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Only 3 prior months stored here. Transfer takes place 4th of following month News back to January 2004 available. If earlier data required, use Email to request.

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27 Feb Ryanair to charge for inflight toilet usage!

From time to time, Michael O'Leary gets tired of anti-Ryanair media and lashes out with something that really gets their blood boiling.   However, it is not yet 1st April and the following is real news from Yahoo Finance (Sky News)

27 Feb Ryanair may charge for toilet use on planes

Irish carrier Ryanair, Europe's largest budget airline, might start charging passengers for using the toilet while flying, chief executive Michael O'Leary said on Friday.  "One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in future," he told BBC television.

He said this would not inconvenience passengers travelling without cash. "I don't think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound."

O'Leary has a reputation as a cost cutter, expanding Ryanair by offering low headline fares and charging extra for items such as additional luggage.

Last week, Ryanair announced it was to shut all check-in desks at airports and have passengers check in online instead.

"We're all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel," he said.

26 Feb Ryanair and the full baggage story (Feb 25)

Below is an article from business.timesonline.co.uk and all other details are at the today updated section of http://travel.holidays.com/tips#handluggage

 

Feb 25 Ryanair fights to reduce passenger luggage
Marcus Leroux and Anna Schaefer

Michael O'Leary is known for picking fights with everyone from regulators, trade unions, competitors and even a fair number of his customers.

Yesterday the chief executive of Ryanair, the Irish budget airline, went still further by declaring war on what would appear to be an integral part of his industry: the suitcase.

Having spent years trying to price out competitors, Mr O'Leary said that he was trying to price luggage out of air travel. He said that he would increase baggage fees on Ryanair flights until the "absolute minimum" number of passengers decided to check in bags.

Ryanair, Europe's biggest airline, has become infamous over its £10 each-way fees for checking in bags.

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Ryanair: no complaints about mobiles

Chief executive Michael O'Leary says most passengers are just texting because calls are so expensive

Stranded by Ryanair: the rant that became a book

Stranded in Spain courtesy of Ryanair, Paul Kilduff ruminates on the debt we owe Michael O'Leary and his no-frills revolution

Ryanair: our 40 favourite headlines

Nobody has generated more travel news and comment than Michael O'Leary and his airline. Here are some highlights of the past decade

• Ryanair slams 'Thomas Crooks' for overcharging     Stranded by Ryanair: the rant that became a book

This year it has increased the anger of heavy packers by introducing a £30 fee for passengers who take on a carrier bag of duty-free goods or a small handbag as well as their 10kg (22lb) of hand luggage.

It has also introduced prohibitive fees for customers who choose to check in at the airport, rather than online, and the airline said last week that it was scrapping check-in desks altogether.

Mr O'Leary, asked yesterday whether Ryanair would reduce the baggage fee after the closure of check-in desks, said: "No. We will be putting it up - £10 to the next rounded figure. I assume we will go for £20 or £30.
"And we'll keep increasing it until we get to the absolute minimum [of passengers bringing hold baggage], probably 20per cent or 25per cent."

Ryanair hopes to cut handling costs by 50 per cent and reduce its presence from about 50 check-in desks to between five or ten bag drops. "It's a completely redundant and valueless process," Mr O'Leary said.
In his opinion, 10kg of luggage is easily sufficient for a two-week holiday. Consumer groups said many that many passengers would beg to differ, however, and would take their bulging suitcases elsewhere.

Mr O'Leary said that Ryanair's abolition of check-in would mean that passengers would spend less time shopping in airports. "Overpriced retailers like Stansted have conspired with the airlines to get passengers to show up three hours early to spend money in their overpriced shops," Mr O'Leary said.
This would leave customers more change to spend on Ryanair's £4.20 sandwiches and £2.50 cups of coffee. Which?, the consumer campaign group, said that Ryanair was the highest-priced airline for food and drink and that a hungry traveller could add 50 per cent to the price of a typical flight.
Food and drink are among the lucrative "ancillary charges" and extras that Ryanair and easyJet, its budget rival, have been using to boost profit. They represent about 22per cent of the Irish airline's revenue, about €132million (£117million).

Last week Ryanair introduced paid-for mobile phone use on its flights from Dublin. "So far, I have had no complaint from a passenger that the cathedral-like sanctity of a Ryanair flight was punctured by a phone call," Mr O'Leary said.

He also threatened Thomas Cook with legal action over so-called screen-scraping websites, which access the Ryanair site remotely and take a cut of inflated ticket prices.  Mr O'Leary released correspondence that allegedly showed how a Thomas Cook company had overcharged a couple by £241.71. A Thomas Cook spokesman said: "This is a regrettable situation and we apologise to the customer concerned. Customers are made aware of the breakdown of costs, including fuel supplements. We believe this is an isolated case due to a system error but we will be fully investigating this matter. Thomas Cook will be contacting the customer to offer a full refund."

10kg of luggage is enough Mr O'Leary, but you still cant carry on toilettries!

26 Feb Leprechaun Tax partially scrapped

The Rep of Ireland has agreed to forego the "Tourist Tax" for peripheral airports. Ryanair update reads:

Ryanair Calls for Scrapping of Tourist Tax

RYANAIR WELCOMES SCRAPPING OF TOURIST TAX FROM SMALL PERIPHERAL AIRPORTS

Ryanair today (25th Feb) welcomed the decision by the Minister of Finance to scrap the tourist tax for small peripheral airports and called for the tax to be scrapped from airports where tourism and traffic is really being damaged, such as
Dublin which has suffered 150,000 passenger fall in January and Shannon where traffic is likely to fall by 30% this year.

Ryanair has repeatedly confirmed that the scrapping of the tourist tax would see the reversal of the recent Ryanair cuts announced at Dublin and Shannon. It highlighted that €150m could be saved annually by closing irrelevant quangos such as Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and the useless Commission for Aviation Regulation.

"The tragedy here is that the Government is only scrapping the tourist tax from peripheral airports such as Donegal and Sligo whilst ignoring Dublin (which lost more passengers in Jan than Donegal and Sligo carry in a year)  and Shannon".

25 Feb CH-Aviation update per 25 Feb  (9 page update)

Adria Airways (JP/Ljubljana) has terminated its Ljubljana-Oslo Gardermoen route and given up plans to add Sofia to its network in Mar. It will also not resume its seasonal Ljubljana-Birmingham route this year. Its employees have acquired a 23% stake in the carrier.

Aer Arann (RE/Dublin) has pulled out of its Galway-Waterford-Amsterdam route. It is not planning to resume its summer operations with a BAe 146-200 to the Mediterranean this year.

Aer Lingus (EI/Dublin) has leased two new A320-200s that were not taken up by Comoro Islands Airline (Moroni) and will resume twice daily A320-200 between Shannon and London Heathrow on Mar 29. It has announced plans to give up its Belfast Intl-Amsterdam route on Mar 27. In other news, it has entered into a joint-venture with codeshare partner United Airlines (UA/Chicago) to launch new transatlantic services from other EU countries. The two carriers are planning to start a first joint operation in spring 2010 with Aer Lingus operating a daily A330 linking Madrid and Washington Dulles.

Aerfly (Perugia) is a new start-up planning to start operations with a single Saab 340 offering services linking Perugia and Naples.

Aeroflot (SU/Moscow Sheremetyevo) is planning to submit an offer for the 92% stake in CSA Czech Airlines (OK/Prague) that the Czech government will put up for sale this year. It has ordered six additional A321-200s and is planning to withdraw all of its remaining Tu-154Ms and Il-96-300s from scheduled services by the end of Oct 2009.
It will then only operate A320/A330 family and B767-300 aircraft. Aeroflot has announced new routes from its
Moscow Sheremetyevo hub to: -Guangzhou: 3x weekly B767-300ER (on Jun 3) / -Ovda: weekly A320-200 started Jan 15

Aeroflot will give up its routes from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Mumbai and Toronto Pearson on Mar 28 and temporarily suspend its Moscow Sheremetyevo-Bangkok Suvarnabhumi route between May 17 and Jul 31. It has already temporarily suspended its services from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Magadan (operating via Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk) until Magadan airport is able to accommodate A320 aircraft. It had previously operated Tu-154Ms on these routes until Feb 1 when Aeroflot decided to only use A320-200/A321-200 aircraft on its routes from Sheremetyevo to Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk.

Aeroflot-Don (D9/Rostov) will lease a third ex-Aegean Airlines (A3/Athens) B737-400.

Aero Rent (NRO/Moscow Vnukovo) has added a second ex-Aeroflot-Nord (5N/Arkhangelsk) Tu-154B2 to its fleet.

Aerosvit Airlines (VV/Kiev Borispol) will add an ex-Estonian Air (OV/Tallinn) B737-500. It will launch five times weekly B737-300/-400 from Kiev Borispol to Dusseldorf Intl on Jun 22. The Ukrainian government is planning to sell its 22.4% stake in Aerosvit later this year.

Aero VIP (RVP/Cascais-Tires) has acquired an ex-Aerocondor Do228-200 to launch twice weekdaily from Lisbon via Vila Real to Braganca. It has taken over this public obligation route from previous operator Aeronorte (Braga) that has only operated on the route for several months.

Aigle Azur (ZI/Paris Orly) will add two additional routes linking France and Algeria this summer season:
Lille-Oran: weekly seasonal A320-200 between Jul 22 and Sep 2.
Paris CDG-Oran: 2x weekly A321-200 on Mar 30.
It will however give up its Paris Orly-Marrakech services on Mar 1 and its routes from Paris Orly to Casablanca, Oujda and Rabat by the end of Mar. It has already stopped serving Tangiers.

Air-Albatros (Rijeka) is a small Croatian charter carrier operating small turboprops that will enter the passenger charter market in spring with a first ex-Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) MD-82. It is planning to lease additional MD-80s for inbound and outbound charter services to/from Croatia later this year.

Air A!ps (A6/Innsbruck) has given up its routes from Milan Malpensa to Ancona and from Rome Fiumicino to Cuneo citing low demand.

Air Baltic (BT/Riga) has signed a codeshare agreement with Rossiya (FV/St. Petersburg) that will put its code on Air Baltic services from Riga to Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg and between Kaliningrad and Copenhagen Kastrup. Air Baltic will resume or add new routes to its network later this year:
Riga-Dushanbe: 2x weekly B737-500 starting Jun 1.  It has however already given up its Riga-Almaty route again.

Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) will introduce several new routes to its network this summer season:
Basle/Mulhouse-Rimini: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 on Jun 27 (operated by LGW–Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter (HE/Dortmund)).
Berlin Tegel-Oslo Gardermoen: 5x weekly A320-200 on Apr 27
Hanover-Stockholm Arlanda: 4x weekly A319-100 on Apr 20
Dortmund-Ibiza: weekly seasonal B737-800 on May 7
Nuremberg-Rijeka: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 starting May 31 (operated by LGW–Luftfahrtges Walter)
Nuremberg-Split: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 on May 30 (operated by LGW–Luftfahrtges Walter)
Stuttgart-Nice: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 resuming on May 2 (operated by LGW–Luftfahrtges Walter)
It has entered into a codeshare agreement with Hainan Airlines (HU/Haikou) for the twice weekly A330-200 operated by Hainan from Berlin Tegel to Beijing.
Air Berlin will suspend its Berlin Tegel-Punta Cana, Dortmund-Las Palmas, Dortmund-Tenerife Sur, Dusseldorf Intl-Samana, Leipzig/Halle-Punta Cana, Munich-Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Munich-Cape Town, Munich-Mombasa and Munich-Varadero routes on Apr 28.
Air Berlin subsidiary LTU Intl Airways (LT/Dusseldorf Intl) will also combine its routes from Munich to Puerto Plata and Cancun to operate as a weekly triangle with an A330-200 as of May 5. Furthermore, Air Berlin will also not resume seasonal services from Frankfurt Intl to Faro and from Munich to Fort Myers and Miami.

Air Comet (A7/Madrid) has given up its Madrid-Paris CDG and Madrid-Rome Fiumicino routes. It continues to offer Rome Fiumicino services through a codeshare agreement with Air Europa (UX/Palma de Mallorca). It has been using wet-leased equipment from a variety of Spanish charter carriers for its twice daily Madrid-London Gatwick route since mid-Jan instead of its own A320-200s.

Air Dolomiti (EN/Trieste) has taken delivery of its first two EMB-195s that will gradually replace its BAe 146-300 fleet.

Air Europa (UX/Palma de Mallorca) is adding two new routes to its network:
Madrid to: -London Gatwick: 2x daily B737-800/EMB-195 on May 1 (replacing codeshare with Air Comet (A7/Madrid)) / -New York JFK: daily A330-200 starting Jun 1 / -Tenerife Norte-Caracas: weekly A330-200 starting  Jun 7 (adding stop in Tenerife Norte to one of the daily Madrid-Caracas services).
It has agreed on a codeshare agreement with Spanair (JK/Palma de Mallorca) for some Spanair operated domestic services from/to Madrid (on routes where the two carriers do not compete) to get additional feed for its longhaul services.

Air France (AF/Paris CDG) is planning to gradually decrease its workforce by about 2,000 employees. Air France-KLM has taken a 25% stake in the new Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) for 323 million EUR with the positive side effect that Alitalia will remain in Skyteam alliance and continue to operate in very close partnership with Air France-KLM. It has also shown interest in a possible bid for SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) should the Scandinavian governments put their stakes in the carrier up for sale. Air France has taken delivery of its first of five B777-200ERF freighters and has announced network changes:
Basle/Mulhouse to -Ajaccio: weekly seasonal ERJ-145 between May 31 and Sep 27 (operated by Régional (YS/Nantes)) / -Amsterdam: 2x daily ARJ-85 on Mar 30 (operated by Cityjet (WX/Dublin)) / -Calvi: weekly seasonal ERJ-145 between May 30 and Sep 26 (operated by Régional).
Bordeaux-Calvi: weekly seasonal ERJ-145 between May 31 and Sep 27 (operated by Régional).
Metz/Nancy-Ajaccio: weekly seasonal ERJ-145 between May 31 and Sep 27 (operated by Régional).
Nantes-Calvi: weekly seasonal ERJ-145 between May 30 and Sep 26 (operated by Régional).
Paris Orly to -Barcelona: 3x daily CRJ-100 on Mar 29 (operated by Brit Air (DB/Morlaix) in addition to CDG services) / -Southampton: 3x daily ATR 42-500 on Mar 30 (operated by Airlinair (A5/Paris Orly) and replacing CDG route).
Toulouse-Calvi: weekly seasonal ERJ-145 between May 30 and Sep 26 (operated by Régional).
It will give up its Bordeaux-Porto, Lyon-Zurich, Paris CDG-Chennai and Paris Orly-Valladolid routes on Mar 28 and transfer its Paris CDG-Philadelphia route to Skyteam partner Delta Air Lines (DL/Atlanta) on Oct 5. Air France-KLM has signing a codeshare agreement with Westjet (WS/Calgary) that will allow the two carriers to offer connections to a variety of additional destinations in Canada as of 2010.

Air Italy (I9/Milan Malpensa) has leased a first ex-SkyEurope Airlines (NE/Bratislava) B737-700 and will launch new seasonal routes this summer season:
Palermo-Olbia: 6x weekly seasonal B737-300 on Jul 24
Turin-Olbia: daily seasonal B737-300 on Jun 26
Verona to: -Brindisi: 2x weekly seasonal B737-300 resuming on Jul 25 / -Lamezia Terme: 4x weekly seasonal B737-300 on Jul 24 / -Olbia: daily seasonal B737-300 on Jun 26 / -Reggio di Calabria: 3x weekly seasonal B737-300 on Jul 25.
It has temporarily wet-leased a B737-500 from Smartwings (QS/Prague) for the winter season and had for a very short time operated routes from Milan Linate to Bari and Naples using unused Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) slots between Dec 30 and Jan 12 when it has been forced to give up the slots again by the Italian slot coordination and has taken legal action against the authorities about this move.

Airlinair (A5/Paris Orly) has given up its Paris Orly-Eindhoven route at the end of Oct 2008 and its Paris Orly-Beziers route on Feb 8.

Air Malta (KM/Malta) has wet-leased an A320-200 to Sky Airline (Chile) (H2/Santiago de Chile) for the winter season and will launch several new seasonal routes this year:
Malta to -Stuttgart: twice weekly seasonal A319-100/A320-200 on Apr 6 / -Paris CDG: three times weekly A319-100/A320-200 on Apr 6 (in addition to Orly services) / -Verona: twice weekly seasonal A319-100/A320-200 on Jun 6.   However it gave up its Malta-London Stansted route earlier this winter season.

Air Méditerranée (DR/Lourdes/Tarbes) is planning to base an A321-100 in Italy for charter and ACMI services this summer season.

Air Southwest (WO/Plymouth) will add a stop in Guernsey to its four times weekly Dash 8-300 between Plymouth and Jersey as of Apr 8. The services will operate as triangle services from Plymouth via the two islands back to Plymouth.

Alis Aerolinee Italiane (Milan Malpensa) has as expected submitted a bid for the cargo division of Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) and is planning to launch scheduled cargo operations in spring with an ex-Alitalia MD-11SF freighter. It is considering leasing additional MD-11SFs later as a stop gap solution until its own A330-200F freighters will be delivered.

Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) has started operations as a new commercial entity on Jan 12 as scheduled. Its low-cost carrier subsidiary Volareweb.com (VE/Milan Malpensa) has stopped own scheduled operations and is now operating its two remaining A320-200s on behalf of Air One (AP/Rome Fiumicino) and Alitalia. All cargo operations have been suspended and the MD-11F freighters returned to the lessors. Alitalia has announced several network changes already:
Bologna Marconi to -Catania: 2x daily A320-200 on Mar 29 operated by Air One / -Palermo: 2x daily A320-200/CRJ-900 on Mar 29 operated by Air One and Air One CityLiner (CYL/Rome Fiumicino).
Genoa-Catania: daily CRJ-900 on Mar 29 operated by Air One CityLiner
Milan Linate to -Bucharest Otopeni: 2x daily EMB-170 on Mar 29 operated by Alitalia Express (XM/Rome Fiumicino) / -Warsaw: daily A319-100 on Mar 29.
Rome Fiumicino: -Thessaloniki: 3x daily CRJ-900 on Mar 29 operated by Air One CityLiner / -Valencia: daily MD-82 on Mar 29.
It will however give up its Rome Fiumicino-Prague route on Mar 28 and will only continue to codeshare on CSA Czech Airlines (OK/Prague) between the two cities. Alitalia has terminated its codeshare agreements with Aeromexico (AM/Mexico City), Air China (CA/Beijing), Brussels Airlines (SN/Brussels), Cyprus Airways (CY/Larnaca), JAL – Japan Airlines (JL/Tokyo Haneda), Kuwait Airways (KU/Kuwait), Luxair (LG/Luxembourg), Malaysia Airlines (MH/Kuala Lumpur Intl), Malev (MA/Budapest) and Ukraine Intl Airlines (PS/Kiev Borispol) while Air One has cancelled similar agreements with Aegean Airlines (A3/Athens) and Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl).

Amsterdam Airlines (AAN/Amsterdam) is planning to lease two additional ex-US Airways (US/Phoenix) A320-200s.

AnadoluJet (Ankara) has leased a second ex-SkyEurope Airlines (NE/Bratislava) B737-700.

Andalus Lineas Aéreas (Malaga) has launched scheduled operations in cooperation with two Moroccan tour operators offering services from Nador to Barcelona, Girona, Madrid, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca using its single ERJ-145. It is also considering offering services linking Gibraltar and Madrid.

Armavia (U8/Yerevan) has announced plans to launch a new route linking its Yerevan hub with Tbilisi in Mar without disclosing further details about planned schedules.

Athens Airways (ZF/Athens) has launched operations on Jan 31 with its first of four ex-Flybe. (BE/Exeter) ERJ-145s:
Athens:  -Alexandroupolis: 2x daily ERJ-145 started Jan 31 / -Kavala: daily ERJ-145 started Feb 12 / -Mytilene: 2x daily ERJ-145 on Feb 27 / -Thessaloniki: 3x daily ERJ-145 on Mar 12.

Atlantic Airlines (UK) (NPT/Coventry) will lease a first ex-Germania B737-300F freighter later this year that is currently undergoing freighter conversion.

Atlant-Soyuz Airlines (7B/Moscow Chkalovskaya) will be fully taken over by the Moscow government ahead of its integration into Rosavia (Moscow Vnukovo). It has also leased four additional Tu-154Ms and has announced plans to lease three additional B737-300s to support its fast growth related to all of the former AirUnion routes it has taken over.

Atlasjet Airlines (KK/Antalya) will lease two ex-Eurofly (GJ/Milan Malpensa) A330-200s and operate the aircraft on behalf of Saudi Arabian Airlines (SV/Jeddah). It has also given up its Istanbul Ataturk-Tokat route in late 2008.

Aurigny Air Services (GR/Guernsey) will launch daily ATR 72-500 from Guernsey to Nottingham on May 1.

Aurora Airlines (URR/Maribor) is planning to add an ex-Air Adriatic MD-82 to its fleet later this spring. It has wet-leased another MD-82 to Chabahar Airlines (IRU/Tehran).

Austrian Airlines (OS/Vienna) has taken several measures to ensure it is able to survive as an independent carrier until a transaction to sell the carrier to Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) will be approved by the European Union. It has announced a capacity cut of 10% and a review of a possible sale of aircraft. Austrian will give up its routes from Vienna to Ankara Esenboga, Nizhniy Novgorod and Nuremberg at the end of the month and has already terminated Vienna-Baia Mare services earlier in Feb. In addition, it has also given up plans to add Aleppo to its network this summer and will not resume its seasonal Vienna-Bourgas route anymore.
It will operate a weekly seasonal linking Vienna and Dublin between May 29 and Sep 11 using an Austrian arrows (VO/Innsbruck) Fokker 100.

B&H Airlines (JA/Sarajevo) will lease a first B737-400 or B737-700 later this spring to allow the carrier to launch new services to Scandinavia. It is planning to expand its operations this year thanks to the support of new parent Turkish Airlines (TK/Istanbul Ataturk) and to add Belgrade, Copenhagen Kastrup, Dusseldorf, Gothenburg Landvetter, Podgorica, Prague, Tripoli, Tuzla, Vienna and Zagreb to its network.

Baboo (F7/Geneva) has cut unprofitable routes to Sofia and Zagreb very quickly again but has announced more summer routes instead: Geneva-Larnaca: weekly seasonal EMB-190 on Jul 6.

Belair Airlines (4T/Zurich) has delayed the retirement plans for its B757-200 fleet and is expected to operate the two aircraft for at least part of the summer season until they will be replaced by A320-200s.

Belavia (B2/Minsk Intl 2) will lease two ex-Air China (CA/Beijing) B737-300s later this year.

Belle Air (LZ/Tirana) will lease an A319-100 and an ATR 72-500 later this summer to complement its fleet of a Fokker 100 and a MD-82 and to replace other wet-leased equipment. It will launch three times weekly A319-100 from Tirana to Bologna Marconi on Mar 30.

Blue Air (Romania) (0B/Bucharest Baneasa) will give up its Bucharest Baneasa-Arad-Venice Treviso route on Mar 27. It has plans for other new services this summer season:
Bacau  -Bologna Marconi: 2x weekly B737 on Mar 30 / -Milan Orio al Serio: 3x weekly B737 resuming on Mar 29.
Bucharest Baneasa  -Catania: 3x weekly B737 on Mar 29 / -Naples: 3x weekly B737 on Mar 31.

Blue Islands (SI/Alderney) has added another ex-Coast Air Jetstream 31.

Blue 1 (KF/Helsinki) will wet-lease the ATR 72-200 of DAT – Danish Air Transport (DX/Vamdrup) as of Mar 8 to operate its Turku-Stockholm Arlanda services. It will also dry lease two ARJ-85s from Cityjet (WX/Dublin) for twelve months allowing it to expand its domestic services in Finland:
Helsinki -Ivalo: 3x weekly seasonal MD-90-30 between Feb 10 and Apr 19 / -Kuusamo: 3x weekly seasonal ARJ-85/MD-90-30 between Feb 11 and Apr 19.
In other news, Blue 1 has started codesharing on Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) services from Helsinki to Frankfurt Intl and Munich.

Blue Panorama Airlines (BV/Rome Fiumicino) is planning to add three ex-Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) B767-300ERs to its fleet.

Blu Express (BV/Rome Fiumicino) will launch two new routes from its Rome Fiumicino base:
Rome Fiumicino -Ibiza: 2x weekly seasonal B737-300/-400 between Jun 5 and Sep 27 / -Lamezia Terme: 6x weekly B737-300/-400 on Mar 30

bmibaby (WW/Nottingham) has announced several new routes:
Birmingham-Newquay: 4x weekly seasonal B737-300/-500 on May 22
Cardiff-Almeria: 2x weekly seasonal B737-300 on May 22
It will terminate its Birmingham-Cork, Cardiff-Amsterdam and Cardiff-Glasgow Intl services on Mar 28.

bmi british midland (BD/Nottingham) will launch new services this summer season:
Birmingham-Aberdeen: three times daily ERJ-135/ERJ-145 on Mar 29 operated by bmi regional (II/Aberdeen) (replacing bmibaby (WW/Nottingham on the route).
London Heathrow-Kiev Borispol: five times weekly A321-200 on Mar 29.

bmi will terminate its services from London Heathrow to Durham Tees Valley, Jersey and Leeds/Bradford on Mar 28 and will also not resume its London Heathrow-Naples route this summer season however and make use of the slots for additional medium haul services and flights on behalf of or by parent Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) to Milan Malpensa (operated by Lufthansa Italia (Milan Malpensa) in a codeshare with bmi) and to Berlin Tegel (operated by bmi on behalf of Lufthansa).  bmi regional services between Leeds/Bradford and Copenhagen Kastrup will already be given up on Mar 1.
bmi has entered into a bilateral codeshare agreements with Air Malta (KM/Malta), Blue 1 (KF/Helsinki) and Ethiopian Airlines (ET/Addis Ababa). It will codeshare on Air Malta services from Amsterdam, Birmingham, Brussels Ntl, Glasgow Intl, London Gatwick, London Heathrow and Manchester to Malta and between London Gatwick and Catania. Air Malta will mainly codeshare on bmi domestic services in the UK. Besides cooperation on domestic routes in Finland and the UK, the partnership with Star Alliance carrier Blue 1 will see bmi putting its BD code on Blue 1 services between Heathrow and Helsinki while Ethiopian and bmi will codeshare on the Heathrow-Addis Ababa route operated by both carriers. bmi has also extended its codeshare agreement with Virgin Atlantic (VS/London Heathrow) and now has put its code on Virgin Atlantic transatlantic services from London Heathrow to Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. Virgin Atlantic now codeshares on bmi services from Heathrow to Aberdeen, Amman Queen Alia, Beirut, Belfast City, Edinburgh, Glasgow Intl, Manchester, Tehran Imam Khomeini and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion.

