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Venezuela has delayed planned restrictions on US civilian and cargo flights until March 31 while it seeks to settle a dispute with the US over access for Venezuelan carriers, the Financial Times reported.
In its online edition, the newspaper said the government was planning to ban Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc from flying to the country, and severely restrict services by American Airlines, from March 1 because of a long-running US limitation on Venezuelan airlines.
The National Aviation Institute said it will start talks with the three US carriers, as well as Fedex to find a solution.
Venezuela wants the US to give its airlines the same access in terms of frequency enjoyed by US carriers flying to Venezuela.
A US restriction, set back in 1994, bars Venezuelan airlines from adding new capacity or aircraft.
ANKARA - All flights were postponed due to heavy fog in Ankara's Esenboga Airport on Tuesday morning.
Officials said that all arrivals and departures were halted, and they expect the fog will dissipate towards noon.
No flights were cancelled, added officials.
Early in the morning, Canakkale strait was closed to two-way sea traffic because of heavy fog.
The use of Iberia’s paperless e-tickets soared in January, growing by more that 33%, and accounting for 93% of all Iberia tickets sold in the month, as compared to just 70% in December. This growth reflects Iberia’s push to make e-tickets available for flights to all its destinations and for those in combination with other airlines. Dakar is the latest Iberia destination for which paperless, theft-proof e-tickets may be purchased. The tickets are also available for travel combining Iberia flights with those of Mexicana de Aviacion and Air France.
E-tickets are simply entries in an electronic database. They can be purchased in the traditional manner, by telephone, or from Iberia’s web site at any time or day or night. They can also be modified by a single telephone call. Instead of a paper ticket, passengers are issued a code number which they must present at the airport along with their identification.
Today the e-ticket can be used for all domestic Iberia destination, including the Madrid-Barcelona Puente Aereo air shuttle—and for 55 destinations around the world. Conventional tickets are needed for just eleven destinations (in Morocco, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, and some Italian and Swiss cities).
Thanks to new agreements, Iberia customers can purchase e-tickets for travel combining Iberia flights with those of Air France and Mexicana de Aviacion. E-tickets can also be used on flights involving Iberia and one or more of its oneworld partners (American Airlines, British Airways, LAN Chile, Qantas, Finnair, Cathay Pacific, and Aer Lingus).
Air Macao, the flag-ship air carrier in the special administrative region, planned to open 15 flights in March linking with European destinations including London, Paris and Frankfurt, local media reported Wednesday.
Macao Post Daily quoted Fei Hongjun, chief executive officer of the airline, as saying that Air Macao has clinched an agreement with Thai Airway, under which Air Macao ticket holders will be able to make transit in Bangkok to Europe.
Air Macao, which launched the debut commercial flight in 1995, counts its business mainly on semi-direct flights between the Chinese mainland and the Taiwan province.
The airline logged a record operating revenue of 2.4 billion patacas (300 million U.S. dollars) in 2005, when it handled 2.1 million passengers and 150,000 tons of cargo, serving 18 destinations across Asia. Enditem
The Lufthansa Airlines has announced it will add flights to China in its summer schedule, effective from 26 March 2006.
"Lufthansa sees China as one of the regions with the strongest growth potential in its global network. In particular, we are seeing consistent growth in China routes. We have added flights to these strategic destinations to further strengthen our position as the leading European carrier to the region," said Uwe Mueller, Lufthansa vice president of Asia and Pacific.
One major highlight of the new schedule is the double daily services linking Munich and Frankfurt to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, three major Chinese cities.
The addition includes four flights to offer daily service between Beijing and Munich, two flights to offer daily service between Hong Kong and Munich and three flights to offer ten flights in a week between Shanghai and Frankfurt,
Lufthansa continues to provide daily Guangzhou to Frankfurt services. The changes will enable Lufthansa to operate 38 weekly flights to the Chinese mainland and double daily services to Hong Kong, a total of 52 flights per week.
In the new summer schedule, the number of weekly flights offered by Lufthansa to and from the Asia-Pacific will grow to 163 flights a week to and from 19 destinations in 10 countries.
The Ethiopian Airlines, last Saturday, announced that it will start four new international flights.
Ethiopian CEO, Girma Wake, said that the airline will start new flights to Brussels, Dakar, Juba (South Sudan) and Libreville. Girma said the flights to Dakar, Juba and Libreville will commence in March and the flight to Brussels in June this year. Girma said that the flourishing oil exploration activities in southern Sudan prompted Ethiopian to fly to Juba. "There is no international airline that flys to Juba," Girma said. "We will link the city with Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda," he added.
