AirGuide - Airport News 21/12/09

European Parliament yesterday adopted a resolution calling on the European Commission to consider proposing new legislation guaranteeing passenger compensation and assistance in case of airline bankruptcy. MEPs said they believe the current legislation lacks sufficient consumer protection and suggested that "establishing a 'reserve compensation fund' and introducing 'mutual responsibility' for passengers of all airlines flying in the same direction with available seats could help to get stranded passengers home." Parliament cited 77 airlines that filed for bankruptcy in the EU since 2000.

Funjet Vacations is offering six deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday bargain shoppers. Valid for bookings Nov. 27 to 30, the offers can save hundreds of dollars at hotels in Mexico, Caribbean and Hawaii, for travel Nov. 28 to April 30, 2010. Also offered are room upgrade specials. Clients who book a vacation package including one of the six featured hotels during the four-day sale will also receive a coupon for USD100 off their next Mexico, Caribbean or Hawaii Funjet vacation. To protect their vacation investment, travelers can add Funjet Vacations "Complete Coverage," the industry-leading travel protection plan with "no fees" and "no worries," to their vacation package. Funjet Vacations is the flagship brand of the family-owned Mark Travel Corporation, headquartered in Milwaukee. Travel agents can book Funjet Vacations at www.vaxvacationAccess.com.

The South Korean government is pursuing a visa waiver program with China for tourists staying for up to 30 days, as part of a campaign to boost the local tourism industry. In addition, policymakers discussed the adoption of a five-day school week beginning next year, ditching the current system in which schools are open every other Saturday. The moves come as part of plans to triple the size of the tourism market by 2020, which was discussed in a meeting overseen by President Lee Myung-bak, Friday, in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province. The government seeks to attract 20 million tourists annually by 2020, three times more than the current annual number. Last year, over 45 million people from China traveled overseas, of whom about 1.2 million visited Korea. Nearly four million Koreans went to China. Korea's Jeju Island saw its number of Chinese tourists increase five-fold from 2005 after it set up a visa waiver program.

Passengers whose flights are delayed by more than three hours should get compensation, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. The court in Luxembourg said delays are no different from cancellations for which passengers can already money back. If a flight is canceled and the airline fails to get its customers to the same destination within three hours of their original arrival time, they are entitled to between EUR250 and EUR600 compensation. Now the ECJ has said passengers on delayed flights were in a "comparable situation" to those on cancelled flights. Each suffered a loss of time.

Air Canada has begun daily non-stop service between Montreal and Houston, further enhancing connection and routing possibilities for customers through both Montreal and the Texas hub of its new Star Alliance partner, Continental Airlines. With the addition of Montreal-Houston service, Air Canada serves 17 U.S. destinations with non-stop flights from Montreal. From Houston, customers will be able to conveniently connect with Air Canada Star Alliance Partner Continental Airlines to fly to a wide variety of destinations such as New Orleans, Charleston, Acapulco, Belize and Honduras. For more information, visit www.aircanada.com.

Air Tahiti Nui is offering a time-limited Summer In New Zealand fare, offering roundtrip Moana (economy) class air to Auckland from only USD1,253 including taxes and fees -- plus a free three-day Tahiti stopover and stay at one of three resorts, based on double occupancy, in either direction. Resort options include the Hilton Hotel Tahiti, Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti, or Sofitel Tahiti Maeva Beach Resort. Bookings must be made by Dec. 11 for travel through May 31, 2010. Less than eight hours nonstop from Los Angeles International Airport, Tahiti is unspoiled, with azure waters and year-round sun. Never rushed or hurried, visitors can choose to do as much or as little as they please. Explore beautiful flora and fauna via easy walking trails or expeditions to the island's volcanic center, or hop over to the heart-shaped island of Moorea for a day trip to enjoy leisurely catamaran rides through beautiful side-by-side bays and shopping for French Polynesia's famed Tahitian black pearls. Those in search of relaxation and romance will love the stunning black and white sand beaches, sunset lagoon cruises, and spa treatments featuring Monoi oil -- while families and kids can enjoy friendly shark and ray feedings and scenic helicopter rides. Of the three resort options, families might enjoy the Hilton Hotel's Special Family Offer of one child staying free with two adults, while larger groups might take advantage of the Radisson Plaza Resort's Suite Upgrade option to an ocean-view duplex for just USD120 extra per person. Alternately, for that same extra price per person, luxury-lovers can upgrade to one of three higher-end properties instead: Intercontinental Resort Tahiti, Manava Suite Resort Tahiti -- where two children can stay free with two adults -- or Le Meridien Tahiti. Air Tahiti Nui, with a route network linking the South Pacific to four continents, is the leading carrier to French Polynesia featuring daily nonstop service from Los Angeles. For more information on flights and vacation packages to Tahiti, Bora Bora, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Taha'a, Rangiroa, the Marquesas, and Tuamotu, call 877-824-4846 or visit www.airtahitinui-usa.com.

