will increase services on the Tokyo-Bangkok route from 14 to 17 per week in Oct. and to 21 per week from Nov. through March. Up to now it provided two-class service with wet-leased aircraft and crews from subsidiary JALways on the route, but beginning in Oct. it will introduce three-class service with a dedicated first-class cabin on a JAL 747-400. Also, Tokyo-Milan flights will go from four to five per week and Tokyo-Las Vegas weekly services will drop from five to three. Flights from Tokyo to Honolulu will decline to 21 per week from 28 and total weekly services from Japan to Hawaii will fall from 75 to 68 for the winter. Tokyo-Paris flights will go from 11 to 10 per week and weekly Tokyo-Zurich services will decline from four to three. Additionally, both the Tokyo-Qingdao and Nagoya-Beijing flights from Dec. through Feb. will dip from three to two per week. As a result of "greater passenger demand," from Nov. until March daily service to Bangkok from Osaka will be flown with a 747 instead of a DC-10.
Japan Airlines and Emirates Airlines signed off on a code sharing alliance that will include participation in each other's frequent-flier programs. From Oct., JAL will codeshare on Emirates' four-times-weekly Osaka-Dubai services and Emirates will codeshare on JAL's flights from Osaka to Tokyo, Sapporo and Fukuoka.
Japan Airlines will begin service from Tokyo Haneda to Toyama from July 2002 with twice-daily 767 flights. Toyama will be the 35th domestic destination served by JAL Group airlines. Japan Airlines and JAL Group subsidiary J-Air plan to begin daily codeshare flights between Nagoya and Narita April 18 2002. J-Air will use 50-seat CRJ200s on the route.
Japan Airlines starting Feb. 16, 2002 will offer its new Skysleeper Solo seating on a daily basis to first-class passengers traveling between New York and Tokyo. The leather, 26-in. wide seat reclines to a 73-in. long flat position and has a lumbar massage function. There is room for only 11 units in cabins selected for the service. Each seat has a personal TV, built-in telephone, recessed reading lights, a side table and two storage compartments. The new seat is available now on certain JAL Boeing 747-400 New York JFK-Tokyo services, and the airline eventually plans to offer it on flights between Tokyo and Chicago, Los Angeles and London.
Japan Airlines plans to restore frequency on the Tokyo-Honolulu route to three flights a day from two beginning in May, 2002 a month earlier than originally planned.
JetBlue moved up its launch of daily service between New JFK and Las Vegas by two months to Nov. 15 2002 and operate four daily flights on the route by March 2003. The decision follows the shutdown of Las Vegas-based National Airlines, which had been trying to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
JetBlue Airways began October 2002 new service between Long Beach and both Las Vegas and Salt Lake City and launched service between Long Beach and Oakland offering nine flights per day with fares beginning at $49 each way.
JetBlue Airways introduced a third daily flight between Oakland and New York JFK. It is scheduled to begin twice-daily service between Oakland and Washington Dulles on May 1 and to add a fourth Oakland-JFK flight on May 8, 2002.
JetBlue Airways is scheduled to begin three daily nonstop flights between New York JFK and San Juan on May 30 2002. The two-year-old airline boarded its 5 millionth passenger at New York JFK and will begin twice-daily nonstop transcon service from Washington Dulles to Long Beach and Oakland May 1, 2002.
Jetsgo will double its weekday services between Montreal and Toronto to 12 daily flights beginning Sept. 3. A reduced schedule will operate on weekends.
Kitty Hawk, a Dallas-based freight airline, emerged successfully from Chapter 11 protection at the end of Sept., more than two years after it entered bankruptcy in May 2000.
KLM temporarily suspended service between Amsterdam and Abidjan effective Feb. 3 2003 owing to political unrest in the West African state. The airline will extend its South African route network to Durban and Port Elizabeth from Jan. 11 through codeshares with Comair, which also will operate an additional service to KLM's existing destination Cape Town. Comair flights operated under the KLM code will connect in Johannesburg with KLM flights to and from Amsterdam.
KLM will begin nonstop service between Amsterdam and Johannesburg on Oct. 26 2003 using a 747-400. On the same date it will begin four weekly nonstop flights between Amsterdam and Cape Town. The airline will also launch a daily roundtrip service to Casablanca March 30 2003, operating a 737-400 in codeshare with Northwest Airlines. The route currently is served by Transavia, which plans to focus on point-to-point service for the leisure market.
KLM and TAM Brazilian Airlines will begin code sharing on the route between Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires with the start of the 2002-03 winter schedule subject to government approval.
KLM will install lie-flat seats in World Business Class cabins on its new fleet of 10 777-200ERs due for delivery starting in Oct. 2003 and all seats onboard the jets will be equipped with Matsushita Avionics Systems interactive IFE units. The 777s will be operated on long-haul intercontinental routes, offering 35 business seats and 292 economy seats, and will replace the airline's current 10 747-300s and two of its MD-11s.
KLM will launch twice-daily service between Amsterdam and Trondheim beginning March 30, 2002. Regional affiliate KLM cityhopper will operate the service using F70s. the airline is also launching twice-daily Aberdeen-Stavanger service Aug. 25, 2002 using F70s.
KLM, though reporting softer demand, said it probably will not need to cancel flights on Sept. 11. "We have a slightly decreased volume in bookings on a few US destinations on that specific date but at the moment there is no indication that we would have to cancel flights," a KLM spokesperson said.
KLM exel will start twice-daily service between Strasbourg and Amsterdam on Oct. 1 2002. The commuter flights will be operated with a 30-seat Brasilia.
KLM introduced a new self-service check-in system based on IBM kiosk technology at Amsterdam Schiphol. The system prints boarding passes, allows passengers to choose seats, updates frequent-flier status and prints receipts for e-tickets. Specially designed e-service centers are equipped with an integrated passport reader that allows passports and visas for passengers traveling to the US and Australia to be processed directly.
KLM uk is operating three daily Leeds Bradford-Amsterdam flights with an F100. Previously it operated four rotations a day with F50s.
KLM said it will increase flight frequency to various destinations this summer as passenger volume recovers from the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It also noted that volume traditionally is higher during the summer than in the winter. Because of changes in demand it will make business class cabins slightly smaller on its 747-400s, 737-300s and 737-400s; the change will add about eight extra seats on its 737s. In North America KLM will boost capacity to Detroit, Los Angeles and Montreal as well as increasing joint-venture services with Northwest Airlines to Newark, San Francisco and Vancouver. In Europe it will add a fourth daily flight on the Amsterdam-Athens route as of June 3.
KLM cityhopper will assume the last Eurowings and Braathens services to Germany and Norway while Thalys high-speed rail services gradually will replace all Amsterdam-Antwerp flights. KLM will increase frequencies to several Middle East cities as of March 9 and offer daily flights to Dubai. In Africa it will cut frequencies to Dar es Salaam. Central and South America service will see more weekly flights to Paramaribo.
Korean Air will operate three weekly 737 charter flights between Incheon and Taipei from Dec. 27 to Feb. 21. They will mark the first service over the once-lucrative route since flights between South Korea and Taiwan were terminated in 1992 after Seoul cut diplomatic ties in favor of Beijing. Taiwan's TransAsia Airlines was granted approval three weeks ago to operate short-term charter service to Seoul.
Korean Air and Vietnam Airlines expanded their existing codeshare agreement and announced "potential training exchange programs." The Incheon-Ho Chi Minh City route will be upped to eight flights a week from six and frequency on the Incheon-Hanoi codeshare route will be boosted from five weekly flights to seven.
Korean Air added 19 flights per week to six of its nine US destinations. Los Angeles service was boosted from 21 to 28 weekly flights, New York JFK has increased from 10 to 12 flights per week, and Chicago O'Hare and Honolulu services are now daily instead of four times weekly. Washington, D.C., has been upped to four flights per week from three, and Atlanta service has been changed to three weekly nonstops. Previously, the Atlanta flight made a stop in Dallas.
Korean Air is adding three new China destinations, for a total of 12, starting May 24 2002. It will launch flights to Jinan, Yantai and Xiamen, all of which are slated to host World Cup games. Incheon-Jinan and Incheon-Xiamen flights will operate three times a week using 737-800s. Daegu-Yantai service will operate twice a week, also with a 737-800.
