Norwegian rejects two takeover bids from IAG

Norwegian Air Shuttle has made this announcement:

The Board of Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) confirms that it has received two separate conditional proposals from IAG Group in relation to an acquisition of 100 percent of the share capital of NAS.

These proposals were reviewed in conjunction with NAS’ financial and legal advisers, and were unanimously rejected on the basis that they undervalued NAS and its prospects. The Board of NAS remains fully committed to delivering on its stated strategy, for the benefit of all NAS shareholders.

Norwegian in the UK and Ireland:

Norwegian carries 5.8 million UK passengers each year from London Gatwick, Edinburgh and Manchester Airports to 50 destinations worldwide
Norwegian is the third largest airline at London Gatwick, with 4.6 million yearly passengers, and with more than 1,000 UK-based pilots and cabin crew
In 2014, Norwegian introduced the UK’s first low-cost, long haul flights to the U.S. – the airline now flies to 11 U.S destinations, Buenos Aires and Singapore
In 2017, Norwegian also launched affordable transatlantic flights from Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Shannon to the US East Coast, using the brand new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft
Norwegian is the only airline to offer free inflight WiFi on UK flights to more than 30 European destinations
The airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleets in the world with an average age of 3.6 years, including next-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Boeing 737 MAX and Boeing 737-800s
Norwegian has been voted ‘Europe’s best low-cost carrier’ by passengers for five consecutive years at SkyTrax World Airline Awards from 2013-2017, along with being awarded the ‘World’s best low-cost long-haul airline’ in 2015, 2016 and 2017
Norwegian Reward is the airline’s free to join award-winning loyalty program offering members CashPoints and Rewards that reduce the cost of Norwegian flights

Copyright Photo: Norwegian.com (Norwegian Air UK) Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner G-CKWC (msn 38893) (Robert Burns, Scottish Poet) PAE (Nick Dean). Image: 941252.

Norwegian UK aircraft slide show:

NTSB Video: Air Canada taxiway overflight at San Francisco

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 security camera video of the July 7, 2017, Air Canada taxiway overflight.

NTSB Opens Docket for San Francisco International Airport Incident

The National Transportation Safety Board opened the public docket Wednesday as part of its ongoing investigation of the July 7, 2017, Air Canada overflight of a taxiway at San Francisco International Airport.

Air Canada flight 759, an Airbus A-320, was cleared to land on runway 28R at San Francisco International Airport, but the aircraft lined up on parallel taxiway C, which had four airplanes on it awaiting takeoff clearance. Air Canada flight 759 descended below 100 feet above the ground and initiated a go-around after overflying the first airplane on taxiway C.

(The top portion of this not-to-scale NTSB graphic, created from Harris Symphony OpsVue radar track data analysis, depicts the positions of aircraft on an overhead view of the runways and taxiways at San Francisco International Airport. The text is from a transmission to air traffic control from a United Airlines airplane on the taxiway. The bottom photo, taken from San Francisco International Airport video, shows Air Canada Flight 759 passing over the first United Airlines airplane.)

The docket includes factual reports for operations, human performance, air traffic control, aircraft performance, and the flight data recorder. The docket also contains a video that shows the overflight, as well as interview summaries, photographs and other investigative material.

The docket contains only factual information collected by NTSB investigators. No conclusions about how or why the overflight occurred should be drawn from the information in the docket, as the investigation is ongoing. Analysis, findings, recommendations, and probable cause determinations related to the incident will be issued by the NTSB at a later date.

The docket material is available online at https://go.usa.gov/xQ8Mp

Additional material may be added to the docket as it becomes available.

Eurowings starts service from Fort Myers

Eurowings yesterday (May 3) started service from Germany to Fort Myers. The airline will operate from Fort Myers to Dusseldorf (formerly served by Airberlin and LTU), Cologne/Bonn and Munich on alternate days.

Eurowings aircraft slide show:

Sun Country to add seasonal service to New Orleans and Santa Barbara

Sun Country Airlines has announced the addition of two new destinations and one new route to its growing network. Sun Country will now be offering seasonal nonstop service between Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) and New Orleans (MSY), Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) and Santa Barbara (SBA), and Santa Rosa/Sonoma County (STS) and Las Vegas (LAS). With these new routes, Sun Country offers a total of 53 nonstop routes throughout the year.

