ATW Daily News

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Friday September 29, 2006

New Bangkok Airport opened Thursday morning with a couple of hitches temporarily interrupting service. Passengers arriving on the first few flights to Suvarnabhumi were forced to wait more than an hour for their luggage as ground crews struggled to move bags from planes to conveyer belts owing to a delay in the transfer of ground equipment from the old Don Muang Airport to NBK. Another problem was the crash of Thai Airways' computer system, with airline staff issuing boarding passes and luggage tags by hand.

Most flights landed and took off on time. "Some had 15 to 20 minutes delays, but all planes left NBK with the baggage of their passengers," Munich Airport COO Peter Trautmann told ATWOnline in Bangkok. Munich Airport coordinated the airport transfer for Airports of Thailand and started planning for the relocation in August 2004.

During the relocation process Wednesday night, 1,660 lorries and heavy airport vehicles moved via the streets of Bangkok to the new airport without big problems.

by Kurt Hofmann

Ryanair said it will add four new 737-800s to its base at Girona Barcelona and launch 17 routes from March, bringing to 40 the number of routes it operates from the airport, which is located some 103 km. (64 mi.) northeast of Barcelona. The LCC said the expansion represents a $280 million investment. New routes from GRO include three-times-weekly service to Altenburg, Brescia, Fuerteventura, Gothenburg, Marrakech, Pescara, Teesside and Trapani; four-times-weekly flights to Aarhus Bologna, Bristol, Faro, Malmo, Newcastle, Oslo and Tenerife, and a daily to Porto. It will add a third daily flight on its routes to Paris Beauvais, Milan Orio al Serio and Rome Ciampino. "Ryanair's Barcelona base has performed very strongly this summer and has firmly established itself as an important driver of both tourism and business in the region," Deputy CEO Michael Cawley said.

by Cathy Buyck

A350 XWB entry-into-service date appears to be sliding 6-12 months owing to the ongoing A380 wiring difficulties. At the Farnborough Airshow, Airbus said the 314-seat A350-900 would be the first variant to enter service, in mid-2012. However, sources at Airbus told ATWOnline that "the program is likely to slip into 2013 because all the engineering talent is focused on the A380," echoing a previous statement by ILFC Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy

Boeing has received firm orders for another 26 737s and eight 787s but has not identified the customers. The new orders take unidentified orders for the 737 to 84 and for the 787 to 29 and orders for the overall year for all models to 666, including seven cancellations. It is thought that the latest additions may be an order from Avianca, which wants to replace its MD-83 and 767 fleets with 737s and 787s.

ATR confirmed the sale of four new ATR 72-500s that will be operated by Canary Islands-based Naysa. Total value of the contract is about $71 million. Deliveries are scheduled for 2008 and 2009. "With this sale, ATR has logged 56 sales since the beginning of the year; 2006 is confirming the strong market for turboprop aircraft," CEO Filippo Bagnato commented. Naysa currently operates Beech 1900s.

Bmibaby will terminate operations at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northeast England. Flights between MME and Cork, Paris CDG and London Gatwick will be cancelled from Oct. 29; all services between Durham Tees Valley and Alicante, Malaga and Palma will be cancelled from Nov. 6. The LCC did not provide a reason for closure of the base, which it opened in October 2003, but earlier this month new MD Crawford Rix said bmibaby would be focusing its summer 2007expansion program "on airports where we are experiencing proven solid growth in line with our financial forecasts." During the next summer timetable, the carrier will bring in two additional aircraft to take the total fleet to 21.

Regional Express of Australia will lease 25 Saab 340Bs from Saab Aircraft Leasing as part of its fleet modernization and expansion program. The first aircraft will arrive in January.

AirTran will operate daily seasonal service between Chicago Midway and Southwest Florida International Airport (Fort Myers) from Dec. 21 through April 16 using 717s.

Qatar Airways will launch four-times-weekly service from Doha to Dar Es Salaam Jan. 9, bringing its network to 71 destinations. The route will be operated with an A319 in a two-class configuration of eight seats in business class and 102 in economy.

Amadeus said it reached an agreement with Continental Airlines that will extend current access to full content for travel agents in the US, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Sabre Airline Solutions said Toronto-based startup Porter Airlines selected the Sabre Flight Control Suite of operational support solutions including Sabre FliteTrac, CrewTrac and Dispatch Manager. Porter plans to launch service in October from Toronto City Centre Airport.

Rockwell Collins will install its Head-up Guidance System on Lufthansa CityLine's 12 CRJ900s as the aircraft are delivered. The system is currently in use on CityLine's 36 CRJ200s and 20 CRJ700s. HGS displays critical flight information in the pilot's forward field of view.

Also, Air Canada Jazz will equip its fleet of 15 CRJ705s with HGS by March 2007.

Volvo Aero said it will join Pratt & Whitney "to demonstrate new technology" for Pratt's Geared Turbofan Technology demonstrator program. Volvo Aero said the partnership "does not involve any agreement regarding a new engine program, but the new cooperation is still an important step toward a new engine undertaking for Volvo Aero."

ALTA (formerly AITAL), the Latin American Air Transport Assn., announced that three more airlines have joined the organization. Air Jamaica, Icaro and Aerolitoral bring membership to 32 carriers. Brazilian petroleum company Petrobras joined ALTA as an affiliate member.

Phoenix Aircraft Leasing of Singapore purchased two PW4000-powered A310-200s from China Eastern Airlines.

Aviareps will represent Vietnam Airlines in the Austrian market.