LanChile and American Express have teamed up to offer American Express Platinum card members two-for-one tickets to South America. Passengers who purchase a business or first class ticket with LanChile using their American Express Platinum card, will receive a second ticket free. This applies to all LanChile and LanPeru flights originating from the airlines' U.S. gateways of Miami, New York or Los Angeles for round-trip travel to South America. All travel must be completed by Aug. 31, 2003. Certain restrictions apply. For information, call 866-LANCHILE or 786-265-6240
LanChile began daily service between New York JFK and Lima with continuing service to Santiago. The airline also announced plans to launch LanEcuador by the first quarter of 2003. It already has met with aviation officials in Ecuador to request route rights for the proposed carrier, which will begin with a fleet of two 767s. LanChile also signed key agreements during the quarter with Lufthansa Cargo and Qantas, which it said "outperformed expectations" and are a "solid source of new income."
LanChile introduced Internet check-in for travel within Chile. The carrier also expanded its route network in Australia and Asia through new codeshares with Qantas on the Santiago-Auckland-Sydney route. The deal is effective July 1 2002 and consists of three weekly flights operated by LanChile using an A340.
LanChile is also adding five new cities on the US West Coast to its network under a codeshare with American Airlines. Starting May 8, LanChile will offer travel from San Jose, Phoenix, Oakland, San Diego and Las Vegas through its Los Angeles gateway to South American destinations. The codeshare means that passengers only need a single ticket and can check in to their final destinations.
LanChile will add service from Vancouver as part of its codeshare alliance with Alaska Airlines starting April 4 2002. It will offer flights from Vancouver to Santiago via Los Angeles and vice-versa as well as connecting flights to other South American destinations. The agreement includes reciprocal frequent-flier benefits.
LanChile introduced a new inflight entertainment system in all three classes that features video games and video- and music-on-demand. It also placed satellite telephones in the seats in all classes on its new A340s and installed new economy class seats that feature individual video monitors, computer ports, adjustable headrests and legrests.
Lauda Air will launch weekly flights Nov. 5 2002 between Vienna and Yangon, thus becoming the only European airline to operate to Myanmar, according to CEO Thomas Suritsch. Other new points will be Casablanca and Nairobi. Well-known summer destinations Palma de Mallorca and Malaga will be in the winter timetable for the first time.
Lufthansa is eliminating first class effective Jan. 6 2003 on an unspecified number of long-haul routes where demand for premium-class service has slumped. Among the routes are Frankfurt-Philadelphia and Frankfurt-Boston, currently operated with A340s. Other city-pairs where first class no longer can be justified commercially are under study for conversion to two-class service. Some are primarily tourism-oriented destinations.
Lufthansa and Connexion by Boeing transmitted the first e-mail via broadband Internet connection from a scheduled airline flight the week of Nov. 4 2002. The 747-400 was en route from Frankfurt to Washington Dulles. A standard laptop was connected with the LH intranet via a VPN. The new service, dubbed Lufthansa FlyNet, will be offered free of charge beginning Jan. 15 2003 to passengers traveling on the specially configured aircraft, which is operating between Frankfurt and Dulles with flight numbers LH418 and LH419. Passengers will be able to use FlyNet via their own computers or on loaner equipment available onboard.
Lufthansa will begin service between Portland, Ore., and Frankfurt on March 31 2003.
Lufthansa launched a new baggage-management solution that it says integrates passenger baggage information across an airline's entire operation. The wireless, Web-enabled system is designed to give airlines real-time tracking-status information about their passengers' luggage regardless of its location within the airline's network. Additionally, it gives US carriers the ability to verify that a passenger checking in luggage actually boarded the flight.
Lufthansa announced on May 14, 2002 that it will initiate transatlantic nonstop flights between Duesseldorf and Newark with a BBJ wet-leased from Geneva based corporate aircraft specialist PrivatAir. The specially configured 737-700 will seat 48 in an all-business-class configuration with "cradle" seats and Sony Personal Watchman televisions for each passenger. Flights will be operated daily except Tuesdays from June 17, 2002. This is the first time Lufthansa will offer an exclusively business-class service. Lufthansa will charge a standard business-class fare for the product, a ticket price of $5,818 roundtrip. Although passengers will be able to earn miles in either Lufthansa's or United Airlines' frequent-flier programs, the flights will not be marketed as codeshares with United. Lufthansa did not offer further comment on the service, but it is in line with arguments made by Boeing that in the future, high-value traffic will increasingly bypass congested hubs. That is the rationale for the manufacturer's proposed Sonic Cruiser as well as an offering of a 250-seat luxury version of the 747-400QLR for routes such as Singapore-New York.
Lufthansa has started weekday flights between inner city Berlin-Tempelhof and London City Airport. The service is operated by Team Lufthansa partner Augsburg Airways with Q400s.
Lufthansa will expand capacity in its summer schedule by adding more frequent flights from Frankfurt to Phoenix, Caracas, Nagoya and Ho Chi Minh City. Phoenix will return to daily service from three times weekly after it was cut back following the Sept. 11 attacks. Caracas will move to six flights a week from three. Both routes will be operated with A340s. LH will restore two flights a week to Nagoya and, pending government approval, will offer five A340 flights a week on that route. Ho Chi Minh City will gain an additional weekly 747-400 flight, for a total of three, on April 29; all other service additions begin June 1, 2002.
Lufthansa will boost capacity by about 7% versus the winter timetable starting April 1, 2002 when it implements its summer schedule. The new timetable includes 370 additional flights for a gain of 55,000 seats per week along with three new services: Munich to Boston, Shanghai and Tokyo. Still, the schedule will have about 10% less capacity year-on-year. To support the additional flights, LH will return to service 10 of the 43 aircraft it had parked and deploy two new A340-300s. Five of the aircraft will fly continental routes and the others intercontinental services. Much of the added capacity will be on flights to the US, LH will resume daily service from Frankfurt to Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Houston and Philadelphia while Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington will get additional daily flights. From Munich it will begin serving Boston six times weekly on May 1, 2002. It resumed service to New York JFK on March 2 and will add San Francisco on March 31. LH will also add frequencies to destinations in the Middle East and Asia and within Europe.
Lufthansa, first customer for Boeing's Connexion product, it has fitted a 747-400 with the equipment for testing. Travelers may be able to access it by year end. Connexion uses high-speed broadband data links to permit passengers to send e-mail, use the Internet and eventually view live TV in-flight. Flying up front on Lufthansa this May and June? Culinary icon Paul Bocuse has been brought on board as LH's latest "Star Chef." First- and business-class flyers can sample his creations at 35,000 feet while tuning out the world for a while.
Lufthansa will begin flying nonstop from Boston to Munich, its secondary hub, as of May 1, 2002. The six-times-a-week service will use a 247-seat A340 configured for three classes.
Maersk Air plans to increase the destinations it serves on behalf of British Airways to 16 from 10. The new routes will be phased in with services from its Birmingham base to Nice, Bordeaux and Toulouse starting May 4. Flights to Athens, Geneva and Nice will be introduced a month later.
Malaysia Airlines will resume thrice-weekly 777 nonstop flights between Kuala Lumpur and Vienna starting July 1, 2002, while Lauda Air will increase its services on the route from six to seven flights a week at the end of May.
Malaysia Airlines reached agreements to sell its headquarters and airport facilities to the Ministry of Finance and concluded a sale/leaseback deal on eight aircraft, allowing it to boost its balance sheet as it resumes service to six international destinations. MAS is restarting service to Istanbul, Cairo, Beirut, Manchester, Rome and Karachi. Flights to Auckland and Zurich that had been scheduled to cease this year will be continued. Improved passenger loads, lower fuel prices and lower interest rates have contributed to the airline's rethink on service suspensions.
Malev began five-times-weekly service the week of Nov. 4 2002 between New York JFK and Budapest Ferihegy Airport using 767-200s.
Mexicana Airlines will add five weekly services between Mexico City and Vancouver starting Dec. 14 using an A319. In addition, the carrier will increase service to Montreal to daily and to Toronto to 12 flights a week in cooperation with Air Canada beginning Dec. 12 2002.
Mexicana Airlines plans to begin four-times-weekly nonstop service between Denver and Mexico City and to make the flights daily beginning in November. It also will add nonstop service from Denver to Zacatecas starting May 4, 2002. Flights to both Mexican destinations will use A320s.
