Airline News

Airguide Online, April 9, 2004

American Eagle will start new seasonal service to Nassau, Bahamas, from Dallas-Fort Worth. The carriers will operate one flight daily with a 70 seater CRJ-700 regional jet from June 10 to Sept. 7 and then starting up again on Dec. 15 2004.

In a similar decision to one made by United to terminate its United Connection contract with Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA), Delta has informed the regional carrier it also will be terminating its Delta Connection contract. The decisions come as ACA prepares to morph into a large, low-fare carrier at Washington Dulles Airport, called Independence Air. It will no longer fly as the regional arm of these major airlines. To prepare for the transition, Delta will be moving 10 regional jets flown by ACA out of Boston to Cincinnati in July, and will discontinue ACA flights from New York. Independence Air intends to operate more than 300 daily departures this summer. The inaugural flight is scheduled for June 16 2004.

British Airways will launch wireless Internet connections in 80 of its main lounges around the world. BA said it anticipates having the technology in the lounges by the end of May 2004.

Cathay Pacific Airways will start daily nonstop service from New York (JFK) to Hong Kong starting July 1, 2004. It will be the only daily nonstop between the two cities and, with the continuation of the airline's existing one-stop service via Vancouver, Cathay will be the only airline operating double daily service between New York and Hong Kong. The airline serves 24 cities in the United States, either direct or through code share passenger services. Cathay Pacific will operate the new service with Airbus A340-600 and follow a route over the North Pole. Passengers will save approximately three hours journey time and avoid the inconvenience of an intermediary stop. Currently from the U.S., Cathay Pacific offers double daily nonstop service from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, daily nonstop service from San Francisco to Hong Kong, daily direct service from New York to Hong Kong (increasing to double daily frequency with nonstop service July 1) and daily nonstop service from New York to Vancouver.

Delta Air Lines says it and its fellow SkyTeam members are gearing up for an increase in international travel this summer. So far this year, international traffic is up 6 percent, and that should continue throughout the rest of the year, said Paul Matsen, Delta senior VP of international and alliances. The International Air Transport Association is predicting a 7 percent annual growth in global passenger traffic. There will be several new flights this summer by Delta, which will also be adding new or expanding code sharing flights with Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Southern, Emirates and Korean Air.

Delta Air Lines will increase its international service by expanding its own flights and placing its code on flights operated by its SkyTeam partners. In April it will launch a second daily flight from Atlanta to Cancun and two weekly flights from Atlanta to St. Lucia. It also is adding two new daily flights from New York JFK to San Juan. In May, the carrier will begin new daily service from Cincinnati to both Amsterdam and Rome and a second daily Atlanta-Munich flight. June additions include daily flights from JFK to Santo Domingo, a thrice-weekly JFK to Athens flight and new service from Cincinnati to Cancun. This summer Delta will place its code on flights to destinations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East operated by AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Southern, Emirates and Korean Air. In addition, it will expand its code share agreement with Continental and Northwest to include flights to 11 cities in the Caribbean, 12 in Latin America and 14 in Canada.

Emirates will offer in-flight e-mail service across its fleet using Tenzing software. The system will be installed initially on new A340- 500s beginning in the first quarter of 2004 and progressively across the entire fleet.

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.

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.

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.