Delta Air Lines has extended its SkyMiles FFP to Air France and Korean Air, while British Airways and American Airlines have extended their FFP links.
British Airways introduced two daily flights from Manchester to Warsaw and two weekly flights from London/Gatwick to Krakow. In return LOT Polish Airlines launched five weekly flights from Krakow to Gatwick and three weekly flights from Warsaw to Manchester.
Air France introduced new services from Paris/Charles de Gaulle to Havana, Nagoya, Pointe Noire (Congo), Port Harcourt (Nigeria)and St Lucia on 30 March while services to Dhahran and Entebbe (Uganda) were cut. It is also launching a Nice-Frankfurt service.
Augsburg Airways has started a weekly Munich-St Tropez flight as Team Lufthansa.
KLM is to start a twice-weekly service from Amsterdam to Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire via Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Swissair is to codeshare with Tatra Air between Zürich and Bratislava from 30 March.
Ryanair started Dublin-Paris/Beauvais and Brussels/ South on 1 May and will introduce four daily London/ Stansted to Stockholm/ Skavsta flights on 12 June.
Air Canada launched a twice daily service from Toronto to Dallas-Fort Worth in March.
British Midland has launched daily flights from London/ Heathrow to Copenhagen, Oslo and Gothenburg to complement those of codeshare partner SAS.
Swedish domestic operator Skyways took over regional commuter Highland Air at the end of March.
Italian startup Azzurra Air introduced flights from Turin to London/City on 30 March.
Malev has started a codeshare and block-seat agreement with Air France on Budapest-Paris, and a block-seat agreement with Swissair on Budapest-Zürich in March.
Singapore Airlines is poised to launch a three weekly Singapore-Jeddah service in August.
EVAAir has started three weekly services from Taipei to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and starts twice weekly flights from Taipei to Manila and Cebu in the Philippines in May.
Manx Airlines reintroduced three weekly services from Dublin to both Cardiff and Jersey on 23 May.
Dutch regional carrier Base Airlines started two daily flights between London/Gatwick and Münster-Osnabrück on 1 April.
Air Gabon has launched a twice weekly service between Libreville, Gabon and Nairobi, as well as a twice weekly Libreville-Sao Tome service.
Air Europa Express operated by Canarias Regional Air introduced three daily flights from Las Palmas to Lanzarote, La Palma, Fuerteventura and Tenerife in mid-March.
Aircraft News
Continental Airlines has ordered 16 Boeing B757s.
Air China has ordered five B777-200s, for delivery by 1999. Deutsche BAhas ordered seven B737-300s, for delivery starting this August. KLM has ordered four B737-800s, for delivery in mid-1999.
British Airways has ordered three B757-200s, for delivery by early 1998. GBAirways has ordered two B737-300s, for delivery by February 1998. Irish-based lessor Pembroke Capital has ordered eight B737-700s and four B737-300s, for delivery by 1999.
British Midland has ordered eight Airbus A321s and 12 A320s, with an option to convert the latter to A321s, for delivery between 1998-2002.
Delta Air Lines has selected the Trent 892 to power the 10 B777-200s on order as part of its exclusive Boeing deal.
Adria Airways has ordered two Canadair Regional Jet 200LRs, plus two options, with deliveries in 1998.
Rheintalflug Seewald Gesellschaft is to acquire one new de Havilland Dash 8-400.
Moroccan startup Regional Air Lines ordered four Beech 1900Ds, scheduled for delivery in April 1997.
Appointments
WIlliam P Hobgood has been named senior vice president -people at United Airlines.
Eric Speck has been named president of Sabre Travel Information Network.
Gilon Zohar has become the new president of Israeli-based CAL Cargo Air Lines.
Manet Paes has been appointed commercial director at Indian Airlines.
Sue Moore became general manager brands management at British Airways in April.
Carl Yung replaced Zhuang Shoucang on the board of Cathay Pacific.
Bob Dynan becomes president of the newly created United Express division of Mesa Airlines. Similarly, Mike Lewis and Peter Otradovec become presidents of the new America West Express and Independent divisions, respectively.
Bill Madison has been appointed director of business development for Rolls-Royce Aero Engine Services.
Suppliers
Rolls-Royce and SIAEngineering have formed a joint venture component services company, International Engine Component Overhaul, based in Singapore, which will start trading in 1998.
Lufthansa Systems and Amadeus are jointly to promote a combined airline inventory and distribution system.
Boeing and FlightSafety International will create a joint venture company, FlightSafety Boeing Training International, combining their commercial airline pilot and maintenance training programmes.
IBM, AT&T, Sabre and ITC-S have won a Russian government contract worth US$140 million to install the Sirena-3 reservation and aircraft movement computer system for the use of airlines throughout Russia and the CIS.
KLM has awarded Pemco World Air Services a contract for modification and maintenance of seven B737-400s. British Airways has awarded Pemco a similar contract for three B757s and one B767.
Gamco has won a contract from Air Atlanta Icelandic to carry out C-checks, structural modifications and overhaul of components on four L.1011s.
British Airways has sold its Babs reservation system to Qatar Airways.
Source: Airline Business