AirAsia Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia plans to start a daily flight from Kota Kinabalu in east Malaysia to Taipei. It will commence from 15 January and will be operated on an Airbus A320 aircraft, says the airline. "The travelling trend to places such as Taipei is increasing and with growing potential household income in east Malaysia, we believe there will also be strong potential demand from east Malaysian travelers to fly directly to the city," says regional head of commercial AirAsia group Kathleen Tan. Thai AirAsia flies between Taipei and Bangkok while AirAsia X flies between Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.

AirTran Airways has intensified an already heated competition with Midwest Airlines through a feeder deal with US regional SkyWest Airlines in Milwaukee designed to capture traffic from smaller markets where Midwest currently deploys its own batch of smaller aircraft. It is the latest salvo by AirTran against Midwest at its Milwaukee base, and comes as Midwest's new owner Republic Airways Holdings is attempting to return Midwest to profitability this year. AirTran is partnering with SkyWest to operate five 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200s in markets where Midwest largely operates 37-50seat Embraer ERJs."At this point our Milwaukee focus city isn't big enough to support the level of frequency in some of these markets that is necessary to compete effectively with Republic Airlines/Midwest," says AirTran senior vice-president of marketing and planning Kevin Healy.

AirTran Airways announced its latest expansion to Orlando by unveiling service from Des Moines International Airport (DSM). This destination marks the 43rd city the low-cost carrier serves from the popular Central Florida tourist destination, more than any other airline. The service will begin on Saturday, March 6, 2010, with AirTran's Wi-Fi equipped Boeing 717. AirTran will be the only carrier offering non-stop service from DSM to Orlando International Airport. In addition to this new service to Orlando, AirTran announced earlier this month that its marketing partner, SkyWest Airlines, will also be offering non-stop service from Des Moines to Milwaukee. For more information, visit www.airtran.com.

Alaska Airlines began daily Portland-Chicago O'Hare service.

American Eagle launched daily Charleston, S.C.-Miami service aboard an ERJ-145. Flight becomes twice-daily April 6. For more information, visit www.aa.com.

American Eagle launched daily Los Angeles-Santa Fe service. For more information, visit www.aa.com.

American Eagle will increase its daily non-stop flights between General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wis. (MKE), and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), beginning Jan. 31. The additions will bring the total number of flights between the DFW Metroplex and Milwaukee to five. For more information, visit www.aa.com.

Batavia Air Indonesian carrier Batavia Air will begin operations at Singapore's Changi Airport tomorrow. The privately-owned airline will operate twice daily flights between Singapore and Jakarta, and twice daily flights between Singapore and the Javanese coastal city of Semarang, says Changi Airport Group. Batavia will operate an Airbus A319 on both services, it says. It will be the only carrier flying between Singapore and Semarang and will be the 12th carrier operating the Singapore-Jakarta route, adds the airport.

BMI, Airbus, Lufthansa Lufthansa-owned Bmi is to suspend several key routes from London Heathrow, including Amsterdam, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo, citing "unprecedented market conditions". The carrier's flights to Amsterdam will end on March 27, 2010, leaving just BA and KLM on the route from Heathrow. Brussels flights will end even earlier on January 9, 2010 (leaving just BA serving the route), as will routes from Heathrow to Tel Aviv (also served by BA as well as El Al) and Aleppo (not currently served by any other carrier). Flights to Kiev will end on January 10 (leaving just BA on the route). In addition Bmi's service from Heathrow to Cairo will be swapped from an Airbus A330 to an A321 from April 2010, as the carrier ends its lease agreement on two A330 aircraft.

Cathay Pacific Airways launched four-times-weekly Hong Kong-Dubai-Jeddah service aboard an A330-300.

Cebu Pacific Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific has started twice weekly flights between Tuguegarao and Guangzhou. The airline will operate an Airbus A319 on the service, says a Cebu Pacific spokeswoman. Tuguegarao is a city in the Philippine province of Cagayan. The new service is the airport's first international flight, she adds.

Continental Airlines will launch daily Newark-Munich service on March 27 using a 767-200ER.

EasyJet announced the following new services: Paris Charles de Gaulle to Helsinki Vantaa (daily on Feb. 8), Catania (thrice-weekly on Feb. 9), Agadir (four-times-weekly on Feb. 9); Milan Malpensa to Casablanca (six-times-weekly on Feb. 11), Agadir (thrice-weekly on Feb. 11), Porto (five-times-weekly on Feb. 12) and Malta (thrice-weekly on March 30); daily London Stansted-Cagliari on March 28, four-times-weekly Manchester-HEL on March 30 and twice-weekly Liverpool-MLA on June 13. The LCC said it plans to take delivery of six A319s next year, increasing its fleet to 185 aircraft.