Mexicana Airlines will offer earlier departures from Newark to Mexico City, which it said will allow passengers to connect to more destinations in Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Midway Airlines will boost service in many of its major markets starting April 10, 2002. It will add flights between Raleigh-Durham and Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale along with connecting opportunities between New York LaGuardia and Orlando, Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale. Connecting opportunities to the three Florida cities also will increase from Boston Logan and Reagan Washington National airports.
Midway Airlines began service between Raleigh/Durham and Reagan Washington National Airport, offering two flights on weekdays using 737-700s.
Midwest Express Airlines announced several changes to its service fee structure, including a $20 fee for paper tickets when e-tickets are available. The fee to replace lost tickets, including frequent-flier certificates and tickets, was raised to $80 but is reduced to $40 if the ticket is found within 60 days. Other changes include a $40 one-way charge for children ages 5-11 traveling without an adult, an increase to $75 in the one-way fee to transport pets in kennels on the same flight as a passenger, and standardizing excess and overweight baggage fees and special baggage items including golf clubs at $50 for each piece exceeding the allowance. All changes are effective for flights or tickets issued on or after Dec. 4 2002.
Midwest Express Airlines will add service to San Jose, Calif., beginning Dec. 15 2002 through a codeshare with American Eagle, which will operate the flights.
Midwest Express will resume nonstop service between Milwaukee and Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Tampa on Nov. 1, about 45 days earlier than in past years. The flights to Tampa and Fort Lauderdale will be daily, while the Fort Myers service will operate twice weekly until shifting to daily on Dec. 18 2002.
Midwest Express is set to resume weekday nonstop service between Omaha and Newark starting June 3, 2002. The service was cut after Sept. 11. The resumption will return the carrier to eight daily departures from Omaha.
Midwest Express will add a fifth nonstop Milwaukee-Atlanta flight weekdays beginning June 19 and up its Milwaukee-Orlando service to three times each weekday beginning Nov. 1, 2002. The airline resumed nonstop flights between Des Moines and Reagan Washington National Airport Sunday. The daily flights were suspended when the airport was closed by the FAA following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
MyTravel, formerly known as Airtours, intends to start its own no-frills airline this fall in an attempt to win customers from low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, easyJet and Go. MyTravel plans to repackage its traditional charter airline operation and offer more departure airports and destinations than the established no-frills operators, a spokesperson said. The Manchester-based company currently operates from 21 British airports and flies to 70 overseas destinations with a fleet of 30 aircraft. The spokesperson declined comment on destinations for the new airline or how the plans would affect aircraft numbers. MyTravel is in the process of merging its two airlines, Airtours International and Premiair, into MyTravel Airways. It also is replacing 21 of its existing aircraft with new A320s and A321s over the next three years.
Las Vegas based National Airlines ceased operations the week of Nov. 4 2002. The three-and-a-half-year-old carrier said the step became necessary "after the airline was unable to complete a previously announced agreement to the satisfaction of its senior management, board of directors, aircraft lessors and other key creditors." Privately owned National, which commenced service in the summer of 1999, had been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy since Dec. 2000.
Bankrupt National Airlines, which recently was denied a federal loan guarantee, postponed service to Reagan Washington National Airport, previously scheduled to begin Oct. 3 with one daily nonstop flight from Las Vegas. Additionally, the two nonstop services between Las Vegas and Chicago Midway will be discontinued "temporarily" on Oct. 1. However, the carrier will begin four daily services at Reno/Tahoe on Oct. 3 and new seasonal service to West Palm Beach and a third daily flight to Miami will start Nov. 21 2002.
National Airlines is adding 16 flights to its schedule. Beginning Nov. 21, it will offer a third daily flight between Miami and its Las Vegas hub. It will add daily nonstop service between Las Vegas and Reagan Washington National Airport starting Aug. 1. On the same date, National will launch one daily nonstop between Las Vegas and Washington Dulles; a second daily flight will start on Aug. 28, 2002. Additionally, on Oct. 3 the airline will begin four daily nonstop flights from Las Vegas to Reno. National Airlines began four daily nonstop services between Reno/Tahoe and Las Vegas the week of Sept. 30, 2002.
National Airlines has added a fourth daily ORD-Las Vegas nonstop. Summer stuff. Northwest plans to start flying from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Jackson Hole, Wyoming July 1. A219 service will run through September 30.
National Airlines began three daily nonstops between Seattle and Las Vegas on May 23. The carrier starts its fourth daily nonstop between Dallas/Fort Worth and Las Vegas on May 24. In addition, National will initiate new service to Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles on Aug. 1 and service to Reno on Oct. 3. It will add a third daily nonstop between Miami and Las Vegas on Nov. 21, 2002.
Northwest Airlines announced on Dec. 17 2002 that it has temporarily suspended its daily nonstop service between Tokyo Narita Airport and Guam through December 20, 2002. While the airport has re-opened, the airport and local infrastructure remain severely strained, and local hotels and other businesses have asked visitors to delay their travel for the immediate future as they have already reached their maximum capacity.
Northwest Airlines will offer members of its Worldperks frequent-flier program redemption benefits on Japan Airlines domestic flights. The agreement is an extension of an award program that was forged with Japan Air System, which is merging with JAL. The new accord comes into force April 1 2003.
National Airlines add E-Service Center self-service check-in devices at 102 of the airports it serves in the US and Canada.
Northwest Airlines will upgrade from a Saab 340 to a CRJ on the last of eight daily flights not served by a DC-9 between Flint and Detroit beginning Dec. 18 2002 and will upgrade from a Saab 340 to a CRJ on one of its five daily flights between Rochester, N.Y., and Detroit with DC-9s or Avro RJs operating the remaining four services.
Northwest Airlines and Expedia settled their dispute and reached an agreement under which the airline's tickets now can be purchased through Expedia's website.
Northwest Airlines will launch a website later this month to be called WorldAgent Direct that will provide travel agents with "free and unrestricted access to the airline's Web fares" and complete online booking capabilities.
Northwest Airlines will launch daily service between Detroit and Nassau Dec. 18. It will start seasonal service from Detroit to Montego Bay and will increase this service to four flights per week on Feb. 1 and it will introduce a daily service between Memphis and Puerto Vallerta. And new service between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Montego Bay will begin Jan. 5 2003.
Northwest Airlines said that effective immediately in markets where e-tickets are available, it is increasing the paper ticket surcharge for customers flying on leisure fares and WorldPerks frequent-flier award program tickets from $10 to $25. Also, the fee to convert existing e-tickets priced at leisure fares or WorldPerks free tickets to paper tickets will increase from $10 to $25. The surcharge will not apply to customers flying on business fares. The carrier said domestic usage by its customers of e-tickets reached an all-time high of 80% during July 2002.
Northwest Airlines will begin daily service between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Helena Oct. 27 using a DC-9-30. Initially the service will include a stop in Billings.
Northwest Airlines extended the time window when customers can check in for roundtrip flights via its website from 24 hr. to 30 hr. prior to a scheduled departure. The website now features a link where customers can ask questions of a service representative during the process. The carrier also increased the number of security checkpoint express lines from 19 to 30 at airports nationwide.
Northwest Airlines and Pinnacle Airlines, its Northwest Airlink partner, will shift to a CRJ on another one of its six daily nonstop flights between Bismarck and Minneapolis/St. Paul on Oct. 27. Currently the airline offers DC-9 service on four flights between the cities. The airline will upgrade two of its daily flights between Fort Smith and Memphis from Saab 340s to CRJs on Nov. 19 2002.
Northwest Airlines announced several additions to its summer schedule. From June through September, it will offer weekend nonstops between Memphis and San Diego, San Juan and Vancouver. It also added weekend nonstops to Miami to complement its daily Memphis-Miami flight. Saturday nonstops between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Fort Myers are scheduled from June 8 through Sept. 2 2002. Additionally, Northwest will operate weekend nonstops between Detroit and Bozeman, Montego Bay, Reno and San Juan from June through Sept. It is also adding weekend nonstops to Miami, complementing its two daily Detroit-Miami flights. NWA also plans to begin nonstop service between its Minneapolis/St. Paul hub and Jackson Hole on July 1. The seasonal route will run through Sept. 30, 2002 and will be operated with A319s.
