Routes

All Nippon Airways plans to reduce capacity on unprofitable routes, or suspend them, this year and introduce a Tokyo-Osaka shuttle service. The airline is to introduce an Osaka-Honolulu service from 26 March and will increase capacity on routes from Tokyo to Bangkok, Frankfurt and Washington DC. Frequencies will be cut on services from Tokyo to Dalian in China, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Singapore, while the Osaka-Yangon (Rangoon) service will be suspended from the same date. Qantas has applied for regulatory approvals to take over Australia-Taiwan capacity dropped by Ansett last month. Meanwhile, Qantas and EVA Air will begin codesharing on services between Taiwan and Australia from 1 May. Qantas has also applied to operate a Boeing 747 freighter, wet-leased from Evergreen, twice weekly between Australia and Indonesia. British Airways franchise carrier GB Airways has launched a daily service between London Gatwick and Nantes, France. From 19 June, Air Canada will offer daily non-stop flights from Toronto to Kelowna, using Airbus A319s. Canadian Airlines will sell seats on the route on a codeshare basis. Delta Air Lines has begun codesharing on Aeromexico's twice-weekly service between Chicago and Mexico City and will add the twice-weekly Los Angeles-Guaymas route next month. Crossair will optimise the Eurocross transfer system at Basle-Mulhouse-Freiburg EuroAirport with its summer timetable from 26 March. Crossair is adding Stuttgart to destinations served from Basle, with two daily flights. Crossair and Ireland's Aer Lingus are to codeshare on a weekday Boeing MD-83 flight, between Zurich and Dublin. Trans World Airlines and America West Airlines have signed a marketing partnership to link their frequent flier programmes. TWA's Aviator members and America West's FlightFund participants can now accrue and redeem miles with both schemes.

Source: Flight International