New seasonal nonstop service between Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) and New Orleans (MSY)

Service offered September 6 – December 16, 2018
Operates weekly from September 6 – 23, 2018 with a Thursday Minneapolis – New Orleans flight and a Sunday New Orleans-Minneapolis flight
Operates 2x/week with round trips on Thursdays and Sundays starting September 24, 2018
Introductory fares starting as low as $89* one-way

New seasonal nonstop service between Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) and Santa Barbara (SBA)

Operates 2x/week on Thursdays and Sundays
Service offered August 16 – December 9, 2018
Introductory fares starting as low as $109* one-way

New seasonal nonstop service between Santa Rosa/Sonoma County (STS) and Las Vegas (LAS)

Operates STS-LAS on Thursdays and LAS-STS on Sundays
Service offered August 30 – December 2, 2018
Introductory fares starting as low as $59* one-way

Sun Country aircraft slide show:

Air France to go to summer-only Joon service to Iran

From Reuters:

Air France is cutting its Joon subsidiary’s service between Paris and Tehran to the summer season only, blaming a poor economic performance over two years in operation.

“Air France has decided to adapt its program to better match demand,” a spokeswoman said by email, adding that the decision would take effect from October 28.

Joon operates the Airbus A340-300 on this route.

Video:

Embraer and American Airlines sign contract for 15 E175s

Embraer and American Airlines Inc. signed a firm order for 15 E175 jets with a 76-seat configuration. The contract has a value of $705 million, based on current list prices, and will be included in Embraer’s 2018 second-quarter backlog. Deliveries will take place in 2019 between March and November.

Combined with the airline’s three previous orders for the E175, this new contract results in a total of 89 E175s for American Airlines. The most recent order took place in October 2017 for ten aircraft.

American Airlines selected Envoy, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group, to operate the 15 aircraft, which will be configured with a total of 76 seats, being 12 in First Class and 64 in Main Cabin, including Main Cabin Extra seats.

Including this new contract, Embraer has sold more than 400 E175s to airlines in North America since January 2013, earning more than 80% of all orders in this 76-seat jet segment.

Since entering revenue service, the E-Jets family has received more than 1,800 orders and over 1,400 aircraft have been delivered. Today, E-Jets are flying in the fleet of 70 customers in 50 countries. The versatile 70 to 150-seat family is flying with low-cost airlines as well as with regional and mainline carriers.

Copyright Photo: American Eagle (2nd)-Envoy Embraer ERJ 170-200LR (ERJ 175) N233NN (msn 17000561) DFW (Ken Petersen). Image: 937820.

American Eagle-Envoy aircraft slide show:

JetBlue lands in Minneapolis/St. Paul, making the Twin Cities the airline’s 102nd destination

JetBlue Airways today announced the start of service at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP), with the airline’s inaugural flight from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) touching down just before 9 a.m. local time. The new flights in the Twin Cities mark the first-ever scheduled JetBlue service in Minnesota and bring a new option for travelers with the airline operating the route three times daily.

All Minneapolis/St. Paul flights will be operated on JetBlue’s Airbus A320 aircraft.

JetBlue aircraft slide show:

OTG and United Airlines announce the completion of the Global Bazaar at Newark Liberty International Airport

United Airlines and OTG announced today the completion of a new expansive food hall at United’s Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). The new “Global Bazaar” features a wide variety of vibrant offerings sourced from New York’sdiverse and globally-inspired food culture, in addition to its market offering of news, gift and locally sourced retail.

Besides the international selection of food, the design of the Bazaar will pique the interest of travelers. With thirty percent of all travelers passing through Terminal C during breakfast hours, OTG worked to develop a creative solution to physically differentiate breakfast concepts from those featured for lunch and dinner hours. The space transforms as the day progresses, changing both food offerings and the space’s structure to meet the time-specific needs of hungry travelers. After the breakfast rush departs, the Bazaar’s space automatically adapts to accommodate the lunch and dinner crowd.

In order to pull off such an ambitious project, OTG sought the imagination of architect and Tony Award-winning scenic designer David Rockwell. Rockwell Group drew upon both its hospitality and theater experience to create individual spaces that morph and change within a limited footprint, providing travelers the widest array of culinary offerings throughout the course of the day.

“Developing the best possible experience for Terminal C’s travelers required a lot of imagination from our design, culinary and tech teams,” said OTG’s CEO Rick Blatstein. “This space is truly the first of its kind – the Bazaar changes as we move through the day. The space’s unique and immersive design, intuitive technology and, of course, great food is something we are incredibly proud to offer to United customers.”

“We’re thrilled that our customers will now be able to enjoy new culinary experiences from notable New York area chefs within the Global Bazaar,” said Jill Kaplan, President, New York/New Jersey for United Airlines. “As we continue to work closely with OTG to create a world-class airport experience for our customers in the Tri-State area, we are excited by the new concepts and investments that have gone into the continual improvements at Terminal C.”