Northwest Airlines began new service from Tokyo Narita, using the shorter second runway, to Pusan, Kaohsiung and Taipei with A320s. It recently acquired 26 weekly Runway A slots that will allow it to expand cargo and passenger flying out of Narita.
Northwest Airlines will upgrade the remaining Saab 340 turboprop flight between Appleton and Detroit to CRJ service operated by partner Express Airlines I starting Aug. 1 2002. It offers four daily flights on the route. Express Airlines I also will begin jet service from Detroit to Ottawa this summer by replacing two of its four daily Saab 340 flights with CRJs.
Northwest Airlines will add flights to its summer schedule to Traverse City, Michigan from Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul and will operate larger aircraft on the route. It will add a turboprop flight operated by partner Mesaba Airlines from each of the cities to Traverse City on May 1. The changes will add 269 seats to Traverse City daily.
Northwest Airlines said it will offer additional flights to the airport serving Springfield and Branson, Mo., from its hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Memphis during the summer season. Northwest also will offer Saturday-only service from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Springfield/Branson starting June 29 2002. It will restore weekend service from Detroit, flying to Missouri on Saturdays and returning on Sundays, and add a fourth flight from Memphis. The changes start May 25 and June 7 respectively.
Northwest Airlines increased its minimum check-in time, the amount of time prior to departure that customers need to be checked in and at the gate, for domestic passengers to 15 min. from 10 min. The move is intended to help improve ontime performance, the airline said. For passengers traveling to Hawaii the time moves to 30 minutes from 60.
Northwest Airlink plans to launch nonstop RIC-Minneapolis/St. Paul service July 1, 2002. There will be a pair of daily Canadair Regional Jet departures.
Pan Am Clipper Connection will begin daily service between Bangor and Halifax Nov. 4 2002 using a Jetstream 31.
Pan American Airways will begin twice-weekly service between San Juan and Santo Domingo Oct. 31 2002. The Santo Domingo service will involve a one-stop flight from Orlando and will begin service from Miami and San Juan to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic on May 30, 2002. Pan Am started flying to Naples, Florida from Orlando Sanford International Airport. The service is operated by affiliate carrier Boston-Maine Airways with 19-seat Jetstream 31 turboprops.
Qantas placed its first 747-400ER into service the week of Nov. 11 2002 between Sydney and Los Angeles.
Qantas moved its entire reservations and ticketing system to Amadeus. The shift meant shutting down the majority of the airline's key systems for several hours while 31,737 terminals and 202 system links were reconnected. The transition involved the migration of 1.5 million passenger name records, 1.98 million e-tickets and 3.5 million frequent-flier profiles. Eight international and 10 domestic hosted airlines also moved their reservations and ticketing systems to Amadeus recently.
Qantas took a lead role in the evacuation of hundreds of Australian holiday makers from Bali following the terrorist bomb attacks on two nightclubs. It deployed three additional 747 and 767 services to Denpasar Monday and introduced special one-way discount fares of $250 to help ferry passengers returning to Australia in the wake of the blasts. Thirteen Australians have been confirmed dead so far, but the toll is expected to climb much higher. Qantas also supplied two doctors, three nurses and other staff to assist Indonesian authorities in dealing with the injured. CEO Geoff Dixon said Qantas will move aircraft from international and domestic operations to meet the demand for extra seats on top of the 13 services a week flown into the popular holiday destination from Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. "These additional Bali services may disrupt some of our other schedules," he said. "We are sure any inconvenienced passengers will understand. On behalf of Qantas, I would like to say that our thoughts are with the families and friends of the innocent victims who were killed or injured by these terrible events." More than 200,000 Australians fly to Bali each year.
Qantas Airways will use oneworld partner American Airlines' new immigration facilities in Terminal 4 at LAX, which it said will provide a faster immigration and passenger clearance process for Qantas customers.
Qantas and American Airlines expanded their codeshare agreement by adding Denver, bringing the number of US cities covered to 16.
Qantas will introduce new daily 767-300 flights between Melbourne and Tokyo beginning July 1, 2002. It will fly from Melbourne to Narita four times a week and from Melbourne to Narita via Sydney three times a week; all return services are nonstop. Once traffic increases, Qantas plans to move to daily nonstop service in both directions.
Qantas will codeshare on Oneworld partner LanChile's flights between Sydney and Santiago via Auckland starting July 1 2002. The codeshare will affect three flights per week and replace Qantas flights to Buenos Aires. Traffic between Buenos Aires and Australia has dropped significantly because of Argentina's political and economic troubles.
Qantas will extend its codeshare services with Origin Pacific between the New Zealand cities of Dunedin and Christchurch beginning March 18 and between Hamilton and Wellington beginning April 8, 2002. The services will use 29-seat Jetstream 41s and customers on the Origin Pacific-operated flights can receive Qantas frequent-flier points. In addition to the codeshare services, Qantas operates daily 737 flights between Auckland and Wellington and Christchurch.
Qantas said the decision to stop five-times-weekly service between Sydney and Mumbai at the end of Feb. 2002 followed an extensive review of its network. It launched operations into India in the second half of the 1990s but the route has not performed well. It also has reduced flying to Rome, Johannesburg, Bangkok, Manila and Buenos Aires.
Qatar Airways will launch four weekly nonstop services from Manchester to Doha in April 2003 operating A300-600Rs in a three-class configuration. Additionally, Emirates Airlines is boosting its business at Manchester from June 1 2003 by adding a second daily nonstop service to Dubai using a 285 seat A330-200.
Qatar Airways is fast growing and launching nonstop Doha-Casablanca service May 31 2002. This will be a thrice-weekly affair. Qatar is an all Airbus airline which, interestingly, is the launch customer for the double-deck A380.
Royal Tongan Airlines will inaugurate a weekly 757 service between Honolulu and Tonga with a connection to Auckland beginning in Dec. The aircraft will be wet-leased from Royal Brunei.
Ryanair is to launch new daily service from Frankfurt-Hahn to Gothenburg the week of Dec. 9 2002. At the same time, the no-frills carrier is opening new routes from its German base to Rome Ciampino, Bologna Forli, Stockholm Skavsta and Barcelona Girona. Ryanair will start a new daily Dublin-Newcastle service Jan. 4, 2003.
Ryanair will launch twice-daily service between London Stansted and Strasbourg at the end of Oct 2002. The Irish no-frills carrier currently flies to seven destinations in France and said it expects to carry around 1 million passengers between France and the UK this year. It also said it is doubling capacity on its routes between London and Rome and Milan for its new winter schedule.
Ryanair's first year of operation at its first European base at Brussels South-Charleroi has been a huge success, handling more than 940,000 passengers. London, Venice and Carcassonne, along with Ryanair's existing route to Dublin, are proving the most popular destinations. Routes to Rome and Liverpool are to be added from June 27, 2002.
Ryanair will launch seven new routes from London Stansted to continental Europe, Rome, Milan, Eindhoven, Friedrichshafen, Graz, Klagenfurt and Montpellier, and also will begin service to Newquay. The Eindhoven service marks Ryanair's entrance into the Dutch market. It also will add services from Prestwick to Oslo Torp and from Liverpool to Brussels Charleroi and will introduce a Rome Ciampino route from Charleroi. All new routes will begin operating as of April 4 except for Klagenfurt, which will be launched June 27, 2002.
Sabre and EyeTicket announced a new marketing alliance to provide JetStream passenger processing to Sabre customers worldwide. JetStream is an iris-recognition-based service that positively identifies travelers, simplifies and expedites transactions and provides security and risk management. Additionally, EyeTicket has the reciprocal ability to offer the Sabre Aerodynamic Traveler, a suite of passenger processing solutions, and other Sabre products to its customers.
SAS, challenged in key home markets by no-frills carriers, will launch "a low-fare business unit" starting with four aircraft and distinctive new livery from March 30, 2003. A name for the new unit has not been revealed. It will operate one-class flights to leisure-oriented European destinations SAS does not normally serve or serves only on a limited basis. Aircraft and crews will come from the core airline.
SAS will start nonstop service between Brussels and Helsinki with introduction of the winter timetable on Oct. 27 2002. The two daily flights will be operated by wholly owned Finnish airline Air Botnia with Avro RJ85s with a seating capacity of 79.
