Air Canada New Flights Services Montreal – Bruseels Next Year

Air Canada has announced plans to launch new flights from Montreal to Brussels next year.

The airline is planning to begin the non-stop services on 12 June, subject to approval from the Canadian and Belgian governments.

Operating daily, the new flights will continue to and from Toronto, meaning passengers from the city will be connected with Brussels via Montreal.

Marcel Forget, vice-president of network planning at Air Canada, said: ‘The introduction of the only year-round non-stop service between Montreal and Brussels, headquarters of the European Commission and Parliament, and other international organisations, is great news for customers travelling on business, for leisure as well as freight forwarders.

‘Air Canada’s new direct non-stop Brussels service will offer more choice for convenient international travel via our Montreal hub providing easy access to several destinations in Europe and Africa.’

The new flights will be operated on a refurbished Boeing 737-300.

JetBlue to Waive Change Fees and Fare Differences to Assist Customers Affected

JetBlue Airways Corporation will waive change fees and fare differences to allow customers booked to travel to, from or through New York metro airports or Boston on Saturday, Jan. 10 or Sunday, Jan. 11 to voluntarily rebook their travel through Tuesday, January 13, 2009, due to inclement weather forecasted to impact the region.

Boston Logan and eligible New York metro airports include:
– Newark, NJ (EWR)
– Newburgh, NY (SWF)
– New York City – JFK and LaGuardia (LGA)
– White Plains, NY (HPN)

Customers may rebook their travel online at www.jetblue.com anytime prior to their originally scheduled departure. To check on the status of flights or to check the availability of alternate flights, customers are encouraged to log on to www.jetblue.com or to call 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583) for the latest flight information.

All customers booked to travel to/from the Northeast are encouraged to check the status of their flight online at www.jetblue.com prior to leaving for the airport. Customers with web-enabled cell phones and PDAs may check the status of their flight via mobile.jetblue.com.

New York-based JetBlue Airways has created a new airline category based on value, service and style. Known for its award-winning service and free TV as much as its low fares, JetBlue is now pleased to offer customers Lots of Legroom and super-spacious Even More Legroom seats. JetBlue introduced complimentary in-flight e-mail and instant messaging services on aircraft “BetaBlue,” a first among U.S. domestic airlines. JetBlue is also America’s first and only airline to offer its own Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within JetBlue’s control. Visit www.jetblue.com/promise for details. JetBlue serves 51 cities with 600 daily flights. New service to Bogota, Colombia, and San Jose, Costa Rica, begins in 2009. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all travel is ticketless, all fares are one-way, and an overnight stay is never required. For information or reservations call 1-800-JETBLUE (1-800-538-2583) or visit www.jetblue.com.

GOL Reactivate Boeing 767 Aircraft for Charter

GOL plans to reactivate two more Boeing 767s as the Brazilian carrier expands its new widebody charter operation to include flights to the US, Europe and South Africa.

The company stopped operating 767s in 2008 after dropping all long-haul services at its Varig division but at the end of last year reactivated one aircraft for charters to the Caribbean. ATI and Flightglobal reported last month the carrier was looking at re-activating additional 767s as part of a plan to expand its Caribbean charter operation, which was launched in July 2009 and now uses a mix of 767s and Boeing 737s.

Gol CEO Constantino de Oliveira Junior says the carrier has now firmed plans to reactivate two more 767s for charters. But he reveals the additional aircraft will be used to operate even longer charter flights.

“We expect to do flights between Brazil and US, Brazil and Europe and also during the World Cup we’ll do some charters to South Africa,” Oliveira told analysts at the end of last week during a conference call to discuss fourth quarter 2009 earnings.

“That’s the expectation now for the three aircraft. We’ll also have the possibility to continue the charters between Sao Paulo and Cancun that we launched on December 26.”

He says the one already reactivated 767 also was used “in January and part of February” to operate some charter flights from Buenos Aires. Oliveira says these charters may resume at some point as Gol expands its active 767 fleet to three aircraft.

Gol initially acquired 14 767s in 2007 to operate scheduled routes to Europe and North America. Over the last 18 months the carrier has been trying to negotiate early lease returns and slowly has reduced its 767 fleet to six aircraft.

CFO Leonardo Pereira told analysts that “we have two that we have either sub-leased or are in the process of subleasing. So we will be down to four.”

