Delta will start two flights from JFK to Denver
and San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April, to Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic, in June, and to San Diego in July. In
addition, Delta will start new commuter service to
Charleston, Savannah and Greensboro and increase
frequencies to some other Midwest cities. The regional
flights will be operated by Chautauqua Airlines under the
Delta Connection brand.
Delta, which has some of the highest costs in the
industry, launched a low-fare subsidiary, Song, last
year to compete with lower-cost rivals. Song will start two
flights from JFK to Fort Myers, Florida, in May.
WIZZ Air, the Anglo-Hungarian latest addition to
Europe’s growing fleet of low cost airlines, plans to start
operations in May 2004, to coincide with EU accession. It
will start flying from its base in Katowice, southern
Poland, but also plans to fly out of Budapest later in May.
WIZZ will operate on a multibase principle and will focus
on Central and Eastern European markets, expanding rapidly
to five bases.
Thai Airway International’s own low cost airline,
Nok Air said on Thursday it would launch in June,
heating up competition in Thailand’s low-cost market. Nok
Air — Nok means “bird” in the Thai language —
would initially fly to six destinations in Thailand.
“The pie is very big. There’s 65 million people in
Thailand and only five million fly” said an official.
Two other discount airlines, Thai Air Asia and One-Two-Go,
are currently operating in Thailand with cut-price fares at
roughly a third of regular prices.
Singapore Airlines plans to set up a low cost airline,
Tiger Airways, with the people we just love to hate,
Ryanair. ValuAir also plans to launch a similar carrier
this year.
Uk budget airline easyJet have announced that
they are to add seven new routes, including three to
Hungary, the CzechRepublic and Slovenia, bringing its total
to 135 routes. The latest expansion follows confirmation
last November of a new base in Berlin, from which it would
fly to six countries. Passengers will be able to fly to
Basel in Switzerland and Ljubljana airport in Slovenia from
Stansted in Essex. LutonAirport in Bedfordshire is to offer
new flights to Budapest in Hungary. Other new routes, to
Naples, Ibiza, Faro and Prague will depart from
Gatwick.
Giant holiday company Thomson is to start a new
low-fare airline operating from Coventry airport at the end
of March 2004. The new carrier, to be called
Thomsonfly.com, will fly to 10 European
destinations: Palma, Valencia, Rome, Naples, Nice, Malaga,
Venice, Pisa, Ibiza, Marseilles and Jersey. Prices will
start from £3.99 one way. Visit www.thomsonfly.com for more
information.
Southwest Airlines has launched a service that
allows some passengers to print their own boarding passes
via the Internet before heading to the airport. The service
is aimed at increasing efficiency for the carrier and
convenience for customers while cutting down on the work
load of gate agents. Southwest customers with an
electronic, ticketless reservation can print their boarding
pass for the first leg of travel on the day of travel. Once
at the airport, those without bags to check who printed
their own boarding passes can go directly to security
screening.
Silk Air, the regional wing of Singapore
Airlines, is ending flights to Bangladesh after less than
two years of operation, a company official said on
Thursday.
Pacific Blue Airlines, the New Zealand arm of
discount Australian airline Virgin Blue, announced it would
start flying between Wellington and Sydney from March
10.
Dragonair, Hong Kong’s second-largest airline,
said it will begin flights to Tokyo in April, heating up
competition with rival Cathay Pacific Airways.
Singapore Airlines are set to enter the record
books with the world’s longest non-stop service when it
flies to Los Angeles on February 3. Both the New York
service and the 16-hour flight to Los Angeles are targeted
at business travellers and will cut up to six hours from
its current flight time, and up to two hours for Los
Angeles.