SAS, which last March unveiled sweeping changes to its inter- and intra-Scandinavian service with the development of Scandinavian Direct, announced it will drop service to 13 European destinations primarily in Scandinavia and Poland beginning Oct. 27 2002.
Shuttle America operating as US Airways Express will offer two daily nonstop flights between Trenton Mercer County Airport and Pittsburgh using a Saab 340.
Singapore Airlines said that until Oct. 21 2002 it will operate a fifth daily service to and from Bali to "help meet the current high demand" for flights out of Indonesia. The airline will revert to a four-times-daily operation to and from Bali the week of Oct. 28 2002.
Singapore Airlines will replace its weekly Singapore-Mauritius-Johannesburg service with two weekly nonstop flights to Johannesburg and two weekly services to Mauritius on Dec. 1. On the same day, weekly Singapore-Johannesburg-Cape Town services will be increased from two to three. Beginning Jan. 12, the two weekly Singapore-Johannesburg-Durban services will be withdrawn and the flights will terminate in Johannesburg.
Singapore Airlines will increase its operations to Brisbane to two daily flights beginning Oct. 27. Additionally, an extra service per week between Singapore and Sydney will be added between Nov. 22 and Jan. 11 to cater to "increased demand." Also, a weekly supplementary flight between Singapore and Melbourne will begin Oct. 5 and run until Jan. 12 and two supplementary weekly services to Christchurch will be added from Nov. 20 to Jan. 12. Weekly services to Hanoi will jump from four to five from Dec. 1 using a 777-200. Capacity to Colombo will be increased with the operation of 777-200s on each daily service from Oct. 27 2002.
Singapore Airlines has launched in-flight short message system (SMS) services. The inaugural service allowing passengers to send text messages by phone from the sky was launched on a flight early today for Chicago via Amsterdam. Travellers are able to send short messages of up to 160 characters to any mobile phone user or email address on the ground by using the in-seat handset or personal monitors on jets with a touchscreen function. For the next three months the service will be available free on a mix of 10 Boeing 747 and 777 long-haul aircraft before being installed on all flights. The airline announced in April it would spend 300 mln sg$ over the next two years on cybercabins which would have email, Internet browsing, onboard chatrooms and extended entertainment facilities on long-haul flights.
Singapore Airlines will add three weekly return flights to Dubai beginning June 19, bringing the total to 10,777 services weekly. Meanwhile, SIA and Emirates entered into cross-participation in their frequent-flier programs. Singapore Airlines will, however, suspend its services to Karachi and Lahore starting Friday because of the prevailing security situation in Pakistan. The last flight before the route was suspended left Singapore on May 8, 2002. SIA will also suspend its thrice-weekly service to Kathmandu as of May 31 2002 as part of an ongoing review of its network and capacity.
Singapore Airlines will restore more flights. SIA will resume its thrice-weekly Singapore-Amsterdam-Chicago service as of May 1, 2002 and shift its Singapore-Seoul-San Francisco and Singapore-Tokyo-Los Angeles services back to daily from five times weekly starting March 31. Singapore-New York flights will also have frequencies restored, and it will add four 777 flights a week to Shanghai instead of the two announced last month. SIA will add frequencies to Surabaya and Nagoya and upgauge on its thrice-weekly Hanoi service. The Singapore-Frankfurt route will get an additional weekly flight, bringing the total to 13. Brisbane will get two additional 777 flights a week.
Singapore Airlines will add two supplementary weekly flights between Singapore and Christchurch from Sept. 2, 2002 through the end of March to meet higher seasonal demand. It will use A340-300s for the service.
Singapore Airlines teamed with Visa International to offer a discount card for its customers that provides for deals at more than 300 outlets in Singapore. The cards will be available free to SIA passengers traveling to Singapore from May 1 to Oct. 31, 2002. The airline has also introduced Internet check-in for KrisFlyers, PPS Club members and those who book on the carrier's Web site.
Singapore Airlines, which cut its schedule late last year amid slumping demand, said it will resume some flights. SIA will add two 777 flights a week to Shanghai for a total of 12 and upgrade from A310s to 777s on two daily services to Guangzhou. It also will resume daily Singapore-Bangkok-Osaka service, which was cut to five times weekly, beginning March 31, 2002. A third weekly flight to Hiroshima will begin April 28; the route was dropped from four flights a week to two late last year. Service to Bali will return to 28 times weekly from 25 beginning March 31, 2002.
Singapore Airlines 's Singapore-Amsterdam-Newark service will return to four times a week from three as of March 19. Singapore-Taipei-Los Angeles recently resumed daily operation, up from five times weekly. Singapore-Tokyo-Los Angeles will return to daily from five a week as of March 31, 2002. On the European front, Singapore-Frankfurt service will increase by one flight to 12 times weekly beginning March 10, 2002. The route had been cut from 14 weekly flights to 11.
SkyWest Airlines will begin additional daily Delta Connection nonstop services between Dallas/Fort Worth and Louisville, Kent and Jackson Dec. 1 using a CRJ. SkyWest will add nonstop services between Salt Lake City and Bozeman/Big Sky/West Yellowstone, Mont., beginning Nov. 1 and between Salt Lake City and Austin beginning Dec. 1 2002. SkyWest Airlines, which flies as United Express and Delta Connection, took delivery of its 50th CRJ yesterday. SkyWest operates 63 CRJs and expects to add 80 more over the next two years.
SkyWest, a Delta Connection carrier, will add a daily nonstop service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Montgomery, Ala., beginning Dec. 1 2002 using a CRJ.
SN Brussels Airlines launched its first flight to Africa the week of April 29. The Entebbe/Nairobi route will be joined by Kinshasa, Kigali, Dakar, Banjul, Conakry and Monrovia and, as of June 21 2002, Yaounde, Douala and Luanda. The flights are operated by Birdy Airlines.
South African Airways will end the service it operates with Nigeria Airways between New York JFK and Lagos as of March 24 because the venture is unprofitable. The flight has been operating three times a week since Feb. 22, 2001.
Southeast Airlines will begin nonstop service between Stewart International Airport and Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando Nov. 14 2002. The carrier also suspended flights between Stewart International and Raleigh-Durham owing to "booking trends."
Southeast Airlines began daily nonstop services between Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., and Ft. Lauderdale and Newark. It will add two daily nonstop flights to Raleigh-Durham from Stewart on Sept. 23 2002 using a DC-9.
Southern Winds began four weekly services between Buenos Aires and Miami.
Southwest Airlines will add two nonstop flights between Chicago Midway and Las Vegas beginning Feb. 9 2003. The airline also announced a new route from Chicago Midway. On June 9, the ever-expansive airline inaugurates nonstop MDW-San Diego service. A trio of daily nonstops are on the books. Southwest has already said it's targeting RIC for expansion. Because it's taking delivery of two 737 aircraft previously held back last fall, Southwest Airlines says it will be able to add five new daily flights starting June 9 2002. The new runs will include three new daily nonstops between San Diego's Lindbergh Field and Chicago's Midway Airport and two addition runs between John Wayne Airport in Orange County and Phoenix Sky Harbor.
Southwest Airlines will add seven new flights to its schedule as it resumes growth plans and takes three previously deferred aircraft deliveries. It will receive one 737-700 in April and two in May, making possible new nonstop routes between Sacramento and Orange County and between Chicago Midway and Los Angeles. It will begin the four daily Sacramento flights on April 7 and start operating three daily roundtrips on the Chicago-Los Angeles route on May 5, 2002.
Southwest Airlines will cross the last frontier this fall when it introduces coast-to-coast nonstop service Sept. 15, 2002 with two daily trips between Baltimore/Washington International Airport and Los Angeles.
Southwest Airlines started removing phones from its planes Aug. 1, 2001 last year. "We've noticed with the prevalence of cell phones, that passengers just weren't using the in-flight service," said a spokeswoman for Southwest, which allows passengers to make mobile phone calls aircraft doors close before take off. The phone service on American costs $2.99 to connect a call to AT&T's land-based network and then charges $7.60 a minute, plus tax, substantially more than the cost of a cell phone call in an airport terminal.
