12-May-2008 UNITED KINGDOM :
Swissport UK confirmed it is to provide a new Central Load Planning service to Virgin Atlantic worldwide, under a new contract between the two businesses. The service will be operated by Swissport from mid-May-08 for all of Virgin Atlantic’s fleet on all services globally. Although Swissport provides a full ground handling service for Virgin Atlantic at London Gatwick (since 2004) and Manchester Airports, the contract covers Virgin Atlantic services at other UK airports and for aircraft in other countries. This is the first time that Swissport has provided its Central Load Planning skills to an entire airline.
12-May-2008
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines stated it will give its slot time operation to Kenya Airways, commencing 29-Apr-08 to 30-May-08. The extra operation by Kenya Airways is prompted by the fact that KLM is in the process of servicing their Boeing B747 fleet, which creates a shortage of aircraft availability within the KLM network. This means that Kenya Airways will now operate a total of ten weekly flights to and from Amsterdam during this period.
12-May-2008 UNITED KINGDOM :
BAA and British Airways confirmed the first phase of the move of additional services into Heathrow Terminal 5 will take place in Jun-08.
12-May-2008 FINLAND :
Finnair announced plans to launch flights from Helsinki to the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals region of Russia, commencing early-Sep-08. The route will be served three times a week with Airbus A319 aircraft. The flight time will be just three hours, with connections in both directions.
12-May-2008 IRELAND :
Ryanair has called on ENAV, Italy’s Air Traffic Control Authority to compensate passengers affected by the latest ATC strike in Italy. Ryanair stated that, ENAV is on strike for the eighth time in 18 months and continues to inflict cancellations and delays on hundreds of thousands of Italian passengers/visitors without any sanction whatsoever. So far, Ryanair has been forced to cancel 20 flights to/from Italy.
12-May-2008
SkyTeam signed a SkyTeam Alliance Associate Adherence Agreement (SAAAA) agreement with Romanian airline, TAROM, indicating the airline is on track to join SkyTeam Alliance as an Associate airline. As part of the process, TAROM must meet a set of predetermined requirements, in areas such as operations, technologies and products, in order to ensure that its quality of service standards and operating performance are in line with those of SkyTeam member airlines.
12-May-2008 UNITED KINGDOM :
Flybe reported that ticket sales, particularly on its Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast to Manchester services between 12-May-08 and 14-May-08 are up by over 50% compared to the same period last year. Flybe is attributing the substantial surge in demand to Glasgow Rangers’ success in the UEFA Cup this season. Excited ‘Gers fans are snapping up their tickets to arrive in Manchester as much as two days before the final takes place at the City of Manchester Stadium against Russian club, Zenit St Petersburg.
09-May-2008 QATAR :
Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar Al Baker, confirmed the carrier is considering plans to establish an LCC subsidiary, due to increasing competition from the regional budget carrier sector (arabianbusiness.com, 08-May-08).
09-May-2008 JAPAN :
Japan Airlines has entered a plea deal with the US Department of Justice over its involvement in a cargo price-fixing scheme (Dow Jones, 08-May-08).
09-May-2008
Delta Air Lines stated it is in the process of closing nine of its airport VIP lounges in the UK, US, the Caribbean and South America, citing the need to manage costs due to high fuel prices (AP, 08-May-08).