Emirates Airlines is taking a serious look at bringing high-speed Internet to passengers, and reveals it is studying whether the business case for a Ku-band satellite-based solution has improved enough to adopt for its fleet. In an interview last week in Dubai aboard an Emirates Airbus A380 bound for Toronto, company vice-president for passenger communications Patrick Brannelly said: "There is no global solution today for Internet for passengers on a big plane like this. Ku will cover many of the regions in the world. We are looking at the affordability.

Emirates Airlines said it will begin serving Paris Charles de Gaulle with a 489-seat A380 on Dec. 29 rather than Feb. 1 and operates the route twice-daily. "An operational review, coupled with demand on the route, has led to an earlier introduction," it said. The A380 will fly thrice-weekly to start, becoming daily Jan. 17.

Emirates Airlines, Japan Airlines is to open non-stop services to Tokyo Narita. Emirates is to introduce the five-time weekly service on 28 March next year and fly the route with Boeing 777-300ERs. The aircraft will be configured with eight first-class, 42 business-class and 304 economy-class seats. Japan Airlines will codeshare. Emirates currently serves Osaka Kansai.

Etihad Airways launched four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Hyderabad service aboard an A320, increasing to daily from the start of 2010.

Eurofly, Meridiana Fly Eurofly and Meridiana will merge into Meridiana Fly, the Italian carriers confirmed last week. Meridiana already owns 60.7 percent of Eurofly. The new airline will focus on medium- and long-haul services while "peak" summer and winter short-haul and charter operations will be handled by a newly incorporated company called Meridiana Express that will be part of Meridiana Fly.

Flydubai will launch four-times-weekly Dubai-Kathmandu service on Dec 15.

Horizon Air will start daily Spokane-Sacramento-San Jose and Spokane-San Jose-Sacramento service March 26 aboard 76-seat Q400s.

Jet Airways increased 13-times-weekly Delhi-Kathmandu to twice-daily and will launch daily Mumbai-Kathmandu flights Dec. 2 aboard a 737.

Lufthansa Lucky business class passengers will enjoy first class seats for business class prices over the winter period, as the carrier temporarily suspends first class ticketing on five long-haul routes from Frankfurt. Lufthansa has yet to officially announce the move and said that it would only be offering a two-class economy and business class service routes between Frankfurt and Nanjing, Guangzhou, Osaka, Kolkata, and Accra (continuing on to Libreville), from December 15, 2009 until March 27, 2010. The carrier said that the move, which represents four per cent of long-haul routes where a three-class service is normally available, has been made as "demand is currently low for first class on specific connections". Lufthansa will not be reconfiguring the planes during this period, so some lucky passengers will be assigned a first class seat (albeit with business class service) for the price of a business class ticket. Those passengers who have already booked a first class ticket during the affected period will be contacted and re-ticketed in business class, receiving a refund for the difference in ticket price. They will also also have "first call" on the coveted seats in the first class cabin, followed by HON Circle and Senator members of the carrier's Miles and More loyalty scheme. The temporary decision is similar to that taken by Qantas on its London-Hong Kong route earlier this year (see online news May 21), and Lufthansa says that it "in no way implies a departure from our First-Class policy".

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will commence twice weekly non-stop services between Kuala Lumpur and Brisbane from 28 March 2010. The service adds to the carrier's five weekly flights on the KL-Sydney-Brisbane route, says MAS. The carrier will operate Boeing 777 aircraft on the route. MAS operates flights to five cities in Australia: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Malev Hungarian Airlines will re-launch daily Budapest-Serbia service Dec. 14 aboard 72-seat Q400s after a 17-year hiatus. It suspended operations to Belgrade in 1992 owing to the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars.

Murtala Muhammed International Airport Hundreds of pilgrims for this year's Hajj in Saudi Arabia were at the weekend stranded at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, as their agents could not be found. The pilgrims claimed that their agents brought them from different states to airlift them to Jeddah on Friday evening aboard the rested Bellview Airlines flight. They said that they were disappointed on Friday evening when an official of the airline informed them that they would not be airlifted on the Lagos-Jeddah flight, rather IRS Airlines would first ferry them from the domestic terminal to Kano where they would board a flight to Mecca. They flaunted computer printouts of their air tickets and complained that they were not comfortable with the Lagos-Kano-Mecca arrangement.

Novair, Airbus A321 RNP demonstration flights into Stockholm Arlanda over the summer, part of the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions, demonstrated "that there are capabilities in modern aircraft that can be used to reduce the environmental load in today's air traffic system," according to a statement issued yesterday by SESAR and Airbus. The EU ATC modernization program and the manufacturer teamed with charter carrier Novair, Swedish ATC provider LFV and ARN to operate the 10 flights and collect data. "The flights have demonstrated a lateral standard deviation of 0.01 nm. or 22 m., which is less than the wingspan of an A321. . .[can produce] a total of 518 kg of carbon dioxide reduction compared to an average Instrument Landing System approach operated by Novair," SESAR and Airbus said. American Airlines also has participated in the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions on flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Miami.