Spirit Airlines is getting in on the Nevada gold rush to fill the void left by the shutdown of National Airlines Nov. 6. The low-fare leisure specialist will introduce single daily service from Las Vegas to Chicago O'Hare with connecting service to Orlando beginning Dec. 19 2002.
Spirit Airlines will expand its systemwide schedule by 13% this fall by boosting direct and connecting service across its system, including additional flights at Atlantic City, Detroit, New York LaGuardia and in Florida markets. Spirit operates a linear point-to-point, primarily leisure-oriented network concentrated in the eastern third of the US.
Spirit Airlines announced new service from Las Vegas to Detroit and connecting service to Fort Myers beginning June 27, 2002. Spirit will expand services at several airports with the spring schedule. It will add a second daily flight between Oakland and Detroit Metro beginning May 23 and resume daily Chicago-Los Angeles service starting May 9, 2002.
Spirit Airlines unveiled a systemwide expansion for all 14 of its destinations. It will initiate new service from Denver May 9, 2002 with daily nonstop flights to Detroit and Fort Lauderdale and one-stop service to New York La Guardia. It will double its service at Los Angeles and increase flights at Chicago O'Hare by 14%. LGA will get added daily flights to Detroit and Myrtle Beach. Spirit will also add flights at Oakland and Myrtle Beach.
SriLankan Airlines will resume twice-weekly flights to Frankfurt and commence flying to Bodh Gaya in India once a week as part of a route expansion program. With the additions, the airline now serves 31 destinations.
Sunworld International Airlines is adding Kansas City International Airport to its network. It will start flying three daily nonstops to Indianapolis and offering direct flights to Philadelphia May 1, 2002 using 150-seat jets.
Swiss International Air Lines will be optimizing its route network for the upcoming winter season. On Feb. 8 2003 it will move its Zurich-Johannesburg flight to the evening. It will operate six weekly services from Zurich to Cairo in the near future. Service to Tokyo will be upped from five weekly flights to six and on Feb. 9 weekly frequencies on the Zurich-Tehran route will increase from two to three. At the beginning of winter, two flights will be added on the Zurich-Rome route. Five daily flights will be offered from Cologne-Bonn and Nuremberg to Zurich, and Kiev will be served by five weekly flights. Effective Oct. 27, two daily flights on the Basel-Cologne route will be withdrawn and the Basel-Friedrichshafen, Zurich-Minster and Zurich-Leipzig services will be halted. Seasonal flights from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg to Naples are suspended during the winter and Basel-Marseilles daily services will be reduced from three to one. Also, two flights per week will be added on the Lugano-Zurich route.
Swiss International Air Lines is launching Swiss TravelClub, its own frequent-flier program, on Jan. 1 2003. Presently it uses the Qualifyer program that is operated by a number of European airlines it inherited from Swissair.
Swiss Air Lines Ltd will get a new official name, Swiss International Air Lines Ltd., as the carrier moves to end a dispute with failed Swissair over naming rights and head off potential future legal problems.
Announced on Jan. 30, 2002, Switzerland's revamped national airline will be known simply as "swiss". Unveiling the corporate image for the new company being built on the remains of the bankrupt Swissair. The new logo and corporate image, featuring the red and white of the Swiss flag, were designed by Canadian design guru, Tyler Brule. The new airline will formally take off on 31 March, 2002 with the start of the summer timetable. Crossair CEO Andre Dose yesterday unveiled the new name and branding for the international airline being formed out of Crossair and the remains of Swissair. The carrier will fly under the name Swiss and the Crossair brand will vanish later this year when Swiss Air Lines Ltd. becomes the name of the legal entity while the gradually integrated fleet takes on a new look. It is a bittersweet element of the changeover scenario that barely was alluded to during the new logo's public launch. Dose called introduction of the new visual identity the kickoff of a series of steps to regain the passenger loyalty forfeited particularly on long-haul services during the turmoil of recent months. Fleet plans include replacing the airline's 13 leased MD-11s with either 777s or A340s, he said. The company aims to upgrade service elements across the board with innovative panache to establish itself as a premium-quality carrier in all cabin classes.
Swisswings, a regional carrier formerly known as Air Engiadina, ceased operations on April 8, 2002 in another Swiss mess. The airline, which flew five 328JETs from Berne and Geneva to European business centers, changed its name last year when it split from KLM and gave up its 49% stake in KLM Alps/Air Alps Aviation to codeshare with Crossair. Swiss, which recently launched after combining Crossair and Swissair, said it would carry stranded Swisswings passengers free of charge and would offer reduced fares for people holding the grounded airline's tickets.
Grupo TACA will begin thrice-weekly nonstop service between Chicago O'Hare and Guatemala City with continuing service to San Jose, Costa Rica, and an intermediate connection to El Salvador.
Tango will begin daily nonstop flights Dec. 14 2002 between Montreal and Ft. Lauderdale, increasing the service o twice-daily on Dec. 19. Also on Dec. 14 Tango will launch daily nonstop flights between Montreal and Orlando. It will start four weekly services Dec. 15 between Ottawa and Ft. Lauderdale and will begin thrice-weekly service Dec. 14 between Quebec City and Ft. Lauderdale. All new flights will be operated with A320s.
Thai Airways International inaugurated on Nov. 30 2002 thrice-weekly flights between Bangkok and Bahrain via Abu Dhabi. The airline is also expanding its destinations and services as it emerges from the ongoing aviation crisis in what it terms a strong position. From Oct. 27 2002 it will add Xiamen, Geneva, Chittagong, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. It also increased flights to Melbourne, London, Frankfurt, Busan, Chengdu, Hanoi, Beijing and Tokyo. The dramatic growth in tourist traffic to Vietnam is reflected in Thai's doubling its flights to Hanoi to 14 a week.
TransAsia Airways launched all-cargo service between Macau and Taipei. An ATR 72 freighter serves the route twice daily.
Trans States Airlines will begin American Connection service from Ft. Smith, Ark., to St. Louis Oct. 7 2002 with a Jetstream 41.
Turkish Airlines plans from Oct. 27 to discontinue its twice-weekly A340-300 flights linking Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur via Bangkok and instead serve Hong Kong from Bangkok.
United Airlines will extend the Mileage Plus elite qualification period for members who are within 10,000 mi. or 10 segments of reaching Premier, Premier Executive or Premier Executive 1K status for a $25 service charge.
United and US Airways will begin codesharing on a number of flights on Jan. 7 as they implement the next phase of their marketing alliance.
United Airlines plans to create a no-frills unit as part of its bankruptcy reorganization effort even as it lowers costs in its mainline unit, the airline plans to launch a West Coast shuttle next year using 737s and A320s and operating in a manner similar to Southwest Airlines "with point-to-point service." This is an effort by the airline to revive Shuttle by United, which was shut down last year following 9/11.
United Airlines will not implement the $100 fee it planned to charge US customers to stand by for earlier or later flights on the same day. The change applies to both United and United Express.
United Airlines temporarily suspended service to Caracas owing to a heightened travel warning issued by the US State Dept. UA canceled service but said it will be evaluating the situation on a daily basis.
UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, received approval on Dec. 11, 2002 from the US Bankruptcy Court for a series of "first day" motions that will allow the airline to continue operating normally through the reorganization process.
United Airlines launched nonstop services between Washington Dulles and both Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo using 767-300s and in an attempt to "better match capacity to demand," will operate 767s instead of 777s in the Paris-Washington Dulles, Paris-San Francisco and Miami-Buenos Aires markets. It also will replace 747s with 777s on the Osaka-San Francisco route, its second Seoul-Tokyo flight and its second daily Tokyo-Chicago flight.
United Airlines will add new seasonal weekend service between Los Angeles and San Salvador using an A320 and Guatemala City using a 757 beginning Dec. 13 2002 and ending Feb. 9 2003. The airline will offer seasonal Saturday service between Denver and Kona beginning Dec. 14 and ending April 27 using a 757-200. The carrier will add weekend service between Los Angeles and San Salvador starting Dec. 13 and ending Feb. 9 using an A320.
United Airlines will launch a new integrated award redemption program called Star Alliance Awards. The program will allow United Mileage Plus members to redeem miles for travel using any combination of the 14 Star Alliance member carriers. It is simplified through a geographic-based chart, with consistent redemption amounts regardless of the carrier flown. Star members Air Canada, Mexicana and Varig have similar programs.
