Nordic Regional (6N/Umea) has wet-leased a Saab 340 from Central Connect Airlines (3B/Ostrava). It is now also using a MD-87 of sister carrier Nordic Airways (6N/Stockholm Arlanda) on domestic routes from Stockholm Arlanda to Gallivare and Kramfors.
ItAli Airlines (FS/Pescara) will launch five times weekly service from Foggia to Milan Malpensa on December 4. It has already launched four times weekly flights from Bologna, Milan Malpensa and Turin to Reggio di Calabria. It has also announced plans for new seasonal routes next summer from Ancona to Split, from Bari to Dubrovnik and Split, from Olbia to Ancona and Nizza and from Pescara to Dubrovnik.
Atlant-Soyuz Airlines (7B/Moscow Vnukovo) has taken delivery of its first two B737-300s.
Air France (AF/Paris CDG) has sold its 1.5% stake in Austrian Airlines (OS/Vienna). It has confirmed that it is at a very early stage of merger talks with Alitalia (AZ/Rome Fiumicino).
germanwings (4U/Cologne/Bonn) has announced a massive route expansion for next summer season:
Berlin Schoenefeld-Bourgas: weekly service starting on May 20
Berlin Schoenefeld-Sarmellek: 2x weekly service starting on July 6
Berlin Schoenefeld-Varna: weekly service starting on May 19
Cologne/Bonn-Alghero: 3x weekly service starting on March 25
Cologne/Bonn-Bourgas: weekly service starting on May 22
Cologne/Bonn-Bucharest Baneasa: 3x weekly service starting on March 25
Cologne/Bonn-Kavala: 2x weekly service starting on March 25
Cologne/Bonn-Sarajevo: 3x weekly service starting on March 25
Cologne/Bonn-Sofia: 3x weekly service starting on March 27
Cologne/Bonn-Varna: weekly service starting on May 19
Cologne/Bonn-Zadar: weekly service starting on March 31
Hamburg-Palma de Mallorca: 4x weekly service starting on March 25
Stuttgart-Bastia: weekly service starting on March 25
It has however already given up its Cologne/Bonn-Gothenburg City and Hamburg-Krakow routes and will give up its Cologne/Bonn-Oslo route on February 25.
Transavia Airlines (HV/Amsterdam) and its parent Air France (AF/Paris CDG) will set-up a joint low-cost carrier in France in 2007 using a fleet of four B737-800s. Air France will own 60% of the Paris Orly based carrier while Transavia will hold a 40% stake. Transavia will give up its Amsterdam-Genoa route by the end of the month.
Club Air (6P/Verona) has moved its twice weekly BAe 146-200 service between Bologna and Chisinau to Florence on November 25.
bmi british midland (BD/East Midlands) has suspended its London Heathrow-Mumbai route citing an aircraft shortage caused by technical problems with one of its A330-200s.
FlyGibraltar (Gibraltar) will wet-lease two B737-300s from Astraeus (5W/London Gatwick) to launch its low-cost services out of Gibraltar in April 2007.
Corsair (SS/Paris Orly) has launched twice weekly B747-400 service from Paris Orly to Mauritius. One of the two weekly flights operates via Lyon. It has wet-leased a B747-400 to Garuda Indonesia (GA/Jakarta Intl) and a B747-300 to Libyan Airlines (LN/Tripoli Intl).
Aeroflot (SU/Moscow Sheremetyevo) has launched a weekly Tu-154M service from Mineralnye Vody to Jeddah. It will take over Dalavia (H8/Khaborovsk) and SAT Airlines (Russia) (HZ/Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) and merge the two carriers into a new subsidiary. It had previously planned to merge Dalavia with Vladivostok Air (XF/Vladivostok) but has given up such plans. It is however reportedly considering taking stakes in MAVIAL - Magadan Airlines (H5/Magadan) and Ural Airlines (U6/Ekaterinburg). Aeroflot has created a new subsidiary, Aeroflot Cargo (SU/Moscow Sheremetyevo), and has transferred its fleet of DC-10-40F freighters to the new carrier that will also take delivery of six MD-11Fs until 2008. It has retired its fleet of 9 Il-86s.
Iberia (IB/Madrid Barajas) will launch two new routes soon:
Madrid-Algiers: 2x weekly A319-100 service starting on January 7
Madrid-Gibraltar: daily A319-100 service starting on December 16
Ryanair (FR/Dublin) has postponed the launch of its new routes from Frankfurt Hahn and Marseilles to Fez, Marrakech and Oujda until it receives the necessary traffic rights. It has announced several new routes instead:
Frankfurt Hahn-Malaga: 4x weekly service starting on January 19
Marseilles-Gothenburg City: 4x weekly service starting on January 19
Marseilles-Hamburg Luebeck: 4x weekly service starting on January 19
Marseilles-Malmæº 3x weekly service starting on January 18
easyJet (U2/London Luton) has converted options for 52 A319-100s into firm orders for deliveries between 2008 and 2010 and has also taken options for additional 75 A319-100s. It will launch daily A319-100 service from Edinburgh to Munich on April 4.
Thomsonfly (BY/London Luton) has announced an expansion of scheduled services:
Bournemouth-Valencia: 3x weekly service starting on April 21
Bournemouth-Prague: 4x weekly service already launched on November 1
Cardiff-Faro: 4x weekly service starting on May 6
Glasgow Intl-Pula: weekly service starting on May 1
London Luton-Dubrovnik: 3x weekly service starting on May 1
London Luton-Jersey: daily service starting on May 3
London Luton-Prague: 5x weekly service already launched on November 3
Manchester-Lisbon: 5x weekly service starting on May 1
LTU International Airways (LT/Dusseldorf International) has announced several new routes:
Dusseldorf-Preveza: weekly A320-200 service starting on May 19
Dusseldorf-Seville: 2x weekly A320-200 service starting on March 30
Munich-Dubai: weekly A330-200 service starting on December 21
LTU has also started a weekly A330-200 service from Dusseldorf to Accra on behalf of Antrak Air (O4/Accra).
VLM (VG/Antwerp) has launched six times weekly Fokker 50 service from London City via Amsterdam to Groningen.
Inter Airlines (6K/Antalya) has wet-leased its Fokker 100 to Iran Aseman Airlines (EP/Tehran) and an A321-200 to PIA - Pakistan Intl Airlines (PK/Karachi).
Eurowings (EW/Dusseldorf International) will lease an ex-National Jet Systems (NC/Adelaide) BAe 146-200.