According to Girma, Air Gabon and Cameroon, which served Libreville, were becoming weak adding Ethiopian could have a market share in the new destination. The CEO said that his company will increase its flight frequency to African countries. "We have a plan to bring aircrafts which have higher capacity," he disclosed.
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In a related news, Ethiopian leased two Boeing 757 aircrafts. In the past three years, the airline bought eleven new aircrafts (six B767 and five B737) from Boeing. The company owns 27 aircraft. Girma said since the number of fleet was not adequate the airline recently brought two B757 aircrafts. The leased aircraft started to operate last week. Girma said that the airline will lease additional jetliners. "Increasing the number of fleet will enable us to avoid delays and flight cancellation," he added.
The national flay carrier flies to over 50 destinations all over the world.
Low-fare carrier AirTran Airways plans to announce new nonstop service between Charlotte and Chicago's Midway International Airport today, the airline told the Observer on Monday. United Airlines, American Airlines and US Airways already fly nonstops to Chicago's larger airport, O'Hare International.AirTran said it will offer two daily flights between Charlotte and Chicago Midway aboard Boeing 717 aircraft, beginning May 9. With the addition of Charlotte, AirTran will fly to eight cities from Chicago Midway, including Dallas, Minneapolis, Newark and Boston.
AirTran's one-way fares to Midway will range from $79 to $199. (The airline does not require a round-trip purchase for its cheapest fares.) The cheapest nonstop to Chicago available on other airlines Monday cost $302 round-trip.
From Charlotte, AirTran already flies nonstop to Baltimore and Atlanta. The airline is adding a third daily flight to Baltimore in June.
Low-fare carrier AirTran Airways plans to announce new nonstop service between Charlotte and Chicago's Midway International Airport today, the airline told the Observer on Monday. United Airlines, American Airlines and US Airways already fly nonstops to Chicago's larger airport, O'Hare International.AirTran said it will offer two daily flights between Charlotte and Chicago Midway aboard Boeing 717 aircraft, beginning May 9. With the addition of Charlotte, AirTran will fly to eight cities from Chicago Midway, including Dallas, Minneapolis, Newark and Boston.
AirTran's one-way fares to Midway will range from $79 to $199. (The airline does not require a round-trip purchase for its cheapest fares.) The cheapest nonstop to Chicago available on other airlines Monday cost $302 round-trip.
From Charlotte, AirTran already flies nonstop to Baltimore and Atlanta. The airline is adding a third daily flight to Baltimore in June.
If you are what you eat, then prepare for changes in 2006, at least if you dine on American Airlines. For the first time since 1999, American has redesigned First and Business Class menus on transcontinental flights, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snack service.
"With new and health-conscious choices, we're giving our premium class customers the products and services we know they appreciate and value," said Mary McKee, American's Managing Director - Inflight Products.
New transcontinental dinner entrees in First Class include beef fillet with (Japanese) miso demi-glace and cilantro potatoes, and salmon with sweet potatoes and haricot vert carrot medley. Business Class passengers can select from dinner entrees including tortellini with red roasted peppers; and beef fillet with madiera demi, augratin potatoes and asparagus. In addition to the ever-popular ice cream sundaes, grand marnier fruit has been added as a First Class dessert option, and seasonal fresh fruit as a Business Class dessert option.
The new lunch menu features soups, salads and sandwiches. Examples of the new soups include navy bean with portobello mushrooms, cream of chicken with wild rice and corn chowder with red peppers. Sandwich choices consist of a roast beef au jus or roasted chicken.
The breakfast menu features morning favorites such as omelets, turkey sausage, potato wedges, and potato sausage hash. For late-night snackers, fruit and cheese and antipasto plates are among the new offerings.
The new menus were developed by Conclave Chef Nancy Brussat-Barocci of Convito Italiano & Betise in Wilmette, Ill.
A few weeks after Air Sahara’s sell-out to Jet Airways, a large number of pilots of Air Sahara yesterday (Feb 12) went on “mass leave” disrupting its flight operations in various airports across the country.
Although the officials of the private carrier were tightlipped, sources said at least 20 pilots went on “sick leave” in the capital, where more than 10 flights were cancelled yesterday.
Four flights of the airline were cancelled in Mumbai, where its counters remained closed in the wake of the pilots’ agitation.
In Kolkata, four flights had to be cancelled which included two between Kolkata and Delhi, one between Kolkata and Patna and the other from Kolkata to Lucknow via Gorakhpur.
Passengers booked on these flights expressed resentment. While tickets were refunded in some cases, arrangements were made to put up stranded passengers in hotels or send them to their destinations on other airlines, according to Sahara sources.
Officials claimed that flights could not be operated for “technical reasons” with the passengers being returned their money.
Flight operation was also affected in Chennai where the flight to Hyderabad was cancelled. The airline’s officials there claimed that it was due to “lack of flights.”