Chef-Driven Dining with Unique Local Flavor
Dynamic concepts that change throughout the day include:

Creperie Juliet, which features both sweet crepes, like the S’mores Chocolate & Marshmallow, and savory crepes, like the Mushroom, Spinach, & Cheese; which transforms into its lunch and dinner counterpart, Wabi Sabi, a Dim Sum concept with egg rolls, pork gyoza, scallion pancakes and lo mein as the options.
Flip Flop Pancake Shop, which serves as a breakfast specializing in pancakes; which transforms into its lunch and dinner counterpart, Notorious P.I.G., offering pulled pork, brisket and BBQ Pork Ribs.
Breakfast Boli focuses on breakfast based Stromboli; while its lunch and dinner counterpart, Uptop Pizza, specializes in customizable, build-your-own personal pizzas.
Eggy Weggy, which specializes in creating that perfect breakfast sandwich; which transforms into its lunch and dinner counterpart, Custom Burger, featuring a menu of carefully crafted burgers and sandwiches.
Supreme Bowl brings travelers a range of breakfast bowls; while its lunch and dinner counterpart, Philly Cheesesteaks specializes in crafting that perfect “wit wiz” Cheesesteak.
Poppy’s Bagels focuses on the area breakfast staple, which are hand rolled and baked daily just a few yards away at Mélange Bakery & Chocolaterie. This transforms into lunch and dinner counterpart, Casciano’s, which is an Italian specialty sandwich shop.

Always available concepts include:

Mélange Bakery, a 24/7/365 from-scratch bakery developed with Chef Jacques Torres, which develops hand crafted baked goods and confections for all Terminal C markets and restaurants.
Kaedama, a Tokyo-style slurp shop centrally located in the Bazaar providing travelers traditional & fusion ramen with fresh-pulled noodles, small plates, soups and dumplings.
Tsukiji Fishroom features freshly made sushi made on site using fish flown direct from Tokyo’sfamed Tsukiji Fish Market weekly by United.

Leading-Edge Technology
Guests stay in control of their experience via OTG’s proprietary Self-Checkout systems seamlessly blended into the Global Bazaar footprint.

Additionally, United and OTG have collaborated to enhance benefits for MileagePlus® program members, enabling the use of reward miles as a form of payment for food, drink or retail.

Southwest Airlines intends to serve Hawaii nonstop from Oakland, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento

Southwest Airlines today shared more details in the carrier’s service plans for Hawaii by announcing initial gateway cities in California that would offer nonstop service pending required regulatory approvals. Oakland Metropolitan Airport (OAK), San Diego International Airport (SAN), Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), and SacramentoInternational Airport (SMF) would gain Hawaii service in the carrier’s flight schedules following FAA authorization for Hawaii service.

Last week, Southwest announced its initial plan to serve four airports in the Hawaiian Islands: Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu (HNL), Kahului Airport on Maui (OGG), Lihue Airport on Kauai(LIH), and Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole (KOA) on the leeward side of The Island of Hawaii.

In the latest of a two-year series of community meetings across the Islands to gain insight ahead of potential service, Southwest President Tom Nealon this morning shared details of today’s announcement with tourism, civic, and government leaders and further shared the carrier’s intention to eventually offer some interisland flights as operations ramp up initially across four airports in Hawaii.

Southwest Airlines aircraft slide show:

Bombardier signs contract with American Airlines for 15 firm CRJ900 aircraft

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft announced on May 3, 2018 that it has signed a firm order for 15 new CRJ900 regional jets with American Airlines, Inc.

The purchase agreement also includes options on an additional 15 CRJ900 aircraft. Based on the list price of the CRJ900 aircraft, the firm order is valued at approximately US$ 719 million.

Upon delivery, American will be benefiting from the latest enhancement to the CRJ Series regional jets – the Atmosphère cabin, which offers an enhanced passenger experience and can accommodate the largest number of “oversized” roller bags of any aircraft in the same category.

American has selected PSA Airlines to operate the 15 CRJ900 in dual-class configuration with 76 seats, including 12 first class seats.

The airline intends to take delivery of their first aircraft with the new interior in the second quarter of 2019.

About the Atmosphère Cabin

The new Atmosphère cabin sets new standards of passenger experience in the regional jet market segment. Key features of the new interior are comprised of larger passenger living space, wheel-first roller bag capability, more spacious lavatory, increased cabin connectivity options, all integrated in a contemporary design and material choices. In fact, the Atmosphère cabin design allows each passenger to carry and store an “oversized” roller bag within the aircraft cabin bins which minimizes the need to check bags at the counter or the gate.

Copyright Photo: American Eagle (2nd)-PSA Airlines (2nd) Bombardier CRJ900 (CL-600-2D24) N549NN (msn 15322) CLT (Jay Selman). Image: 403729.

American Eagle-PSA aircraft slide show: