Delta relocates key flights to Terminal 3 at London’s Heathrow Airport next to Virgin Atlantic

Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) and Virgin Atlantic Airways (London) today mark another major step forward in their partnership as Delta relocates some of its key services to join Virgin Atlantic at Heathrow Terminal 3. The move comes as both airlines start flying their new and aligned summer schedules that offer customers more choice and flexibility while reducing onward transit times.

From today, Delta moves its arrival and departure terminal for several important business markets including its London to New York-JFK, London to Boston, and new London to Seattle services to Heathrow’s Terminal 3. The move enhances convenience and a seamless customer experience. For example, on the world’s most important business travel market between London Heathrow (Terminal 3) and New York JFK (Terminal 4) Delta and Virgin Atlantic will now operate from the same terminal and make it easier for customers to manage their travel plans including any last minute flight changes. The two airlines have also introduced a dedicated New York to London schedule with the customer in mind.

The new routes announced by Delta and Virgin Atlantic include Delta’s new West Coast service between Seattle and London Heathrow which commenced flying on March 30, 2014. And in co-operation with Virgin Atlantic, Delta will also operate a second daily service between London Heathrow and Detroit Metropolitan Airport effective June 2, 2014. The service will be particularly appealing to corporate customers needing an early morning arrival into London while offering more schedule choice for customers between London and the U.S. Midwest.

The two airlines’ summer schedule includes a total of 32 peak daily nonstop flights between North America and the U.K.. Of these, 25 flights will operate between London Heathrow and popular U.S. destinations such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Washington.

Delta and Virgin Atlantic also provide a competitive offering for the New York to London travel market. It is designed with business travelers in mind and offers a total of nine daily nonstop flights. The schedule includes departures every 30 minutes during the early evening peak and then hourly until 22:30 from New York-JFK to London Heathrow. From London Heathrow to New York-JFK there is a spread of seven daily flights including two late afternoon and early evening departures. These services will be complemented by two daily nonstop flights between New York’s Newark airport and London Heathrow.

Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 777-232 LR N703DN (msn 32222) of Delta holds in position for runway clearance at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Delta Air Lines (current):

Virgin Atlantic Airways:

easyJet’s new William Shakespeare Airbus A319 logo jet and oldest William Shakespeare are the center points of a new campaign to recognize the famous playwright on the British calendar

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) as previously reported, painted one of its Airbus A319 with likeness of playwright William Shakespeare. We now know the reason. The airline today (April 2) launched a campaign to get the playwright officially recognized on the British calendar. The airline issued this statement:

Britain’s oldest real life William Shakespeare (below) has today launched a campaign to get the world’s most famous playwright officially recognized in the British calendar.

The 91 year old, from Bristol, was joined by Stratford-upon-Avon MP Nadhim Zahawias. Mr. Zahawias signed the petition to recognize April 23 as the national William Shakespeare Day.

Copyright Photo: EasyJet. Will-I-Am: Britain’s oldest William Shakespeare (above) launches campaign to make April 23 official day of the Bard.

The duo launched the campaign at London’s Gatwick Airport by unveiling a special edition easyJet Airbus A319 (G-EZBI) with an image of William Shakespeare on the fuselage. The airline is backing the bid to get the Bard recognized and is helping to garner the 100,000 signatures necessary for the issue to be debated in parliament and trending online with #Shakesonaplane

Heritage and culture remain one of the key drivers of tourism to the UK (Visit Britain report) and easyJet has arranged a program of free Shakespearean performances at airports across the country to share the playwright’s most famous work. The airline’s special William Shakespeare plane will also operate on flights across easyJet’s network this summer to help promote the UK as one of Europe’s leading cultural hot spots. The campaign for national William Shakespeare Day will culminate on the 450th anniversary of the Bard’s birth this April 23.

William Shakespeare from Bristol, said: “It is such an honor to be chosen to launch this campaign to recognise my namesake. All my life I have been proud to share my name with such an iconic British figure and I think it is important we recognise his achievements with an official day in the calendar.”

