Airport News - Europe.

May 31, 2009

Aegean Airlines, Star Alliance

Greek carrier Aegean Airlines will join the Star Alliance, which includes Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air Canada, it said Tuesday. The move would give Aegean, which became Greece's largest airline by passenger numbers last year, access to many markets across the globe with large communities of Greek descendants, executives said. Aegean, which competes with former state carrier Olympic Airlines, operates a fleet of 31 aircraft covering 47 domestic and international routes. Members of the airline alliance cooperate on route scheduling and revenue sharing. The Star Alliance competes with two other alliances -- Sky Team and OneWorld, but it is the largest and fastest growing. Executives said teams from Aegean and Star Alliance will start the integration work shortly, expecting completion in about 12 months. Once complete, the Star Alliance will encompass a total of 26 carriers. May 26, 2009

Air Southwest

Air Southwest of Plymouth, England, will add the SZ code to its flight numbers beginning May 31, allowing its flights to be available for sale in external systems. It previously used the WOW prefix. "Our website. . .will continue to be our main source of bookings, but we now see great opportunities in being able to use global sales systems. And it means we can work more closely with other airlines in the future," MD Peter Davies said. Air Southwest serves 13 destinations May 28, 2009

Bmibaby

Bmibaby will introduce service to Grenoble from Nottingham East Midlands, Birmingham, Cardiff (all twice-weekly) and Manchester (weekly) for its 2009-10 winter schedule. May 25, 2009

British Airports

The ban on liquids at British airports could be lifted within 18 months because of new X-ray scanners which can tell the difference between explosive fluids and duty-free booze. Three months of trials of the new tomography scanner have just ended at Manchester Airport and the first of the [pounds sterling]1m machines will go on sale before the end of the year. They generate extremely high resolution 3D X-ray images of passenger luggage which can be turned in all directions on screen by operators to investigate the true shape of anything suspicious. And by measuring the density of substances, they can quickly differentiate between what is harmless and what could blow up a plane. At the moment, hold baggage is checked by CT scanners, similar to those used on hospital patients, with rotating drums which take images from all angles but can only handle 350 bags an hour. May 28, 2009

British Airways

British Airways has pushed back the launch its London City-New York JFK service until October, but expects to begin ticket sales for the new Airbus A318-operated route by the end of next month. May 27, 2009

OneWorld

Airline alliance OneWorld has produced a series of free to view videos with tips for business travellers. The videos, which last up to 90 seconds, include advice on finding your way around a foreign city, how to travel light, how to stay wired, how to reduce stress and how to save time. The series has been put together in co-operation with travel guide book Lonely Planet. www.oneworld.com May 28, 2009

Ryanair

Ryanair will launch service from Brussels South Charleroi to Ancona (twice-weekly from July 8) and Figari (thrice-weekly seasonal from July 9). May 29, 2009

S7 Airlines, OneWorld

Russian carrier S7 Airlines is to join the OneWorld alliance, and will begin integrating itself with the airline group from June. S7's accession has been "unanimously" accepted by the 10 current members of Oneworld. The Moscow-based carrier, sponsored by British Airways, is to begin an 18-month alignment process ahead of becoming a full member in 2010. May 26, 2009

VLM Airlines, CityJet

VLM Airlines will be rebranded as CityJet although it will continue to operate under its own operating certificate, the carriers announced. Both regionals are wholly owned subsidiaries of Air France KLM. Antwerp-based VLM is the largest operator at London City. It will adopt the group's Flying Blue loyalty program and abandon its own VLM Encore program in September. May 29, 2009

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