British Airways (BA/London Heathrow) and Iberia (IB/Madrid) have made several statements that despite the difficulties encountered in the negotiations so far and the drop in BA share prices, the merger plans are still on track with a final agreement expected for later this year. British Airways shareholders would now reportedly get a 55% share in the new holding company with Iberia shareholders getting 45% instead of the 60/40 split previously anticipated. British Airways has placed an order with Embraer for six EMB-170s and five EMB-190s to replace its ARJ-100/ARJ-85 fleet at subsidiary BA CityFlyer (CJ/London City). BA has delayed the resumption of services from London Heathrow to Jeddah and Riyadh from Mar 30 to May 31 citing delays in getting the two new outstations operational. It has also announced plans to further reduce the number of shorthaul aircraft based at London Gatwick from 35 to 32 from the winter season 2009/2010 without specifying any route cuts yet. BA CityFlyer has already given up its London City-Warsaw route while parent British Airways has extended its codeshare agreement with JAL – Japan Airlines (JL/Tokyo Haneda) to include domestic services from Tokyo Haneda even though all BA services operate from/to Narita.

Brussels Airlines (SN/Brussels) has announced several new routes for the upcoming summer timetable period:
Brussels Ntl -Palermo: up to 2x weekly seasonal B737-300 on Apr 4 / -Seville: 3x weekly ARJ-85/ARJ-100 resuming on Apr 5 / -Vilnius: 4x weekly ARJ-85/ARJ-100 on Mar 16.
While the European Union is still reviewing the proposed takeover of Brussels Airlines by Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl), the two carriers are expected to start codesharing in spring.

Bukovyna Airlines (BKV/Chernovtsy) has wet-leased two ex-Bulgarian Air Charter (1T/Sofia) MD-83s to Kish Air (Y9/Tehran).

Cargolux (CV/Luxembourg) is planning to base a B747-400F freighter at Milan Malpensa to start longhaul cargo operations making use of the void left by Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino), Cargoitalia and Ocean Airlines that have all suspended cargo operations in Italy last year. It has already applied for an Italian air operator certificate to allow it to create an Italian subsidiary to operate the aircraft at a later stage.

Carpatair (V3/Timisoara) has already ceased its services from Timisoara to Frankfurt Intl and Thessaloniki and will give up its Bucharest Otopeni-Kiev Zhulyany route on Feb 27.

Cimber Sterling (QI/Sonderborg) is the new name of Cimber Air (QI/Sonderborg) after it has finalized plans to integrate some former Sterling Airlines B737-700s, staff and routes into its own previously more regionally focused operation. It has already added two ex-Sterling Airlines B737-700s and is planning to lease four additional aircraft later this year to resume a variety of former Sterling routes:
Aalborg-Malaga: weekly B737-700 on Feb 28.
Billund to -Malaga: 3x weekly B737-700 has already started earlier this month / -Nice: 2x weekly B737-700 on Apr 1 / -Rome Fiumicino: 2x weekly B737-700 on Mar 3.
Copenhagen Kastrup to -Alicante: 2x weekly B737-700 on Apr 1 / -Athens: 2x weekly B737-700 on Apr 1 / -Barcelona: 3x weekly B737-700 on Mar 29 / -Bourgas: weekly seasonal B737-700 on May 24 / -Chania: 2x weekly seasonal B737-700 on May 21 / -Edinburgh: 3x weekly B737-700 on Mar 29 / -Florence: 4x weekly B737-700 on Mar 29 / -London Gatwick: 2x daily B737-700 has already started in mid-Jan / -Malaga: 3x weekly B737-700 has already started earlier this month / -Montpellier: 2x weekly seasonal B737-700 on May 22 / -Naples: 3x weekly B737-700 on Apr 2 / -Nice: 4x weekly B737-700 has already started earlier this month / -Palma de Mallorca: 3x weekly B737-700 on May 21 / -Rome Fiumicino: daily B737-700 on Mar 29 / -Split: 2x weekly seasonal B737-700 on May 22 / -Venice Marco Polo: 3x weekly B737-700 on Mar 29.
Cimber Sterling is now also using B737-700s on some of its services from Copenhagen Kastrup to Aalborg and Karup as well as from Billund to London Gatwick and Oslo Gardermoen. It will however stop its services between Billund and Stavanger on Mar 28.

Cirrus Airlines (C9/Munich) has again been acquired by former majority owner Gerd Brandecker through one of his investment companies. Augsburg Airways (IQ/Augsburg) and business jet operator DC Aviation (DCS/Stuttgart) will remain subsidiaries of Aton which had taken full control of the Cirrus Group in mid-2008.

Condor (DE/Frankfurt) will soon be under full control of tour operator giant Thomas Cook that has agreed to acquire the remaining 24.9% stake that Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) still owns in the leisure carrier.

Contact Air (C3/Stuttgart) will lease two additional ex-Aero Mongolia Fokker 100s to its fleet. It will then operate five Fokker 100s, currently mainly on behalf of Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) and Swiss (LX/Zurich).

Corendon Airlines (CAI/Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen) has leased two ex-Turkish Airlines (TK/Istanbul Ataturk) B737-400s to its fleet, one aircraft has been delivered already and the second aircraft will join the fleet in spring.

Corsair (SS/Paris Orly) has launched and announced two new seasonal services:
Lyon-Fort de France-Pointe à Pitre: weekly seasonal B747-400 between Dec 21 and Apr 19
Paris Orly-Nantes-Quebec City: weekly seasonal A330-200 between Jun 13 and Sep 5 (in addition to two weekly non-stops)

Croatia Airlines (OU/Zagreb) has announced new routes from its Zagreb hub:
Zagreb  -Barcelona: 3x weekly A319-100 on Jun 9 / -Gothenburg Landvetter: 2x weekly A319-100 resuming on Jun 12
It will however not resume its seasonal Zagreb-Dusseldorf Intl services this summer season.

CSA Czech Airlines (OK/Prague) will launch three times weekly A319-100 linking Ostrava and Moscow Sheremetyevo on Mar 29.

Cyprus Airways (CY/Larnaca) has finalized leasing agreements for two additional A320-200s that will be delivered later this year.

DanubeWings (V5/Bratislava) will launch scheduled services with its two ATR 72-200s:
Bratislava -Basle/Mulhouse: 4x weekly on Mar 30 / -Bologna Marconi: 2x weekly on Apr 3 / -Kosice: up to 3x daily on Mar 30 / -Poprad: 6x weekly on Mar 31.
Poprad-Bologna Marconi: 2x weekly on Apr 1
It is also planning to add seasonal summer routes to Dubrovnik, Palermo, Rijeka, Split and Zadar later this year.

Direktflyg (HS/Borlänge) will launch twice weekdaily Jetstream 32 from Norrköping to Visby on Mar 30.

Dniproavia (Z6/Dnepropetrovsk) has added an 11th ex-Flybe. ERJ-145 but has given up plans to lease B767-300ERs.

Donbassaero (7D/Donetsk) has launched four times weekly Saab 340 between Kiev Borispol and Vilnius replacing bankrupt FlyLAL on the route.

DOT - Danu oro transportas (R6/Vilnius) has been awarded two public obligation routes in Norway:
Oslo Gardermoen -Fagernes: 2x daily Saab 340 on Apr 1 (replacing Wideroe (WF/Bodo)) / -Roros: 2x daily Saab 340 on Apr 1 (replacing Air Norway (M3/Orland))

Eagle Aviation (France) (EGN/St. Nazaire) has suspended ACMI operations on Feb 18 and has been liquidated in the meantime. It had operated three B757-200s on a wet-lease agreement on behalf of Saudi Arabian Airlines (SV/Jeddah).

Eastern Airways (T3/Humberside) has given up plans to launch London City-Amsterdam services. It is reportedly planning to launch domestic services in France later this year on the Dijon-Bordeaux and Dijon-Toulouse routes with two Jetstream 41s.

easyJet (U2/London Luton) is expected to start services to Tunisia in 2009 after it has reached an agreement with the Tunisian authorities about traffic rights to the country. It has already announced a variety of other new routes:
Basle/Mulhouse-Bordeaux: 2x weekly seasonal Jun 20-Oct 10 (operated by easyJet Switzerland (DS/Geneva))
Berlin Schönefeld  -Cagliari: 3x weekly on Apr 1 / -Dubrovnik: 3x weekly seasonal between Jul 12 and Aug 30.
Bristol -Bastia: weekly seasonal between May 24 and Oct 4 / -Biarritz: 3x weekly seasonal between May 21 and Oct 4 / -Kerkyra: 2x weekly seasonal on May 22.
Geneva -Bastia: 2x weekly seasonal Jun 27-Sep 5 / -Dubrovnik: 2x weekly seasonal between Jul 6 and Sep 3 (both operated by easyJet Switzerland).
Ibiza-Bilbao: 5x weekly seasonal between Jun 22 and Sep 6.
Liverpool -Bordeaux: 3x weekly seasonal between Jun 2 and Oct 3 / -Dubrovnik: 4x weekly seasonal between Jun 2 and Oct 4 / -Naples: 4x weekly seasonal between Jun 1 and Oct 4.
London Gatwick -Bodrum: 3x weekly seasonal on Apr 23 / -Munich: daily on Apr 2 / -Vienna: daily on Apr 2
London Gatwick-Zurich: daily on Apr 2.
Lyon -Ibiza: 3x weekly seasonal Jul 12-Aug 30 / -Olbia: 2x weekly seasonal Jul 13-Aug 28 / -Pisa: 2x weekly seasonal between Jul 11 and Aug 29.
Manchester -Athens: 2x weekly on Aug 5 / -Bastia: weekly seasonal between Aug 9 and Oct 4 / -Dalaman: 3x weekly seasonal on Aug 6 / -Kerkyra: 2x weekly seasonal on May 4.
Milan Malpensa -Dubrovnik: 4x weekly seasonal between Aug 2 and Aug 30 / -Heraklion: 4x weekly seasonal between Jul 27 and Aug 30 / -Rhodes: 3x weekly seasonal between Jul 25 and Aug 30 / -Split: 3x weekly seasonal between Aug 1 and Aug 29.
Newcastle-Malta: 2x weekly on May 22
Paris CDG-Ajaccio: daily seasonal between Jul 11 and Sep 13
Paris Orly -Dubrovnik: 2x weekly seasonal between Jul 12 and Aug 30 / -Faro: 3x weekly seasonal between Jul 12 and Aug 30.
easyJet has given up its London Luton-Jersey and Newcastle-Prague routes and will terminate its flights from Belfast Intl to Prague on Mar 29.

Elite Airlines (Athens) has added two ex-Clickair (XG/Barcelona) A320-200s for ACMI operations in the Middle East.

Estonian Air (OV/Tallinn) will operate a twice weekly seasonal from Pärnu to Stockholm Arlanda between Apr 30 and Sep 23 using Estonian Air Regional (Tallinn) Saab 340s.It will however not resume its seasonal services from Tallinn to Frankfurt Intl and Simferopol this year. SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) reportedly is planning to use Estonian Air aircraft to resume own services between Scandinavia and Vilnius.

EuroAtlantic Airways (MM/Lisbon) has announced that it will convert one of its B767-300ERs into a freighter allowing it to enter into the cargo market.

Eurofly (GJ/Milan Malpensa) will shortly lease an ex-easyJet (U2/London Luton) A320-200. It has wet-leased one of its A330-200s to TAT Nigeria (Lagos) for charter services.

Explora Italia (Albenga) is planning to wet-lease an ATR-42 of a yet unknown carrier to launch scheduled services on Apr 6:
Albenga -Bastia: 2x weekly seasonal service / -Rome Fiumicino: weekly service
Milan Malpensa-Bastia: 2x weekly seasonal service
Rome Fiumicino-Bastia: 2x weekly seasonal service
It is also planning to operate services between Milan Malpensa and Calvi and from Albenga, Bastia and Rome Fiumicino to Tortoli in the summer vacation months.

Finnair (AY/Helsinki) is reportedly considering taking a stake in Estonian Air (OV/Tallinn) after SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) has announced plans to sell its 49.2% stake in Estonian. Finnair will resume five times weekly seasonal EMB-190 from Helsinki to Bergen on May 22. In other news, Finnair will operate twice weekly scheduled charter services on behalf of Canadian tour operator Go Travel Direct between Paris CDG and Montreal Trudeau as of Jun using B757-200s.

Flightline (UK) (B5/Southend) has suspended operations and entered into administration on Dec 3, 2008. It had operated BAe 146s and MD-83s on charter and ACMI services and been in business for almost 20 years. The carrier had lost one of its important charter contracts in Scotland shortly before announcing the suspension of operations.

Flybe. (BE/Exeter) is adding new UK regional services:
Aberdeen-Cardiff: 6x weekly Saab 340 on Apr 19 (operated by Loganair (LC/Glasgow Intl))
Isle of Man -Belfast City: 3x daily Saab 340 on May 3 / -Blackpool: 3x daily Saab 340 on May 3 (both operated by Loganair).
Jersey -Belfast City: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 between May 2 and Sep 26 / -London Luton: up to 4x weekly Dash 8-400 resuming on Mar 29.

Fly Globespan (Y2/Edinburgh) has wet-leased one of its B767-300ERs to Gabon Airlines (GY/Libreville). It has retired its remaining two B737-300s. It will not resume its Edinburgh-Rome Ciampino route following by a Ryanair (FR/Dublin) announcement to launch the same route this summer.

FlyJämtland (Östersund) is a new subsidiary of Sverigeflyg and has launched daily between Östersund and Stockholm Bromma on Feb 19 using a Golden Air (DC/Trollhattan) Saab 2000.

FlyLAL (TE/Vilnius) has been forced to suspend scheduled operations on Jan 21 because of financial difficulties after a proposed takeover by Swiss investor SCH Swiss Capital Holdings fell through. It had already previously cut some routes such as Vilnius-Istanbul Ataturk, Vilnius-Paris CDG and Vilnius-Rome Fiumicino in early Jan in an attempt to cut down losses. Its former charter division FlyLAL Charters (LLC/Vilnius) that was only granted an own air operator certificate in late 2008 is continuing charter and ACMI operations with two B757-200s, three B737-300s and three B737-500s including wet-leases on behalf Jet Time (JTG/Copenhagen Kastrup) and Scat (DV/Shimkent).

Fly Lappeenranta (Lappeenranta) has wet-leased a Jetstream 31 from Highland Airways (8H/Inverness) that has replaced a Saab 340 on the Lappeenranta-Helsinki route that the virtual carrier had previously leased from Central Connect Airlines (3B/Ostrava).

Freebird Airlines (XD/Istanbul Ataturk) will lease a fourth ex-Kingfisher Red (DN/Bangalore) A320-200.

Germania (ST/Berlin Tegel) has again announced plans to launch twice weekly B737-300 from Basle/Mulhouse and Dusseldorf Intl to Bari on May 18. It has however given up its Dusseldorf Intl-Kharkov route in the meantime.

Golden Air (DC/Trollhattan) has taken delivery of a second new ATR 72-500 that Aer Arann (RE/Dublin) had not taken up. It has also added a fifth ex-FlyLAL Saab 2000.

Hamburg International (4R/Hamburg) has returned its single B737-300 to the lessor.

Hellas Jet (HJ/Athens) will shortly add a third ex-LTE Intl Airways A320-200 to its fleet. It has secured a medium term wet-lease contract with Olympic Airlines (OA/Athens) for one of its A320-200s.

Helvetic Airways (2L/Zurich) will operate a seasonal weekly Fokker 100 triangle from Zurich via Rijeka and Pula back to Zurich between May 3 and Oct 11.

Höga Kusten Flyg (Örnsköldsvik) has wet-leased a second Saab 2000 from Golden Air (DC/Trollhattan) allowing it to increase its frequency on its only route linking Örnsköldsvik and Stockholm Arlanda to up to six times daily.

Hola Airlines (H5/Palma de Mallorca) has leased a second ex-Futura Intl Airways B737-400. It now operates two B737-400s after returning its remaining B737-300 to the lessors towards the end of 2008.

Iberia (IB/Madrid) has ordered two additional A340-600s and will introduce several new services this summer season:
Ciudad Real -Lanzarote: 2x weekly CRJ-200 operated by Air Nostrum (YW/Valencia) on Mar 31 / -Lisbon: 2x weekly CRJ-200 operated by Air Nostrum on Apr 2.
Madrid-Zagreb: 2x weekly seasonal A320-200 between Jul 4 and Sep 20.
Zaragoza-Paris Orly: 5x weekly CRJ-200 operated by Air Nostrum (transferred from Paris CDG in Jan).

IMD Airways (CFF/Madrid) is the new name of wet-lease and charter operator Aerofan that operates a single MD-87. Aerofan will continue to use its existing name for its charter and flying school operations with small turboprops.

Izmir Airlines (4I/Izmir) has taken delivery of a first B737-800 that it operates on behalf of its parent Pegasus Airlines (H9/Istanbul Ataturk).

Jat Airways (JU/Belgrade) is reportedly planning to lay off up to 30% of its workforce later this year as part of a restructuring plan that is supposed to bring the carrier back to profitability that also includes an additional 10 million EUR investment from the Serbian government and plans to lease four new aircraft towards the end of 2009. It will resume several routes it had previously suspended:
Belgrade -Gothenburg Landvetter: 2x weekly seasonal B737-300 between Jun 16 and Sep 11 / -Malta-Tripoli: 2x weekly B737-300 resuming on Mar 30 / -Ohrid: twice weekly ATR 72-200 resuming on Jun 1.
It has however given up its route to Dubai on Feb 2 after its interline partner Emirates (EK/Dubai) has increased through fares for travel between Serbia and Australia via Dubai and is now considering a new to Abu Dhabi and an interline relationship with Etihad Airways (EY/Abu Dhabi) instead.

Jet2 (LS/Leeds/Bradford) will launch weekly B757-200 from Manchester to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion on May 18.

KD Avia (KD/Kaliningrad) has temporarily suspended its Kaliningrad-Kazan (until Apr 21) Kaliningrad-Odessa (until Jun 24) routes citing low demand. It has also recently given up its routes from Kaliningrad to London Gatwick, Nizhniy Novgorod, Rome Fiumicino and Volgograd.

Khors Aircompany (KHO/Kiev Borispol) has wet-leased two MD-82s to Zagros Airlines (IZG/Abadan).

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL/Amsterdam) will give up its own daily Amsterdam-Detroit on Mar 28 but continue to codeshare on four daily Northwest Airlines (NW/Minneapolis/St. Paul) services between the two cities. It will also terminate its Amsterdam-Aruba services on Mar 27 and its Amsterdam-Tallinn route on May 5. KLM will essentially transfer its Amsterdam-Aruba frequencies to subsidiary Martinair (MP/Amsterdam) that already operates three weekly services on the route and will increase its services to daily as of Mar 28.

LOT Polish Airlines (LO/Warsaw) has announced new regional services:
Krakow-Athens: 2x weekly seasonal EMB-170 between Apr 16 and Sep 13
Warsaw -Belgrade: 5x weekly ERJ-145 on May 4 / -Dnepropetrovsk: 4x weekly EMB-170 on May 6.

Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt) has adjusted its Embraer regional jet order for its regional carriers to 14 EMB-195s and 16 EMB-190s converting two orders for the EMB-190 to the EMB-195. It has announced a variety of new services that it is planning to add to its network later this year:
Berlin Tegel-London Heathrow: 3x daily A319-100 operated by bmi british midland (BD/Nottingham) on Mar 29 (replacing London City route)
Dusseldorf Intl-Nice: 3x weekly seasonal CRJ-700 operated by Eurowings (EW/Dortmund) and Lufthansa CityLine (CL/Cologne/Bonn) resuming on Apr 4
Frankfurt Intl -Addis Ababa-Sana: 4x weekly A330-300/A340-300 on Mar 30 (replacing one-stop services via Khartoum to Addis Ababa and via Riyadh to Sana) / -Bahrain-Muscat: 4x weekly A330-300 on Mar 29 (in addition to Muscat services via Abu Dhabi) / -Jeddah-Khartoum: 4x weekly A330-300 on Mar 30 (replacing non-stop service) / -Poznan: daily B737-500/CRJ-700 on Mar 29 / -Riyadh-Doha: daily A330-300/A340-300 (replacing Doha services via Abu Dhabi and Bahrain) / -Rzeszow: 5x weekly CRJ-700 operated by Lufthansa CityLine on Apr 27.
Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel-Nice: daily seasonal CRJ-200/CRJ-700 operated by Lufthansa CityLine resuming on Mar 29
Munich -Dubrovnik: weekly seasonal CRJ-900 operated by Lufthansa CityLine on Apr 4 / -Lviv: daily CRJ-200/CRJ-700 operated by Lufthansa CityLine on Mar 29 / -Split: 2x weekly seasonal CRJ-900 operated by Lufthansa CityLine on Mar 29 / -Tel Aviv Ben Gurion: 4x weekly A340-300 resuming on Apr 26.
In addition, Lufthansa is again planning to rearrange its routes to the Middle East in Oct 2009:
Frankfurt Intl-Bahrain: 4x weekly two-class B737-800 operated by PrivatAir (PTI/Geneva) (replacing mainline) / -Dammam: 3x weekly two-class B737-800 operated by PrivatAir (replacing mainline via Kuwait).
Lufthansa will temporarily suspend its Stuttgart-Turin services between Mar 1 and Apr 20 and not resume its Berlin Tegel-Dublin, Berlin Tegel-Ibiza, Berlin Tegel-Westerland, Dusseldorf Intl-Ibiza, Dusseldorf Intl-Malaga, Frankfurt Intl-Sarmellek, Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel-Ibiza, Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel-Prague, Munich-Dublin and Stuttgart-Olbia seasonal routes this summer season.

Lufthansa Cargo (LH/Frankfurt) has cancelled the wet-lease agreement with World Airways (WO/Atlanta) for two MD-11F and one B747-400F freighters as a result of the large decrease in cargo demand and a 10% cut in capacity implemented as of Jan 1. It will now use B747-400Fs wet-leased from its subsidiary Jade Cargo Intl (JI/Shenzhen) instead.

Lufthansa Italia (Milan Malpensa) services will be operated by its parent Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) until fall when Lufthansa Italia is expected to receive its own air operator certificate. Sister carrier Swiss (LX/Zurich) has started codesharing on all Lufthansa Italia services out of Milan Malpensa.

Malev (MA/Budapest) has a new 49% shareholder in Vnesheconombank that has taken over the shares from Boris Abramovich in AirBridge, the holding company that controls Malev. Aeroflot (SU/Moscow Sheremetyevo) is expected to be managing the 49% stake in Malev on behalf of the Russian bank. The Hungarian carrier is in major financial difficulties and has recently been forced to pay employees in several instalments. It has also given up plans to lease additional Dash 8-400s for the time being. Malev will launch some new routes this summer season:
Budapest-Iasi: 5x weekly Dash 8-400 on Mar 30
Budapest-Moscow Sheremetyevo: daily B737-700 on Mar 29 (replacing Domodedovo services)

MAT Macedonian Airlines (IN/Skopje) is now reportedly also facing increased pressure again to change its name in addition to paying off its debt to Eurocontrol to be allowed to resume services to Germany and Italy. Greece has been against the name Macedonia being used for both the country and the branding of its flag carrier ever since Macedonia became independent in the early 1990s. MAT is blaming Greece for abusing the Eurocontrol dispute to increase pressure on Macedonia.

Meridiana (IG/Olbia) has cut its routes from Catania to Paris CDG, from Florence to Palermo and from Naples to Paris CDG and will give up its Milan Linate-Paris CDG/Rome Fiumicino routes and services from Catania, Palermo and Trapani to Lampedusa and Pantelleria on Mar 28. It plans to remove up to nine aircraft from its fleet this year as part of a restructuring plan.

Moskovia Airlines (3R/Moscow Zhukovsky) has announced plans to lease three B737-700s and two B767-300ERs in 2009 to expand its scheduled and charter operations. It has also added a fourth ex-S7 Airlines (S7/Novosibirsk) Tu-154M.

MyAir (8I/Milan Orio al Serio) has announced another round of network changes for the upcoming summer season:
Milan Orio al Serio -Casablanca: 2x weekly seasonal A320-200 resuming on Jul 2 / -Marrakech: 2x weekly seasonal A320-200 resuming on Jul 3 / -Bari-Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen: 4x weekly A320-200 on Mar 29 (replacing non-stop service).
Rimini -Amsterdam: weekly seasonal A320-200 between May 30 and Sep 26 / -Bucharest Baneasa: weekly seasonal A320-200 between May 8 and Sep 18 / -Paris CDG: weekly seasonal A320-200 between May 8 and Sep 18.
Venice Marco Polo -Casablanca: 2x weekly seasonal A320-200 resuming Jul 2 / -Marrakech: 2x weekly seasonal A320-200 resuming Jul 3.
It has already given up its Brindisi-Rome Fiumicino and Milan Orio al Serio-Sofia routes however.

New Axis Airways (9X/Marseilles) will lease two B737-800s in spring following a capital increase by its shareholders.

NEWS Airlines (  ) is a new Swedish charter carrier planning to start operations with an ex-Primera Air (GX/Reykjavik Keflavik) MD-82.

Niki (HG/Vienna) will launch twice weekly A320-200/A321-200 from Innsbruck to Palma de Mallorca on Apr 27.

Nordic Airways (6N/Stockholm Arlanda) has been forced to suspend operations on Jan 23 after the Swedish civil aviation authorities did not extend its temporary air operator certificate. Nordic Airways had already been in financial difficulties last year and was only granted a temporary license to continue operations. It had operated a MD-81 and a MD-83 on charter services.

Nordwind Airlines (NWS/Moscow Sheremetyevo) has leased a sixth ex-Eos Airlines B757-200 and is planning to add up to six B737-800s this year for charter services.

Norwegian (DY/Oslo Gardermoen) has added an ex-Sterling Airlines B737-800 and has announced another round of network expansion including the transfer of some of its London routes from Stansted to Gatwick:
Aalborg-London Gatwick: 6x weekly B737-800 on Mar 30.
Oslo Gardermoen -Amsterdam: 6x weekly B737-300/-800 on Apr 2 / -Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen: 2x seasonal weekly B737-300 on Jul 3 (replacing route from Rygge operated last summer season) / -London Gatwick: 3x daily B737-300 on Mar 29 (replacing Stansted route).
Rygge-Valencia: 2x weekly seasonal B737-300 resuming on Jun 28.
Stockholm Arlanda -Budapest: 3x weekly B737-800 on Apr 24 (operated by flynordic (LF/Stockholm Arlanda)) / -Chania: weekly seasonal MD-83 on May 2 (operated by flynordic) / -Faro: weekly seasonal MD-82 on Apr 4 (operated by flynordic) / -Palma de Mallorca: 3x weekly seasonal B737-800/MD-82 on Apr 30 (operated by flynordic) / -Pula: weekly seasonal MD-83 on May 9 (operated by flynordic) / -Rome Fiumicino: 3x weekly B737-800 on Apr 24.
Tromso-London Gatwick: 2x weekly B737-300 on Mar 30 (replacing Stansted route).
Norwegian has already given up its Oslo Gardermoen-Moscow Domodedovo, Stockholm Arlanda-Paris Orly and Stockholm Arlanda-Tallinn routes however.

Olympic Airlines (OA/Athens) did not attract any bidders willing to pay the minimum price set by the Greek government in the privatization process. The government is now trying to enter into direct negotiations with possible investors including Marfin Investment Group that is proposing to take over all Olympic Airlines and its maintenance division and Swissport that is interested in its ground-handling operations.

Open Skies (EC/London Heathrow) will complete the integration of LAvion (A0/Paris Orly) in Apr and merge both carriers using the French air operator certificate. Its parent British Airways (BA/London Heathrow) has however decided to give up ambitious growth plans for Open Skies and to sell the remainder of its B757-200s to third parties during the next winter season.

Orenburg Airlines (R2/Orenburg) will shortly add a fourth ex-Ryanair (FR/Dublin) B737-800 to its growing fleet. It will launch up to twice weekly seasonal B737 between Orenburg and Dusseldorf Intl between May 16 and Sep 19 replacing a similar seasonal operated last year to Cologne/Bonn.

Pegasus Airlines (H9/Istanbul Ataturk) will operate a weekly seasonal from Izmir to Basle/Mulhouse between Jun 19 and Sep 11 using Izmir Airlines A319-100s (4I/Izmir).

Perm Airlines (P9/Perm) has decided to stop scheduled services and to concentrate on charter and wet-lease operations with its fleet of An-24s, An-26s, Tu-134s and Yak-40s.

Plaza Servicios Aéreos (Zaragoza) has suspended operations earlier this year. It had wet-leased an ATR 72-200 to operate scheduled regional services out of Zaragoza.

Polet (YQ/Voronezh) is considering leasing the three Il-96-400T freighters that Aeroflot-Cargo (SU/Moscow Sheremetyevo) has not taken up. It plans to use the aircraft to launch scheduled cargo services.

Primera Air (GX/Reykjavik Keflavik) has added a fifth ex-Mandarin Airlines (AE/Taichung) B737-800 to its fleet.

Private Wings (8W/Berlin Schoenefeld) has now also started selling seats on its twice weekdaily scheduled Ingolstadt-Marseilles corporate charter services operated with Do328s.

Quantum Air (Palma de Mallorca) is the new brand of AeBal Aerolineas Baleares that has been sold by SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) to Proturin, a Spanish investment company controlled by former Aerolineas Argentinas (AR/Buenos Aires Ezeiza) CEO Antonio Mata. It is planning to resume charter and wet-lease operations with its fleet of five B717-200s.

Region Avia Airlines (L3/Moscow Bykovo) has taken delivery of its first ex-Gulfstream Intl Airlines (3M/Fort Lauderdale Intl) EMB-120.

Rheinair (Dusseldorf) will use an Aurora Airlines (URR/Maribor) MD-82 for twice weekly services from Cologne/Bonn to Baghdad as of Apr 2. It will market these services under the new RheinJet brand. Rheinair has so far specialized in on demand scheduled services on thin European regional routes.

Robin Hood Aviation (RH/Graz) has announced plans to lease an ATR-42 or ATR-72 in spring to expand its network served from Graz.

Rosavia (Moscow Vnukovo) shareholder Rostekhnologii has taken over full control of the state-owned regional carriers Dalavia and SAT Airlines (Russia) (HZ/Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) and a 52.17% stake in Vladivostok Air (XF/Vladivostok). It is expected to merge all three carriers into Rosavia later this year. Rossiya (FV/St. Petersburg) will most likely remain an independent carrier that will however operate in a very close alliance with Rosavia once the latter starts operations.

Ryanair (FR/Dublin) has again announced plans to order at least additional 200 B737-800s or A320 family aircraft if it can get the volume discounts it expects from the two aircraft manufacturers. It has given up its second attempt of an unfriendly takeover bid for competitor Aer Lingus (EI/Dublin) after it has failed to gain support of important Aer Lingus shareholders including the Irish government. Ryanair will launch a large amount of additional new routes this summer season and has announced that it has entered into final negotiations with Copenhagen Kastrup about adding the airport to its network:
Alicante -Bratislava: 2x weekly on Jun 5 / -Knock: 2x weekly on Jun 5 / -Londonderry: 2x weekly on Jun 4 / -Newquay: 2x weekly resuming on Jun 2 / -Oslo Torp: 3x weekly on Jun 3 / -Wroclaw: 2x weekly on Jun 4. 
Bournemouth -Carcassonne: 2x weekly on Jun 6 / -Faro: 2x weekly on Mar 31 / -Limoges: 2x weekly on Apr 2 / -Pisa: 2x weekly resuming on Apr 1.
Bremen-Faro: 2x weekly on Mar 31
Bristol -Alicante: daily on Jul 2 / -Belfast City: daily on Mar 30 / -Cagliari: 2x weekly on Jul 5 / -Eindhoven: 3x weekly on Mar 31 / -Limoges: 3x weekly on Jul 2 / -Malta: 2x weekly on Jul 5 / -Montpellier: 3x weekly on Jul 2 / -Perpignan: 2x weekly on Jul 3 / -Reus: 3x weekly on Jul 2 / -Rimini: 2x weekly on Jul 2 / -Seville: 2x weekly on Jul 3 / -Toulon: 3x weekly on Jul 2 / -Trieste: 2x weekly stating on Jul 5. 
Brussels Charleroi-Santander: 2x weekly on Apr 1
Dusseldorf Weeze-Stockholm Vasteras: 3x weekly on Mar 30 (in addition to Skavsta services)
Edinburgh -Altenburg: 3x weekly on Mar 31 / -Carcassonne: 3x weekly on Mar 31 / -Limoges: 2x weekly on Mar 30 / -Malta: 2x weekly on Mar 31 / -Poitiers: 2x weekly on Apr 1 / -Rome Ciampino: 4x weekly on Apr 1 / -Zadar: 2x weekly on Apr 1.
Frankfurt Hahn -Alicante: 4x weekly on Jul 4 / -Carcassonne: 3x weekly on May 5 / -Osijek: 2x weekly on May 6 / -Rimini: 2x weekly on May 5.
Girona -Seville: daily on Apr 2 / -Stockholm Vasteras: 2x weekly on Jun 4 (in addition to Skavsta services).
Hamburg Lübeck-Palma de Mallorca: daily on Mar 30
Liverpool-Ibiza: 3x weekly on Mar 30
London Luton -Bergerac: 3x weekly on Mar 30 / -Limoges: 3x weekly on May 3.
London Stansted-Newquay: daily resuming on Mar 2
Marseilles -Basle/Mulhouse: 2x weekly on Mar 30 / -Biarritz: 3x weekly on Mar 30 / -London Gatwick: daily on Mar 30 / -Nantes: daily on Mar 30 / -Tours: 3x weekly on Mar 31.
Nottingham-Ibiza: 3x weekly on Mar 31. 
Pisa -Bratislava: 2x weekly on Apr 2 / -Maastricht: 3x weekly on Apr 1.
Reus -Bournemouth: 2x weekly on Mar 31 / -Eindhoven: 5x weekly on Jun 4 / Reus-Nador: 2x weekly on Jun 6 / -Poznan: 2x weekly on Jun 5.
Stockholm Skavsta -Palma de Mallorca: 2x weekly on Apr 2 / -Toulon: 2x weekly on Apr 21 / -Zadar: 2x weekly on Apr 1.
Ryanair has announced plans to cut the number of aircraft based in Dublin from 22 to 18 and in Shannon from 6 to 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.. from Mar in “response” to a new Irish airport tax. It had previously announced similar plans for its Frankfurt Hahn base where threat made by Ryanair resulted in a proposed airport tax being dropped and airport owner Fraport entering into negotiations with the German state Rhineland-Palatinate to sell its 65% stake in the airport. Ryanair has in the meantime also offered to buy a minority stake in Frankfurt Hahn airport.
It will give up its Birmingham-Szczecin, Bournemouth-Wroclaw, Bristol-Gdansk/Katowice/Szczecin, Dusseldorf Weeze-London Gatwick, Liverpool-Budapest/Faro/Gdansk/Lodz/Paris Beauvais/Szczecin/Valencia, London Luton-Biarritz/Szczecin, Nottingham-Lodz/Poznan, Shannon-Berlin Schönefeld/Frankfurt Hahn/Gdansk/Katowice/London Luton/Newcastle and Stockholm Skavsta-Lodz routes by the end of Mar.

S7 Airlines (S7/Novosibirsk) has cancelled its order for 15 B787s without citing any reasons.

Saicus Air (FYA/Vitoria) is the new brand of flyAnt and is planning to resume operations later this spring with a single B737-400F freighter after the company has been sold to trucking company New Iberital.

SAS Norge (BU/Oslo Gardermoen) will give up its Oslo Gardermoen-Warsaw route on Mar 3 and its Oslo Gardermoen-London City route on Mar 27. It has already ceased its Oslo Gardermoen-Krakow services in Jan.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) has announced another massive restructuring programme that will see the carrier concentrating on its Scandinavian home market with additional 560 million EUR of capital being provided by its shareholders to support the plan. SAS will dispose of its shareholdings in Air Greenland (GL/Nuuk), bmi british midland (BD/Nottingham), Estonian Air (OV/Tallinn) and Skyways Express (JZ/Stockholm Arlanda) and cut up to 3,000 jobs and 14 more aircraft from its fleet. It will also outsource some cargo, ground handling and maintenance contracts to third parties. Two of the fourteen aircraft removed from the fleet will be A340-300s. As a result, SAS will not resume its Copenhagen Kastrup-Delhi route next winter with the last now operating on Mar 2. SAS will also suspend its Stockholm Arlanda-Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (Mar 26), Stockholm Arlanda-Beijing (Apr 29) and Copenhagen Kastrup-Seattle/Tacoma (Oct 24) routes. SAS has already given up its services from Copenhagen Kastrup to Vienna and will pull out of the Copenhagen Kastrup-Tampere route on Jul 3. In more positive news, it has announced some new seasonal routes for the upcoming summer vacation period:
Stockholm Arlanda-Antalya: weekly seasonal B737-800  between Jun 23 and Aug 11
Stockholm Arlanda-Dubrovnik: weekly seasonal MD-80  between Jul 1 and Aug 12
SAS is now wet-leasing ATR 42-500s from Cimber Sterling (QI/Sonderborg) to operate its Copenhagen Kastrup-London City services.

SATA Air Acores (SP/Ponta Delgada) will lease two ex-Horizon Air (QX/Seattle/Tacoma) Dash 8-200s.

SATA International (S4/Lisbon) will launch weekly seasonal A320-200  from Ponta Delgada via Funchal to Dublin on Jun 4 replacing the non-stop services operated in previous years.

Saturn Aviakompania (RMO/Rybinsk) has been forced to suspend operations earlier this year after the Russian civil aviation authority has suspended its license. It had operated Yak-40s on regional and charter services.

Sky Airlines (SHY/Antalya) will lease an additional second A321-200 and a sixth B737-400 later this spring.

Skyblue Airways (SBV/Exeter) has suspended charter operations with its two ATR 42-300s on Feb 10.

SkyEurope Airlines (NE/Bratislava) is still continuing operations even though several lessors have repossessed all but four of its B737-700s. In addition, it has now wet-leased a MD-83 from MAP Jet (MPJ/Vienna), two B737-300s from Air Slovakia (GM/Bratislava), two B737-300s from Bulgaria Air (FB/Sofia) and a Fokker 100 from Trade Air (8P/Zagreb) to continue operations with a limited schedule. It is now planning to dry lease up to six ex-flyLAL B737-300s and B737-500s to transfer some flights back from wet-leased equipment to own aircraft. Potential Greek investor SAPO has pulled out of a joint venture with Portuguese investment group Longstock and it is unclear if Longstock will still be able to pursue an investment in SkyEurope without its Greek partner. SkyEurope has given up its Vienna-Copenhagen Kastrup route and will not resume its seasonal services to Rimini and Trieste this summer season.

Sky Express (Russia) (XW/Moscow Vnukovo) has already suspended its Moscow Vnukovo-Samara route again in late 2008.

Sky Srpska (Banja Luka) is now planning to launch operations in summer 2009 offering several routes from Banja Luka to regional destinations.

Sky Wings (GSW/Athens) has wet-leased a MD-83 to Sham Wings Airlines (SAW/Damascus).

SmartLynx (6Y/Riga) is currently using both of its B767-300ERs for adhoc charters and ACMI services after Virgin Nigeria (VK/Lagos) has surprisingly returned the two aircraft after a decision to terminate longhaul services.

Smartwings (QS/Prague) will operate a weekly seasonal B737-500  from Prague to Split between Jun 13 and Sep 19.

Spanair (JK/Palma de Mallorca) will launch daily A320-200  between Barcelona and Almeria on May 3.

Sun-Air (EZ/Billund) has temporarily suspended its Billund-Gdansk route until Apr 20.

Swiss (LX/Zurich) will lease an ex-LTU Intl Airways (LT/Dusseldorf Intl) A320-200 as of spring. It has announced new routes for the upcoming summer timetable period:
Geneva-Pristina: weekly A320-200  on May 16
Zurich-Larnaca: up to 3x weekly A320-200  on Apr 4 (with some services operated by Edelweiss Air (8R/Zurich))
Zurich-Lyon: 4x daily ARJ-100  on Mar 29 (operated by Swiss European Air Lines (SWU/Zurich))
Swiss will give up its Sao Paulo Guarulhos-Santiago de Chile leg of its daily flight to South America. Instead both Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) and Swiss will put their code on TAM Linhas Aéreas (JJ/Sao Paulo Congonhas) services on the route. It has again been forced to give up its Zurich-Tripoli route after Libya has suspended its traffic rights because of the ongoing political tensions between the Libyan government and Switzerland.

Tailwind Airlines (Istanbul Ataturk) has finally taken delivery of two ex-Alaska Airlines (AS/Seattle/Tacoma) B737-400s to start charter operations.

TAP Portugal (TP/Lisbon) and Star Alliance partner South African Airways (SA/Johannesburg Intl) have entered into a bilateral codeshare agreement covering domestic services in Portugal and South Africa and the TAP services linking Lisbon and Johannesburg Intl.

Tarom (RO/Bucharest Otopeni) will launch new routes later this spring:
Bucharest Otopeni -Constanta: 3x weekly ATR 42-500/B737-700  on Jun 4 / -Lyon: 4x weekly B737-700  on Jul 13 / -Venice Marco Polo: 4x weekly A318-100  on Jun 1
Cluj-Constanta: 2x weekly B737-700  on Jun 4

Tatarstan Air (U9/Kazan) now operates two ex-Bulgaria Air (FB/Sofia) B737s, one B737-300 and one B737-500 (as not two B737-300s as previously reported).

Tavrey Aircompany (T6/Odessa) has wet-leased its single Yak-42D to Fars Air (QFZ/Qeshm).

Thomson Airways (BY/London Luton) will terminate its routes from London Luton and Manchester to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion on Apr 30. It has retired its remaining two B767-200ERs.

Transaero Airlines (UN/Moscow Domodedovo) will soon add its first ex-TUIfly (Germany) (X3/Hanover) B737-800 to its fleet and has launched additional new routes from its Moscow Domodedovo hub:
Moscow Domodedovo -Magadan: 2x weekly Tu-214  (already launched) / -Pardubice: weekly seasonal B737-500  operating until Mar 22 / -Samara: 5x weekly B737-500  has started on Feb 2 / -Ufa: 6x weekly B737-500  has started on Feb 2

Transavia Airlines (HV/Amsterdam) and Martinair (MP/Amsterdam) will be merged into a single company later this year after KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL/Amsterdam) has taken full control of Martinair. The two carriers will continue to operate using separate brands and distribution channels. Transavia will increase its presence in Copenhagen with additional new routes:
Copenhagen Kastrup -Montpellier: 2x weekly B737-700  on May 21 / -Naples: 3x weekly B737-700  on Apr 21 / -Pisa: 3x weekly B737-700  on May 21.
Paris Orly-Olbia: weekly seasonal B737-800  on Apr 12

Trawel Fly (Milan Orio al Serio) is planning to start operations in Jun with a single B737-300 operating scheduled and charter services from Milan Orio al Serio and Naples:
Milan Orio al Serio-Catania: 3x weekly B737-300  on Jun 15
Milan Orio al Serio-Crotone: weekly B737-300  on Jun 20
Milan Orio al Serio-Heraklion-Rhodes: 2x weekly B737-300  on Jun 15

TUIfly (Germany) (X3/Hanover) will cut the number of routes served from Zweibrücken this summer season and stop serving Hurghada and Tenerife Sur from Apr 28. Hans-Rudolf Wöhrl has shown interest in taking a stake in TUIfly. He had previously acquired dba and LTU Intl Airways (LT/Dusseldorf Intl) and then sold the two carriers to Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) after a restructuring. TUIfly owner TUI though has now for the first time officially confirmed talks with Air Berlin about a possible closer cooperation or merger between the two carriers.

Turkish Airlines (TK/Istanbul Ataturk) has leased four additional A321-200s that have not been taken up by Kingfisher Airlines (IT/Bangalore) and has announced additional new routes:
Eskisehir-Brussels Ntl: 2x weekly A319-100  on Mar 31
Istanbul Ataturk -Benghazi: 3x weekly A321-200  on May 5 / -Canakkale: 3x weekly A319-100  has started on Jan 19 /
-Mashad: 3x weekly B737-800  on Mar 15 / -Usak: 3x weekly A319-100  has started on Jan 12. 
It has delayed the launch of its planned new three times weekly Istanbul Ataturk-Lviv route to Jun 15. THY has entered into a codeshare agreement with Star Alliance partner Singapore Airlines (SQ/Singapore Changi) for the Istanbul Ataturk-Singapore Changi route earlier this month. It will not resume its seasonal Adana-Berlin Schönefeld and Adana-Frankfurt Intl routes this summer season.

Ukraine Intl Airlines (PS/Kiev Borispol) is planning to buy back 6% of its own shares from lessor AerCap and to sell the shares to other shareholders thereafter. It will operate a weekly seasonal B737-500  from Simferopol to Munich between Jun 13 and Sep 19.

Ural Airlines (U6/Ekaterinburg) has launched weekly A320-200  between Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk on Feb 15. It will also launch daily A320-200  between Moscow Domodedovo and Novosibirsk on Mar 1. Ural has announced plans to retire its An-24s, Il-86s and Tu-154s in 2010 when it is scheduled to take delivery of its first of ten Superjet-100s it has on order. It has leased a seventh ex-Iberia (IB/Madrid) A320-200 and will add an ex-Thomson Airways (BY/London Luton) A320-200 later this year.

UTair (UT/Khanty-Mansiysk) has added more new routes to its growing network from Moscow Vnukovo:
Moscow Vnukovo -Barnaul: daily B737-500  has started on Feb 9 / -Omsk: daily B737-500  has started on Feb 10 /
-Rostov: daily B737-500  has started on Feb 7.

VIM Airlines (NN/Moscow Domodedovo) has returned its two Tu-154Ms to the lessor and has wet-leased two B757-200s to Eram Air (IRY/Tabriz).

Virgin Atlantic (VS/London Heathrow) is planning to cut up to 600 jobs this year to increase its productivity. It will temporarily suspend its London Heathrow-Mauritius services between Apr 24 and Nov 13. Virgin has entered into a limited codeshare agreement with South African Airways (SA/Johannesburg Intl) for the London Heathrow-Cape Town route served by both carriers. Virgin Atlantic only serves the route in the UK winter season/South African summer season.

Vladivostok Air (XF/Vladivostok) has dropped its Moscow Vnukovo-Frankfurt Hahn route from its network earlier this winter season.

Vueling Airlines (VY/Barcelona) and Clickair (XG/Barcelona) will merge in spring after the two carriers have received approval from the European Commission for the proposed merger. The new combined carrier will still be called Vueling Airlines with Iberia (IB/Madrid) holding around 40-45% of the shares Vueling and codesharing on all Vueling services. Clickair will give up its Barcelona-Frankfurt Intl route on Mar 27. It will however also introduce new services:
Madrid-Malta: 3x weekly seasonal A320-200  resuming on Apr 2
Malaga-Las Palmas: 4x weekly A320-200  on Mar 29
Valencia-Malta: 2x weekly seasonal A320-200  between Jul 2 and Sep 13 (Clickair)

WDL Aviation (W1/Cologne/Bonn) has added a second ex-Cityjet (WX/Dublin) BAe 146-300 to its fleet.

Welcome Air (2W/Innsbruck) has given up its Gothenburg Landvetter-Kristiansand route. Welcome Air and its sister carrier Tyrol Air Ambulance (TYW/Innsbruck) have been acquired by Swiss charter operator Lions Air (LEU/Zurich) earlier this year.

White (WHT/Lisbon) has added a third ex- Alba Servizi Aerotrasporti (AFQ/Milan Linate) A319-100(CJ) to its VIP division fleet. It will also lease a first ex-Tiger Airways (TR/Singapore Changi) A320-200.

Windjet (IV/Catania) has given up plans for a seasonal Bologna Forli-Olbia this summer. It has however announced weekly seasonal triangle services from Catania and Palermo via Nantes-Lyon back to Sicily. Weekly A320-200 services from both airports in Sicily will start on Apr 10 and Apr 11.

Wingo (Tampere) will inaugurate six times weekly  from Tampere via Turku to Stockholm Bromma on Mar 16 using AviTrans Nordic (2Q/Stockholm Bromma) Saab 340s.

Wizz Air (W6/Budapest) has reacted to the financial problems of SkyEurope Airlines (NE/Bratislava) by very quickly setting up a new base in Prague (the dates in brackets mean starts or started on):
Cluj-Bologna Forli: 3x weekly A320-200 (Jun 13) (replacing Bologna Marconi announced earlier).
Katowice-Bologna Forli: 2x weekly A320-200 (Mar 30) (replacing Bologna Marconi).
Kiev Borispol-Antalya: 3x weekly seasonal A320-200 (May 14) (operated by Wizz Air Ukraine (WU/Kiev Borispol)).
Prague to -Brussels Charleroi: 3x weekly A320-200 (Feb 19) / -Eindhoven: 3x weekly A320-200 (Jun 27) / -London Luton: 3x weekly A320-200 (Feb 18) / -Madrid: 3x weekly A320-200 (Jul 11) / -Malmö: 4x weekly A320-200 (Jul 12) / -Milan Orio al Serio: 3x weekly A320-200 (Feb 19) / -Naples  3x weekly A320-200 (Jul 11) / -Paris Beauvais: 3x weekly A320-200 (Jun 27) / -Rome Fiumicino: 4x weekly A320-200 (Feb 18).
Sofia-Venice Treviso: 3x weekly A320-200 (Jun 27)
Warsaw-Bologna Forli: 2x weekly A320-200 (Apr 1) (replacing route to Bologna Marconi)
Wizz has given up its Wroclaw-Dortmund route last month. Wizz Air has also given up plans for a new route linking Bucharest Baneasa and Bologna Marconi in the meantime as no competition with Windjet (IV/Catania) routes out of Forli reportedly was one of the conditions of a new favourable agreement between Forli airport and Wizz.

Wizz Air Ukraine (WU/Kiev Borispol) has further announced plans to launch new routes from Kiev Borispol and Simferopol to Moscow this summer season if it is able to secure slots and traffic rights.