Paul Moore, Communications Director for easyJet said: ‎”William Shakespeare is Britain’s most famous author so easyJet is proud to back the bid to make 23 April his national day. We are asking our UK passengers to sign the petition while suggesting to those from the rest of Europe that they visit the land of Shakespeare to learn more about him and see his works performed.

“Our campaign will run during April in our in-flight magazine read by 5 million passengers a month, across thousands of seat back adverts and we will be staging free Shakespearean performances at airports across the UK. Passengers can win free flights by writing a sonnet supporting the campaign and it will be launched with our special Airbus which will carry Shakespeare’s image on the side. Aviation and Shakespearean language combine for the name – Romeo Alpha Juliet.”

Nadhim Zahawi, MP for Stratford-upon-Avon said:

“Is it a Bard, is it a plane? William Shakespeare is one of Britain’s greatest gifts to the world, ‘he was not of an age, but for all time’, and I have long argued this sceptre’d isle should celebrate April 23 as a national holiday. I’m delighted that easyJet have chosen to campaign on this issue – let’s hope we can get it off the runway.”

EasyJet will be collecting signatures and offering free Shakespeare performances at the following airports this month:

• London Gatwick: April 12-13
• London Luton: April 14-15
• Edinburgh: April 14-15
• London Stansted: April 14-15
• Manchester: April 16-17
• Bristol: April 16-17

Top Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EZBI (msn 3003) is seen departing from Gatwick Airport near London. (all others by EasyJet).

EasyJet (UK):

Due to demand, Allegiant changes the new Cincinnati-St. Petersburg/Clearwater route to year-round service

Allegiant Air (Las Vegas) has expanded scheduled service between Cincinnati and St. Petersburg/Clearwater from seasonal summer service to year-round.

Nonstop flights from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) will begin on May 15, 2014.

Allegiant first took flight from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on February 12, 2014, with service to Sanford (near Orlando), and shortly thereafter, celebrated the start of service to Punta Gorda on February 14, 2014.

Copyright Photo: Jay Selman/AirlinersGallery.com. McDonnell Douglas DC-9-83 (MD-83) N868GA (msn 49554) departs from Las Vegas.

Allegiant Air:

Lakeshore Express suspends operations

Lake Express Aviation (Pontiac, Michigan), which started scheduled passenger services between Pontiac and Chicago Midway on June 6, 2013 with four roundtrips, has suspended operations. Flights were operated by Pentastar Aviation Charter (Pontiac) using 30-seat SAAB 340B aircraft . The airline also operated between Chicago (Midway) and Pellston, Michigan which began in June 2011.

Yesterday, the CEO issued this statement (no April’s Fool joke):

Dear Lakeshore Customers:

As we look forward to serving you this 2014 summer season and beyond, we are going to take a short break. At this time, Lakeshore is cancelling all future flights. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause; however, we are looking to establish a relationship with a new operating partner in order to restart service to our customers in the near future.

Full refunds will be granted for any existing reservations. Please feel free to contact us at any time by email (customerservice@lakeshoreexpress.com) regarding questions or concerns. We are building a stronger Lakeshore Express to serve you in the future!

Thank you,
Greg Stallkamp
CEO
Lakeshore Express

Aeroflot introduces its expanded summer schedule

Aeroflot Russian Airlines (Moscow) on March 30 introduced its summer schedule until October 25, 2014. The airline issued this statement on the highlights of the enhanced schedule:

This summer Aeroflot plans to launch flights to 52 countries, including seven CIS countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine). The route network of Aeroflot comprises 125 destinations (73 outside Russia), including 49 destinations in Europe, 12 in Asia, 7 in America and 5 in the Middle East and Africa.

Aeroflot’s CIS network includes 11 destinations: Baku, Bishkek, Yerevan, Minsk, Tashkent, Kiev, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odessa, and Karaganda.

Aeroflot continues to play a significant role in shaping the structure of Russian civil aviation and further development of the domestic air travel. Thus daily flights will be operated on two new destinations in Russia: Novy Urengoy and Rostov-on-Don. Aeroflot will continue services on routes introduced under the winter season 2013/2014: Moscow – Ulan-Ude and Moscow-Chita.

Including the cities above, Aeroflot’s domestic service embraces 41 the most popular destinations in Russia: Abakan, Anapa, Astrakhan, Barnaul, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Gelendzik, Ekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Kemerovo, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Magnitogorsk, Mineralnye Vody, Nizhnevartovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhnekamsk, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Omsk, Perm, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Samara, Saint Petersburg, Simferopol, Sochi, Surgut, Tomsk, Tyumen, Ufa, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and Yakutsk.
Flight frequency will also be increased at the most popular domestic destinations: Saint Petersburg (from 105 to 112 weekly flights), Sochi (from 35 to 42), Krasnodar (from 28 to 41), Samara (from 28 to 35), Nizhny Novgorod (from 28 to 35), Chelyabinsk (from 21 to 28), Nizhnekamsk (from 14 to 21), Anapa (from 14 to 21), Gelendzik (from 7 to 14), Mineralnye Vody (from 7 to 14), Orenburg (from 7 to 14), Tomsk (from 7 to 14), Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (from 7 to 10).

Aeroflot’s fleet is growing with deliveries of new long-haul Boeing 777-300 ERs (above), which will provide services to Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Khabarovsk, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, New York (JFK), Beijing, Seoul and Shanghai.

Traditional winter destinations – Innsbruck and Phuket – will be replaced by summer ones like Gelendzik, Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Dubrovnik, Split and Tivat.

Aeroflot network will be strengthened by 109 destinations on which aircraft of Aeroflot Group subsidiary companies will be used. Aeroflot marketing flights will be operated on 116 routes.

During Summer Season 2013 Aeroflot together with its subsidiary companies and code sharing partners will fly to 351 unique destinations in 66 countries, including Russia.

Copyright Photo: Marcelo F. De Biasi/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 777-3M0 VP-BGB (msn 41679) completes its final approach to the runway at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).

Aeroflot:

JetBlue Airways launches its new “Air on the Side of Humanity” TV advertising campaign

JetBlue Airways (New York) today (April 2) launched a new spring advertising and marketing campaign, ‘Air on the Side of Humanity,’ to remind customers there is a better way to fly. With TV spots running in Boston, Fort Lauderdale and New York and multi-channel components, the new campaign leverages the plight and perspective of the most overlooked fliers of all – pigeons. The end result is an integrated campaign that flies in the face of conventional airline branding with JetBlue making a bold statement about siding and flying with humanity.

The 360-degree campaign includes TV, online advertising, a first of its kind web video series, microsites, mobile, social, experiential and out-of-home advertising, all dedicated to entertain and bring JetBlue’s Inspire Humanity mission to life.

“We have built the airline you would have built for yourself, by offering what other airlines don’t – lots of legroom, friendly crewmembers, unlimited free snacks, free entertainment at every seat, Fly-Fi and more. Giving customers all of the comforts of home while in the air,” said Marty St. George, JetBlue’s senior vice president of marketing and commercial strategy. “This campaign is meant to encourage travelers to pause and consider the type of experience they want and deserve while flying.”

In the campaign, JetBlue delivers multi-media narratives from the perspective of a pigeon that draw playful comparisons on how people are treated by other carriers including cramped spaces, limited snacks, flying on someone else’s schedule and the feeling of being ignored.

The ‘Air on the Side of Humanity’ campaign expands with new components including an experiential launch event in New York City and a video series collaboration with Funny Or Die, extending the metaphor at the center of the ‘Air On The Side of Humanity’ campaign.

The media strategy is video-led (television and online) featuring both long- and short-form messaging, the web series created in partnership with Funny Or Die, custom JetBlue-branded and curated Spotify playlists, an interactive mobile rich media experience utilizing accelerometer functionality to entice audience interaction, and custom Buzzfeed posts with messages tailored to each market.

