Other News

Following the completion of its preliminary anti-trust investigation (Phase 1) into the merger between Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines, the European Commission today announced that it will open an in-depth investigation (Phase II) into the tie-up. Anti-trust approval of the planned merger has already been granted by the respective competition authorities in the United States of

Regional Express (Rex) announced that it will be incorporating the fuel levy into the base fare, effective for all new sales made from 1 July 2009. Giving the rationale of the move, Rex General Manager, Network Strategy & Sales, Warrick Lodge said,

KLM and IBM released that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has become the first airline to fully deploy IBM’s newest System z mainframe-based software for processing ultra-high volumes of real-time business transactions such as flight reservations. As a result, travelers benefit from reliable, secure ticketing and gate information when and where they need it.

Frontier Airlines has reached a codeshare agreement with Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines. The agreement will allow customers of both airlines to travel to more destinations. Both airlines will be acquired by Republic Airways.

All business class airline, OpenSkies, operating nonstop flights between New York (Kennedy and Newark) and Paris (Orly) and between New York (Kennedy) and Amsterdam (Schiphol), celebrates the first anniversary of its inaugural launch. Since OpenSkies first took flight on June 19, 2008. OpenSkies has now transported more than 92,000 passengers total on both routes. Through

Snecma and Volvo Aero agreed on the basic principles of a five-year partnership between the two companies in the field of space propulsion. The agreement between Snecma and Volvo Aero involves the series production of 37 nozzles and the same number of turbines, which will be manufactured by Volvo Aero in Trollh

TAP Portugal has received an A320 Family Operational Excellence Award from Airbus in recognition of its service record with the single aisle aircraft type. The airline was presented the award in Paris during Airbus’ bi-annual symposium of all operators of the A320 Family worldwide.

Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Stefan Lauer, CEO Group Airlines and Corporate Human Resources at Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Thierry Antinori, Member of the Lufthansa German Airlines Board Marketing & Sales, have been appointed with immediate effect to the Board of Directors of SN Airholding SA/NV. The

Panasonic Avionics Corporation announced that its Multiplexed Passenger Entertainment System (MPES) IFE system was installed on the 6,000th Boeing 737 to enter into service. The aircraft was delivered to International Lease Finance Corp and will be leased to Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (Norwegian), the second largest airline in Scandinavia.

British Airways will launch the first ever longhaul route from London City airport in September, despite the general aviation downturn. The airline has taken the decision to press ahead with the launch and set a September 29 date for the first flights. The business class-only service will be given the airline’s most prestigious flight number,