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News of October 2007


Lufthansa begins flights to Orlando

31 October 2007

The German airline Lufthansa now operates out of Florida’s busiest passenger airport.

Flights between Orlando and the airline’s Frankfurt, Germany, hub are scheduled to run every day except Saturday. From Germany, passengers can fly to nearly 100 countries around the world.

source: wpbf.com


Monarch bumps up Christmas flight offer

31 October 2007

Low-fares airline flyMonarch will be increasing services on 18 of its routes over the Christmas and New Year period, with service changes taking effect between December 22 and January 2.

The airline says the move, which involve flights to Malaga, Tenerife, Lanzarote and others, are in response to “‘staggering'” customer demand.

Passengers flying from Luton will be offered more flights to Alicante, Gibraltar, Tenerife and Malaga, while Manchester fliers will be able to pick from Faro, Malaga and Tenerife.

source: Luton Today


Strong travel demand boosts profits at Singapore Airlines

31 October 2007

Buoyant travel demand has raised net profits at Singapore Airlines (SIA) by 73.2 percent in the three months to September compared with the same period a year ago, the airline said Wednesday.

But despite the second quarter figures, Singapore Airlines (SIA), which is the first carrier to commercially operate the Airbus A380 superjumbo, said slowing economic growth had cast a cloud over prospects.

Net profit totalled 507.8 million Singapore dollars (350.66 million US), up from 293.2 million dollars a year ago, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange.

source: Yahoo!


British Airways abandons flights to Zimbabwe

30 October 2007

British Airways’ final flight from Harare landed at Heathrow last night, closing a chapter in links between Britain and Zimbabwe.

British Airways suspends fligthts to Zimbabwe BA also suspended its flights in 1965

BA152 was the final service of a route the airline said it was abandoning because it had become uneconomic.

Zimbabwe’s economy is in freefall and tourism to the country has collapsed. But in Zimbabwe the decision is being seen as part of London’s efforts to isolate Robert Mugabe’s regime, even though BA is a commercial company.

source: Telegraph.co.uk


SAS cuts 57 flights after Q400-grounding

30 October 2007

Scandinavian airline SAS said on Sunday it had cancelled 57 flights because its fleet of Q400 turboprops was grounded following the crash-landing of one of the aircraft in Copenhagen.

The landing gear of an SAS Q400 collapsed on landing at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport on Saturday, but no one was seriously injured.

SAS said in a statement it had cancelled 49 flights on Sunday and eight flights on Monday.

Scandinavian aviation authorities on Saturday issued a new flight ban on all SAS’s Q400 turboprops shortly after the incident.

source: Yahoo!


SAS permanently removes Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 planes from fleet

29 October 2007

The airline group’s board of directors said in a statement that it had decided ‘to immediately discontinue the use of this type of aircraft’.

The Dash 8 Q400 has given rise to ”repeated quality-related problems,” said SAS deputy chief executive officer John Dueholm.

”SAS’s flight operations have always enjoyed an excellent reputation and there is a risk that use of the Dash 8 Q400 could eventually damage the SAS brand,” Dueholm said.

The SAS statement acknowledged that Sunday’s decision would result in flight cancellations and said the airline would try to compensate by reallocating current aircraft in the group’s fleet and leasing from other airlines.

source: finanznachrichten.de


Vueling starts new low-cost flights from Málaga

29 October 2007

The troubled Spanish low-cost airline, Vueling, starts a new route between Málaga and Rome tomorrow (Sunday). There will be four flights a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays to Fiumicino, the main airport in the Italian capital.

Next Tuesday the airline also starts new flights from Málaga to Brussels. It already flies to Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid and Santiago from the Costa del Sol.

source: typicallyspanish.com


Virgin co-pilot arrested on suspicion of being over the alochol limit

29 October 2007

Police have arrested the co-pilot of a Virgin passenger jet on suspicion of being over the legal alcohol limit.

London police boarded the Virgin Atlantic Airbus on Sunday morning and arrested a 42-year-old first officer, minutes before the flight was due to depart.

The flight, bound for Miami, was delayed for several hours while substitute crew members were found.

source: News.co.au

 


EasyJet buys GB Airways for £103.5m

26 October 2007

EasyJet, the budget airline, has agreed to pay £103.5m in cash to buy GB Airways from the privately held Bland Group. The deal means that easyJet will operate 24 per cent of the landing slots at Gatwick airport and make it the airport’s largest carrier.

GB Airways operates as a franchise of British Airways, a deal that ends in March next year, although the easyJet acquisition is expected to finalise in January. British Airways plans to begin its own services to compete with GB Airways, which flies mainly to southern Europe and North Africa.

source: The Independent


IATA forecasts passenger traffic to reach 2.75 billion by 2011

26 October 2007

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says that in 2011 the air transport industry will handle 2.75 billion passengers (620 million more passengers than in 2006) and 36 million tonnes of international freight (7.5 million tonnes more than in 2006) in its latest passenger and freight traffic forecasts projections.

IATA traffic forecasts are based on a comprehensive survey of airline expectations for major route areas.All figures are provisional and represent total reporting at time of publication plus estimates for missing data.

International passenger demand is expected to rise from 760 million passengers in 2006 to 980 million in 2011 at an annual average growth rate (AAGR) of 5.1 per cent. This will be lower than the 7.4 per cent AAGR recorded during 2002-2006, largely due to slightly slower global economic growth.

source: Domain-b.com