In a five-part video series entitled “Shoo’s Bird’s Eye View,” JetBlue and Funny Or Die collaborate for branded vignettes that highlight a pigeon’s unique point of view and bring a playful tone to both the triumphs and trials of humans. The humorous shorts live on JetBlue’s digital experience and social hub, CentralPerch, as well as FunnyOrDie.com, and leverage the social media footprint of the two brands through social activation and promotion. In this series that begins today and continues throughout the month with new content weekly, JetBlue celebrates the things that make us human, demonstrating its continued commitment to inspiring humanity and showing what sets JetBlue apart from all other airlines and service-centric brands.

Beginning on April 2, JetBlue, New York’s Hometown AirlineTM brings the campaign to life with New Yorkers with an experiential teaser activation where model pigeons are being placed around favorite city hot spots, emulating a grassroots event on behalf of underserved fliers. Passersby will socially interact via a hashtag. Across the market, disruptive print executions will feature floating ads demonstrating key features of the JetBlue experience, while commuters will experience transit media takeovers in subways, bus shelters, taxi tops and on taxi television. A regional section takeover features a high impact push down unit while cross-device HTML 5 synched digital media units will roll out on select digital channels.

Rounding out the campaign in Boston and Florida, consumers will experience similar disruptive print executions in the Boston Globe, Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald and interactive homepage takeovers on Boston.com and MiamiHerald.com – where it’s first-to-market. Boston will bring back a first-to-market execution of pigeons riding atop taxi tops and expand with Out-of-Home strategically positioned to reach the business traveler, while Florida will reach Hispanic audiences via television and digital executions across Univision, Telemundo and Telefutura networks.

The creative, media and online experiences were led by Mullen’s Boston office, JetBlue’s agency-of-record since 2010.

JetBlue Airways:

Videos: JetBlue Airways.

SAS expands flights to the U.S. as it celebrates 50 years of flying between Copenhagen and Chicago

Scandinavian Airlines-SAS (Stockholm) is celebrating 50 years of flying to Chicago with increased service to the United States. The airline issued this statement:

SAS was the first airline to fly over the North Pole to the U.S. West Coast in 1954. Ten years later, SAS also began flying to the U.S. Midwest and is now celebrating 50 years of service between Copenhagen and Chicago. In 2014, SAS is continuing to increase its traffic, adding five weekly departures and a new route to the USA. In doing so, SAS is cementing its position as Scandinavia’s biggest and most capable airline for travel to the United States.

On April 2, 1964, SAS launched the route to Chicago (O’Hare) with the maiden flight from Copenhagen. Captain Jens Mueller flew passengers and crew in a Douglas DC-8-33 to Chicago via Montreal, sowing the seeds for a successful route, which has since been operated by aircraft including the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, Boeing 767 and Airbus A330and A340. More than 3 million people have flown this route with SAS, and today the airline flies directly from Copenhagen and Stockholm to Chicago.

SAS operates a nonstop route between Copenhagen and Chicago (O’Hare) with one flight a day every day of the week. This will now also apply to the route to San Francisco, which is getting an extra departure on Tuesday, making it a daily service as of June 10.

SAS currently flies from Stockholm to Chicago every day in the summer and five times a week in winter. SAS is adding another winter departure to Chicago (O’Hare) from Stockholm, which will also be getting an extra flight to New York (JFK). SAS is also adding two more departures a week on the Oslo-New York (JFK) route in winter. Oslo-New York (JFK) operates daily in the summer.

SAS has also just announced the opening of a new route between Stavanger and Houston (Bush Intercontinental) (please see our previous report).

Details of the expansion of U.S. services:

· Copenhagen-San Francisco: From June 10 to October 25, 7 departures per week (Tuesday has been added)
· Stockholm Chicago: Daily departures in the summer. On the winter timetable (from end of October) 6 departures per week (Thursday has been added)
· Stockholm-New York: Daily departures in the summer. On the winter timetable (from end of October) 6 departures per week (Friday has been added)
· Oslo-New York: Daily departures in the summer. On the winter timetable (from end of October) 6 departures per week (Tuesday and Wednesday have been added)
· Stavanger-Houston: From 20 August with 6 departures per week (except Saturday)

Copyright Photo: Stefan Sjogren/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus Airbus A340-313X OY-KBM (msn 450) in the Star Alliance motif departs the runway at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport (ARN).

Scandinavian Airlines-SAS:

Lufthansa’s pilots start their three-day strike virtually grounding most of the airline

Lufthansa‘ (Frankfurt) pilots started their three-day strike today (April 2). The strike has virtually grounded the German airline except for a few short-haul and long-haul international flights.

Lufthansa has cancelled 3,800 flights until late Friday.

According to Reuters, the pilots want Lufthansa to reinstate a retirement plan that allowed them to receive 60 percent of their pay and benefits when they leave the airline before the retirement date.

Lufthansa’s pilots were forced to retire at 60, leaving a gap of five years before the legal retirement age of 65. The retirement age for pilots was raised to 65 in Europe in 2011 according to Reuters. Lufthansa says it is no longer necessary.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

The airline issued this statement:

As a result of strike actions of the German pilots’ union “Vereinigung Cockpit” (VC) at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings from Wednesday, April 2, 2014, to Friday, April 4, 2014, Lufthansa has reduced its schedule significantly.
Flights of the Lufthansa Group Airlines Eurowings, Lufthansa CityLine, Air Dolomiti, Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines are excepted from the strikes and schedule adjustments.

Previously on March 31 the airline issued this statement:

Due to the strike announced by the pilot’s union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings have canceled about 3,800 flights on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. During the three day walkout of the cockpit crew only about 500 Lufthansa short and long haul flights will be operated.

Flight cancellations on such a massive scale will affect a total of 425,000 passengers. Lufthansa will inform all passengers who have registered their contact details in their booking or in their Miles & More profile about flight changes via text message and email. Most of the remaining domestic and European flights will be flown by the daughter companies Eurowings and Lufthansa Cityline, whose pilots are not participating in the walkout.

In addition to Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo will also be affected. For the three strike days 23 of 31 planned cargo flights from Frankfurt have been already canceled.

The pilots of Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa CityLine and Air Dolomiti as well as the pilots of Brussels Airlines will not participate in the strike. Where possible, these companies will use larger planes on routes from and to Germany in order to bring as many rebooked Lufthansa passengers as possible to their destinations.

Additionally, Lufthansa will re-book affected passengers on other airlines and in cooperation with German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) will provide train tickets on domestic routes.

Copyright Photo: Pascal Simon/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 747-430 D-ABVH (msn 25045) with the special “50 Years of Innovation – Boeing and Lufthansa” emblem, arrives at the Frankfurt base.

Lufthansa:

Nok Air converts two Bombardier Q400s to firm orders

Nok Air (Bangkok) of Thailand has converted two previously booked Bombardier DHC-8-402 (Q400) NextGen aircraft options to firm orders. The options were acquired under a contract announced on November 19, 2013 that also included two firm-ordered aircraft and four purchase rights. At that time, Bombardier also confirmed that Nok Air would be the launch customer for the new extra capacity seating option of the Q400 NextGen turboprop that will allow the aircraft to accommodate up to 86 passengers.

Image: Bombardier.

Nok Air:

China Express converts three Bombardier CRJ900s to firm orders

China Express Airlines (Chongqing) has converted previously announced conditional purchase agreements for three Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen regional jets into a firm order. The conditional purchase agreements for five CRJ900 NextGen aircraft, with options on an additional eight CRJ900 NextGen aircraft, were announced on December 2, 2013, along with a firm order for three CRJ900 NextGen airliners.

China Express provides regional passenger services to 44 cities throughout China with its fleet of five Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft and nine 84-seat CRJ900 NextGen aircraft. The airline was the first to operate the CRJ900 aircraft in China.