Scores of passengers were accommodated in Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines by Air Sahara’s ground staff in the Capital, sources said.
Top officials of Air Sahara said talks with pilots on the pay issue were continuing on a “positive note.”
Describing the strike as “unjustified,” a senior official said the merger would not result in any job loss for the pilots. “At this moment, our basic thrust is to accommodate the passengers on other flights and ensure they reach their destinations without much trouble.”
Many Sahara pilots have reportedly resigned after the merger.
Air China and Connexion by Boeing have reached a preliminary agreement to provide real-time, high-speed connectivity to air travelers traveling to and from China. The announcement in Beijing includes as many as 15 firm and optional retrofit installations on Air China’s Boeing 747-400 aircraft, and other long-haul aircraft models to be determined at a later date.
Aircraft installations are expected to begin in October 2006 and once completed, the Connexion by Boeing service will provide Air China passengers with in-flight access to the Internet, real-time email, instant messaging (IM), corporate intranet access, including virtual private network capability, and the ability to stay in touch with friends, family and colleagues while enroute to their destination.
The initial aircraft installations will be completed in time for passengers to use the service in advance of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Service availability is expected on key routes between China and North America, Europe, the Middle East and throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Airline company, Gulf Air, will be launching direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Muscat, Oman beginning March 28 this year.
In a statement here Wednesday, Gulf Air said that the ongoing development of Gulf Air's network was in response to customer preferences for increased, non-stop and frequent access to growing business and leisure destinations and its expansion plan to popular regional and international routes.
"With the growing bilateral relations between Malaysia and the Gulf in business and tourism, we believe that the time is right to focus on Muscat," said Gulf Air's general manager for Malaysia and Brunei, Lindsay White.
"Business and leisure travellers now have a unique opportunity to fly direct to the Gulf from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and avoid the need to transit via Bangkok, usually associated with journeys to the Middle East region," she added.
The new Muscat service will start with three flights per week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Gulf Air is operated by Airbus A340 aircraft, where it also provides onward connections within the Gulf Air network that extends across the Middle East and Westbound to Europe.
Topeka's Forbes Field next month will see the return of commercial scheduled service, and local officials are confident more airlines can be lured back to complement the airport's extensive military and charter operations.
Allegiant Air is scheduled to introduce two direct roundtrip flights weekly from Topeka to Las Vegas beginning March 24, the first time in more than a year Topeka has had scheduled passenger flights. "It's been a long time since we've had commercial air service...We hope this will be the first of many new destinations," said Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority President David Stremming.
Stremming said the MTAA's first focus will be "making sure the [Las Vegas] flights are well received...and that this service is sustainable." He hopes Allegiant will be persuaded to add more frequencies and more markets, and the MTAA is also talking to "a couple of other carriers about different direct destinations." Airlines will start paying more attention to Topeka "when our [origin and destination] passenger count starts showing up on the radar screen," Stremming said.
In the 1980s, Topeka was served by United, Frontier and Midway and was boarding up to 180,000 passengers a year. The airlines cut almost all that service by the end of the decade, however, and Topeka was left with Air Midwest commuter service to nearby Kansas City. The carrier canceled those flights about 18 months ago, Stremming said.
MTAA is targeting mainly hub airports other than Kansas City, which is a little more than an hour's drive from Topeka. "We're not opposed to resuming commuter service, but it's not our primary aim," Stremming said. He noted that it "doesn't bode well" for the longevity of air service if the flights serve a city just 80 miles away.
Topeka still has adequate infrastructure for commercial flights. Its terminal building has a large ramp facility, one full-service loading bridge and two other gates. The airport has a primary runway nearly 13,000 feet long that was rebuilt six years ago and a 7,000-foot crosswind runway. It also boasts a parking lot directly in front of the terminal, and MTAA says parking fees are only $2, no matter how long a car stays in the lot.
Although its scheduled commercial service has dwindled, Topeka still handles 15,000-20,000 passengers a year from civilian and military charters -- enough to qualify Topeka for FAA airport grants, Stremming said. The airport is close to two Big 12 Conference universities -- Kansas State University and the University of Kansas -- so it sees a lot of charters for sporting events. Regular charter flights also go to Nevada casino towns. Topeka is close to Fort Riley and other large military facilities in northeast Kansas, and is used for commercial military charters. It isn't unusual to see five or six widebody aircraft on the ramp at once for military flights, Stremming said.
Many flights at Orly airport in France were halted as air traffic controllers launched a surprise strike in a protest over wages, the airport authority said.
Airport officials expected heavy disruptions, including flight cancellations, during Tuesday morning at the French capital's second-largest airport, air authority ADP said.
Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris' largest hub, was not affected, ADP said.
Many flights at Orly airport in France were halted as air traffic controllers launched a surprise strike in a protest over wages, the airport authority said.
Airport officials expected heavy disruptions, including flight cancellations, during Tuesday morning at the French capital's second-largest airport, air authority ADP said.
Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris' largest hub, was not affected, ADP said.
US Airways (NYSE:LCC) will boost its operations, adding frequencies as well as larger aircraft to and from the Greensboro/High Point Regional Airport from April 23 through May 4, 2006, to accommodate customers attending the annual International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C.
The following markets to and from Greensboro/High Point, N.C. will benefit from the enhanced service: New York/LaGuardia, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C.
"We're responding to a very specific and very significant passenger demand by once again increasing our service to Greensboro," said Schedule Planning and Alliances Senior Vice President Andrew Nocella. "The High Point Furniture Market draws interest from throughout the nation, and US Airways is proud to offer increased options to transport passengers to and from the event."
US Airways and America West's recent merger creates the fifth largest domestic airline employing 35,000 aviation professionals. US Airways, US Airways Shuttle and US Airways Express operate approximately 3,700 flights per day and serve more than 230 communities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.
US Airways is a member of the Star Alliance, which was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer customers worldwide reach and a smooth travel experience. Star Alliance was voted Best Airline Alliance by Skytrax in 2003 and 2005. The members are Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, TAP Portugal, THAI, United, US Airways and VARIG Brazilian Airlines. South African Airways and SWISS will be integrated during the first half of 2006. Regional member carriers Adria Airways (Slovenia), Blue1 (Finland) and Croatia Airlines enhance the global network. Overall, Star Alliance offers more than 15,000 daily flights to 790 destinations in 138 countries.
Japan Airlines, Asia's largest carrier, says it will suspend four international routes as part of a three-year restructuring plan aimed at reversing rising losses.
In a statement, JAL says it plans an indefinite suspension of flights from Tokyo to Las Vegas and Osaka to Los Angeles by October.
It will also suspend two routes linking Seoul to two regional cities in Japan by late March.
At the same time it will increase the number of flights between Tokyo and Chicago, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Taipei, while reducing flight frequency on its Tokyo-London and Tokyo-Bangkok routes.
The carrier says it will focus its resources on high profit and high growth routes, while suspending unprofitable ones.
JAL's net losses of $US93 million in the third quarter, have forced it to axe more routes to cope with soaring fuel costs and falling passenger numbers.
The airline has been hit hard by waning public confidence following a series of safety lapses last year, while passenger numbers on routes to China have slumped in the wake of anti-Japan protests.
Merpati Airlines will resume flights from Jakarta to Bandar Lampung on Monday after flights stopped for almost a month due to a shortage of suitable aircraft.
Merpati will fly to Bandar Lampung from the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta twice a day at 7 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., with its 38-seat CN-235 airplane. The airplane will leave Bandar Lampung at 8:10 a.m. and 1:55 p.m.
Merpati previously served the route using the Fokker F-28 and Boeing 737, through the Soekarno-Hatta airport. The Soekarno-Hatta-Bandar Lampung service was, however, halted last month due to the lack of suitable airplanes to serve the route.
Transferring domestic flights to Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) will not solve any problem and will rather aggravate existing predicaments, said a senior lawmaker here on Sunday.
Vali Azarvash, rapporteur of Majlis Development Commission, told ISNA that it takes the passengers more than an hour to reach the IKIA, whereas most domestic flights take less than 45 minutes.
“Transferring flights to IKIA only because the airport is located out of a civilian area will only add to the current problems and waste time,“ he said, adding that the Parliament does not consider it expedient to move domestic flights to IKIA.
He said the commission has agreed to approve 100 percent of budget proposed by the Ministry of Roads and Transportation for the IKIA development project, underscoring the need to expedite the project.
Imam Khomeini International Airport announced less than two months ago that it requires a budget of 1.2-trillion rials for the year to March 2007.
The report indicated that unless the airport’s financial requirements are met, as was the case the previous year, the airport’s development projects will not proceed as per schedule.
The airport will need 1.2 trillion rials to repay a part of its debts and complete Phase I of its development project next year.
The airport’s current expenses stand at 20 billion rials per month, the report said, adding that the IKIA does not generate new revenues as it is handling the same foreign flights that used to be conducted via Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.
It put the airport’s revenues during March-October 2005 at 60 billion rials.
The IKIA will have spent more than 200 billion rials until March 2006 on current expenses--a figure which is expected to grow to 250 billion by March 2007.
It said the airport will handle more flights in the next few months, which will increase its revenues considerably. Each flight brings $2,000 to IKIA.
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