-Southwest Airlines is introducing direct flights from Nashville to Fort Lauderdale and Seattle from April, and direct services from Chicago Midway to Houston and Phoenix in May.
-Continental Airlines will launch a daily direct service from New York Newark to Tel Aviv in August, using Boeing 777-200s. This will be the US carrier's first route to the Middle East.
-From April, United Airlines will suspend temporarily part of its round-the-world flights - the sectors between London and Delhi and between Hong Kong and Delhi. The airline cites disappointing profitability and the likely slowdown in traffic during the Indian summer season, but is planning to return to the Delhi market, possibly with a direct flight from the USA. Meanwhile, United has expanded its codeshare with forthcoming Star Alliance member Air New Zealand, to incorporate US cities beyond Los Angeles that are not served by Air New Zealand, including Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington.
-British World Airlines has won a contract with DHL, to operate a Palma-Barcelona-Madrid-Palma service, using a British Aerospace ATP turboprop, which is configured as a quick-change model.
-Detroit-based Pro Air is launching services from Detroit City to New York LaGuardia (one daily) and Chicago Midway (four daily), using recently acquired Boeing 737-400s. The airline is also introducing direct flights from Chicago to Atlanta, and New York Newark/LaGuardia.
-British Midland has filed an application with the UK Civil Aviation Authority for rights to serve Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC from Manchester. This follows the filing last February for licences to serve up to 10 US destinations from London Heathrow, but with little prospect of an imminent restructuring of the US/UK Bermuda II bilateral, the airline will be unable to undertake services from Heathrow in the near term due to restrictions on the number of transatlantic operators.
Source: Flight International