“Out of those four we are using three for charter flights. That is a positive thing. Without interfering in the domestic supply and demand we are using the 767 for long haul charters and consequently we will be generating revenues from this asset which was not generating last year,” Pereira says.

The 767s have been a financial drain for Gol as the company has continued to make monthly lease payments of roughly $100,000 per aircraft while the fleet has been grounded. Gol executives say the new charter operation and subleases are not a permanent solution because the charters are only seasonal and the subleases do not cover the entire remaining term of the carrier’s own leases. But they help cover some of the costs associated with the assets.

“With the charter aircraft we are working to pay the lease rate and all the cost related to the aircraft,” Oliveira explains. “With the subleased aircraft we have some cost difference. We sublease the aircraft at a lower rate than we are paying. But this will help us reduce our expenses and our cash related to the 767s.”

Gol, which at the end of last year transitioned to an all 737NG narrowbody fleet, also continues to pay monthly lease payments on grounded 737-300s. But Pereira says these costs should end in the second quarter of 2010.

“We still have some 737-300s that we are sending back,” Pereira says. “We expect by the end of the second quarter most likely all the 737-300s should be out.”

Airlines Industry, Boeing investigates after Pa. plant shutdown

A Boeing plant in suburban Philadelphia remained shut down Saturday while officials investigated how a foreign object ended up inside an aircraft that was under production.

Boeing spokesman Damien Mills said he could not predict how long it would take before production could resume at the Ridley Park plant, which shut down Friday afternoon. He said employees are instructed to show up for work as usual.

“There are other tasks the workers can participate in while production is halted,” Mills said. Those tasks vary, but include things like generating ideas to prevent similar problems from developing in the future, he said.

Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., said Friday he was told by a Boeing executive that a plastic cap was found in the fuel line of a V-22 Osprey fuselage and that Boeing could not immediately rule it out as a willful act. Mills said Saturday that he had read Sestak’s comments in news reports but could not confirm them.

The same factory was shut down in May when a disgruntled employee used his work-issued wire cutters to sever about 70 electrical wires in a nearly finished military helicopter. The man pleaded guilty in September to one count of destroying property under contract to the government.

News York Collaboration With Airlines to Bring Tourists to New York City

The competition for supremacy among major airlines at New York’s airports is paying dividends for the city’s campaign to attract more visitors.

On Wednesday, American Airlines announced that it had formed an $8 million marketing partnership with the city’s tourism agency, NYC & Company.

American will be the exclusive airline sponsor of the city’s summer and fall tourism campaigns this year and next, and, in exchange, it will help promote New York across the country. The airline will also contribute $3.5 million toward NYC & Company’s marketing budget, increasing it by about 15 percent.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been pushing for more visitors to the city, but the latest round of budget cuts reduced NYC & Company’s allocation from City Hall. To offset that reduction, tourism officials have sought help from corporations seeking a higher profile in the city.

“We just have to become more self-sustaining,” said George Fertitta, the chief executive of NYC & Company. “We’d be doing this anyway, but it’s even more important now.”

Referring to the agency’s corporate partners, he added, “We’re using a lot of their assets to drive people to New York.”

Right now, airlines are among the most eager partners because the competitive situation at the city’s airports is in flux. Delta Air Lines is seeking to expand its presence at La Guardia Airport by adding flights there in a swap with US Airways for slots at Ronald Reagan National Airport, in Washington.

Not wanting to be eclipsed by Delta, American Airlines said on Wednesday that it had struck a partnership with New York-based JetBlue Airways. JetBlue agreed to trade some of its slots at Kennedy International Airport for some of American’s slots at Reagan Airport. American also agreed to allow JetBlue’s passengers to connect to overseas flights on American with a single ticket.

More important for New York officials, American and JetBlue agreed to encourage their passengers to stop over in the city for a night or more during their trips. Those additional overnight stays could significantly help the city’s economy, Mr. Fertitta said.

“If we got another 100,000 people who happened to be coming through New York to stay over, that would mean probably $25 million in economic impact,” Mr. Fertitta said.

Mr. Bloomberg has set a goal of drawing 50 million tourists a year by 2012. The city was on pace to meet that goal before the number of visitors dropped off last year to 45.25 million, according to NYC & Company’s estimates.

source : nytimes.com