Airports & Routes

Dutch SkyTeam carrier KLM will stop services to Freetown in Sierra Leone and Monrovia in Liberia from summer 2019, freeing up capacity for 3X-weekly flights between Amsterdam and Las Vegas.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines plans to offer a full biometric airport throughput to travelers on direct international flights from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s (ATL) Terminal F, beginning late 2018.

The 45-day runway closure in 2019 at Dubai International Airport’s (DXB) of southern runway (12R-30L) will significantly disrupt operations for Emirates Airline and flydubai, Emirates president Tim Clark told ATW on the sidelines of this week’s IATA Aviation Day in Mauritius.

Australia’s Qantas and Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways have reached a deal to codeshare on selected routes, which will boost Cathay’s domestic Australian access and add new Asian destinations to the Qantas network.

Revitalized Air Italy has reported strong summer season passenger loads on its new flights to the US and has announced frequency increases on several of its international routes.

RwandAir is evaluating the Airbus A321LR and Boeing 737-7 to operate on European routes during off-peak seasons.

The Australian Tourism Commission, Tourism Australia and Adelaide Airport will host the World Routes Development Forum 2019 in what the southern Australian city hopes will put it on the world map in the aviation sector.

Central and Eastern European LCC Wizz Air has announced plans to close its base at Poznan in Poland, although it will grow its other Polish operations by adding a seventh aircraft at Gdansk and upgrading Warsaw to an all-Airbus A321 fleet.

The FAA has warned in a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) of the risk of a runway overrun at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) caused by transposed runway numbers.

Airports and airlines in Shanghai, China and Manchester, England are missing out on a 160,000-passenger market annually if the nonstop route between the two cities is not being used, UK-based Manchester Airport executives said at World Routes 2018.

Commercial-service airports in North Carolina disrupted by Hurricane Florence as it hit the US east coast Sept. 14 were slowly resuming normal operations on Sept. 18.

The FAA has extended existing operating limitations at New York’s LaGuardia (LGA) and JFK airports until 2020.

A coalition of airlines, airports and manufacturers wrote a letter to US lawmakers urging them to ditch a provision in the bill to reauthorize the FAA that would target so-called “flag of convenience” carriers, warning it would “undermine the basis for the Open Skies Agreements” that underpin the global aviation system.

Lufthansa Group subsidiary Brussels Airlines is making changes to its long-haul network, reinforcing its presence in Africa as it ends flights to Mumbai, India for economic reasons and refocuses the capacity on its core intercontinental region of Africa.

China West Airport Group (CWAG) hopes the One Belt One Road initiative will propel its Xi’an hub to one of the top few airports in China.

Airline Routes-Sept.17, 2018