United Airlines begins new service from Washington Dulles to Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires on Oct. 29, 2002. The airline will use 767-300s with three classes of service for the flights.
United Airlines deployed 23 of its EasyCheck-in units at San Francisco International Airport. Within the first few hours of activation, nearly 500 customers used the system.
United's new June 7, 2002 schedule out of Chicago O'Hare calls for hourly service to an octet of destinations: Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Newark, Los Angeles, New York LaGuardia, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Near-hourly routes include Atlanta, Denver, Washington National, Washington Dulles, Seattle/Tacoma, and Toronto. Overall, UA is boosting flights by 15% out of ORD. United Airlines will operate daily service on the Chicago-Calgary route during the summer season using Airbus aircraft. The flights will complement twice-daily service by Star Alliance partner Air Canada.
United Airlines will operate daily service on the Chicago-Calgary route during the summer season using Airbus aircraft. The flights will complement twice-daily service by Star Alliance partner Air Canada.
United Airlines is eliminating blackout dates on United Economy Saver Award bookings systemwide effective March 1 for travel on or after April 1, 2002. United was already very competitive in this area with no blackout dates for United Saver Awards booked in United First and United Business, for United Standard Awards and for 1Ks booking either Saver or Standard awards.
United Express carrier SkyWest will begin daily flights from Denver to Palm Springs Dec. 13 2002 using a CRJ.
United Express will initiate CRJ service from Denver to three new destinations: Edmonton, El Paso and Pasco/Kennewick/Richland. The flights, which will be operated by Air Wisconsin, start May 1, 2002. Denver-El Paso will get three daily flights and the other routes each will get two.
US Airways began nonstop service the week of Dec. 23 2002 between Philadelphia and Grenada using an A319. The airline will also expand its service to the Caribbean by adding new routes between Boston and San Juan starting in Feb. and Philadelphia and Punta Cana beginning in March using A319s in a two-class configuration. In addition, the carrier will begin a new daily service to Belize and Turks and Caicos from Charlotte in March. Both destinations currently are served four times weekly.
US Airways launched a weekly flight between Philadelphia and St. Kitts over the weekend using an A319 and launched a dedicated website for travel agents that offers an online source for airline information, policies and promotions. Additionally, travel agents can retrieve content currently stored in the Direct Reference System pages of their GDSs.
US Airways began four weekly nonstop flights between Charlotte and Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos islands. Separately, it began daily nonstop flights between Reagan Washington National Airport and Nassau the week of Nov. 4 2002.
US Airways will make its full array of Web fares, previously offered only at its own website and "select other" sites, available through Sabre travel agencies and all other Sabre-connected distribution channels, online and offline, for a discount on Sabre's booking fees.
US Airways introduced new standby coupons that allow passengers traveling on nonrefundable fares to stand by for alternate flights beginning Oct. 10 2002. The carrier, which recently changed its policies regarding nonrefundable fares and standby travel, the coupons are available for $100 each and are valid for one-way travel on the originally scheduled travel date subject to certain limitations.
US Airways is to cut 200 flights by the end of this year and reduce its workforce by an unspecified number. The carrier, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month, says the cuts are part of its ongoing efforts to save on costs in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. US Airways is currently negotiating salary reductions with its various unions and has already eliminated 25% of its flights. The carrier says it will continue to fly to all of its existing 250 destinations, except Saginaw and Michigan, and will also reduce its fleet to 280 aircraft from 311.
US Airways resumed flights between its Pittsburgh hub and Paris on Mar. 16, 2002 using 203 seat Boeing 767s. The airline ceased service on that route when demand collapsed after Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
US Airways is restoring most of its transatlantic operations, which were cut back amid low demand following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Over the next three months, it will boost the number of transatlantic flights to 98 weekly from 61 and restore daily frequencies to its key destinations in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands from the US gateways of Charlotte, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The move comes as international traffic continues to narrow the year-on-year gap. In mid-March 2002, the airline restored daily nonstop service from Philadelphia to Amsterdam, Munich and Madrid with 767-200s and to Rome with A330-300s. Three of the services had been operating with five flights a week, while Munich was served four times weekly.
US Airways also resumed daily nonstop service from Pittsburgh to Paris Charles de Gaulle using 767s and to London Gatwick with A330-300s. Both routes had been suspended. US Airways will restore flights from Charlotte to Frankfurt and London Gatwick on May 4 and add a second daily Philadelphia-London flight on June 16.
US Airways will bring back for the summer its A330-300s on many routes to supplement transatlantic operations using 767-200s. It will operate daily nonstop flights from Philadelphia to Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Madrid, Manchester and Munich as well as twice-daily service to London.
US Airways will initiate daily nonstop service between Reagan Washington National Airport and Bermuda on July 7, 2002. It is transferring existing route authority from Baltimore/Washington International Airport. It uses A319s on the route. US will also start daily nonstop flights between Chicago Midway and its Charlotte, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh hubs. The thrice-daily Charlotte service, which will be operated by Mesa Airlines using ERJ-145s, starts on July 7. The flights from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh --four daily and three daily respectively-- will use 737s and start on Sept. 8, 2002.
US Airways Express officially opened its new $34 million, 95,000-sq.-ft. terminal at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Since June 2000, its operations out of Charlotte have increased 30% and it now offers 201 daily non stops to 47 cities. US Airways Express expanded its service at Reagan Washington National Airport, adding 25 flights to nine destinations. They will be operated by Allegheny Airlines, Piedmont Airlines, PSA Airlines and Mesa Airlines.
US Airways also plans to add 85 e-ticket airport check-in kiosks at 25 more locations by early summer, for a total of 251 at 48 airports.
Vanguard Airlines rolls out new West Coast services to its Kansas City hub, adding . The new runs include a third daily roundtrip from LAX on May 1; two more from Las Vegas's McCarran International on May 1 and June 3, and on April 22, a second run from San Francisco International, previously announced. All services are operated with the MD-80. Also added to the KC hub are daily flights to Orlando and New York LaGuardia. Vanguard also will resume service to Myrtle Beach with three flights a week.
Vanguard Airlines said it will resume service to Myrtle Beach from Kansas City with three weekly non stops beginning March 28, 2002.
Varig announced it will reinstate nonstop flights from New York JFK to Rio de Janeiro four times a week starting July 4, 2002.
Virgin Atlantic Airways will begin two weekly flights between London Gatwick and Port Harcourt, Nigeria, from Feb. 25 using an A340-300. The airline will also increase its frequencies on some routes throughout the winter season and add some services starting in summer 2003. From Oct. 28 the airline will add a third daily flight between London Heathrow and New York JFK and double its daily service from Heathrow to Newark and Washington Dulles. From May it will add five flights per week from Boston to London Gatwick for the summer season. From Oct. 19 Virgin will resume its seasonal twice-weekly services, rising to five flights per week in Dec. and Jan., between Heathrow and Cape Town. In addition, service between Heathrow and Lagos will rise from six flights per week to daily subject to government approval. The carrier will increase service to the Caribbean to 16 flights per week by winter 2003.
Virgin Atlantic Airways launched a new subsidiary, Virgin Vacations. Customers can purchase air-only tickets on Virgin Atlantic as well as partner airlines through the new company. Travelers also can purchase rental cars, hotels and other add-on options.
Virgin Atlantic Airways and Delta Air Lines signed reciprocal agreements to join each other's frequent-flier programs effective Oct. 1. 2002. This enables Delta SkyMiles members, effective on that date, to earn and redeem miles for flights on Virgin Atlantic and vice versa. Additionally, also effective Oct. 1 Delta will become a member of Virgin Atlantic's flying club loyalty program.
Virgin Atlantic, which operates 14 daily transatlantic flights, said bookings are off for Sept. 11 but no cancellations are planned. "Bookings are down for the day, and though we're operating a full schedule we will continually review the situation as we get closer to Sept. 11," a spokesperson said. Iberia said it has no plans to cancel any of its four daily flights to the US.
Virgin Atlantic's new A340-600 made its inaugural commercial flight the week of August 2 2002 from London Heathrow to New York JFK. The aircraft is "the longest in the world at 74.1 m / 247 ft."
Virgin Atlantic will add its code on Nationwide Airlines' services between Johannesburg and both Cape Town and Durban as of March 31, 2002.