Qatar Airways will increase its five-times-weekly Doha-Stockholm Arlanda service to daily on March 28, when it replaces an A310 with an A330.

Qatar Airways launched four-times-weekly service from Doha to Amritsar and Goa and will start Doha-Melbourne service Dec. 6.

Ryanair will set up its 37th base, and first in Norway, at Oslo Rygge in March with three aircraft and 16 new routes, it announced yesterday. It currently service six destinations from RYG. New destinations will be Aarhus, Berlin Schonefeld, Dublin, Dusseldorf Weeze, Eindhoven, Gdansk, Krakow, La Rochelle, Malaga, Memmingen, Palma, Paris Beauvais, Riga, Wroclaw, Valencia and Treviso. The LCC said its investment at the airport will exceed USD200 million and that it eventually expects to serve 1.7 million passengers per year.

San Diego International airport is preparing to start construction of 10 new gates next year as the facility expects its passenger count to nearly double by 2030. Currently the airport has 41 gates, and the new gates are being added in terminal two West. Airport officials expect to complete construction in late 2012 or 2013. The planned expansion is part of an estimated USD1 billion construction effort that began this July and is expected to be complete by 2013. Extra gates are needed as San Diego's passenger count is expected to reach between 27 million and 33 million by 2030, an airport spokesman says, adding, "The 10 new gates will help the airport accommodate this increase in demand over the next several years." Last year the airport served 18.1 million passengers.The latest data available shows that the airport served 12.8 million passengers year-to-date this September, an 8.6 percent decline from the nine-month period last year.

Spirit Airlines launched twice-weekly Fort Lauderdale-Armenia, Colombia service.

Thai Airways, Airbus took delivery of one A340-500 and one A340-600, lifting its fleet to 90 aircraft. The jets are powered by Trent 500s. The -500 seats 215 across three classes and will operate to Los Angeles and Athens, while the -600 seats 267 and will fly to Tokyo Narita, Shanghai, Zurich and Sydney.

Turkish Airlines has begun the industry's only nonstop first-class service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport (IST). Exclusive airport services for first-class passengers include a dedicated private lounge and a check-in counter, and in Istanbul "meet and greet" from check-in to boarding. For more information, visit www.turkishairlines.com.

United Airlines will begin daily seasonal service between Chicago and the Italian capital of Rome on May 1, 2010. The once-daily flight will operate through the peak summer travel season, ending on August 31, 2010 aboard a 767. Service between Rome and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, United's largest hub, will offer convenient new options for customers throughout the western United States, Canada, and the Midwest. United will continue to offer once-daily nonstop service between Rome and Washington Dulles, the airline's principal gateway to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. For more information, visit www.united.com.

US Airways Vacations Vacationers is using a non-stop flight from Philadelphia to Barbados in a package deal that is bookable until Dec. 12. Barbados vacation packages are USD150 off for bookings of five nights or more and the vacation package has added the fifth night free and bonus miles. Travel must be completed by April 7. The deal includes five nights with the fifth night free. Use the promo code BGI150 to get USD150 off the vacation stay. Clients who book with a Dividend Miles number will receive bonus miles (1,500 for Coach and 2,500 for First Class). For more information, visit www.usairwaysvacations.com/barbados or www.visitbarbados.org.

US Airways, TACA Airlines With recent approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation, US Airways customers will be able to enjoy expanded travel between the United States and destinations in Central and South America, thanks to a new code-share agreement between TACA Airlines and US Airways beginning Jan. 12, 2010.

Virgin America launched twice-daily service to Fort Lauderdale from both San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Virgin Blue, V Australia V Australia will launch its third route from the USA to Australia this weekend with the beginning of new non-stop services to Melbourne, Australia, from Sunday, November 29. The new service follows hot on the heels of the introduction of direct flights from Los Angeles to Sydney and Brisbane, which began earlier this year. The Sir Richard Branson-backed airline has been heralded for lowering fares on the previously highly expensive trans-Pacific route and offering US-based travelers an affordable and convenient flying option to Australia, with many taking the opportunity to head down under and explore Australia for the first time. V Australia has also prompted thousands of Australian's to venture to the USA for a holiday, providing an economic stimulus at a critical time.

Wizz Air will base a third A320 at Cluj-Napoca from June 12 and launch thrice-weekly service to Pisa and Cuneo. It also will launch thrice-weekly Bucharest Baneasa-Pisa on June 12, twice-weekly Timisoara-Forli on March 29 and thrice-weekly Budapest-Forli on March 30. The LCC said more new destinations from CLJ will be announced "shortly."

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