Tag Archives: 737300

Branson, Missouri to convert to a Southwest city on March 9

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) announced today the carrier will add a 79^th destination to its route map with service to Branson, Missouri, beginning in March 2013. Southwest starts service in Branson on March 9, 2013, with daily flights offering nonstop service to Dallas (Love), Houston (Hobby), and Chicago (Midway), and with Saturday-only service to Orlando. Southwest will assume all flying from AirTran Airways, its wholly owned subsidiary, with AirTran’s operations at Branson fully converting to Southwest Airlines.

Southwest’s Branson Service:

One daily nonstop flight between Branson and Dallas Love Field
One daily nonstop flight between Branson and Houston Hobby
One daily nonstop flight between Branson and Chicago Midway
One Saturday-only nonstop flight between Branson and Orlando

Southwest also announced today that the airline has extended its flight schedule for travel between March 9, 2013, and April 12, 2013. In the new schedule, Southwest will begin service between several markets as listed below. The carrier also will add seasonal service to this flight schedule to accommodate Spring Break travel.

Southwest’s new markets:

Two daily nonstop flights between Newark and Nashville
One daily nonstop flight between Newark and Austin
One daily nonstop flight between Newark and New Orleans
One daily nonstop flight between Dayton and Orlando
One daily nonstop flight between Key West and New Orleans

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough. Boeing 737-3H4 N352SW (msn 24888) in the special Lone Star One livery arrives at Baltimore/Washington.

Southwest Slide Show:

New WN routes radiating from Branson:

Please click on the map for the full size.

Bmibaby announces its last flights on September 9

Bmibaby (bmibaby.com) (East Midlands) is going out of business. The last flights will be operated on September 9. To avoid a drop off of passengers at the end, the carrier is advising its customers to fly out on the airline and has given them guidance on who to fly home after September 9.

Here is the full list of the last flights: CLICK HERE

“Tiny” will soon be enjoying retirement. For now he is encouraging customers to continue flying on the airline.

Bmibaby Slide Show:

Frameable Color Prints and Posters:

Air Onix to expand to Istanbul in September

Air Onix Airlines (Simferopol, Ukraine) is planning to expand to Istanbul from Simferopol starting on September 11 with twice-weekly service. The new airline launched scheduled passenger operations on April 28, 2012 from Simferopol to Kiev (Zhuliany Airport) with Boeing 737s. Today it currently flies scheduled flights to Kiev (both airports), Lviv, Moscow (Domodedovo), St. Petersburg and Warsaw.

Copyright Photo: Andi Hiltl. Boeing 737-33R UR-KRA (msn 28873) arrives in Antalya, Turkey, one of the charter destinations.

Hot New Photos:

Jet2 to add its 45th destination from Leeds/Bradford: Pula, Croatia

Jet2 (Jet2.com) (Leeds/Bradford) is planning to add its 45th destination from its Leeds/Bradford base. The LBA-Pula (Croatia) route will be operating once a week on Sundays starting on May 26, 2013.

Jet2:

Kenya Airways starts a staff restructuring plan

Kenya Airways (Nairobi) on August 1 started a staff restructuring plan to reduce its staff costs which ballooned in the last few years.

Read the full statement from the carrier: CLICK HERE

Kenya Airways:

Norwegian posts a pre-tax profit of $20.4 million for the second quarter

Norwegian Air Shuttle (Oslo) financial performance improved in the second quarter, reporting its pre-tax profit increased 68 percent to $20.4 million in the second quarter.

Here is the complete report by the airline:

“Norwegian (NAS) reported a pre tax profit of 125 million NOK, an improvement of 50 million from last year. This year’s result has been considerably influenced by the strike among the security staff at airports throughout Norway. The strike cost Norwegian 70 million NOK.

The company’s growth continues and increased by 15 percent in the second quarter. The number of passengers increased by 430,000 (11 percent). The load factor was 76 percent, down 2 percentage points compared to previous year.

By phasing in new and bigger aircraft to the fleet, Norwegian’s operation will become more efficient and competitive. In the second quarter, the company has saved 38 million NOK thanks to its more fuel-efficient aircraft.

So far this year, Norwegian has taken delivery of eight brand new Boeing 737-800s, while five will be delivered from the Boeing factory in Seattle later this year. At the same time, the older 737-300s are being phased out. Following the summer, the average age of the fleet will be 4.9 years. Norwegian’s fleet renewal program enables the company to increase its production considerably, as the new aircraft have larger seat capacity.”

Norwegian:

Southwest to launch nonstop Nashville-New York LaGuardia flights on February 13

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) and its wholly owned subsidiary AirTran Airways announced today they extended their flight schedules for travel bookings through February 13, 2013. In the schedule, Southwest will begin new service between Nashville and New York LaGuardia with two daily nonstop flights. The carrier also will begin new seasonal routes as listed below:

Southwest’s new seasonal markets include:

One daily nonstop flight between Nashville and Ft. Myers
One daily nonstop flight between Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood and Phoenix
One daily nonstop flight between Milwaukee and New Orleans
One daily nonstop flight between Ontario and Reno

Southwest Airlines:

Northern Air Cargo leases its second Boeing 737-300 freighter

Northern Air Cargo-NAC (Anchorage) on June 18 leased its second Boeing 737-300 freighter. Boeing 737-301 (SF) N361NC (msn 23260) was formerly operated by Bluebird Cargo as TF-BBI.

GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of GE, leased the freighter to NAC, a new customer for GECAS.

The aircraft will be used to upgrade and expand Northern Air Cargo’s fleet.

Privately held Northern Air Cargo operates scheduled freight service to destinations in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest as well as charter freight service to other locations throughout North America. The carrier operates a fleet of five cargo aircraft.

Copyright Photo: TMK Photography. The pictured Boeing 737-301 (SF) N360WA (msn 23553) was the first, delivered on October 28, 2010.

NAC-Northern Air Cargo:

Route Map:

Please click on the map to expand.

Air Nigeria is in turmoil

Air Nigeria (Lagos) on April 21 was temporarily grounded by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) due to safety concerns, except for its London (Gatwick) service.

The airline issued the following statement:

“Air Nigeria wishes to inform that the scheduled Lagos – London – Lagos flight operation is not affected by the temporary suspension directive of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Passengers are therefore encouraged to proceed with their confirmed itinerary while intending customers can make their reservations through all our sales channels.

We however wish to apologize for all the inconvenience that the temporary suspension of our domestic and regional flights by the NCAA will bring on our passengers.

Air Nigeria is committed to offering safe and secure flight operations at all times as just recently it was given a clean bill of health by the regulatory agency after a safety audit of its operations. We will continue to liaise with the relevant agencies to ensure that the suspension order is lifted as soon as possible.”

Due to safety concerns raised by the safety audit, the airline subsequently issued this statement:

“Air Nigeria affirms that ever since the inception of its flight operations, it operates in strict compliance with safety regulations and has at no time compromised on standards as it has consistently submitted to internationally recognised audit exercises. Air Nigeria is the first Nigerian airline and the only carrier in West Africa to pass three consecutive IATA Operational Safety Audit program (IOSA) in the last five years.

The IOSA audit program employs internationally recognized quality audit principles and the consecutive successes recorded by Air Nigeria in the last five years have clearly showed a demonstration of commitment to safety standards by engaging internationally accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of airline are at par with other global airlines.

With an established track record of offering safe and secure means of transport in the last seven years without any accident, Air Nigeria affirms of its continuous compliance with all laid down operational and maintenance regulations of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Air Nigeria was just recently given a clean bill of health after a successful safety audit of its fleet of aircraft and flight operations by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and has at no time found deficient in the discharge of offering safe air services to passengers.

The airline presently runs a Safety Management System (SMS) under the guidance of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and it is the only Nigerian airline and one of the few airlines in Africa currently implementing this system. Under this SMS scheme, pilots and engineers perform their day-to-day professionally responsibilities in line with prescribed standards without management interference.

Sensational reports and claims that are being circulated in the media that allege management’s interference to force pilots and engineers to operate “unserviceable aircraft” are fabricated propagandas by those groups that felt ‘threatened’ by the successful turn-around of Air Nigeria over the last two years, which recently culminated with the successful launch of long haul operations.

It is very sad that those “threatened groups” tried to exploit the recent unfortunate air crash to blackmail and sabotage Air Nigeria which has unquestionable world class safety standards for the last seven years.

In the face of all the daunting challenges, we at Air Nigeria, have kept faith and our creed is to continually offer safe and secure services at all times. The airline is cooperating with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ensure that the issues relating to the temporary suspension of the domestic and regional flight operations are resolved to ensure that passengers continue to enjoy the services of the airline.

The scheduled Lagos – London – Lagos flight operation is not affected by the temporary suspension directive of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and passengers are therefore encouraged to proceed with their confirmed itinerary while intending customers can make their reservations through all our sales channels.

Air Nigeria is one of the fastest growing airlines in West Africa that has since inception distinguished itself and won several laurels in recognition of its outstanding contributions towards development of the Nigerian aviation industry. The airline was in 2010 named the “Airline of the Year” at the Nigeria Aviation Awards (NIGAV) while it also clinched the “Best Security Conscious Airline in West and Central Africa” for its strict adherence to prescribed aviation safety standards.”

The airline was reacting to local media reports that it fired 12 engineers and pilots with connections to the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).

Read the full report from the Nigerian Tribune: CLICK HERE

Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways aircraft maintenance technicians ratify Seniority Integration Agreement

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) announced the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMT) from Southwest Airlines, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), and AirTran Airways (Dallas), represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 528, voted to ratify their Seniority Integration Agreement. This agreement integrates the two groups’ seniority lists. Southwest Airlines finalized closing of the acquisition of AirTran Holdings, Inc., on May 2, 2011.

AMFA represents approximately 1,750 Southwest Airlines Aircraft Maintenance Technicians, and the IBT represents close to 500 Mechanics from AirTran Airways.

Today’s vote by the AMTs means they now join the Pilots, Flight Attendants, Flight Instructors, Dispatchers, and Ramp, Operations, Provisioning and Freight Agents as having successfully completed the Seniority Integration negotiation process. Work groups still in seniority integration negotiations include Customer Service Agents and Customer Support and Service Employees and Materials Specialists.

This moves the merger one step closer.

Top Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum.

Southwest Airlines: