Airline News

Airguide Online, April 23, 2004

Hawaiian Airlines is alerting consumers to a ticketing scam for a package of mainland tickets. An Asian man, about 50 years old who walks with a limp and calls himself either Wayne or Dwayne of Wayne Travel Discount is selling five roundtrip mainland tickets with a sixth for free for $250 apiece. Customers must pay up front, and the first ticket is actually sold through a bona fide travel agency at a higher fare than the one he is advertising. But they find that the other five tickets are invalid when they go to use them. Keoni Wagner, VP of public affairs, said "Unless you're booking directly with Hawaiian online or through our reservations department, we recommend that travelers purchase tickets through a licensed, professional travel agent." Anyone who thinks they may have been scammed should file a report with the police and call Hawaiian's customer advocate line at 808-838-3500.

Iberia will adopt a two-class service product on A340 long-haul services, eliminating first class in favor of an enhanced business- class cabin with lie-flat seat beds, audio-video on demand, satellite phones and text messaging. It will invest eur100 million ($125 million) to equip 31 A340s with the new product, which will be rolled out on the airline's first three A340-600s in Oct. and installed across the fleet by the end of 2005.

Icelandair says it has a goal of distributing half of all of its tickets electronically by the end of this year.

Jet2.com launched routes to Venice, Nice and Murcia from Leeds Bradford. A new Belfast International Airport to Prague service commences April 29 2004. The LCC, a subsidiary of aviation services and distribution conglomerate Dart Group, launched operations in Feb. 2003 and now serves 12 European destinations.

JetBlue Airways, which already offers passengers 24 channels of live DirecTV programming in-flight, reached agreement with XM Satellite Radio and News Corp., a media and entertainment conglomerate, under which the airline will add up to 100 channels of digital satellite radio and movies to its in-flight entertainment system. JetBlue said it expects to introduce the system on its fleet of A320s in 2004 and on its new fleet of Embraer 190s as they are introduced into service beginning in 2005.

Jetsgo will launch a discount shuttle between Toronto and Montreal April 19 2004. The service will operate hourly from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time on weekdays. There will be a total of 14 flights each way with the last flight leaving from Montreal at 8:30 p.m. and from Toronto at 10:30 p.m. During the summer months of July and Aug., frequency will be eight flights a day each way. The regular schedule will return Sept. 7 2004.

KLM will operate daily service to Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai this summer, deploying the new 777 on flights to Tokyo and Shanghai. Beijing will be served using 747-400s. KLM and Northwest will boost flights between their respective Amsterdam and Minneapolis/St. Paul hubs from two to three daily and the number of weekly services to Houston, which serves as partner airline Continental's hub, will rise from seven to nine. Additionally, weekly flights to San Francisco will increase from six to seven and to Vancouver from five to seven. Capacity will grow on KLM's daily flights to Toronto as a 747-400 replaces an MD-11 on the route. Service to Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles also will increase this summer. Bonaire will be served with 11 weekly flights, Curacao with seven, St. Maarten with two and Aruba with five.