Virgin Blue is stepping up its battle against Qantas on transcontinental services in Australia with the launch of heavily discounted nonstop daily flights linking Brisbane with Perth. Virgin Blue will begin operating its 737NGs on the route from Dec. 12, coinciding with its move into the former Ansett terminal in Perth. It also plans to expand services out of Sydney and Melbourne to Perth with the addition of one flight a day on each route.
Virgin Blue is attempting to counter Qantas's dominance in the corporate travel sector by undertaking a revamp of its domestic schedules with introduction of more frequent peak-hour services on key Australian east coast routes. The sweeping changes will take advantage of Virgin's recent move into former Ansett terminals in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and ease the overcrowding pressure at its facility in Sydney. Under the new schedules, the budget carrier will introduce half-hourly flights at peak times on the Sydney-Melbourne sector, Australia's busiest, and hourly Sydney-Brisbane services. The enhancements will scale up its services on the two routes to 34 flights a day with a greater focus on serving the needs of business travelers to offset the competitive strength of Qantas's high-frequency Citiflyer service. Meanwhile, Virgin Blue is involved in legal action against the private owners of Sydney Airport over terms for it to gain access to the larger ex-Ansett terminal. The case is due to go before the New South Wales Supreme Court in March.
Virgin Express is stopping its Brussels-Heathrow service from Oct. 27 2002 as it no longer can use the slots, which SN Brussels Airlines swapped with British Airways. The freed-up capacity will be used "to reinforce its position on several existing routes," the carrier said.
Virgin Express added Athens and Lisbon to its network on a daily basis as of March 29 and 30 respectively. The Brussels-based airline stated that the additions provide an end to the monopoly situation of the Greek and Portuguese national carriers. With the start of the new summer schedule it also increased frequency on its Faro service from two to three flights a week and said it plans to add a fourth weekly flight in a couple of weeks. Frequency on the Brussels-Malaga route is increasing to three daily flights on peak days, while the number of flights to Madrid increases to five a day, and Nice becomes thrice daily. The Brussels-Zurich route is being abandoned and the freed-up capacity will be used for extra flights to Barcelona, Rome, Nice and Malaga.
Virgin Express began daily service from Brussels to Athens and Lisbon on March 30. It will operate the new routes with 737-300s but said it will employ 737-400s if demand is high enough.
VLM Airlines and Azzurra Air will launch a daily flight from Rotterdam to Milan Malpensa Jan. 13 2003 operating an Azzurra Air RJ85. The airline will also launch twice-daily flights from Antwerp to Manchester via Rotterdam, where the regional has operated a hub since 1994, on May 1 2002. Start of the new route coincides with the winding up of the Antwerp-Geneva route, which has shown a negative growth pattern over the past months partly due to the price war on the Brussels-Geneva route.
WestJet will introduce twice-daily service between Hamilton and Halifax Feb. 28 2003. Service is made possible by the delivery of WestJet's 15th 737-700 that arrives in the first quarter. In March 2003 the airline will boost frequencies from Hamilton to Ottawa, Calgary and Moncton.
WestJet effective Jan. 6 2003 will add six weekly frequencies between Calgary and London, six weekly services between Calgary and Winnipeg, six weekly frequencies between Edmonton and Winnipeg and one weekly flight between Abbotsford and Calgary. Also, the airline will offer one weekly nonstop flight between Ottawa and Winnipeg starting Jan. 11 as well as three additional weekly flights between Victoria and Calgary beginning Feb. 6 2003.
WestJet will withdraw service from Thompson, Manitoba, effective Nov. 3 2002 because it could not "create enough demand to make the route practical" with a 737. The airline has operated 12 weekly non stops between Thompson and Winnipeg since Dec. 14. Additionally, one daily flight between Calgary and Edmonton was removed effective last Friday.
WestJet will challenge Air Canada in its home market beginning May 23, 2002, when it introduces service from Calgary and Edmonton to Toronto, offering 13 flights per week in each market. One-way fares between Toronto and Calgary will start at C$205 ($129) and between Calgary and Toronto at C$222.
WestJet will add services for the peak summer travel season. The additions will include nonstop flights for Victoria, Comox, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Hamilton and Moncton. Victoria-Calgary will get the most additions with six extra flights a week, while Edmonton-Hamilton and Hamilton-Moncton each will get five. The Calgary-based carrier will start new once-weekly service between Ottawa and Winnipeg.
WestJet will add a nonstop daily flight between Calgary and Toronto starting Nov. 15 2002. The carrier will add a daily service between Toronto and Vancouver starting Dec. 1 2002.
Zip, Air Canada's Calgary-based low-fare subsidiary, will add three 737-200s to its fleet and expand service between Winnipeg and Montreal, Winnipeg and Ottawa, and Calgary and Abbotsford, replacing Air Canada network flights, on Feb. 2 2003. Zip also will begin new flights between Calgary and Victoria on the same day. With the three additional aircraft, Zip's fleet will consist of 10 117-seat 737-200s.
Zip Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Canada, is officially open for business and will take to the skies Sept. 22 2002. The low-fare carrier will begin operations with a total of 16 nonstop flights each weekday replacing existing Air Canada service. It will operate five frequencies between Calgary and Winnipeg, eight between Edmonton and Vancouver, two between Edmonton and Winnipeg and one between Vancouver and Winnipeg.
TRAVEL ADVISORY European Commission proposed regulations to strengthen the rights of air passengers who are denied boarding, have their flights canceled or experience a long delay. As a remedy it has opted for these measures: Extending passenger rights to scheduled and nonscheduled flights, including package holidays; quintupling compensation for denied boarding to eur750 / $669 for flights of less than 3500 km and to eur1500 for flights of at least 3,500 km, and requiring operators to notify passengers of canceled flights before departure time.
Passengers who cannot be contacted or do not volunteer to surrender their reservations would be entitled to compensation at the rate for denied boarding. "Cancellation is denied boarding in an extreme form," the EC reasoned.
British business travelers increasingly are using low-fare airlines, according to a survey by Company Barclaycard. Some 62% of business travelers opt for no-frills service compared to 28% three years ago. Among CEOs, 63% now use low-fare carriers. Of those business travelers who use such airlines, 86% said they will do so again while 85% of those who have not used them said they will consider doing so in the future.
Positive passenger bag match will become mandatory January 18, 2002 for all US flights. Officials declined to specify how the system will work except to comment, "There are going to be places where it works better than others." A key concept in DOT's inspection philosophy is the somewhat cryptic statement that "everyone has a point of origin." Mineta said the requirement to inspect all checked baggage will be met "using the full menu of options provided for in the law" including EDS, trace detection, dogs and manual inspections.
Packing less or paying for excess luggage has become the norm in the U.S. The practice of packing lights is taking a whole new meaning as airlines add on fees for extra bags. At most major U.S. airlines passengers should expect or pay from $40 to $80 per bag when they check-in over the limit of two bags per person. All carriers generally limit the weight of each checked bag to 70 pounds, with linear dimensions of no more than a total of 62 inches. some advice to passengers: buy larger bags but make sure they are with the 62 inch limit (add length plus width plus height), pack a smaller third bag that you can carry on instead of check, and be realistic when packing just take half of what you think you need and shop at your destination.
As a result of recommendations made in the wake of the hijackings on September 11, most major U.S. airlines, as of October 22, have installed reinforced cockpit doors to prevent intrusions. For details and information on which major airlines have made these changes, visit the Reinforced Cockpit Doors page at: http://airsafe.com/events/war/newdoors.htm
Travel advisories. Since the start of the bombing campaign in Afghanistan, both Great Britain and the U.S., the two countries currently involved in the bombing, have released updated warnings for their citizens who are traveling overseas. For links to the latest travel warnings, please visit: http://airsafe.com/paxinfo.htm
Since September 11, 2001, there has been increased concern over the possible use of chemical or biological warfare agents against civilian populations. Information on several common chemical and biological agents is available at: http://airsafe.com/issues/medical/chembio.htm
To see how travel insurance can protect you from uncertainties and disruptions in your travel plans, visit: http://airsafe.com/services/insure.htm
Sources: Airlines, Airports, Air & Business Travel News, Airliners.net, Prnewswire.com and Travelocity.com
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