Airline News - Europe

Airguide Online, August 27, 2007

Aug 27, 2007

Turkish Aircraft Hijacked, Passengers Freed One of two men who hijacked a plane heading for Istanbul from northern Cyprus was trained in camps run by al Qaeda militants and planned to flee to Afghanistan, Turkish media reports said on Monday. Aug 20, 2007

Aeroflot

Aeroflot said it has started using mobile automatic check-in desks at up to 10 Russian airports lacking stationary desks, allowing it to check in passengers using its Sabre program and introduce e-ticket technology at new destinations. Aug 20, 2007

Lufthansa

Lufthansa mulls new all business class routes. Lufthansa says that it will look at new business class only routes ahead of potential competition to Germany by Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. The German carrier has the chance to expand its dedicated premier class offering as it is to replace the existing business-class only service from Dusseldorf to Newark and Chicago using two PrivatAir Airbus A319s, with three A340-300s from May next year and adding Toronto. Aug 20, 2007

Lufthansa

Lufthansa remained tightlipped as to any new business class destinations using PrivatAir's A319s. The two 48-seat business class A319s will be replaced with the three A340s - also configured in exactly the same business ratio - but with the addition of eight first class seats. The Munich-Newark business class only jet will now operate an additional early New York service from Frankfurt. Part of the problem for Lufthansa stems from slot constrained Dusseldorf - despite it operating two runways. At present, the North-Rhine-Westphalia government limits aircraft movements to 45 per hour, but with ten out of Germany's 30 DAX Index companies situated in the Dusseldorf region, business travel demand is clearly high. Aug 20, 2007

Lufthansa, LTU, Dusseldorf

German carrier, LTU, has long regarded Dusseldorf as its fiefdom, where Lufthansa is strong, although for the moment it serves New York JFK rather than Newark, as well as a host of other US destinations. The airline, recently purchased by Air Berlin, might also be interested to note that Lufthansa describes itself as "the only airline in Dusseldorf," despite LTU offering a raft of international services from the northwest German airport. Aug 20, 2007

Mistral Air

Vatican partnered with Mistral Air, a small charter company based at Rome Ciampino, to offer low-cost flights to pilgrims, Italian media reported. The jets will have interiors decorated with sacred inscriptions and will travel to holy sites such as Fatima and Santiago de Compostela. Mistral eventually plans to offer long-haul flights to sites in Latin America or elsewhere. First flight is scheduled for Aug. 27 to Lourdes. Aug 24, 2007

TAP Portugal

TAP Portugal will start a daily Porto-Brussels flight on Sept.15 with an Fokker F100. Route will be operated with an Embraer ERJ-145 from the winter schedule. Aug 24, 2007

Wideroe

Wideroe launched thrice-weekly Kirkenes-Murmansk service this week. Aug 24, 2007

ZZ

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