XL Airways France (SE/Paris CDG) has been put up for sale by its Icelandic owner, investment bank Straumur. It has entered into a codeshare agreement with Windjet (IV/Catania) covering all services between France and Italy operated by both carriers.

Zapolyarye Aviakompania (Norilsk) has added a second Tu-154B2 to its fleet.

25 Feb Dublin to charge EUR 10 departure tax / Checked baggage to cost GBP 30 ea

Dublin Airport Authority’s €10 charge, to be introduced in Ireland next month (Mar 2009)

BBC TV news mentioned something today about Ryanair possibly charging £30 per hold suitcase in future.

25 Feb Turkish Airlines 737-800 crashes at Schiphol

11.42 GMT Reuters reports at least 5 dead AMSTERDAM, Feb 25 (Reuters) - At least five people died when a Turkish Airlines passenger plane crashed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Wednesday, Dutch television reported.  Dutch emergency services were not immediately available to comment. A news conference is due to take place at Schiphol airport at around 1230 GMT. (Reporting by Catherine Hornby) Turkey plane crash in Amsterdam

The plane crashed away from the runway Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul (737-800) plane has crashed on landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport, killing one person and injuring at least 20. The plane, with 135 passengers on board, crashed short of the runway near the A9 motorway and suffered significant damage.  Witnesses have spoken of seeing at least 20 people walking from the wreckage, with luggage scattered about. Turkish media said at least 50 people had survived unhurt. The BBC's Geraldine Coughlan in the Hague says Dutch television has been showing pictures of helicopters at the scene, with about 20 ambulances and fire engines. Schiphol airport has six runways and one major passenger terminal. In 2007, it handled 47 million passengers, ranking fifth in Europe behind London, Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid.

bbc.co.uk/news

Channel4 TV UK reported at 11.06 GMT (newsnow.co.uk)

A Turkish airliner crashes while attempting to land at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, killing one person and injuring 20, according to authorities and Turkish media.
The passenger plane, with 135 people on board, broke up into 3 pieces when it hit the ground next to the runway.
Still images shown on Dutch television showed the plane on the ground, with the tail section of the fuselage broken off, and a wide crack in the fuselage just behind cockpit. The jetliner did not appear to be on fire.
As many as 50 passengers escaped injury, the CNBC Turkey channel said.
Officials at Istanbul's Ataturk airport said the plane had departed earlier from Istanbul.
Broadcaster CNN Turk said one person had died and 20 others were injured.
Airport officials said the crashed jetliner was a Boeing 737-800, flight TK 1951 from Istanbul. Officials from the airline were not immediately available for comment.  The plane crashed near the furthest runway from the terminals at Schiphol, which is 12 miles southwest of Amsterdam's centre.  (newsnow.co.uk > Channel4)

25 Feb AirTran cuts fares and others match

ATLANTA — In a sign of great uncertainty about demand for air travel this year amid the deep U. S. recession, discount carrier AirTran Airways launched a fare sale to all its destinations Tuesday for flights through the middle of the fall.

American Airlines, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways and Delta Air Lines quickly matched on routes where they compete with AirTran, and JetBlue said it would do the same.

AirTran’s sale extends through the summer, normally a busy time for airlines when they have been able to reap premiums in the past as more people travel. But now with many people hurting financially, fewer are taking vacations, businesses are cutting back on corporate travel and many who fly are waiting longer to book.

What’s also unusual is how far in advance AirTran has loaded its schedule. Prior to two weeks ago, AirTran showed its schedule for about 210 days. On Tuesday morning, the carrier was showing its schedule for the next 267 days. Southwest Airlines Co. as of Tuesday was only showing its schedule for the next six months, while legacy carriers tend to show their schedule for about 11 months out.

AirTran, a unit of Orlando, Fla.- based AirTran Holdings Inc., said its sale fares, starting as low as $39 one-way, are available for purchase through March 5 for travel through Nov. 4. The biggest discounts are for travel on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The sale fares are slightly more for travel on Fridays and Sundays.

There are some blackout dates and restrictions involving certain destinations, like Florida and Cancun, Mexico. A 10-day advance purchase is required, and seats at the discounted fares are limited. (Newsnow.co.uk>BuffaloNews>AP  02/25/09 06:31 EST)

24 Feb News from 19th and 24th Feb

Virgin launches first Pacific service

Virgin Atlantic will launch its first Pacific service on Friday. The V Australia service will fly direct between Sydney and Los Angeles.  For the first time in its 25-year history, passengers will be able fly around the world on Sir Richard Branson’s airline. The Sydney-LA service aims to break the Qantas and United Airlines duopoly on flights between Australia and the United States.
Flights from Brisbane to Los Angeles will follow shortly after on 8 April 2009, with non-stop services between Melbourne and Los Angeles commencing on 15 September 2009.
V Australia’s executive general manager, Scott Swift, says: “Starting a long-haul airline from scratch is a phenomenal exercise and the V Australia and Virgin Blue teams have thrown their heart and souls into our mission to bring Australians a brand new, innovative, imaginative and customer service focused international airline. In the same way Virgin Blue forever changed the face of aviation in Australia nearly nine years ago, today marks the beginning of the new era of trans-Pacific flying as V Australia lifts the standard for product, service and affordability on this market."
24 Feb  Newsnow.co.uk>today.com
~~~

19 Feb "I'M ON THE PLANE!" - PASSENGERS CAN NOW CALL & TEXT ONBOARD RYANAIR

Ryanair, today (19th Feb) launched its in-flight mobile phone service initially onboard 20 of its (mainly) Dublin based aircraft.  This is the first step in fitting Ryanair’s entire fleet of over 170 aircraft to allow all passengers to make and receive mobile calls and texts on all Ryanair flights.
Passengers on Ryanair’s 20 OnAir enabled aircraft can now make and receive voice calls at (non- EU) international roaming rates (€2-€3 pm) text messages (50c+) and email (€1-€2) using their mobile phones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones. These price tariffs are set by each mobile service provider and are subject to each customer’s individual price plan.
The service will initially be available to “02” and “Vodafone” customers and to customers of over 50 other mobile phone operators across Europe. At the launch OnAir confirmed that it is working with other Irish mobile operators (“3” and “Meteor”) to ensure that their customers can also keep in touch with the office, family and friends when travelling.
Ryanair.com>News

21 Feb Ryanair to scrap check-in desks before 2010

Europe's largest low-fare airline Ryanair said on Saturday it planned to save costs by closing all its airport check-in desks by the end of the year and have passengers check in online instead.  "All we will have is a bag drop where passengers can drop off their luggage, otherwise everything will be done online," Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary told the Daily Telegraph.
He said the savings would be passed on to passengers in the form of lower fares.  Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said that 75 percent of the airline's passengers already used its online check-in services.
"Hopefully by the end of the year we will have bag drop-in areas instead, which will be manned."

The airline would continue to have staff running ticket desks at airports, he said.  The change would lead to layoffs but the airline used many third-party staff at airports and would attempt to limit the effect of the reduction.  "We are hoping the job cuts will be minor," McNamara said.  (LondonGatwick - Reuters)

21 Feb CH-Aviation update

Agroar Carga Aérea (GRR/Evora) has wet-leased a B737-300F freighter from Swiftair (SWT/Madrid) to replace the aircraft it had previously wet-leased from now defunct carrier flyAnt.

Bremenfly (Bremen) has taken delivery of an ex-Futura Intl Airways B737-400, its first aircraft, and is planning to start charter operations later this quarter.

20 Feb Northwest Airlines 747 hits turbulence on approach to Tokyo

About 45 people were injured when a Northwest Airlines flight from Manila to Tokyo's Narita airport hit severe turbulence on Friday.  45 people were taken to a local hospital for medical treatment and five people remain in hospital. There were no fatal injuries.  The Boeing 747-400 carrying 408 passengers and 14 crew, was on approach to Narita when it hit the turbulence.  Northwest Airlines last year merged with Delta Air Lines. (Reuters)

13 Feb - Dash 8 crashes nr Buffalo, NY state / flybe carries on regardless

Plane crash in New York state kills 50  (Newsnow.co.uk /  DPA)

Continental Express flight 3407 (Newark-Buffalo) crashed into a house and burst into flames at 22:17 EST (0317 GMT Fri) in the village of Clarence Centre, about 10 kilometres from Buffalo Niagara Intl Airport, killing all 49 passengers and crew and one person in the house. The 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 twin-engine turboprop plane operated by Colgan Air was flying in from Newark, New Jersey.

The emergency control director for Clarence Centre (Pop 1,700) commented "It's amazing it only took one house, as devastating as that was. It could easily have wiped out that whole neighbourhood".

NTSB officials subsequently recovered the cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders from the tail of the aircraft, which were sent to Washington for analysis. Erie County Executive Chris Collins said the Buffalo airport control tower lost contact with the plane shortly before it crashed, but according to recordings between the pilot and air traffic controllers, broadcast on CNN, there were no indications of anything amiss.
There was rain and sleet in the area at the time of the accident.
From Newsnow.co.uk - Copyright, respective author or news agency

UK airline flybe happy to carry on with Q400 fleet

Exeter-based airline Flybe is carrying on flying the world's biggest fleet of the type of plane involved in the US aircraft crash.  Flybe has 49 of the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft which it uses for domestic and short-haul European routes, including Belfast-Manchester and Exeter-Manchester.    It was a Continental Connection Q400 flying from Newark in New Jersey to Buffalo that crashed into someone's home in Buffalo in New York state, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the ground.   Flybe said: "We have been in contact with the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) during the course of the day, who are completely satisfied with the Flybe Q400 fleet which we continue to operate as normal.
(Newsnow.co.uk > Independent.co.uk)

05 Feb - Battle of the airlines Manx2.com and flybe.com

A regular battle has broken out in the Isle of Man following apparent intentions of flybe to deploy its Loganair (taken over from BA) on routes between the Isle of Man - Belfast and Blackpool.  These routes have been flown for some years now by the Manx airline Manx2.com.  The matter was laid before the Manx Office of Fair Trading and the Manx parliament (Tynwald) which is the world's oldest continuously democratic parliament.
Manx2 fears that flybe is trying to eliminate competition.

Manx2 presently flies Belfast City and International, Blackpool, Leeds/Bradford, Gloucestershire and on to the Channel Isles.  flybe has a vast UK and European network and connects the Isle of Man with Liverpool, Manchester, London Gatwick as well as (through Loganair) with Glasgow and Edinburgh.  Liverpool and Manchester were formerly flown also by Euromanx which buckled under the competition from flybe
Isle of Man Courier Thu 05 Feb 

25 Jan - Burns' Night - Newsnow.co.uk update and Cadbury's 'Eye Dance'

Besides all the planes to Scotland being full for tonights piping in of the haggis, tatties & neeps to celebrate Robert Burns' 250th birthday, the following is of interest:

More grim news for passengers - The Times 22:07 24-Jan-09
One carrier went bust, another begged for a government bailout and a third posted a profits warning last week, as falling passenger numbers continued to put the squeeze on airlines.
Lithuanian national airline FlyLAL ceased operations after a buyout fell through, and
Thai Airways has applied to the Thai government for loans of up to £618m after suffering what it described as “severe setbacks”.
Air France-KLM, Europe’s biggest airline, issued a further profits warning, citing falling passenger and cargo revenues. With city analysts warning investors against buying airline shares, Malcolm Tarling of the Association of British Insurers says most travel insurance policies do not protect passengers against airline failure: “There are a couple of policies that do - the Post Office’s, for example - but buying stand-alone cover from a broker such as Protectmyholiday.com is something people might want to consider now.”

It’s not all bad news: if you fancy a cheap trip to Turkey, the no-frills carrier Pegasus Airlines (0845 084 8980, pegasusairlines.com ) has launched flights from Stansted to Istanbul from £40 one-way. timesonline.co.uk via newsnow.co.uk

More recent stories - Read at Newsnow.co.uk (quicklink at AirNews  airnews.webs.com)
BA-Iberia merger under threat: report - Yahoo! 14:26 24-Jan-09
BA flight lands in Nigeria, engine in flames: reports - Yahoo News 11:24 25-Jan-09
Where next for O’Leary and Ryanair? - Sunday Business Post 18:03 24-Jan-09
Swedish airline Nordic Airways looses license - The Associated Press 17:47 24-Jan-09
Crashed jet's engine may have hit soft body - USA Today 01:48 25-Jan-09

Previous Top Stories
The Cadbury TV ad that will raise eyebrows - The Daily Mail 20:03 23-Jan-09
Nothing to do with travel but do see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exMrMcHpPLo

BA hits share price hurdle in Iberia deal - FT.com 18:15 23-Jan-09
British Airways to offer in-flight text and data on new all-business services - The Times 16:24 23-Jan-09
Heathrow personal transport pods are coming - Telegraph.co.uk 16:09 23-Jan-09
Aer Lingus in deal with United - The Irish Times 15:16 23-Jan-09
New route to airport - BusinessEastMidlands.co.uk 09:30 24-Jan-09
Aer Lingus links up with troubled United as Ryanair bid crumbles - Irish Independent 19:17 23-Jan-09
Delta to soon make its mark at Minneapolis/St. Paul airport - Minneapolis/StPaul Business Journal 18:59 23-Jan

15 Jan A320 ditches in Hudson River / VLM blown off runway at Isle of Man

Today (Thu 15th), a VLM Airways plane blew off the runway and became embedded in the grass after very strong gust 10.30 GMT Thu morning

No injuries as the port and nose wheels of VLM flight VG662
(news.bbc.co.uk/isleofman)

The port and nose wheels of VLM flight VG662 from London City to the Isle of Man were affected in the incident, at about 1030 GMT at Ronaldsway Airport. The 20 passengers and four crew were not hurt but the airport was closed for a time, an airport spokeswoman said. The plane is not thought to be damaged, but it is to be examined by engineers.

Living at the seaside - Free car washes but with salt.  Emergency  road closures were put in place in Castletown, Douglas and Rushen, IOM this afternoon. (15 Jan)

Storms lashed the Island earlier this week and there are road closures this afternoon (Thu 15th) as high tide approaches

US Airways ditched in Hudson

Less than 12hrs later, the pilot of a US Airways A320 La Guardia NY-Charlotte NC managed to reach the Hudson River and ditch the plane in an almost perfect landing so that the 150 passengers and 5 crew all survived although a broken leg or two was recorded.  The river was -6c at the time but the presence of mind of commuter ferries, coast guard and other small boats managed to rescue all occupants from the aircraft's wings.  The aircraft captain is being hailed as the hero he, indeed is. 
From CNN we have photos and videos and a map showing La Guardia and the flight  (no mean feat without engines) path to the Hudson River 

  
cnn.com/2009/US/01/15/new.york.plane.crash/index.html#cnnSTCOther1   iReporter Julie Pukelis   1 of 3   more photos »

Date:  15 Jan 2009  Time:  15:31 EST   Location:  Hudson River, NY (United States of America) 
Type:  Airbus A320-214    Operator:  US Airways  Registration:  N106US   First flight:  1999
Crew: 5    PAX: 150   Total: Fatalities:  0 / Occupants: 155 
Airplane fate:  Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Phase:   Initial climb (ICL)   Nature:  Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure:  New York-La Guardia Airport, NY (LGA/KLGA), USA
Destination:  Charlotte-Douglas Airport, NC (CLT/KCLT), USA
Flightnumber:  1549

US Airways flight 1549 was a passenger flight from New York-La Guardia Airport, NY (LGA) to Charlotte-Douglas Airport, NC (CLT).   The airplane took off at 15:26. The flight is believed to have encountered multiple bird strikes within two minutes after takeoff.
This resulted in a complete or partial loss of thrust from the plane's two engines. The airplane ditched in the Hudson River less than six minutes after takeoff.  All occupants evacuated the airplane, climbing onto the wings and entering life rafts. Coast Guard vessels and commuter ferries rescued everyone on board.
According to FlightAware.com the maximum altitude was 3200 feet before the aircraft began a descent into the water. The last radar return received by FlightAware showed the aircraft at 300ft and 153kts (176mph).
Sources: AP at http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20090115-0

12 Jan Latest from Newsnow.co.uk

Detail to stories via Newsnow link at http://airnews.webs.com - (Note new URL)

Top Stories (Last 24hrs)
Zambian Airways: Suspended operations last Sat - AfricaNews 08:41 12-Jan
Stelios: Cash is king as tough times bite - This is Money 15:50 11-Jan-09
Fury over Ryanair's £40 credit charges - Metro.co.uk 09:07 12-Jan-09
Ryanair has been accused of ripping off customers by charging the average family £40 to process a single card payment.The airline forces passengers to pay £5 for each one-way flight booked with a card.This means a family of four must fork out £40 for return flights, on top of any other costs. The fees apply even if the flights are bought in a single transaction. [The charge of GBP5 is only for Credit Card settlements.  Payments by debit cards are zero or negligible.  However, there is always someone who wants to take a bash at Ryanair!]
Lufthansa No Longer Sees BMI Options To Be Exercised In Jan - Borsa Italiana 11:25
Airline ponders Brisbane expansion -Travelbiz.com.au 01:33 12-Jan
New railway station to open - BBC 08:35 12-Jan
Exclusive: Turkish's luxury B777-300ER now flying LHR-Istanbul - News 13:10 12-Jan
54,000 people held at Dubai airport for failing iris scan - Gulf News 12:59 12-Jan

 Previous Top Stories
Virgin Nigeria suspends flights to UK,  S.Africa - Reuters 19:08 10-Jan-09
Be bold, not foolhardy, over Heathrow's runway - The Times 22:27 10-Jan-09
Snow continues to trap thousands at Madrid airport - interactive investor 16:56 10-Jan
[and that whilst the UK has mild temperatures of up to 11c]
Plane undershoots runway in Philippines -A small passenger aircraft at Boracay Xinhua Online 02:34 11-Jan-09
Emirates' San Francisco offer' - Deccan Herald 00:04 11-Jan-09
American Airlines and Technology - NeoWin.net 02:38 11-Jan-09
Virgin Nigeria Suspends Long-Haul Services - Borsa Italiana 20:23 10-Jan-09
India has three of world's worst airports - The Times of India 04:13 11-Jan-09

12 Jan  Hilton to open Liverpool's first on-airport hotel

Liverpool’s John Lennon airport will gain its first hotel attached to the terminal building later this year, with the opening of a budget Hampton by Hilton property.  The 160-room hotel will form part of a £37 million development by Peel Holdings (Leisure Ltd) at the airport, which also includes a multi-storey car park.
The property is due to open this summer, and will be attached to the airport’s terminal building by a covered bridge walkway.

Two further Hilton hotels are currently under development in Liverpool – the Hilton Liverpool, due to open later this year, and the Hampton by Hilton Liverpool City slated for 2010.

For more information visit www.hilton.com, www.liverpoolairport.com. 
The hotels will be added to the section "Airports" at http://travel.holidays.com/tips which deals with overnighting and transfer between airport hotels.

Source:  newsnow.co.uk (quicklink above) - Business Traveller

12 Jan ESTA - Yet another US restriction to make travellers feel unsafe

Remember the inflight entry form that you hitherto had to fill in for entry into the USA (as a visa free entry country)?

Well, as of today 12th Jan 2009, it has been phased out and you will, in future have to complete questions like "are you a drug smuggler?"  or ""are you a criminal?" online before flight departure or face possible entry refusal into the United States . 

A US representative told BBC UK's Breakfast news programme today that a transitional period will take place whereby both systems are available.  Whether that is 1 day, 1 week or 1 month, he did not comment.

Visitors to U.S. face refusal under new online entry system

• Story Highlights
• Travelers risk being turned away at U.S. airports, as entry rules come into effect
  
• ESTA allows short-term visitors under the visa waiver program entry to the U.S.
  
• Visitors must register details online at least three days before they depart

LONDON, England (CNN) -- From today, travelers visiting the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) risk being detained at airports and sent home if they don't comply with new U.S. immigration rules.

Thousands of travelers risk being detained and sent home from U.S. airports and ports.

The introduction of the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) means visitors from 27 VWP countries -- including most of Western Europe, New Zealand, Japan and Australia -- must now register their details online at least three days before departure.

ESTA -- which came into effect today -- replaces the written green I-94 form and allows travelers under the VWP to enter the U.S. without a visa and stay for up to 90 days.

The measure is designed to tighten security and make it harder for terrorists who are citizens of the participating countries to easily obtain entry to the U.S.

Critics fear the new rule will be an inconvenience for business travelers and the British Foreign Office is concerned that travelers who have not heard about the new rules may be caught out.

A British Foreign Office report on travel trends for 2009 predicted that 13 percent of British travelers are more likely to visit the States now Barack Obama has been elected. "The consequences of not registering through ESTA could therefore be far reaching," says the Foreign Office.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has assured travelers that the system can handle last-minute and emergency requests.

Don't Miss

• Business Traveller airport special
• Four new travel rules for 2009
• ESTA Web site

ESTA has been operating on a voluntary basis since 1 August 2008 and is compulsory from 12 January 2009.

Applications can be made at any time, even if travelers have no specific travel plans. If itineraries change, information can be easily updated on the ESTA Web site.

Once travelers are authorized, they can travel for up to two years or until their passport expires, whichever comes first.

Passengers must submit the same information that is currently required in the I-94 immigration form. This includes biographical data, travel information as well as questions regarding communicable diseases, arrests and convictions.

VWP countries

Andorra, France, Luxembourg, Singapore, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Monaco, Slovenia, Estonia, Australia, Iceland, Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Latvia, Brunei, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Lithuania, Denmark, Japan, Portugal, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Finland, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Republic of Malta and South Korea

Registration is possible through the U.S. government ESTA Web site. In most cases, eligibility for travel will be approved immediately.

Applicants who receive an "Authorization Pending" response will need to check the Web site for updates. Applicants whose ESTA applications are denied will be referred to Travel.State.Gov for information on how to apply for a visa.

ESTA does not change the rules for citizens from countries that require visas.

That no longer includes travelers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Korea, and the Slovak Republic; they joined the VWP in November, 2008. Malta became a member the following month.

Travelers are advised that ESTA does not guarantee entry into the United States. The final decision rests with the immigration official at the port of entry.

Source and credits: CNN News: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/01/12/esta.visa.waiver/?iref=mpstoryview

US Government Information Website for ESTA at:

http://www.visitusa.org.uk/visitors/esta.aspx

NOTE  The originally quoted https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/ has been moved temporarily.  This usually occurs if there has been a mishandled redirect.

06 Jan New ZA airline Airtime to spark price war

New low-cost airline Airtime is expected to spark a price war with rival airlines - if it takes off later this month as planned, Business Day reported on Tuesday. Fares for flights between Durban and Johannesburg from Jan 25 to Mar 22 are being sold for as little as R225 for a one-way ticket, excl airport charges.
Glenn Orsmond, CEO of 1Time Holdings, told Business Day that Airtime's fares were clearly aimed at launching the airline and could not be sustained.
However, whether Airtime will take to the skies on January 25 is still in doubt.  Blackbird Aviation, the group behind the new airline, was pursuing an agreement last year with Lanseria-based aviation group Air Aquarius to lease three Boeing 737-200s and use the company's air operator certificate (AOC).
However, Air Aquarius CEO Gavin Branson said on Monday that the deal had collapsed and that his company would no longer be partnering with Blackbird Aviation.  "That appears to leave Airtime with no aircraft and no AOC barely three weeks before it is due to begin flights between Johannesburg and Durban," the newspaper said.  Blackbird Aviation CEO Vino Eargambram was unavailable for comment, Business Day added. -- Sapa
South African Mail & Guardian Online

Airnews also accessible via secondary (easy to remember) URL
When checking postings to AirNews, try                                              http://airnews.webs.com
References to Newsnow.co.uk source information can be accessessed via AirNews and by hitting the Newsnow Quicklink in the title bar.  This takes you to the aviation news page directly.

05 Jan Aer Arann: Isle of Man - London City from 19 Jan 09.  New: Also Blackpool-Dublin fm Jan 09
A reminder of the IOM-LCY route starting this month and also news regarding Blackpool Airport

05 Jan Blackpool Airport brings in £10 flyers' fee
Passengers travelling from Blackpool Airport now have to pay an additional £10 charge to fly. The £10 needs to be paid in order to get into the departure lounge. The Airport Development Fee (ADF), payable at the airport, was introduced on Mon 5 Jan for all departing passengers over the age of 16.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7811849.stm
Ryanair announced last November that it was pulling all flights to/from Blackpool as a result of the new fee.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7748049.stm

04 Jan New air route to WW1 battlefield
A new twice-weekly air route which will enable people to visit the site of a World War I battlefield is to operate from Leeds/Bradford Airport. From spring, Budget airline Jet2.com will start flights between Leeds/Bradford and Albert-Picardie in France, close to the Somme battlefield.  The service will run twice weekly between April and June.
Jet2 managing director, said "battlefield breaks were becoming popular within the tourism industry" and "this is a really exciting destination for Jet2."    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/7810480.stm

03 Jan Today's news updates from Newsnow.co.uk

News via Newsnow.co.uk - details via quicklink above

Wrecked plane cleared from Denver runway Examiner.com 16:12 - Crews are moving the burned fuselage of a Houston-bound flight that veered off a runway at Denver Intl two weeks ago.

Muslim family booted off flight gets apology News.com.au - Archives 16:06
It's a flyer's market as airfares plummet News.com.au - Archives 16:06
Defence suspected in new Qantas drama News.com.au - Archives 16:06
Football fans score own goal by booking early flights to Italy - Irish Independent 09:53 3-Jan-09
Finnair warns one third of routes could go - Channel NewsAsia 20:12 2-Jan-09
Cape Air Wins Bid For PA To MD Routes TheBostonChannel.com, Massachusetts - Money 15:24
AirTran apologizes to 9 Muslim passengers ordered off plane Monsters and Critics - General 14:54
Statement from Kingfisher Airlines on Fare Cuts Effected by... TechWhack - Press Releases 14:34
American Airlines’ sale on Mexico fares LA Times - Travel Blog 14:04
Lion Air aircraft punctures hole in Gorontalo runway Jakarta Post - National News 14:02
Qantas mishap under review The Sydney Morning Herald - Travel 13:07
Indonesian flag carrier to expand international routes Viet Nam News Agency - Region 13:05
Korean Air to provide service to over 30 Chinese cities by 2010 Xinhua Online - China 12:32
Iraq greets first European flight in 18 years Alarabiya.net 11:51
Two Russian planes bring Gaza Strip evacuees to Moscow ITAR-TASS 11:35
Oman Air enhances check-in options Gulf Industry Magazine Online - Home 10:47
Flights at Varna airport double in the holidays Focus English News 10:17

03 Jan 2009 - Cherokee closes UK's Westcoast rail / Emergency landing Bermuda to rid drunks

UK Charter diverted to Bermuda - 3 arrested 

Three British men were arrested at L.F. Wade Intl on New Year's Eve after their unruly behaviour caused a flight to be diverted to Bermuda. The holidaymakers — aged 35, 26 and 25 — were travelling on a charter plane from Manchester in England to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
They are alleged to have been drunk, violent and abusive on the First Choice plane. Sussex Police told The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the UK that the men would all be questioned about alleged homophobic public order offences, affray and smoking on board the plane.
The Boeing 767-300, operated by Thomson Airways and carrying about 250 passengers, was forced to land in Bermuda just after 17.30 on Wed, when the three men were met by Police and taken into custody. The captain is said to have made the decision due to concern about fighting on board. The 35yr old, from Burnley, Lancashire, was repatriated to the UK on Thursday and was reported to have been arrested at London Gatwick on suspicion of endangering an aircraft. The other two were yesterday due to be sent back when plane seats could be found for them.

British holiday firm Thomas Cook chartered the flight and will pay the repatriation costs.
The plane was refuelled and left Bermuda for Punta Cana at about 19.30 on Wed, arriving at its destination about four hours late.
In July, another First Choice Boeing 767-300 was diverted to Bermuda after a 29-year-old became abusive en route from London Gatwick to Bermuda after drinking duty-free liquor. He was flown back to the UK and charged with being drunk on a plane.
Newsnow.co.uk - theroyalgazette.com (Bermuda) 3.1.09

Light Aircraft down and closes 'West Coast' rail route to the north' Victims named

Pilot Alan Matthews, 59, from Walsall, was killed along with married couple Nick and Emma O'Brien, from Shirley, in Solihull when their light aircraft crashed beside Britain's busiest main north western railway lines yesterday. Thousands of passengers are still facing disruption on the West Coast Mainline after the accident.
Investigators are preparing to remove the wreckage after the Piper Cherokee aeroplane hit power lines and crashed in Little Haywood on Friday.  Services on the major rail route between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly stations are being diverted and operators estimate delays of between 45mins and 4hrs for those travelling to Liverpool, Manchester and Scotland.  Replacement buses are running between Crewe and Rugby and between Wolverhampton and Crewe.  Virgin Rail is deviating its services.
The aircraft pulled down extensive track powerlines which cannot be repaired until the scene has been investigated.  The Stafford section of the main line will no doubt be closed until Monday next.
Nick O'Brien and his wife, 29-year-old Emma, both from Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, were passengers on board the plane when it crashed at Little Haywood, near Stafford, at about noon on Friday.
A British Transport Police spokeswoman also confirmed that Mr O'Brien (35) and his wife had two children, Callum, aged 10, and 18-month-old Joel.
Newsnow.co.uk - SkyNews 03.01.09
Video/report http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Air-Crash-Train-Delays-More-Travel-Disruption-On-West-Coast-Mainline/Article/200901115197009?f=rss

 

20 Dec CH-Aviation updates 13th to 20th December

20.12.2008

British Airways (BA/London Heathrow) will give up its London City-Warsaw route on Jan 5. It will continue to serve Warsaw twice daily from Heathrow.

All European (Blackpool) is planning to start charter operations with four ex-Alaska Airlines (AS/Seattle/Tacoma) MD-83s in 2009.

Baleair (Palma de Mallorca) has been founded by several ex-Futura Intl Airways employees and is planning to start charter operations with several B737s in May 2009.

Air Volga (G6/Volgograd) is the new name of Volga-Aviaexpress. It will shortly finally take delivery of two ex-Independence Air CRJ-200s and is planning to launch international to Prague and destinations in France and Germany in 2009. It has also announced plans to add two leased B737-500s to its fleet.

Serenity Wings (Basle/Mulhouse) will reportedly launch longhaul cargo operations in 2009 with a B747-400F wet-leased from World Airways (WO/Atlanta).

Sky Star Express (Belgrade) has resumed charter operations with a single Yak-40.

Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt) has terminated its codeshare agreement with Jat Airways (JU/Belgrade).

Manx2 (NM/Isle of Man) has wet-leased a Metroliner from AirLada (Seville).

Thomson Airways (BY/London Luton) has given up its remaining routes out of Coventry on Nov 2. It was the last scheduled operator at the airport.

Luzair (LUZ/Lisbon) is planning to add an ex-Zoom Airlines B767-300ER to replace its two remaining L1011-500s.

Inter Airlines (6K/Antalya) has ceased operations on Nov 12. It had operated a fleet of three A321-200s on charter services.

Centralwings (C0/Warsaw) has wet-leased a B737-400 to Dolphin Air (ZD/Sharjah).

Loganair (LC/Glasgow Intl) has wet-leased a Saab 340 from AviTrans Nordic (2Q/Stockholm Bromma) until the end of the year.

Air Europa (UX/Palma de Mallorca) has now finally taken delivery of its first own EMB-195 and has placed a follow-up order for additional six EMB-195s.

Nextjet (2N/Stockholm Arlanda) will launch twice daily Saab 340 from Stockholm Bromma to Östersund on Jan 26.

Austrian Airlines (OS/Vienna) will launch weekly seasonal B737-800 from Salzburg to Moscow Domodedovo on Dec 27.

Andalus Lineas Aéreas (Malaga) has taken delivery of its first aircraft, an ex-Flybe. (BE/Exeter) ERJ-145. It is planning to launch regional operations from Malaga on domestic routes and to North Africa.

Tbilaviamsheni (L6/Tbilisi) has wet-leased a B737-200 from StarLine (LMZ/Almaty) for charter services.

Transavia France (TO/Paris Orly) has wet-leased a B737-800 to Mihin Lanka (MJ/Colombo Intl) to allow the state owned Sri Lankan carrier to resume low-cost operations.

Avion Express (N9/Vilnius) will add an ex-Nordic Regional Saab 340 to launch twice weekdaily Storuman-Stockholm Arlanda on Jan 12.

Ryanair (FR/Dublin) has announced plans to cut the number of aircraft based at and routes operated from Frankfurt Hahn after the airport has finalized plans to introduce a new departure tax.

British Airways (BA/London Heathrow) and Qantas (QF/Sydney) have announced that they have abandoned merger talks after no agreement could be reached on some key elements of the proposed merger plan.

Atlant-Soyuz Airlines (7B/Moscow Chkalovskaya) will add a third ex-Ryanair (FR/Dublin) B737-800.

Condor (DE/Frankfurt) will add the ex-Belair Airlines (4T/Zurich) B767-300ER in 2009. It has stopped serving Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen from Frankfurt Intl and Munich.

Bulgaria Air (FB/Sofia) has given up its Sofia-Prague route at the end of October.

Lagunair (N7/Leon) has finally given all of its operations on Oct 9 after it had already announced massive cuts to its network before. It has operated ERJ-145s and Saab 340s on domestic in Spain.

Olympic Airlines (OA/Athens) has leased an ex-Aer Arann (RE/Dublin) ATR 42-300.

Jat Airways (JU/Belgrade) has launched five times weekly ATR 72-200 from Belgrade to Milan Malpensa on Oct 26.

SmartLynx (6Y/Riga) is the new brand of Icelandair (FI/Reykjavik Keflavik) subsidiary Lat Charter.

FlyLAL (TE/Vilnius) has added a second ex-Aeromexico (AM/Mexico City) B757-200.

S7 Airlines (S7/Novosibirsk) has leased two ex-Rossiya (FV/St. Petersburg) A319-100s.

Wind Rose Aviation (7W/Kiev Borispol) has added a fourth ex-Khors Aircompany (KHO/Kiev Borispol) MD-82.

HiFly (Y4/Lisbon) will lease a new A330-200 that had originally been ordered by defunct XL Airways UK. It has also added two A340-500 that have not been taken up by Kingfisher Airlines (IT/Bangalore) and now operates the aircraft on behalf of Arik Air (W3/Lagos) on the Lagos-London Heathrow route.

Swiftair (W3/Madrid) has wet-leased a MD-83 to Sudan Airways (SD/Khartoum).

SATA International (S4/Lisbon) will launch weekly seasonal A320-200 from Funchal to Zurich on Jun 7.

Romavia (WQ/Bucharest Otopeni) launched twice weekly BAe 146-200 from Bucharest Otopeni to Rome Ciampino and Vienna on Dec 2.

MCA Airlines (Stockholm Arlanda) has launched weekly scheduled from Stockholm Arlanda to Erbil using a MD-83 wet-leased from Sky Wings (GSW/Athens). It also uses the aircraft for charter and adhoc to destinations such as Beirut and Thessaloniki and has announced plans for additional routes from Malmö to Baghdad and Erbil.

Orbest (OBS/Lisbon) is operating its A330-200 on behalf of Novair (1I/Stockholm Arlanda) this winter season.

Aurela (LSK/Vilnius) has wet-leased its two B757-200s to Air Niamey (AW/Niamey) and Meridian Airlines (MHL/Kano) for Hajj charters.

LOT Polish Airlines (LO/Warsaw) has asked Star Alliance for help to find a partner that would be interested to take a 49% stake in the Polish carrier next year.

FlyExcellent (FXL/Stockholm Arlanda) has returned one of its two MD-83s to the lessor and seems to have at least temporarily also suspended operations with its other MD-83.

EuroAir (6M/Athens) has suspended charter operations with its two MD-83s earlier this month.

Fly Globespan (Y2/Edinburgh) will launch weekly seasonal between Glasgow Intl and Halifax on May 27.

TUIfly (Germany) (X3/Hanover) will give up its Stuttgart-Berlin Tegel route on Jan 6.

Aer Lingus (EI/Dublin) will set up a second base in the UK in Apr 2008 when it will base four A320-200s at London Gatwick with plans to base another four A320-200 aircraft there until 2009:
London Gatwick -Faro: 2x daily A320-200 starting on Apr 26 / -Knock: daily A320-200 starting on Apil 6 / -Malaga: 3x daily A320-200 starting on Apr 6 / -Munich: 2x daily A320-200 starting on Apr 20 / -Nice: 2x daily A320-200 starting on Apr 20 / -Vienna: daily A320-200 starting on Apr 20 / -Zurich: daily A320-200 starting on Apr 26.

Turkish Airlines (TK/Istanbul Ataturk) will acquire a 49% stake in B&H Airlines (JA/Sarajevo), the state-owned carrier of Bosnia and Herzegovina after winning the bidding process. It has announced plans to add Usak to its domestic network in Turkey.

Euroline Airlines (4L/Batumi) has ceased its from Batumi to Kharkov and Minsk Intl 1.

Belavia (B2/Minsk Intl 2) has launched weekly CRJ-200 from Minsk Intl 2 to Batumi.

VolaSalerno (ORI/Salerno) has suspended operations on Dec 18. It had operated a single wet-leased BAe 146-300 on from Salerno to northern Italy, Barcelona and Bucharest.

Air Vallee (DO/Turin) will launch twice weekdaily Do328JET from Turin to Rome Fiumicino on Jan 12.

Flybe. (BE/Exeter) will operate a weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 from Jersey to Humberside between May 2 and Sep 19.

Martinair (MP/Amsterdam) will be a 100% subsidiary of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL/Amsterdam) as of Dec 31 when KLM will purchase the 50% stake owned by shipping company Moeller-Maersk. The European Commission has cleared the transaction earlier this month after reviewing the competitive impacts of the deal.

Air Baltic (BT/Riga) has announced three new routes from its Riga hub:
Riga-Linkoping: daily Fokker 50 starting on May 1 / -Palanga: 2x daily Fokker 50 starting on Apr 1 / -Tromso: 3x weekly B737-500 starting on Mar 31.
It will temporarily suspend its Vilnius-Brussels Ntl route between Jan 7 and Mar 30.

MAT Macedonian Airlines (IN/Skopje) has been forced to give up its from Skopje to Berlin Schoenefeld, Dusseldorf Intl, Hamburg Fuhlsbuettel and Rome Fiumicino after Eurocontrol has banned the carrier from entering German and Italian airspace because of unpaid air traffic control fees. It continues to serve Istanbul Ataturk, Vienna and Zurich from its Skopje base.

Swiss (LX/Zurich) has announced plans to add Abu Dhabi, Beijing and San Francisco to its longhaul network as soon as the economic situation improves. It is expected to intensify its cooperation with new Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) subsidiary Austrian Airlines (OS/Vienna). Swiss will take over all remaining Lufthansa on the Zurich-Berlin Tegel route on Jan 10.

Iberia (IB/Madrid) will launch weekly from Madrid to Salvador on Feb 3 using an A330-300 wet-leased from Iberworld Airlines (TY/Palma de Mallorca).

Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) will launch a weekly seasonal from Nuremberg to Rimini on May 23 that will operate until Sep 26 using LGW - Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter (HE/Dortmund) Dash 8-400s. Etihad Airways (EY/Abu Dhabi) is reportedly considering taking a stake in Air Berlin.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) has reached an agreement with a group of Spanish investors from the Catalonia region, Consorci de Turisme de Barcelona and Catalana, to sell a majority stake in subsidiary Spanair (JK/Palma de Mallorca). SAS will remain a minority shareholder under the plan and the deal is expected to be finalized in early 2009. SAS has also agreed to sell its 47.2% stake in Air Baltic (BT/Riga) to the management of the Latvian carrier. It is expected to continue to cooperate closely with Air Baltic on routes between Scandinavia and the Baltic countries.

OLT - Ostfriesische Lufttransport (OL/Emden) will operate a weekly seasonal Saab 340 flight from Heringsdorf to Zurich between May 30 and Oct 24. It will however terminate its Hamburg-Eindhoven on Jan 5.

Icelandair (FI/Reykjavik Keflavik) will lease a third B757-200 to Yakutia Airlines (R3/Yakutsk) and a second B757-200 to Air Niugini (PX/Port Moresby).

Volareweb.com (VE/Milan Malpensa) has returned two of its four A320-200s to the lessors.

Viking Airlines (4P/Stockholm Arlanda) has added a first ex-Sunwing Airlines (WG/Toronto Pearson) B737-800 and is planning to add several additional B737-800s for charter services.

Montenegro Airlines (YM/Podgorica) has launched twice weekly Fokker 100 from Podgorica to Milan Malpensa replacing its prevously operated Tivat-Milan Malpensa route. The government of Montenegro is planning to sell 30% of the fully state owned carrier in 2009.

bmi regional (II/Aberdeen) has leased two additional ex-Flybe. (BE/Exeter) ERJ-145s.

Top Fly (TLY/Sabadell) has announced plans to terminate its remaining scheduled from Las Palmas to Agadir, Dakhla, Laayoune, Marrakech and Nouadhibou. It will continue to operate charter with its ATR 42-300s and Metroliners.

Livingston Energy Flight (LM/Milan Malpensa) has announced plans to cut one third of its workforce and to temporarily ground an A330-200 and an A321-200 for the winter season. Ellemme Group has signed a letter of intent to take over the leisure carrier from Viaggi del Ventaglio.

Primera Air (GX/Reykjavik Keflavik) is the new name of Icelandic charter and ACMI operator JetX after a rebranding in October. The carrier had already been acquired by Scandinavian tour operator group Primera Travel Group in March.

Belle Air (LZ/Tirana) has already given up its Tirana-Zagreb route again.

Flywatch Air (Southend) has suspended operations. It had launched scheduled operations earlier this year using Piper Navajos.

XL Airways Germany (G1/Frankfurt) has leased a B737-800 to Sunwing Airlines (WG/Toronto Pearson) for the winter season.

Air France (AF/Paris CDG) and sister carrier KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL/Amsterdam) will restructure the operations of their subsidaries at London City airport after it has received European Commission approval for the acquisition of VLM (VG/Antwerp). Starting Jan 5, VLM will wet-lease Cityjet (WX/Dublin) ARJ-85s to operate eight daily roundtrips between London City and Amsterdam replacing VLM Fokker 50s on the route. KLM will suspend its flights currently operated by KLM cityhopper (WA/Amsterdam) Fokker 50s on the route. The carriers had to hand over London City-Amsterdam slots to Eastern Airways (T3/Humberside) to get approval for the VLM acquisition. VLM will in return launch a twice daily Fokker 50 between London City and Eindhoven replacing Cityjet on the route.

Virgin Atlantic (VS/London Heathrow) has announced that it has entered into talks with both Airbus and Boeing to find a solution that allows it to add up to twelve additional longhaul aircraft to its fleet to replace B787-9 deliveries that will be at least two years later in 2013 instead of 2011 as initially expected. It has also announced that it plans to discuss future plans for bmi british midland (BD/Nottingham) with new majority owner Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl). Virgin has for years been interested in a merger or alliance with bmi.

DHL Air (D0/Nottingham) will take delivery of the first three B767-300ERF freighters from an order made by parent DHL in 2009.

Armavia (U8/Yerevan) has launched bi-weekly A319-100 between Yerevan and Ufa on Nov 16.

Air Pullmantur (EB/Madrid) has added a third ex-Air India (AI/Mumbai) B747-400 to replace its last B747-300 that it has withdrawn from earlier this month. It has wet-leased one of its B747-400s to Garuda Indonesia (GA/Jakarta Intl) for the Hajj season.

Wideroe (WF/Bodo) will launch two new seasonal next summer season:
Oslo Torp-Bodo: 4x weekly Dash 8-400 between Jun 27 and Aug 23
Oslo Torp-Tromso: 4x weekly Dash 8-400 between Jun 27 and Aug 22
It has started serving Rost from its Bodo base on Oct 20 replacing helicopter operator Lufttransport (L5/Tromso) on the route. It serves the route twice daily with Dash 8-100s on triangle flights via Leknes. Wideroe has given up its Kirkenes-Murmansk route on Dec 1.

bmibaby (WW/Nottingham) will operate a twice weekly seasonal B737-300 linking Cardiff and Menorca between May 21 and Oct 22 next summer season. It will however give up its Cardiff-Warsaw route on Jan 4. bmibaby has already terminated its Birmingham-Marseilles and Manchester-Madrid routes on Oct 1.

16.12.2008

Blue 1 (KF/Helsinki) is considering replacing its MD-90-30s by B737-600s from parent SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup). It will launch 3 times weekly seasonal ARJ-85/MD-90-30 from Helsinki to Ivalo on Feb 10.

Gotlandsflyg (Visby) is considering setting up a new subsidiary in Östersund to operate low-cost between Östersund and Stockholm Bromma.

Astraeus (5W/London Gatwick) has temporarily wet-leased a B757-200 to Intercontinental Airways (Gambia) (Banjul) for the Hajj season.

Interavia Airlines (ZA/Moscow Domodedovo) has suspended operations on Oct 9 and has lost is operating certificate shortly thereafter caused by financial difficulties.

FlySur (Cordoba) has already suspended operations again on Oct 20, less than 50 days after launching regional operations from Cordoba with a Top Fly (TLY/Sabadell) ATR 42-300.

Nordwind Airlines (Moscow Sheremetyevo) will lease two additional ex-Eos Airlines B757-200s. It has already wet-leased one of its B757-200s to Tajik Air (7J/Dushanbe).

Air VIA (VL/Sofia) has wet-leased one of its A320-200s to Tunisair (TU/Tunis).

Cyprus Airways (CY/Larnaca) has leased an ex-Spirit Airlines (NK/Fort Lauderdale) A319-100.

Sky Airlines (SHY/Antalya) has wet-leased four B737-400 and a B737-800 to Sama Airlines (ZS/Riyadh) for Hajj charters.

UM Air (UF/Kiev Borispol) has wet-leased a MD-82 to Kish Air (Y9/Tehran).

bmi british midland (BD/Nottingham) will give up its Manchester-Chicago OHare route on Jan 15 and its routes from Manchester to Antigua, Bridgetown and Las Vegas on Apr 26 and move the two A330-200s based in Manchester to London Heathrow for additional to the Middle East. It will change its Saudi Arabia schedule accordingly:
London Heathrow-Riyadh-Jeddah: 3x weekly A330-200 starting on Jan 15 (doubling frequency to Riyadh)

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL/Amsterdam) has announced two new routes:
Amsterdam-Calgary: 5x weekly A330-200 starting on May 3
Amsterdam-Liverpool: 3x daily Fokker 70 strting on Mar 29 (operated by KLM cityhopper (WA/Amsterdam))
KLM will however give up its Amsterdam-Hyderabad route on Feb 1. It is planning to transfer three B737-300s and a B737-400 to its subsidiary KLM cityhopper in 2009.

Gadair (GP/Madrid) has wet-leased its B757-200s to Air Niamey (AW/Niamey) and Kabo Air (QNK/Kabo) for the Hajj season.

VolaSalerno (ORI/Salerno) has given up its plans for new routes from Salerno to Catania and Munich.

Jet2 (LS/Leeds/Bradford) has wet-leased a B737-300F freighter from Europe Air Post (5O/Paris CDG). It will not resume its Leeds/Bradford-Valencia route next summer season.

Star Airlines (Macedonia) (Skopje) has added a second ex-Air Atlanta Icelandic (CC/Reykjavik Keflavik) B747-200F freighter.

Zapolyarye Aviakompania (Norilsk) has added a first ex-Vladivostok Air (XF/Vladivostok) Tu-154B2 for charter services.

Alis Aerolinee Italiane (Milan Malpensa) has acquired Cargoitalia (2G/Milan Malpensa) to get the air operator certificate of the financially struggling cargo carrier. The AOC is a prerequisite for its bid for the cargo division of Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) that CAI is not interested in. Cargoitalia has since replaced its operations with its single DC-10-30F freighter and has laid off the majority of its staff.

ItAli Airlines (FS/Pescara) has given up its Pescara-Milan Malpensa route.

Sky Georgia (QB/Tbilisi) is the new name of Georgian National Airlines after the carrier has been sold to US investment fund Sky Group. It has added a second ex-Khors Aircompany (KHO/Kiev Borispol) DC-9-50 and has launched twice weekly DC-9-50 from Tbilisi to Budapest on Dec 15.

Corsair (SS/Paris Orly) has wet-leased a B747-400 to Air Ivoire (VU/Abidjan) for the Hajj season.

EuroAtlantic Airways (MM/Lisbon) has wet-leased a B757-200 to Med-View Airline (Kano). It is planning to lease an ex-Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) B777-200ERs.

Saga Airlines (SGX/Istanbul Ataturk) has now wet-leased its entire fleet of two B737-400s and two B737-800s as well as an A310-300 to Air Algérie (AH/Algiers). Its other A310-300 is operated on behalf of Ariana Afghan Airlines (FG/Kabul).

Torair (Gothenburg City) is a new charter and ACMI carrier that will shortly launch operations with a single ex-Air One (AP/Rome Fiumicino) B737-400.

Brit Air (DB/Morlaix) has converted options for six CRJ1000s into firm orders.

AeBal Aerolineas Baleares (DF/Palma de Mallorca) is planning to resume charter operations with its B717-200 fleet.

Seagle Air (SJ/Bratislava) has wet-leased two B737-300s to Iraqi Airways (IA/Baghdad).

Air Bee (BM/Rome Fiumicino) has given up plans to resume operations.

FlyLAL (TE/Vilnius) will resume three times weekly B737-300 from Vilnius to Dublin on Apr 4. It has wet-leased a second B737-500 to Scat (DV/Shimkent) and a B737-300 to Jet Time (JTG/Copenhagen Kastrup). It has given up its Vilnius-Tallinn route.

Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) has given up its Milan Malpensa-Marseilles route and will also give up its Milan Malpensa-St. Petersburg route on Jan 10.

Globus (GH/Novosibirsk) has been acquired by the East Line Group, the owner of Domodedovo airport, after S7 Airlines (S7/Novosibirsk) agreed to sell its charter carrier earlier this month. It has added an ex-Air One (AP/Rome Fiumicino) B737-400.

Blue Air (Romania) (0B/Bucharest Baneasa) will lease an ex-Sterling Airlines B737-800.

Finnair (AY/Helsinki) has extended its codeshare agreement with British Airways (BA/London Heathrow) to include Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Sydney operated by BA. It has wet-leased an A330-200 from Air Europa (UX/Palma de Mallorca) for its Helsinki-Phuket route. Finnair will operate five times weekly EMB-190 between May 22 and Sep 29. It has however given up its Helsinki-Gdansk route.

Tatarstan Air (U9/Kazan) has added a second ex-Bulgaria Air (FB/Sofia) B737-300s.

Croatia Airlines (OU/Zagreb) has been forced to suspend its codeshare agreement with United Airlines (UA/Chicago) following the downgrade of Croatia in the safety standard categorization of the US Federal Aviation Administration. It has ordered four additional A319-100s but has retired its remaining ATR 42-300s. Croatia Airlines will launch twice weekly seasonal A320-200 from Pula to Paris CDG on Apr 30.

Air Baltic (BT/Riga) has temporarily suspended its routes from Vilnius to Berlin Tegel and Helsinki until Mar 29. It has given up its Vilnius-Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel and Vilnius-Oslo Gardermoen routes. It has leased two Fokker 50s from Skyways Express (JZ/Stockholm Arlanda).

Aer Lingus (EI/Dublin) has reportedly approached Air France-KLM (AF/Paris CDG) and other carriers to find an alternative investor for a majority stake in the carrier other than Ryanair (FR/Dublin). It has given up its Cork-Prague route on Nov 1.

Wideroe (WF/Bodo) has terminated its Haugesund-Copenhagen on Nov 30.

Iberia (IB/Madrid) has launched twice weekly from Madrid to Krakow using Air Nostrum (YW/Valencia) CRJ-900s.

Air Bucharest (Bucharest Baneasa) is planning to start charter flights in spring 2009.

Blu Express (BV/Rome Fiumicino) has given up its Rome Fiumicino-Milan Malpensa route. It has launched three times daily B737-300 from Rome Fiumicino to Palermo on Dec 1.

Belair Airlines (4T/Zurich) will stop longhaul charter in spring and return its B767-300ER to the lessor. Its parent Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) will operate longhaul flights out of Zurich next winter season. It will replace its two B757-200s with A320-200s in spring as well and operate a total of six A320-200s out of Zurich and Basle/Mulhouse next summer season with aircraft being transferred from Air Berlin. It will launch weekly A320-200 from Basle/Mulhouse to Sharm el Sheikh on May 9.

Sun Express (XQ/Antalya) will lease two ex-Futura Intl Airways B737-800s. It will return its three remaining B757-200s in early 2009.

White (WHT/Lisbon) has wet-leased an A310-300 to Air India (AI/Mumbai).

Malmö Aviation (TF/Malmö) has wet-leased an ARJ-85 and an ARJ-70 from sister carrier Transwede Airways (5T/Gothenburg Landvetter).

Atlasjet Airlines (KK/Antalya) has added a fourth ex-Audeli B757-200. All of its four B757-200s are operated on behalf of Saudi Arabian Airlines (SV/Jeddah) It has wet-leased an A320-200 from Turkuaz Air (Istanbul Ataturk). It has however cancelled its regional domestic routes from Istanbul Ataturk to Canakkale, Edremit and Usak and is planning to withdraw its three CRJ-900s from service.

Amapola Flyg (APF/Stockholm Arlanda) has added two additional ex-Air Central (NV/Nagoya) and ex-Crescent Air Cargo Fokker 50s that it will convert into freighters. It is planning to convert three more Fokker 50s in addition to these two.

Aer Arann (RE/Dublin) will launch five times weekly ATR 42-300/ATR 72-500 from Dublin to Blackpool on Jan 5 and three times daily ATR 72-500 from the Isle of Man to London City on Jan 19. It will however give up its Cork-Glasgow Prestwick, Galway-Waterford-Amsterdam and Kerry-Manchester routes on Jan 11. It has also announced limited job cuts as a result of the route cancellations. It has returned the BAe 146-200s to partner Nex Aviation (Galway) for the winter timetable period. It has already given up its Galway-Newcastle and Sligo-Manchester routes.

Airlinair (A5/Paris Orly) has leased another ex-Air Tahiti (VT/Papeete) ATR 72-500. It will launch a weekly seasonal ATR 42-500 from La Rochelle via Poitiers to Nice on May 16. It has already launched twice weekdaily from both Caen and Cherbourg to Paris Orly on Oct 27 using Beech 1900s of Chalair Aviation (CLG/Caen).

Air Atlanta Icelandic (CC/Reykjavik Keflavik) has wet-leased two B747-300s to Ethiopian Airlines (ET/Addis Ababa) for the Hajj season. It has added an ex-Tesis B747-200F freighter.

Air Slovakia (GM/Bratislava) has leased a third ex-Zoom Airlines B757-200. It has wet-leased three B737-300s to Bellview Airlines (B3/Lagos) and a B757-200 to Daallo Airlines (D3/Djibouti).

Brussels Airlines (SN/Brussels) will join Star Alliance in 2009. It has entered into a codeshare agreement with bmi british midland (BD/Nottingham) covering all between Brussels Ntl and the UK operated by both carriers. It is still planning to go ahead with the launch of airDC (Kinshasa Ndjili) in cooperation with joint venture partner HBA - Hewa Bora Airways (EO/Kinshasa Ndjili) and now plans to register airDC as a Belgian carrier after earlier plans to establish it in Mauritius have been rejected by the Congolese civil aviation authority. It will not resume its Brussels Ntl-Cagliari route next summer season.

15.12.2008

Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) has delayed the launch of its new Palma de Mallorca-Ciudad Real route to Jan 16. It will launch daily A319-100/A320-200/B737-700 from Dusseldorf to St. Petersburg on May 1.

Air Europe (PE/Milan Malpensa) has suspended operations and has returned its single B767-300ER to the lessor.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) and SAS Norge (BU/Oslo Gardermoen) will temporarily suspend their from Stockholm Arlanda and Oslo Gardermoen between Christmas and early Apr 2009. Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) reportedly has resumed takeover talks with SAS again.

Norwegian (DY/Oslo Gardermoen) has wet-leased a B737-700 from Hamburg International (4R/Hamburg Fuhlsbuettel) until early January.

Ukraine Intl Airlines (PS/Kiev Borispol) will launch weekly B737 from Lviv to Milan Malpensa on Apr 3.

Italiatour Airlines (6P/Verona) is in the process of applying for an air operator certificate to resume operations of defunct Club Air with an ARJ-85 and an ARJ-70 in February. It reportedly plans to establish its main base in Brescia offering to Catania, Naples and Rome Fiumicino initially.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL/Amsterdam) has announced plans to place a large widebody order in 2010 to replace its 22 B747-400s and 10 MD-11s.

Lufthansa Cargo (LH/Frankfurt) is now expecting that it will be able to fulfill its controversial obligation to move its transit hub to Asia from Astrana to Krasnoyarsk in 2009 when facilities in Krasnoyarsk will be ready to handle its flights.

Lufthansa CityLine (CL/Cologne/Bonn) has announced plans to reduce its fleet by 14 aircraft and its workforce from 2500 to 2000 staff by 2010.

Athens Airways (8D/Athens) will start regional domestic from Athens with four ex-Flybe. (BE/Exeter) ERJ-145s in spring 2009. It is considering adding a second base in Thessaloniki at a later stage.

Sky Express (Russia) (XW/Moscow Vnukovo) has Vitaly Vantsev, the Chairman of Vnukovo Airport, as one of its main shareholders now after Vantsev has acquired a 39% stake in the first Russian low-cost carrier. It has added the ex-Cirrus Airlines (C9/Munich) B737-500 that was originally destined for Aeroflot-Don (D9/Rostov).

Eagle Aviation (France) (EGN/St. Nazaire) has retired both of its A300-600Rs that will now be converted into freighters for FedEx Express (FX/Memphis). It has added a third ex-Primaris Airlines B757-200 instead and continues to operate all of its aircraft exclusively for Saudi Arabian Airlines (SV/Jeddah).

Onur Air (8Q/Istanbul Ataturk) has wet-leased an A321-200 to Air Algérie (AH/Algiers). It has added an ex-Olympic Airlines (OA/Athens) A300-600R and has wet-leased it to Saudi Arabian Airlines (SV/Jeddah) for the Hajj season.

European Aircharter (E7/Bournemouth) has suspended all operations on Nov 30 and has filed for bankruptcy. It had operated several B737-200s on charter services.

Air Italy (I9/Milan Malpensa) has wet-leased a B737-500 from Smartwings (QS/Prague) for the winter season to allow it to operate additional new domestic services:
Naples-Turin: 3x daily B737-300 has started on Dec 4
Verona-Rome Fiumicino: 3x daily B737-300 has started on Dec 9

Aerosvit Airlines (VV/Kiev Borispol) has leased an ex-BRA Transportes Aéreos B737-400.

Turkuaz Air (Istanbul Ataturk) has launched charter operations with two ex-Indigo Airlines (6E/Delhi) A320-200s.

Adria Airways (JP/Ljubljana) will temporarily suspend its Ljubljana-Barcelona route between Jan 4 and Mar 29. It has also announced other new routes for next spring: Ljubljana-Madrid: 3x weekly CRJ-900 starting on Mar 30 / -Sofia: 3x weekly CRJ-200 starting on Mar 30.

14.12.2008

Rossiya (FV/St. Petersburg) has leased a third ex-Iberworld Airlines (TY/Palma de Mallorca) A320-200.

Neos (NO/Milan Malpensa) has leased an ex-XL Airways UK B737-800 to replace some of the charter flights for Italian tour operators previously operated by now defunct Futura Intl Airways. It has wet-leased the aircraft to NasAir (Eritrea) (UE/Asmara) for the winter season.

Air Comet (A7/Madrid) parent Grupo Marsans has surprisingly confirmed its order for four A380-800s, 10 A350-900s, five additional A330-200s, five A321-200s, 25 A320-200s and 12 A319-100s that it had originally placed when it still had control of Aerolineas Argentinas (AR/Buenos Aires Ezeiza), Austral (AU/Buenos Aires Aeroparque) and before Air Comet Chile (3I/Santiago de Chile) has suspended operations. It is unclear whether all of the aircraft will eventually be operated by Air Comet or if Marsans has other plans. Air Comet has wet-leased an A310-300 and an A330-200 to Royal Air Maroc (AT/Casablanca) for the Hajj season. Air Comet has announced plans for a new route linking Madrid and Medellin in 2009. It has now also given up its Madrid-San Jose Juan Santamaria route though.

Blue Air (Romania) (0B/Bucharest Baneasa) has launched several new routes on Oct 26:
Bucharest Baneasa-Arad: 8x weekly B737 (already operated before, but now being sold as domestic service) / -Berlin Tegel: 2x weekly B737 (replacing previous to Schoenefeld) / -Brussels Ntl-London Stansted: 3x weekly B737 (in addition to separate nonstop services) / -Reus: 2x weekly B737 service.
It has however given up its Arad-Stuttgart and Bucharest Baneasa-Turin routes.

SAS Norge (BU/Oslo Gardermoen) has given up its Aalesund-London Gatwick route on Oct 27.

Blue Islands (SI/Alderney) has wet-leased two ATR 42-300s from Skyblue Airways (SBV/Exeter). It has rescheduled its from Jersey to Geneva and Zurich and now operates separate six times weekly Do328-110 from Southampton via Jersey to Geneva and to Zurich as of Oct 28. It has also dry-leased a Jetstream 31 from Highland Airways (8H/Inverness) to replace another Jetstream 32 it has returned to Eastern Airways (T3/Humberside).

easyJet (U2/London Luton) has overcome a shortpower struggle between founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou and its current senior management and board over the growth strategy. It will add more routes to its network this winter and next summer:
London Gatwick-Copenhagen: daily A319-100 starting on Jan 15 / -Dubrovnik: 4x weekly seasonal starting on Mar 31 / -Larnaca: 4x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Naples: daily starting on May 1 / -Santorini: 3x weekly seasonal starting on May 3.
Nottingham-Nice: 3x weekly A319-100 starting on Apr 2
Paris CDG-Barcelona: 2x daily A319-100 starting on Feb 12 / -Bastia: daily A319-100 starting on Feb 12.
Paris Orly-Budapest: daily A319-100 starting on Nov 17
Rome Fiumicino-Bari: 2x daily A319-100 has started on Dec 5 / -Palermo: 2x daily A319-100 has started on Dec 5.
It has given up its Berlin Schoenefeld-Olbia, Bristol-Warsaw, Geneva-Asturias, London Gatwick-Bucharest Otopeni, London Standsted-Basle/Mulhoe, London Stansted-Valencia, Madrid-Asturias, Madrid-La Coruna, Madrid-Paris Orly, Newcastle-Krakow and Nottingham-Rome Ciampino routes and has temporarily suspended its Bristol-Lisbon, London Luton-Pisa, London Stansted-Alicante and Madrid-Lanzarote routes for the winter season.

Blekingeflyg (Ronneby) is now using a Saab 2000 wet-leased from Golden Air (DC/Trollhattan) for its Ronneby-Stockholm Bromma services.

Cargo B Airlines (BB/Brussels) will shortly take delivery of two new B747-400F freighters NCA - Nippon Cargo Airlines (KZ/Tokyo Narita) has transferred to the Belgian carrier. NCA is reportedly also planning to take a stake in Cargo B.

Aeroflot (SU/Moscow Sheremetyevo) , Aerosvit Airlines (VV/Kiev Borispol), Air France (AF/Paris CDG), Austrian Airlines (OS/Vienna), British Airways (BA/London Heathrow), Finnair (AY/Helsinki), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL/Amsterdam), LTU Intl Airways (LT/Dusseldorf Intl), Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl), SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) , Swiss (LX/Zurich), TUIfly Nordic (6B/Stockholm Arlanda) and Turkish Airlines (TK/Istanbul Ataturk) have all resumed normal operations to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi after the blockade by Thai anti-government protesters at the airport has ended. Some carriers had operated adhoc schedules to Chiang Mai, Phuket and Utapao in the meantime.

Air Southwest (WO/Plymouth) has moved all of its operations to Plymouth until Dec 19 after the Cornwall County Council has not been provided a license to operate Newquay airport as a civil airport in time after the air force base at the airport has been closed on Dec 1. Ryanair (FR/Dublin) has temporarily suspended its London Stansted-Newquay flights and Skybus (IOS/Penzance) has moved its Newquay-St. Marys flights to Lands End.

Swiss (LX/Zurich) will launch up to three times weekly A320-200 from Zurich to Catania on Apr 10. It has temporarily wet-leased A330-300s from Air Canada (AC/Montreal Trudeau) between Oct 26 and Dec 14 to operate its daily Zurich-Montreal Trudeau flight because of crew shortages. It also uses A320-200s of subsidiary Edelweiss Air (WK/Zurich) for from Zurich to Amsterdam and Berlin Tegel now. Swiss will receive two additional A330-300s or a total of eleven aircraft as parent Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) has reallocated two of its own orders to Swiss. Swiss and Star Alliance partner EgyptAir (MS/Cairo) have started codesharing on the Swiss route linking Zurich and Cairo and the EgyptAir route linking Geneva and Cairo.

Carpatair (V3/Timisoara) has announced plans to add Berlin, Hamburg and Zurich to its network in 2009.

Tesis (UZ/Moscow Domodedovo) has not been taken over by Russian aviation fuel supplier TOAP that has blamed the credit crisis for the failure of the plan. It has then suspended operations with its two remaining B747-200F freighters on Oct 17.

Omskavia (N3/Omsk) has been granted bankruptcy protection and is considering its options that include a possible relaunch of operations. It had suspended operations at the end of Sep along with other AirUnion carriers Domodedovo Airlines (E3/Moscow Domodedovo), Kras Air (7B/Krasnoyarsk), Samara Airlines (E5/Samara) and Sibaviatrans (5M/Krasnoyarsk).

KD Avia (KD/Kaliningrad) is facing major financial difficulties but has managed to get a new loan from Bank St. Petersburg to continue operations. It has however given up its Kaliningrad-Vienna route.

MyAir (8I/Milan Orio al Serio) had declared its interest in bidding for Volareweb.com (VE/Milan Malpensa) before the carrier has been sold to CAI. It has returned an A320-200 to the lessor and replaced it by a MD-82 wet-leased from ItAli Airlines (9X/Pescara). MyAir has launched some new routes:
Brindisi-Rome Fiumicino: twice daily and Brindisi-Venice Marco Polo: 6x weekly. both CRJ-900 resuming on Dec 15
It has however terminated its routes from Bari to Bologna Marconi, Milan Orio al Serio and Sofia, from Bologna Marconi to Sofia and from Venice Marco Polo to Bordeaux already and will give up its Venice Marco Polo-Sofia route on Jan 11.

SkyEurope Airlines (NE/Bratislava) has received another 10 million EUR loan from Longstock SAPO, a Portuguese-Greek investment group, that is exploring a takeover bid for the carrier in the meantime. Longstock Financial Group has previously made investments in now defunct Portuguese carrier Aerocondor and Air Luxor. SkyEurope will give up its routes from Vienna to Milan Orio al Serio and Venice Treviso on Jan 4. It has entered into a strategic partnership with MyAir (8I/Milan Orio al Serio) that reportedly will mainly concentrate on sales and marketing strategies and joint purchase of with a possible closer integration between the carriers in a second phase.

Blue Wings (QW/Dusseldorf) will add three additional ex-jetBlue Airways (B6/New York JFK) A320-200s.

Farnair Switzerland (FAT/Basle/Mulhouse) will add another (tenth) ex-Islas Airways (IF/Tenerife Norte) ATR 72-200F freighter.

Norwegian (DY/Oslo Gardermoen) has announced a large amount of new routes and a base in Copenhagen after its codeshare partner Sterling Airlines had been forced to suspend operations:
Aalborg-Malaga: weekly B737-800 starting on Apr 4
Bergen-Las Palmas: weekly seasonal B737-800 has started on Nov 1
Copenhagen-Aalborg: 3x daily MD-83 has started on Nov 6 / -Alicante: 2x weekly MD-82 has started on Nov 15 / -Amsterdam: 6x weekly B737-300 starting on Apr 2 / -Budapest: 3x weekly B737-300/-800 starting on Mar 30 / -Edinburgh: 2x weekly B737-800 starting on Apr 3 / -Faro: weekly B737-300 starting on Apr 4 / -Heraklion: weekly seasonal B737-800 starting on May 2 / -Krakow: 3x weekly B737-300 starting on Apr 2 / -London Gatwick: 2x daily B737-300/-800 starting on Mar 29 / -Malaga: 3x weekly MD-82 has started on Nov 12 / -Nice: 2x weekly MD-82 has started on Nov 13 / -Palma de Mallorca: 2x weekly B737-800 starting on Apr 2 / -Paris Orly: 6x weekly B737-800 starting on Apr 2 / -Pisa: 2x weekly B737-300/-800 starting on Apr 4 / -Prague: 4x weekly B737-300 starting on Apr 3 / -Split: weekly seasonal B737-800 starting on May 2.
It has given up its routes from Stockholm Arlanda to Gothenburg Landvetter and Malmö and has temporarily suspended its Stockholm Arlanda-Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen route for the winter season.

Direktflyg (HS/Borlänge) has added an ex-Eastern Airways (T3/Humberside) Jetstream 32.

Corendon Airlines (CAI/Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen) has wet-leased both of its B737-400s to Sun Air (Sudan) (Khartoum) for the winter season.

Golden Air (DC/Trollhattan) has leased an ATR 72-500 from Aer Arann (RE/Dublin) that it operates on behalf of low-cost carrier Kullaflyg (Angelholm/Helsingborg).

Volareweb.com (VE/Milan Malpensa) has cut additional routes and now no longer operates to Alghero, Cagliari, Krakow, Timisoara, Valencia, Warsaw and Wroclaw from its Milan Malpensa base. Its only remaining routes are Malpensa-Brindisi, Malpensa-Lamezia Terme and Malpensa-Paris Orly.

On Air (Pescara) will add more routes to its summer timetable:
Bologna Marconi-Berlin Schoenefeld: 2x weekly seasonal A319-100 between Jul 10 and Sep 14 (operated by Hamburg International (4R/Hamburg Fuhlsbuettel))
Pescara-Berlin Schoenefeld: 2x weekly seasonal A319-100 between Apr 10 and Oct 12 (operated by Hamburg International)
Pescara-Catania: 2x weekly seasonal B737 between Jun 18 and Sep 20 (operated by Blue Air (Romania) (0B/Bucharest Baneasa)) / -Katowice: weekly seasonal A319-100 between Apr 10 and Sep 13 (operated by Hamburg Intl) / -Marrakech: weekly seasonal A319-100 between Sep 20 and Oct 11 (operated by Hamburg International) / -Palma de Mallorca: weekly seasonal A319-100 between Jul 22 and Sep 2 (operated by Hamburg International).
Pisa-Bucharest Baneasa: 3x weekly seasonal B737 between Apr 3 and Oct 23 (operated by Blue Air (Romania))

Air A!ps (A6/Innsbruck) has launched three times daily Do328-110 from Milan Malpensa to Trieste on Dec 1 and four times daily Parma-Rome Fiumcino on Dec 9.

Air Cargo Germany (Frankfurt Hahn) is a cargo start-up planning to start operations in early 2009 with two ex-China Airlines (CI/Taipei Intl) B747-400F freighters. It will operate cargo from Frankfurt Hahn to Asia and Russia.

Tarom (RO/Bucharest Otopeni) has leased two ex-Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) B737-800s. It is planning to add a third B737-800 in early 2009.

Iceland Express (Reykjavik Keflavik) will operate a weekly flight from Reykjavik Keflavik to Aalborg between Jun 1 and Aug 31. It will move its Reykjavik Keflavik-London route from Stansted to Gatwick on May 1.

Estonian Air (OV/Tallinn) has launched up to twice daily Saab 340 between Tallinn and Kuressaare. Estonian has suspended its Tallinn-Frankfurt Intl route for the winter season. It will also resume its Tallinn-Dublin and Tallinn-Hamburg Fuhlsbuettel routes next summer season. It has given up its Tallinn-Vienna route.

Ukraine Intl Airlines (PS/Kiev Borispol) has leased an ex-Hemus Air (DU/Sofia) B737-400. It is planning to buy back 6% of its own shares from an Irish investor.

Sun-Air (EZ/Billund) will launch twice daily Do328-110 from Billund to London City on Jan 19. The British Airways (BA/London Heathrow) franchisee has however given up its Brussels-Berne route on Oct 25.

Jetairfly (TB/Brussels) will launch twice weekly Brussels Charleroi-Djerba-Monastir-Brussels Charleroi triangle on Apr 3. It has already launched weekly Brussels Ntl-Taba service.

Binter Canarias (NT/Las Palmas) has given up its Las Palmas-Nouakchott, Mauretania route on Nov 10. <<<<<

Sterling Airlines (NB/Copenhagen Kastrup) has suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy on Oct 29 after its Icelandic parent Northern Travel Holding could no longer finance the loss making low-cost carrier. It had operated 20 B737s on scheduled servies out of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

LOT Polish Airlines (LO/Warsaw) has given up its Warsaw-Stuttgart route but is considering adding Belgrade, Dnepropetrovsk and Donetsk to its regional network in spring.

germanwings (4U/Cologne/Bonn) has announced additional new summer routes:
Berlin Schoenefeld-Dubrovnik: weekly seasonal A319-100 starting on May 3
Berlin Schoenefeld-Pula: 3x weekly seasonal A319-100 starting on May 5
Cologne/Bonn-Lourdes/Tarbes: 2x weekly seasonal A319-100 starting between May 18 and Jun 3
It has given up its routes from Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart to Malta and has temporarily suspended its Cologne/Bonn-Edinburgh route for the winter season.

DanubeWings (V5/Bratislava) will add a second ex-Aer Arann (EI/Dublin) ATR 72-200 and is planning to launch scheduled between Bratislava and Poprad in January. It is reportedly also considering adding summer routes from Poprad to Bologna and Split.

Skyways Express (JZ/Stockholm Arlanda) will terminate its Stockholm Arlanda-Trollhattan route on Dec 19.

Cirrus Airlines (C9/Munich) will give up its recently added Mannheim-Munich route on Dec 23.

Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt) will give up its Hamburg Fuhlsbuettel-Budapest and Hamburg Fuhlsbuettel-London City routes on Dec 19 and its Munich-Bratislava route on Jan 12.

Ryanair (FR/Dublin) will resume its routes from Alicante and Girona to Maastricht on Mar 31. It will also launch twice weekly B737-800 between Trapani and Malta on Feb 5. Ryanair will however give up its Bremen-Budapest and Frankfurt Hahn-Budapest routes on Jan 20 and its London Stansted-Nantes route on Mar 28 and not resume its seasonal from Bristol, Gothenburg City, Liverpool, Nottingham and Stockholm Skavsta to Salzburg this winter season.

Amsterdam Airlines (AAN/Amsterdam) has now launched own charter out of the Netherlands.

Helvetic Airways (2L/Zurich) will resume scheduled next summer season:
Zurich-Brindisi: 2x weekly Fokker 100 starting on Apr 5 / -Jerez de la Frontera: 2x weekly Fokker 100 starting on May 16 / -Ohrid: weekly Fokker 100 starting on Dec 24 / -Olbia: weekly Fokker 100 starting on Apr 11 / -Skopje: 2x weekly Fokker 100 starting on Dec 25.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) has proposed to the Estonian government to take majority control of Estonian Air (OV/Tallinn) and wants to increase its stake in the carrier from 49 to 83 percent. It has taken delivery of its first CRJ-900. It will resume twice weekly seasonal B737-800 between Stockholm Arlanda and Malta on Apr 2. However, SAS has given up its Stockholm Arlanda-Ornskoldsvik route on Dec 14 and has temporarily suspended its Copenhagen-Pristina and Copenhagen-Venice Marco Polo routes for the winter season. Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) has publicly announced it has given up takeover talks with SAS Scandinavian Airlines.

LTE Intl Airways (XO/Palma de Mallorca) has been forced to suspend scheduled and charter operations on Oct 17 because of financial difficulties. It has continued limited ACMI operations on behalf of other carriers until Nov 15 when it finally suspended all operations with its A320-200 fleet.

Flybe. (BE/Exeter) is reportedly interested in bmibaby (WW/Nottingham) and bmi regional (II/Aberdeen) should new bmi majority owner Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) put the carriers up for sale. It has announced new routes for the upcoming summer season:
Jersey-Dundee: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 between May 2 and Sep 19 / -Inverness: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 between May 23 and Sep 19 / -Manston: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 between May 9 and Sep 19.
London Gatwick-Newquay: 3x daily Dash 8-400 starting on Feb 15
Southampton-Dubrovnik: weekly seasonal EMB-195 between May 3 and Oct 4 / -Split: weekly seasonal EMB-195 between May 2 and Oct 3.
It will give up its Norwich base on Mar 27 and as a result cancel its Norwich-Dublin route. It will continue to serve Norwich from Edinburgh and Manchester. It has already given up its Norwich-Jersey and Norwich-Paris CDG routes.

Cimber Air (QI/Sonderborg) has acquired some of the assets of bankrupt Sterling Airlines and is planning to resume limited operations with two B737s that will operate on behalf of Cimber Air on domestic from Copenhagen to Aalborg and Karup on a wet-lease basis. It is planning to add additional B737s later for to European destinations. Cimber has launched six times weekly CRJ-200 from Billund to London Gatwick replacing Sterling on the route.

Air Moldova (9U/Chisinau) is supposed to be privatized by the Moldovian government in 2009.

Atlant-Soyuz Airlines (7B/Moscow Chkalovskaya) has not been able to take over the majority of AirUnion routes because of a lack of suitable aircraft. It is unclear how many aircraft have actually been transferred from failed AirUnion carriers Domodedovo Airlines, Kras Air and Samara Airlines but the number is expected to be very small so far including three B757-200s and one B767-200ER. Atlant-Soyuz has leased two ex-XL Airways UK B737-800s. It will launch some former AirUnion routes now and has adopted the 7B carrier code from defunct Kras Air:
Krasnoyarsk-Beijing: 2x weekly Tu-154M starting on Dec 15 / -Dushanbe: 2x weekly Tu-154M starting on Dec 23
 / -Irkutsk-Yakutsk: 2x weekly Tu-154M starting on Jan 5 / -Khudzhand: weekly Tu-154M starting on Dec 23 / -Norilsk: 6x weekly Tu-154M (al already launched) / -Vladivostok: weekly Tu-154M starting on Dec 29 / -Yuzhno Sakhalinsk-Vladivostok: weekly Tu-154M starting on Dec 26.
Moscow Vnukovo-Athens: 2x weekly B737-300 starting on Mar 18 / -Blagoveschensk: 3x weekly B757-200 starting on Dec 22 / -Bukhara: weekly B737-300 (al) / -Dushanbe: 2x daily Tu-154M (al) / -Fergana: weekly B737-300 (al) / -Grodno: 4x weekly EMB-120 (al) / -Gyandzha: weekly B737-300 (al) / -Ivanovo: 2x daily EMB-120 (al) / -Khabarovsk: 4x weekly B757-200 starting on Dec 21 / -Krasnoyarsk: daily Tu-154M (al) / -Norilsk: weekly Tu-154M (al) / -Omsk: 6x weekly B737-300 starting on Dec 21 / -Salzburg: 2x weekly B737-300 starting on Dec 20 / -Samarkand: 2x weekly B737-300 (al already launched) / -Tashkent: 6x weekly B737-300 starting on Dec 20 / -Tomsk: 6x weekly B737-300 starting on Dec 21 / -Yakutsk: 3x weekly B757-200 starting on Dec 21.
Samara-Baku: weekly Tu-154M starting on Dec 24 / -Dushanbe: 2x weekly Tu-154M starting on Dec 23 / -Yerevan: weekly Tu-154M starting on Dec 28.
It is also planning to resume previous AirUnion from Moscow Vnukovo to Beijing, Kazan and Tivat.

Rosavia (Moscow Vnukovo) has been registered in Nov as a joint venture between Rostekhnologii and the Moscow government. The company is planning to operate with three divisions in Eastern, Central and Western Russia and is supposed to become a major competitor for Aeroflot (SU/Moscow Sheremetyevo) although exact details of its launch plans are not yet known. The new carrier is expected to be based on or operating in cooperation with Moscow government owned Atlant-Soyuz Airlines (3G/Moscow Chkalovskaya) and include some of the assets of failed AirUnion carriers Domodedovo Airlines, Kras Air and Samara Airlines as well as Dalavia that have all suspended operations at the end of September. KMV - Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody (KV/Mineralnye Vody), Orenburg Airlines (R2/Orenburg), Rossiya (FV/St. Petersburg), Saravia (6W/Saratov) and Vladivostok Air (XF/Vladivostok) are also expected to be taken over by the new carrier although no final agreement has been reached yet on funding and the merger of the carriers. The carriers main base will be Moscow Vnukovo with additional main hubs in Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk and St. Petersburg.

UTair (UT/Khanty-Mansiysk) has launched three times weekly B737-500 from Moscow Vnukovo to Baku on Dec 9. UTair has started codesharing with Rossiya (FV/St. Petersburg) on Rossiya between St. Petersburg and Ufa. UTair is considering setting up a subsidiary in Ukraine using several ATR aircraft operating domestic services.

Icelandair (FI/Reykjavik Keflavik) will combine its seasonal summer to Bergen with Stavanger this summer season and operate a twice weekly triangle from Reykjavik Keflavik via Bergen and Stavanger back to Iceland between Jun 2 and Aug 30. It will however give up its Reykjavik Keflavik-Orlando Sanford route on May 1. It has already suspended its Reykjavik Keflavik-Glasgow Intl route on Dec 1. Icelandair has wet-leased a B757-200 to Med-View Airline (Kano) for the Hajj season and another B757-200 to SBA Airlines (S3/Maracaibo). It will also dry-lease a third B757-200 to Yakutia Airlines (R3/Yakutsk).

Turkish Airlines (TK/Istanbul Ataturk) will wet-lease three B777-300ERs from Jet Airways (9W/Mumbai) for six months, has announced plans for an order of additional 105 Airbus and/or Boeing aircraft (70 shorthaul and 35 longhaul aircraft) and will continue with its network expansion plan:
Istanbul Ataturk-Dakar-Sao Paulo Guarulhos: 2x weekly A340-300 starting on Mar 29 / -Lviv: 3x weekly B737-800 starting on Apr 20 / -Nairobi Intl: 3x weekly A310-300 starting on Apr 6 / -Ufa: 3x weekly A319-100 starting on Mar 15.
It has also announced plans to add Gothenburg Landvetter and Mashad to its network in 2009. THY has started codesharing with its Star Alliance partner United Airlines (UA/Chicago) on a variety of Europe-US and domestic US routes.

Futura Intl Airways (FH/Palma de Mallorca) has lost its air operator certificate on Sep 22 and plans to resume operations have been put on hold. Its cargo subsidiary FlyAnt (FYA/Vitoria) had continued limited operations using the AOCs of customers Agroar Carga Aérea (GRR/Evora) and Air One (AP/Rome Fiumicino) but has now also suspended all operations.

Dniproavia (Z6/Dnepropetrovsk) has added a second ex-Thomsonfly B737-300 and is planning to lease two additional B767-300ER to start longhaul to China and South East Asia. It now already operates ten ex-Flybe. (BE/Exeter) ERJ-145s.

Clickair (XG/Barcelona) will launch some new routes in 2009:
Barcelona-Paris Orly: 5x daily A320-200 starting on Mar 29 (replacing parent Iberia (IB/Madrid))
Bilbao-Menorca: 3x weekly seasonal A320-200 between Jun 2 and Sep 15 / -Palma de Mallorca: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 29.
It has given up its Barcelona-Edinburgh/Fuerteventura/Lanzarote/Moscow Domodedovo/Nador/Porto/Tangiers/Tel Aviv Ben Gurion, Valencia-London Heathrow and Vigo-London Gatwick routes and has suspended its from Barcelona to Dubrovnik, Malta, Verona and Vienna for the winter season as part of a cost cutting programme that includes a cut of its fleet by seven A320-200s.

S7 Airlines (S7/Novosibirsk) has phased out its remaining Il-86s and Tu-154Ms on Nov 17 and wil cut up to 1600 staff as a result of its cost cutting plan. It has leased a third and fourth ex-Air Europa (UX/Palma de Mallorca) and ex-Delta Air Lines (DL/Atlanta) B767-300ER. S7 has signed a cooperation agreement with Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) and Niki (HG/Vienna) that will include a codeshare agreement on all routes between Germany/Austria and Russia flown by the three carriers. It has also entered into a bilateral codeshare agreement with AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines (J2/Baku) for the Moscow Domodedovo-Baku route and started codesharing on UTair (P2/Khanty-Mansiysk) routes from Moscow Domodedovo to Ufa and from Moscow Vnukovo to Astrakhan and Nizhnevartovsk. It has retired its last B737-500 in early Oct but has added a first ex-Adam Air B737-400 instead. S7 has resume weekly A320-200 from Novosibirsk to Bishkek on Nov 20. It has given up plans for a new Moscow Domodedovo-Bangkok Suvarnabhumi route following the airport blockade in Bangkok last month. In addition, it has also given up its Moscow Domodedovo-Ashgabat route on Nov 21.

Luxair (LG/Luxembourg) has ordered a fifth Dash 8-400 and a single B737-800 to replace an ERJ-145 and B737-500 in 2010. It will launch weekly ERJ-145 from Luxembourg to Palermo on Apr 4. In other news, it has extended its codeshare agreement with Austrian Airlines (OS/Vienna) to include connections for its Luxembourg-Vienna passengers via the Austrian hub in Vienna to Eastern Europe. It has given up its direct one-stop Saarbrücken-London City and Saarbrücken-Rome Fiumicino routes.

Transaero Airlines (UN/Moscow Domodedovo) has announced it is considering placing an order for six A350XWBs and continues its network expansion:
Moscow Domodedovo-Goa: 4x weekly B747-200 (already launched) / -Krasnoyarsk: 2x weekly B737-300 starting on Dec 27
 / -Tomsk: daily B737-500 has started on Oct 26.
It has however given up its St. Petersburg-Ekaterinburg route again already.

Ural Airlines (U6/Ekaterinburg) will add three additional ex-Clickair (XG/Barcelona) and ex-Thomas Cook Airlines UK (MT/Manchester) A320-200s and has announced several new services:
Ekaterinburg-Munich: weekly A320-200 resuming on Dec 27 / -Novosibirsk-Khabarovsk: 2x weekly A320-200/Tu-154M (already launched) / -Paris CDG: weekly A320-200 resuming on Dec 28.
Moscow Domodedovo-Baikonur: 2x weekly Tu-154M (already launched)
Ural has also announced plans to add London, Magadan and Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky to its network in 2009.

13.12.2008

Yamal Airlines (YC/Salekhard) has added a fifth ex-Adam Air B737-500. It will launch weekly B737-500 between Tyumen and Prague on Dec 18.

MK Airlines (7G/London Gatwick) has added two ex-Orient Thai Airlines (OX/Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) B747-200F freighters.

Blue Line (4Y/Paris CDG) will add two ex-Biman Bangladesh (BG/Dhaka) and ex-MAP Jet (MPJ/Vienna) A310-300s to its fleet.

Eurofly (GJ/Milan Malpensa) will introduce additional new routes:
Milan Malpensa-Tel Aviv Ben Gurion: weekly A320-200 starting on Dec 17
Rome Fiumicino-Tel Aviv Ben Gurion: weekly A320-200 starting on Feb 25
Verona-Tel Aviv Ben Gurion: weekly A320-200 starting on Feb 26
It has moved its Milan-Chisinau route from Malpensa to Orio al Serio. Eurofly will add two ex-XL Airways France (SE/Paris CDG) A320-200s.

Lufthansa Italia (Milan Malpensa) has been founded as a 100% subsidiary of Lufthansa replacing earlier plans to have Air Dolomiti (EN/Trieste) operate A319-100s out of Milan Malpensa. Lufthansa Italia will start operations in Feb with six ex-germanwings (4U/Cologne/Bonn) A319-100s:
Milan Malpensa-Barcelona: 3x daily A319-100 starting on Feb 2 / -Brussels Ntl: 2x daily A319-100 starting on Mar 2  / -Bucharest Otopeni: daily A319-100 starting on Mar 2 / -Budapest: 6x weekly A319-100 starting on Mar 2 / -Lisbon: daily A319-100 starting on Mar 29 / -London Heathrow: 4x daily A319-100 starting on Mar 29 / -Madrid: 2x daily A319-100 starting on Mar 2 / -Paris CDG: 3x daily A319-100 starting on Feb 2.

TUIfly (Germany) (X3/Hanover) has given up its Cologne/Bonn-Bilbao and Hanover-Valencia routes on Oct 30 and has temporarily suspended its Hanover-Palermo and Stuttgart-Valencia until Apr 1. In addition, it will also give up its Hanover-Manchester route on Jan 20.

Wizz Air Ukraine (WU/Kiev Borispol) has announced a major international network expansion:
Kiev Borispol-Cologne/Bonn: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on Jan 3 / -Dortmund: 4x weekly A320-200 starting on Jan 4 / -Katowice: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on Jan 3 / -London Luton: 4x weekly A320-200 starting on Dec 17 / -Oslo Torp: 2x weekly A320-200 starting on Jan 5.
Lviv-Dortmund: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on Jan 3 / -London Luton: 4x weekly A320-200 starting on Jan 4.
It has however given up its Kiev Borispol-Odessa route and has not launched routes from Kiev to Kharkov and Zaporozhye that it had announced earlier.

Niki (HG/Vienna) will launch several new seasonal routes next summer season:
Graz-Heraklion: weekly A320-200 starting on May 15 / -Las Palmas-Tenerife Sur: weekly A320-200 starting on May 6 /
-Linz-Ibiza: weekly A320-200 starting on Jun 9.
Vienna-Reykjavik Keflavik: weekly A321-200 starting on Jun 16

AnadoluJet (Ankara) has leased a first ex-SkyEurope Airlines (NE/Bratislava) B737-700, an ex-XL Airways UK B737-800 and will add another ex-SkyEurope B737-700 soon. AnadoluJet will also lease both B737-700s currently operating for Astraeus (5W/London Gatwick).It will use the aircraft to replace three B737-400s.

Aegean Airlines (A3/Athens) continues with its aggressive expansion plans:
Athens-Barcelona: 5x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 29 / -Berlin Tegel: 6x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 29 / -Brussels Ntl: daily A320-200 starting on Mar 29 / -Paris CDG: daily A321-200 has started on Nov 12 / -Venice Marco Polo: 3x weekly seasonal ARJ-100 between Jun 6 and Sep 19 / -Vienna: 5x weekly A320-200/ARJ-100 starting on Mar 29.
Aegean has also entered into a codeshare agreement with Brussels Airlines (SN/Brussels) for the Athens-Brussels Ntl route and has announced plans for new routes to Istanbul Ataturk and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion once it secures the necessary traffic rights.

Bilga Air (Birmingham) has given up plans to launch a Birmingham-Amritsar operation.

Vueling Airlines (VY/Barcelona) has launched four times weekly A320-200 between Seville and Tenerife Norte. It will terminate its Madrid-Milan Malpensa on Jan 11 and has already given up its routes from Granada to Paris CDG and Rome Fiumicino and from Madrid to Malta. It has also temporarily suspended its Malaga-Paris CDG route until Mar 29. It has leased a third A320-200 to Air Arabia (G9/Sharjah).

Windjet (IV/Catania) has added three ex-Spirit Airlines (NK/Fort Lauderdale) A319-100s and will expand its presence at Bologna Forli next summer season and base an A319-100 at the airport to launch a variety of new routes:
Bologna Forli-Amsterdam: 2x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Barcelona: 2x weekly seasonal between Jun 20 and Sep 26 / -Berlin Tegel: 2x weekly starting on Mar 29 / -Brussels Ntl: 2x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Cagliari: 6x weekly starting on Mar 29 / -Krakow: 2x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Lampedusa: weekly starting on Mar 29 / -Naples: 6x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Paris CDG: 2x weekly starting on Apr 1 / -Prague: 2x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Riga: weekly starting on Jun 10 / -Timisoara: 2x weekly starting on Mar 30.
Palermo-Turin: 5x weekly A320-200 (already launched)
It has also announced plans for a twice weekly route linking Forli and Olbia during vacation months.

Austrojet (AUJ/Salzburg) has given up all of its scheduled at the end of Oct and will concentrate on charter and ACMI again going forward.

Fly Globespan (Y2/Edinburgh) has wet-leased a B767-300ER to Garuda Indonesia (GA/Jakarta Intl) for the Hajj season. It will retire its two B737-300s in Feb and return the aircraft to the lessor. It has temporarily remarked its single B737-600 for the winter season but will use the aircraft again as of Apr to operate charter out of Bournemouth on behalf of tour operator Palmair. Fly Globespan will add an ex-Zoom Airlines B767-300ER next summer. It will temporarily suspend its Edinburgh-Barcelona route from Dec 21 until May 1. It has also not launched its previously announced Aberdeen-Sharm el Sheikh route.

United Intl Airlines (UIL/Belgrade) has wet-leased a second An-12 freighter to SriLankan Airlines (UL/Colombo Intl).

TAP Portugal (TP/Lisbon) has announced it will launch five times weekly A320-200 from Lisbon to Helsinki, Moscow and Warsaw next summer season but has yet to put the flights on sale. It has cancelled an order for additional eight A320-200s. It has already given up its from Lisbon to Clermont-Ferrand.

Armavia (U8/Yerevan) is planning to lease a first A321-200 and has announced several new services:
Yerevan-Berlin Tegel: 2x weekly A319-100 starting on Apr 14 / -Zurich: 3x weekly A319-100 starting on Mar 30.
It has given up its Yerevan-Dusseldorf Intl route at the end of October. Armavia plans to use Yerevan as a transit hub for from Europe and Russia to Central Asia and Iran and wants to lease two CRJs for regional services. It has also announced plans to add Tehran as its first Iranian destination in 2009.

City Airline (CF/Gothenburg Landvetter) has announced two new routes from its Gothenburg base:
Gothenburg Landvetter-Nice: 3x weekly ERJ-145 starting on Mar 12 / -Sundsvall: 2x daily ERJ-145 starting on Jan 25.

Air Express Sweden (AEQ/Stockholm Arlanda) has now wet-leased its remaining two Saab 2000s to Blue 1 (KF/Helsinki) for its routes from Tampere and Vaasa to Stockholm Arlanda. Both aircraft have previously been operated on behalf of Skyways Express (JZ/Stockholm Arlanda).

CSA Czech Airlines (OK/Prague) and Ural Airlines (U6/Ekaterinburg) have entered into a reciprocal codeshare agreement for the Prague-Ekaterinburg route that both carriers serve. CSA will give up its Prague-Dublin route on Mar 20.

SAS Norge (BU/Oslo Gardermoen) will not resume its seasonal routes from Oslo Gardermoen to Athens, Bilbao, Chania, Funchal, Ibiza, Lisbon, Malta, Naples and Seville next summer season and give up its Oslo Gardermoen-Berlin Tegel route on Dec 22 and its Oslo Gardermoen-Tenerife Sur route on Mar 22. It will launch twice weekly seasonal B737-700 from Oslo Gardermoen to Innsbruck on Dec 26. SAS Norge has added another ex-SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK/Copenhagen Kastrup) B737-800.

InterSky (3L/Friedrichshafen) will launch weekly seasonal Dash 8-300 from Friedrichshafen to Pula on May 2.

Wizz Air (W6/Budapest) has announced several new routes:
Bucharest Baneasa-Bologna Marconi: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 3 / -Madrid: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 3 / -Paris Beauvais: 4x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 1. 
Budapest-Barcelona: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 31 / -Madrid: 4x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 29 / -Naples: 2x weekly A320-200 starting on Mar 29 / -Oslo Torp: 2x weekly A320-200 resuming on Mar 31.
Cluj-Bologna Marconi: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on May 2 / -Madrid: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on May 2 / -Venice Treviso: 3x weekly A320-200 starting on May 2.
It has moved its Warsaw-Rome route from Ciampino to Fiumicino and will also move its Katowice-Girona and Sofia-Girona routes to Barcelona on Jan 14. Wizz Air has advanced the launch of its new base in Timisoara from Mar 11 to Feb 15 but has given up its Katowice-London Stansted, Warsaw-Belfast Intl and Wroclaw-Doncaster/Sheffield routes. It has announced its interest to open a base in Belgrade if the Serbian government is willing to grant the necesssary traffic rights for to EU countries.

Hamburg Intl (4R/Hamburg) will launch weekly A319-100 from Friedrichshafen to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion on Jul 13. <<

Atlantic Airways (RC/Faroe Islands) is planning an initial public offering at the Copenhagen stock exchange.  <<

Arke Fly (OR/Amsterdam) has announced two new seasonal summer routes to Greece:
Amsterdam-Mytilene: weekly B737-800 starting on Apr 28 / -Samos: 2x weekly B737-800 starting on Apr 24. 
It will give up its Amsterdam-Sint Maarten route on Dec 28.  <<<

Monarch Airlines (ZB/London Luton) has wet-leased an A300-600R to Egyptair (MS/Cairo) for the Hajj season and its B767-300ER to Air Méditerranée (BIE/Lourdes/Tarbes). It has added an additional ex-easyJet (U2/London Luton) A321-200 to its fleet. It has suspended its Birmingham-Almeria/Murcia/Palma de Mallorca, London Luton-Almeria/Faro/Las Palmas and Manchester-Menorca/Palma de Mallorca for the winter season.

Germania (ST/Berlin Tegel) has cancelled the majority of its new scheduled routes ahead of their planned launch. It has given up plans for new routes from Basle/Mulhouse to Bari, from Berlin Tegel to Athens and Memmingen, from Dusseldorf Intl to Athens, Bari and Memmingen and from Memmingen to Catania and Palma de Mallorca. As a result, Germania has also decided to phase out its entire Fokker 100 fleet. In more positive news, it has recently launched a weekly B737-300 from Dusseldorf to Skopje.

Rusline (RLU/Moscow Sheremetyevo) has launched weekly CRJ-100 from Moscow Vnukovo to Nazran.

Transavia Airlines (HV/Amsterdam) has announced it will make use of the void left by the bankruptcy of Sterling Airlines by establishing a new base in Copenhagen:
Amsterdam-Ibiza: 4x weekly B737-700 starting on Apr 10
Copenhagen-Alicante: 3x weekly B737-800 starting on Dec 9 / -Barcelona: 4x weekly B737-800 starting on Dec 8 / -Faro: 2x weekly B737-800 starting on Dec 13 / -Las Palmas: 2x weekly B737-800 starting on Dec 15 / -Malaga: 5x weekly B737-800 starting on Dec 8 / -Nice: 5x weekly B737-800 starting on Dec 14 / -Rome Fiumicino: 4x weekly B737-800 starting on Dec 11 / -Salzburg: weekly seasonal B737-800 starting on Dec 13 / -Tenerife Sur: 2x weekly B737-800 starting on Dec 14.
Transavia has also based a B737-800 in Billund to operate charter on behalf of a Danish tour operator. It has however given up its Amsterdam-Bergerac route on Nov 16 and will terminate its Amsterdam-Milan Orio al Serio on Jan 31. Transavia has wet-leased a total of five B737-800s to Sunwing Airlines (0A/Toronto Pearson) this winter season.

Iberia (IB/Madrid) has reportedly placed an unconfirmed order for five A330-200s. It has entered into a codeshare agreement with PLUNA (PU/Montevideo) to offer its passengers connections from Montevideo to Asuncion. It has also announced new regional routes:
Barcelona-Ciudad Real: daily CRJ-200/Dash 8-300 operated by Air Nostrum (YW/Valencia) (already launched)
Ciudad Real-Las Palmas: 2x weekly CRJ-200 operated by Air Nostrum (already launched)
Madrid-Bari: 4x weekly seasonal CRJ-900 between Jul 24 and Sep 5 operated by Air Nostrum
Iberia has given up its Madrid-Gibraltar route on Sep 28. It has retired its last MD-88s by the end of October.

Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino) is now expected to be finally relaunched as a new company based on Compagnia Aerea Italiana and merged with Air One (AP/Rome Fiumicino) on Jan 12 with a total fleet of 148 aircraft. CAI presented a final offer in early Nov after lengthy negotiations with Italian trade unions. It has received a 1.1 billion EUR investment from 16 investors to allow it to take over Air One, Air One CityLiner (CYL/Rome Fiumicino), Alitalia, Alitalia Express (XM/Rome Fiumicino) and low-cost carrier Volareweb.com (VE/Milan Malpensa) and the debts of all carriers. Air One and its CityLiner regional division have already been acquired by CAI for 300 million EUR and will continue to operate as a separate carrier operating in close cooperation with the new Alitalia for now. The fate of the Alitalia cargo division is still unclear although several bids have been received to take over the division and its assets, cargo flights to Atlanta, Cairo, Chennai, Miami, New York JFK and Tripoli have been suspended already and two of five MD-11Fs have been withdrawn from service. Air France-KLM (AF/Paris CDG) and Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) reportedly are still considering taking minority stakes in CAI although Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi still seems to be fighting against any possible foreign investors in CAI.
In addition to the network cuts summarized below, Alitalia has also temporarily suspended some flights with weak demand between Nov and early January. In early November, it has given up its routes from Milan Malpensa to Amsterdam, Belgrade, Bilbao, Naples (Air One continues to operate on the route), Prague, Stuttgart and Trieste, from Rome Fiumicino to Berlin Tegel, Dubai, Lisbon, Los Angeles, Malaga, Thessaloniki, Valencia, Vienna and Zurich as well as from Venice Marco Polo to Cagliari and Naples. In the meantime it has also given up its routes from Milan Malpensa to Catania and Palermo although Air One continues to operate Malpensa-Palermo services. Alitalia has also not launched its planned Rome Fiumicino-Dakar route. Air One will give up its Catania-Naples-Zurich and its routes from Milan Malpensa to Berlin Tegel, Brussels Ntl, Chicago O’Hare and Thessaloniki, from Naples to Trieste and from Rome Fiumicino to Brussels Ntl, Copenhagen and Trieste on January12. Air One will continue to operate twice daily Naples-Catania service, while Alitalia will operate Rome Fiumicino-Brussels Ntl and Rome Fiumicino-Trieste flights. Air One will wet-lease Volareweb.com A320-200s for some of its from Milan Malpensa as of Jan 12 while Alitalia Express will ground its entire ATR-72 and ERJ-145 fleet by then. Alitalia has already withdrawn eight MD-82s and two B767-300ERs from and is expected to permanently ground additional MD-82 aircraft in January. Air One has meanwhile confirmed an order for additional A320-200s.

Denim Air (3D/Amsterdam) now already wet-leases a total of six turboprops to Arik Air (W3/Lagos), three Dash 8-300s and three Fokker 50s.

British Airways (BA/London Heathrow) has confirmed that it is in talks with oneworld partner Qantas (QF/Sydney) about a merger using a dual-company structure. Qantas has faced a lot of criticism in Australia in response to the announcement. It is unclear how Iberia (IB/Madrid) would fit into the picture if the BA/Qantas merger would go ahead. Reportedly, Cathay Pacific (CX/Hong Kong) has been considering a takeover bid for British Airways earlier this fall as well. It seems that there definitely is some consolidation on the horizon for oneworld carriers with an unknown ending so far. British Airways has also again declared its interest in a commercial alliance with the new Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino). It has announced new routes for 2009:
London Gatwick-Antigua-St. Kitts: weekly B777-200ER starting on Jan 10
London Heathrow-Atlanta: daily B777-200ER starting on Mar 29 (replacing route from Gatwick) / -Jeddah: 5x weekly B767-300ER servie resuming on Mar 29 / -Riyadh: 5x weekly B777-200ER resuming on Mar 29 / -Toulouse: 2x daily A319-100/A320-200/A321-200 starting on Mar 29 (replacing route from Gatwick). 
BA has suspended its London Heathrow-Islamabad on Sep 21 following a major bomb blast at the local Marriott hotel. It will give up its routes from London Gatwick to Dublin, Geneva and Zurich and London Heathrow to Dhaka and Kolkata on Mar 28. It will not replace four B737s being retired at Gatwick and has announced 100 job cuts as a result.

 

10 Dec Athens Airport Closed (Newsnow.co.uk)

Athens International airport is currently closed to all flights, as a one-day strike grips the Greek capital.
The strike comes after three days of rioting in Athens, following the shooting of a teenager in the capital on Saturday. The city’s bus, metro and suburban rail systems have also been disrupted by the strike.
A quick look at the website for Athen airport shows all arrivals cancelled, although there is no official statement from the airport authorities on the website.  For more information visit athensairport-2001.gr.

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09 Dec CH-Aviation updates for 7th and 8th December

08.12.2008

Travel Service Airlines (QS/Prague) has wet-leased a B767-300ER from parent Icelandair (FI/Reykjavik Keflavik) to operate longhaul charter services from Billund and Copenhagen to Phuket and Porlamar and from Prague to Bangkok and Varadero. It has wet-leased two B737-800s to Indochina Airlines (VP/Ho Chi Minh City) to launch low-cost operations in Vietnam. It has also wet-leased a second B737-800 to Wind Rose Aviation (7W/Kiev Borispol). Icelandair has sold 14% in Travel Service to Unimex Group and Travel Service CEO Roman Vik. It still owns 66% of the Czech carrier.

Hellenic Imperial Airways (IMP/Athens) has been grounded by the Greek civil aviation authority for three months. As a result, it has been forced to suspend planned Hajj operations on behalf of Air Niamey (AW/Niamey), Med-View Airline (Kano) and Meridian Airlines (MHL/Kano) between Africa and Jeddah.

OLT - Ostfriesische Lufttransport (OL/Emden) has wet-leased a Fokker 100 from Germania (ST/Berlin Tegel) and has launched weekly scheduled Fokker 100 between Hamburg and Toulouse.

Eastern Airways (T3/Humberside) will launch 6x weekly Saab 2000 between Aberdeen and Oslo Gardermoen on Jan 12. Eastern has added two additional Saab 2000s to its fleet as it will receive slots to launch a eight times daily between London City and Amsterdam as part of a deal to allow Air France-KLM (AF/Paris CDG) to take control of VLM (VG/Antwerp). It has given up its Manchester-London Stansted route on Nov 28.

Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) has terminated schedules services operated by its dba (DI/Munich) subsidiary earlier than planned in mid-Nov following a warning strike by its pilot union. The carrier has now been fully integrated into Air Berlin earlier this month. Air Berlin has announced new services for the upcoming summer timetable:
Berlin Tegel-Naples: weekly seasonal B737-800 starting on May 2
Bremen-Las Palmas: weekly B737-800 (already launched)
Dusseldorf Intl-Jersey: weekly seasonal Dash 8-400 starting on May 16 operated by LGW - Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter (HE/Dortmund)
Dusseldorf Intl to: -Los Angeles: 3x weekly A330-200 resuming on May 4 / Dusseldorf Intl-New York JFK: daily A330-200 resuming on Apr 3 / Dusseldorf Intl-Venice Marco Polo: 6x weekly B737-700 starting on May 1.
Frankfurt Intl-Las Palmas: weekly B737-800 (already launched)
Hamburg-Helsinki: 6x weekly A319-100/B737-700 starting on May 1 / Hamburg-Santa Cruz de La Palma: weekly A321-200 (already launched).
Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden-Palma de Mallorca: daily A320-200 starting on Apr 3
Muenster/Osnabrueck-Fuerteventura: weekly B737-800 already launched on Nov 1
Zurich-Jerez de la Frontera: weekly A320-200 starting on May 1 / Zurich-Lamezia Terme: weekly B737-800 starting on Apr 26.
It has temporarily suspended its Amsterdam-Palma de Mallorca route until Apr 3. Air Berlin has given up its Basle/Mulhouse-Djerba, Basle/Mulhouse-Fuerteventura, Cologne/Bonn-Alicante, Dusseldorf Intl-Istanbul Ataturk, Hanover-Alicante, Muenster/Osnabrueck-Alicante, Munich-Athens and Munich-Paris Orly routes.

07.12.2008

New Axis Airways (9X/Marseilles) will give up its nightly cargo operations with its single B737-300QC and is planning to replace it with a second B737-400 in early 2009. It is also considering adding a B737-800 to its fleet next year. It has given up plans for a new Marseilles-Casablanca route.

Open Skies (EC/London Heathrow) has put expansion plans on hold for 2009 and will concentrate on the integration of its LAvion (A0/Paris Orly) subsidiary instead. LAvion has put its code on both daily Open Skies services from Amsterdam and Paris Orly to New York JFK. The two carriers will be merged in early 2009 using the French AOC.

West Atlantic (Gothenburg City) will be the new carrier that is currently being formed through a merger of West Air Sweden (PT/Gothenburg City), West Air Europe (WLX/Luxembourg) and Atlantic Airlines (UK) (NPT/Coventry). The merger will create one of the biggest cargo carriers in Europe that will operate 35 BAe ATPs, six Lockheed Electras, two CRJ-200s, one ATR 72-200 and one BAe 146-200.

Aer Lingus (EI/Dublin) has announced another cost cutting programme that will include the closure of cabin crew bases in London Heathrow and Shannon, frequency cuts on longhaul services including the grounding of one A330 and up to 1500 job cuts, also because of the outsourcing of ground operations. It will introduce flights on several new citypairs in 2009:
Cork-Lisbon: 3x weekly starting on Apr 28 and -Rennes: 2x weekly starting on Apr 28
Dublin-Catania: weekly starting on Mar 29 and -Newcastle: daily (already resumed on Oct 26).  All A320-200.
It has however given up its Dublin-Riga route at the end of the summer season.

Transavia France (TO/Paris Orly) has secured another ex-Delta Air Lines (DL/Atlanta) B737-800 delivery slot but has given up its Paris Orly-Ouarzazate route.

TUIfly (Germany) (X3/Hanover) , Condor (DE/Frankfurt Intl), Eurowings (EW/Dortmund) and germanwings (4U/Cologne/Bonn) have officially given up merger talks and similar talks between TUIfly and Air Berlin (AB/Berlin Tegel) have also collapsed. TUIfly has announced some new routes:
Frankfurt Intl-Larnaca-Paphos: weekly B737-800 (already launched)
Leipzig/Halle-Rijeka: weekly seasonal B737-700 starting on Jun 20
Memmingen-Calvi: weekly seasonal B737-700 starting on May 21 / Memmingen-Rijeka: weekly seasonal B737-700 starting on May 23.
It will give up its Hanover-Rome Ciampino and Stuttgart-Pisa routes on Jan 10 and has already terminated its Dusseldorf Intl-Naples and Hanover-Paris Orly routes. TUIfly will now also not resume its Berlin Tegel-Palermo and Hanover-Pisa services next summer season.

Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt) will get 80% majority control of its Star Alliance partner bmi british midland (BD/Nottingham) and its bmi regional (II/Aberdeen) and bmibaby (WW/Nottingham) subsidiaries in early 2009 after Sir Michael Bishop has exercised his option to sell his 50% stake to Lufthansa. It will also take over the remaining 50.9% in Eurowings (EW/Dortmund) and its germanwings (4U/Cologne/Bonn) subsidiary on Dec 31 from majority shareholder Albert Knauf. It has finalized details of its latest Embraer order and will take delivery of 18 EMB-190s and 12 EMB-195s in 2009. Some of the aircraft will be operated by Air Dolomiti (EN/Trieste) and Augsburg Airways (IQ/Augsburg). Lufthansa has however parked four A300-600s and is planning to also temporarily withdraw three A340-300s from service and will not resume its Munich-Denver route next summer season. It has given up its Frankfurt Intl-Bordeaux and Stuttgart-Dublin/Florence/Olbia routes on Oct 26 and temporarily suspended its Hamburg-Prague route for the winter season but has announced new services and restructured its network to the Middle East in late Oct 2008:
Dusseldorf Intl-Inverness: weekly seasonal CRJ-700 between Jun 20 and Sep 12 operated by Lufthansa CityLine (CL/Cologne/Bonn)
Frankfurt Intl to: -Abu Dhabi-Doha: 3x weekly A330-300/A340-300 (replacing Doha-Muscat and Dammam/Bahrain-Abu Dhabi) / -Abu Dhabi-Muscat: 3x weekly A330-300/A340-300 (replacing Doha-Muscat and Dammam/Bahrain-Abu Dhabi) / -Bahrain-Doha: 4x weekly A330-300/A340-300 (replacing Bahrain-Abu Dhabi and Doha-Muscat) / -Kuwait-Dammam: 3x weekly A330-300/A340-300 (3 out of 7 weekly Kuwait services extended replacing Dammam-Abu Dhabi)

Aeroflot (SU/Moscow Sheremetyevo) has announced plans to place a bid for a 25.5% stake the Russian state holds in S7 Airlines (S7/Novosibirsk). It will lease additional seven new A320-200s and an ex-Oceanair (O6/Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont) B767-300ER. Aeroflot has started codesharing on the twice weekly China Southern Airlines (CZ/Guangzhou) services linking Moscow Sheremetyevo and Urumqi in Western China. It has also received approval from the US Department of Transportation to start codesharing with its Skyteam partners Delta Air Lines (DL/Atlanta) and Northwest Airlines (NW/Minneapolis/St. Paul). Aeroflot will operate twice weekly seasonal A320-200 from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Salzburg between Jan 3 and Mar 14. It has already launched twice weekly Tu-154M from Moscow Sheremetyevo via Krasnoyarsk to Magadan (in addition to its services via Novosibirsk). While Aeroflot has transferred some routes back from its Aeroflot-Don (D9/Rostov) and Aeroflot-Nord (5N/Arkhangelsk) subsidiaries using additional mainline Tu-154M aircraft, both subsidiaries are still operating using the Aeroflot brand and carry the SU code on all of their services now under a codeshare agreement instead of the previous wet-leases.

Ryanair (FR/Dublin) has made another takeover offer for rival Aer Lingus (EI/Dublin) in which it already holds a 29.82% minority stake. It has offered 750 million EUR to the Irish government and remaining shareholders this time. Ryanair has also again announced it is considering launching a new separate transatlantic low-cost carrier in 2009 if market conditions and aircraft availability would be favourable for the project. It has exercised options for 10 additional B737-800s that will be delivered in fall 2010.
Ryanair has also announced a variety of new routes including four new Italian bases in Alghero, Bologna Marconi, Cagliari and Trapani:

Alghero
-Brussels Charleroi: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Genoa: 2x weekly starting on Apr 1 / -Oslo Torp: 2x weekly starting on Apr 1 / -Paris Beauvais: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Venice Treviso: 2x weekly starting on Mar 30.

Bologna Marconi
-Bari: daily starting on Mar 30 / -Brindisi: 4x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Constanta: 2x weekly starting on Apr 1 / -Dusseldorf Weeze: 4x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Edinburgh: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 /
-Granada: 2x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Katowice: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Lamezia Terme: 4x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Oslo Torp: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Paris Beauvais: daily starting on Mar 30 / -Trapani: 2x daily starting on Mar 30.

Brussels Charleroi-Bratislava: 3x weekly and -Reus: 3x weekly - both starting on Mar 31 / -Trieste: 2x weekly starting on Apr 1

Cagliari
-Brussels Charleroi: 4x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Cuneo: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Dusseldorf Weeze: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Edinburgh: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Genoa: 2x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden: 2x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Manchester: 2x weekly starting on Apr 1 / -Marseilles: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Paris Beauvais: 4x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Rome Ciampino: daily starting on Mar 30 / -Seville: 3x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Trieste: 2x weekly starting on Mar 30 / -Venice Treviso: 5x weekly starting on Mar 31 / -Verona Brescia: 4x weekly starting on Mar 30.

London Gatwick-Alicante: 2x daily starting on Dec 18 / -Dusseldorf Weeze: daily starting on Jan 7 (replacing Stansted route) / -Girona: daily starting on Dec 18

London Stansted-Lamezia Terme: 2x weekly has resumed on Dec 6

Madrid
-Alicante: 2x daily has been launched on Nov 18 / -Palma de Mallorca: 2x daily has been launched on Nov 18 / -Santiago de Compostela: 2x daily has been launched on Nov 18 / -Valencia: 2x daily has been launched on Nov 18

Rome Ciampino-Trapani: 2x daily (already launched)
Shannon-Frankfurt Hahn: 2x weekly (already launched) and -Newcastle: 2x weekly (already launched).

Trapani
-Brussels Charleroi: 3x weekly starting on May 2 / -Oslo Torp: 2x weekly starting on May 1 / -Paris Beauvais: 3x weekly starting on May 2 / -Turin: 4x weekly starting on May 1 / -Venice Marco Polo: 4x weekly starting on May 1

Ryanair had previously announced in late Sep to establish a new base in Bologna Forli with domestic services from there to Alghero, Bari, Cagliari, Lamezia Terme, Olbia and Palermo scheduled to start on Dec 4. It has since given up these plans following a dispute with the airport operator SEAF.
Ryanair has also given up its Brussels Charleroi-Limoges, Dusseldorf Weeze-Sarmellek, Frankfurt Hahn-Sarmellek, Girona-Brno/Fuerteventura/Tenerife Sur, Glasgow Prestwick-Kaunas, Liverpool-Santiago de Compostela, London Stansted-Sarmellek, Madrid-Billund/Gothenburg City/Oslo Torp, Marseilles-Edinburgh, Milan Orio al Serio-Newcastle, Nottingham-Nimes/Shannon, Rome Ciampino-London Luton and Shannon-Kaunas/Riga/Rome Ciampino routes by the end of Oct
and has threatened to terminate its routes from Birmingham, Bremen, Dublin, Dusseldorf Weeze, Frankfurt Hahn, Liverpool, London Stansted, Nottingham and Shannon to Fuerteventura on Jan 31 following a dispute with the local tourism authority over marketing subsidies.
Ryanair will also give up all of its routes to Blackpool (from Dublin and Girona) and Maastricht (from Alicante and Girona) by Jan 8. It has also already announced temporary closure of its Valencia base (routes to Bologna Marconi, Eindhoven, Liverpool, Maastricht, Malta, Marseilles, Nottingham, Paris Beauvais, Porto and Santiago de Compostela) effective Nov 4 but will base an aircraft in Valencia again next Mar and resume its routes to Bologna Marconi, Liverpool and Nottingham.
In addition, it will resume its Dublin-Palma de Mallorca, Dublin-Valencia, Dusseldorf Weeze-Valencia, Girona-Basle/Mulhouse, Girona-Graz, Liverpool-Palma de Mallorca, London Stansted-Angoulême, Shannon-Palma de Mallorca and Stockholm Skavsta-Basle/Mulhouse routes as seasonal routes.
It will however not resume its Alicante-Pisa, Bournemouth-Nantes, Bremen-Malta, Bremen-Verona, Nottingham-Alghero route next summer season.

Aeroflot-Don (D9/Rostov) is planning to lease two ex-Alaska Airlines (AS/Seattle/Tacoma) B737-400s and a third aircraft ot the same type between now and spring 2009. It has also announced plans to retire its remaining Tu-134s by mid-2009.

Meridiana (IG/Olbia) has announced plans to cut 145 jobs and is reportedly considering to terminate several routes as part of a cost cutting programme. It has resumed twice weekdaily MD-82 service between Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino on Sep 22. Meridiana has taken over public service obligation routes out of Sicilia from Air One (AP/Rome Fiumicino) on Oct 26 using Avanti Air (EEX/Siegerland) ATR 42-300s:
Catania-Lampedusa: 3x weekly service
Palermo: -Lampedusa: 3x daily service / -Pantelleria: 9x weekly service
Palermo-Trapani-Pantelleria: daily service
Meridian and Windjet (IV/Catania) have entered into a blocked space codeshare agreement for the Catania-Turin route offering a total of four daily services. It has given up plans for a Venice Marco Polo-Catania route instead.

Air Vallee (DO/Aosta) has decided to permanently move its base from Aosta to Turin because of the closure of Aosta airport due to runway extension works. It has launched twice daily Do328JET service from Turin to Naples on Nov 17 in addition to its existing services to Pescara and Trieste and is considering adding Katowice and Rome Fiumicino.

bmibaby (WW/Nottingham) has announced capacity cuts will give up its Birmingham-Milan Orio al Serio route on Mar 28 and not resume its seasonal routes from Birmingham to Bordeaux, Jersey, Lisbon, Madrid and Rome Fiumicino, from Nottingham to Prague and from Manchester to Prague next summer season. Earlier this year, it had already announced plans to temporarily suspend its Birmingham-Barcelona, Cardiff-Barcelona and Birmingham-Nice routes between early Nov and mid-Feb as well as its Birmingham-Faro and Cardiff-Murcia routes until the end of Mar. It has however announced a new three times weekly seasonal B737-300 service from Nottingham to Menorca between May 22 and Oct 24.

Austrian Airlines (OS/Vienna) will be acquired by Star Alliance partner Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) after the German carrier and the Austrian government reached agreement on a deal that includes the Austrian government taking on approximately 50% of the debt of AUA. The transaction that has not yet been approved by the European Commission has caused a lot of criticism from bidders Air France-KLM (AF/Paris CDG) and S7 Airlines (S7/Novosibirsk) and other carriers such as Niki (HG/Vienna) and Ryanair (FR/Dublin). Lufthansa will first take a 41.56% stake in the Austrian national carrier and will then make a takeover offer for the remaining shares. Austrian will increase its presence in the Middle East:
Vienna-Aleppo: 3x weekly A320-200/A321-200 starting on Mar 29
Vienna-Amman Queen Alia: 4x weekly A320-200 starting on May 7 (replacing terminated codeshare with Royal Jordanian (RJ/Amman Queen Alia))
It has however given up its Vienna-Luxembourg and Vienna-Riga routes at the end of Oct in favour of codeshare agreements with Luxair (LG/Luxembourg) and Air Baltic (BT/Riga). It will also terminate its Vienna-Mumbai services on Mar 1.

Air France (AF/Paris CDG) has given up its London Heathrow-Los Angeles route by the end of the summer timetable and handed over the slot pair at Heathrow to joint venture partner Delta Air Lines (DL/Atlanta) for an additional daily London Heathrow-New York JFK roundtrip. It has secured traffic rights that would allow it to launch a daily service between Paris CDG and Tokyo Haneda in fall 2010 as part of the new France-Japan bilateral agreement. It will launch twice daily service from Paris Orly to Berne on Jan 19 using Airlinair (A5/Paris Orly) ATR 42-500s. Air France has confirmed plans for a joint venture with French transportation group Veolia to launch joint high-speed rail services from Paris CDG to Amsterdam and London in fall 2010. It has temporarily suspended its codeshare agreement with China Eastern Airlines (MU/Shanghai Hongqiao) between Paris CDG and Shanghai Pu Dong for the winter season. In other news, it has intensified its cooperation with Air Mauritius (MK/Mauritius) to now include connections via Mauritius and Paris CDG to other destinations in Europe and Southern Africa.

Pegasus Airlines (H9/Istanbul Ataturk) has wet-leased two B737-800s to Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG/Dhaka) for the winter season.

Olympic Airlines (OA/Athens) has seen interest from several bidders including start-up Athens Airways (8D/Athens), Iberia (IB/Madrid), MyAir (8I/Milan Orio al Serio), Qatar Airways (QR/Doha), SkyEurope Airlines (NE/Bratislava) shareholder York Capital and several other financial investors from Greece, Kuwait and the US. The privatization process has caused several employee protests including runway blockades and short strikes so far. Olympic has added another ex-JPATS (JUD/Oklahoma City) B737-400 to replace the last A300-600R it has just retired. It has suspended its own Athens-Geneva services in favour of a codeshare agreement with Baboo (F7/Geneva). Olympic has also terminated its Thessaloniki-Frankfurt Intl route.

Hamburg International (4R/Hamburg) will base an A319-100 at both Cologne/Bonn and Dusseldorf Weeze airports next summer season. It will launch a variety of new services:
Berlin Tegel-Larnaca: weekly A319-100 starting on Feb 9 (moving to Schoenefeld on Apr 6)
Dusseldorf Weeze to:
-Antalya: weekly A319-100 starting on May 5 / -Bourgas: weekly A319-100 starting on Jun 4 / -Faro: weekly A319-100 starting on Jun 3 / -Herakion: weekly A319-100 starting on May 22 / -Kerkyra: weekly A319-100 starting on Jun 6 / -Lanzarote-Las Palmas: weekly A319-100 (already launched in Nov) / -Sharm el Sheikh-Hurghada: weekly A319-100 (already launched in Nov)
and
Hamburg-Larnaca: weekly A319-100 starting on Mar 2
Leipzig/Halle-Larnaca: weekly A319-100 starting on Mar 2

Jet2 (LS/Leeds/Bradford) has announced new summer routes for 2009:
Belfast Intl-Dubrovnik: weekly seasonal May 2-Oct 3 / -Newquay: 2x weekly seasonal May 18-Sep 6. 
Edinburgh-Dusseldorf: 4x weekly starting on Mar 29 / -Ibiza: 2x weekly seasonal May 21-Sep 6 / -Menorca: weekly seasonal May 21-Sep 3 / -Venice Marco Polo: 2x weekly seasonal May 18-Sep 28.
Leeds/Bradford-Albert: 2x weekly seasonal Apr 20-Jun 29 / -Dalaman: weekly seasonal May 18-Sep 28 / -Newquay: 2x weekly seasonal May 18-Sep 6.
Manchester-Dalaman: 2x weekly seasonalMay 18-Oct 2 / -Heraklion: weekly seasonal May 19-Sep 29 / -Rhodes: weekly seasonal May 20-Sep 30.
It has given up its routes from Belfast Intl to Barcelona, Malaga and Tenerife Sur and suspended its routes from Blackpool to Belfast Intl and Malaga, from Leeds/Bradford to Krakow, Milan Orio al Serio and Palma de Mallorca and from Manchester to Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Murcia for the winter season.

Air Sylhet (Birmingham) is planning to launch scheduled operations in early 2009 using an A320-200 wet-leased from SmartLynx (6Y/Riga) offering several weekly services from London Stansted and Manchester via Vienna to Dubai. It has also announced plans to serve Dhaka and Jeddah but has again postponed the launch of its Dubai operation several times.

09 Dec F-18 crashes into 3 houses in San Diego.  3 Dead

The pilot of a military F18 coming into land at San Diego unsuccessfully attempted to steer away from residential dwellings before ejecting himself.  The jet crashed into 3 dwellings killing 3 people

03 Dec Qantas and BA to merge?

"Hole in body" and "Door fall off" to merge?  -  Qantas and British Airways are reported to be looking into a merger
with the new composition to be quoted in Sydney and in London.  Australia has given the exceptional OK to larger than normal foreign ownership of an Australian interest.

01 Dec Ryanair bids for AerLingus / Planes empty out of Bangkok / Quieter in Mumbai

Ryanair makes bid for rival Aer Lingus
Budget airline Ryanair has announced a new takeover bid for its Irish rival, Aer Lingus.Ryanair says it will pay 1.40 euro a share for the remaining 70 per cent of Aer Lingus, a 28 per cent ...AAP- Mon Dec 1, 19:20 AEDT more at http://au.biz.yahoo.com/081201/2/22gjn.html

Sky News reports: More than 30 aircraft have left - empty - from the beseiged Bangkok airports to other free Thai airports.  Thousands of Britons remain stranded in Thailand as the Foreign Office has vowed to "step up" efforts to repatriate them. They have been caught in the impasse (which now appears to be relaxing somewhat) between protesters and the Government as demonstrators entered their seventh day of occupation of Bangkok's main airports.  In a campaign to force current prime minister Somchai Wongsawat from office demonstrators seized Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport last Tuesday and Don Muang airport a day later.  Thai media suggests that as many as 100,000 tourists have been stranded as a result.
Greater numbers of people were now being bussed to airports outside of the capital in a bid to fly them back to the UK, it has been claimed.  Bangkok remains a NoGo destination for tourists.

Whilst the Mumbai raid from abroad has been mastered, the city is now in a turmoil over who did what and who did not do what.  Domestic fault finding and resignations are not going to prevent further attacks and the situation remains tense for tourists 

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