Tag Archives: A319-112

Allegiant Air arrives in New Orleans from Cincinnati

Allegiant Air (Las Vegas) yesterday (February 4) celebrated the start of seasonal, low-cost service to New Orleans from Cincinnati (CVG). Local travelers can now laissez les bon temps rouler in the Big Easy just in time for Mardi Gras.

New Orleans is the first of two new cities Allegiant will be launching from CVG in February, with flights to Jacksonville, Florida beginning on February 12. Both cities were previously served nonstop from CVG by other carriers and were recently discontinued. Cincinnati is the first city to be connected with Allegiant’s newest destination and will offer travelers their first low-cost option for flights to New Orleans.

The seasonal flights will operate twice weekly from the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) to the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) through May 4, 2015.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 N302NV (msn 2387) completes its final approach to the runway at Los Angeles International Airport.

Allegiant Air aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-UnitedStates-1/Airlines-UnitedStates-1/Allegiant-Air

Gambia Bird ceases operations, an apparent victim of the Ebola crisis in west Africa

Gambia Bird Airlines (Banjul), since the Ebola crisis spread, continued to operate the Banjul – London (Gatwick) route but dropping the stop in Sierra Leone due to the on-going crisis. A few days ago, the company announced they would add London (Gatwick)-Accra and Gatwick-Lagos flights. However yesterday (December 30), the west African airline ceased all operations.

The airline issued this statement yesterday:

Gambia Bird Airlines has suspended commercial flight operations until further notice. This operational decision is effective as of December 30.

We wish to express our sincere regrets for disrupting the travel plans of those of our esteemed guests who are booked on the suspended flights. We further wish to confirm that we will provide a full refund of all tickets purchased prior to this flight suspension.

Furthermore, Gambia Bird Airlines wishes to reaffirm that we will comply with all our obligations and that we will provide all necessary support services to passengers affected by the flight suspension.

Copyright Photo: Terry Wade/AirlinersGallery.com. Gambia Bird Airlines-AJW Aviation (Germania) Airbus A319-112 D-ASTB (msn 4691) arrives at LGW.

Gambia Bird aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Africa-2/Airlines-Africa2-GZ/Gambia-Bird

Virgin America completes the fleetwide installation of Gogo ATG-4 WiFi service

Virgin America (San Francisco) today announced the fleetwide rollout of Gogo’s faster ATG-4 WiFi service – with the completion this week of ATG-4 WiFi installation on its Airbus A319 plane “Jane” (N526VA, above).

In 2009, Virgin America became the first airline to offer Gogo Inflight WiFi service on every flight – a distinction the airline still maintains today.

With a base of tech-forward flyers, the airline has similarly invested in the next generation of WiFi technology – with the rollout of Gogo’s enhanced WiFi product to all 53 of Virgin America’s Airbus A320 Family aircraft. ATG-4 offers a faster average guest experience with peak speeds of 9.8 Mbps to each aircraft – more than triple the peak speed of the 3.1 Mbps available with the first generation of inflight WiFi. To help celebrate this milestone, Virgin America and Gogo are asking guests to share their best “office in the sky” moment on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #OfficeInTheSky for a chance to win a round trip Main Cabin flight for two on Virgin America, a brand new iPad or complimentary Gogo Inflight WiFi service for one year (full terms and conditions available here).

Gogo’s ATG-4 technology includes three industry-leading innovations: the addition of directional antennas and dual modems on each aircraft and the deployment of EV-DO Rev B technology on Gogo’s airborne and ground networks. Utilizing directional antennas and dual modem technology, ATG-4 increases overall peak connection speeds and ensures a more reliable connection to each and every passenger on board who chooses to connect.

The airline’s in-flight connectivity milestones have included:

November 2008: Virgin America streams the first ever “air-to-ground” video stream to YouTube Live – YouTube’s first official real-world user event from the airline’s first WiFi-enabled aircraft

February 2009: The CBS Early Show airs the first-ever live broadcast transmission from a commercial plane – a Virgin America Airbus A320 – via the airline’s in-flight WiFi

May 2009: Virgin America becomes the first U.S. domestic airline to achieve fleetwide WiFi

December 2014: Virgin America is the first U.S. airline to offer next-gen, Gogo ATG-4 Inflight WiFi on every plane

The airline continues to expand its network across the country with flights to Austin, Boston, Cancun, Chicago, Dallas Love Field, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Los Cabos, Newark, New York (JFK and LGA), Orlando, Palm Springs (seasonal), Portland, Puerto Vallarta, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma and Washington D.C. (IAD and DCA).

Top Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com (others by Virgin America). Airbus A319-112 N526VA (msn 3347) departs from Los Angeles.

Virgin America aircraft slide service:

Video: In December 2014, Virgin America became the first airline to install Gogo’s faster ATG-4 WiFi service fleetwide with the installation of the service its Airbus A319 plane “Jane” (N526VA). With the rollout of Gogo’s enhanced WiFi product to all 53 of Virgin America’s Airbus A320 Family aircraft the airline now offers guests peak speeds of 9.8 Mbps – more than triple the peak speed available with the first generation of inflight WiFi.

Watch how each aircraft is converted:

Air Canada outlines its new North American growth routes

Air Canada (Montreal) today announced additional details of its previously stated plans for profitable growth. Strategic enhancements include expanding its North American route network with the addition of new nonstop services from Calgary-Terrace; Calgary-Nanaimo; Vancouver-Comox; Toronto-Austin and Montreal-Mexico City. Air Canada is also increasing capacity on key domestic markets that have high volumes of leisure traffic with the expansion of Air Canada rouge to operate the airline’s new seasonal Calgary-Halifax route and current Toronto-Kelowna and Toronto-Sydney, NS services. New services are now available for purchase at http://www.aircanada.com.

“Air Canada continues to strategically add new routes in response to the strong demand in Western Canada, notably the growing business market between Calgary and Terrace/Kitimat in Northern BC, the increasing demand to and from Vancouver Island, and the continued travel demand between Western Canada and Atlantic Canada,” said Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines.

Air Canada is returning to Austin, Texas from Toronto and to Mexico City from Montreal.

Highlights of Air Canada’s 2015 North American summer schedule enhancements include:

Calgary-Terrace

New daily, year-round Air Canada Express service starts June 1, 2015 operated by Jazz Aviation LP with 50-seat Bombardier CRJ jets.

Calgary-Nanaimo

New daily, year-round Air Canada Express service starts May 1, 2015 operated by Jazz Aviation LP with 74-seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft.

Calgary-Halifax

New summer seasonal six times weekly service starts May 1, 2015 operated by Air Canada rouge with 136-seat Airbus A319 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service, increasing up to ten weekly flights during peak summer period.

Vancouver-Comox

New twice daily, year-round Air Canada Express service starts May 1, 2015 operated by Jazz Aviation LP with 50-seat Bombardier Dash 8-300 aircraft.

Kelowna-Toronto

More than 40 per cent increased capacity year-over-year starting June 1, 2015 with up to daily service during peak summer, deployment of 136-seat Air Canada rouge Airbus A319 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service, following the transfer of this route from Air Canada.

Toronto-Austin

New daily, year-round Air Canada Express service starts May 18, 2015 operated by Jazz Aviation LP with 75-seat CRJ705 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

Toronto-Sarasota/Bradenton

Winter seasonal service extended effective May 2 offering the only non-stop, year-round flights between Toronto and Sarasota/Bradenton, operated twice weekly by Air Canada with 97-seat Embraer 190 jets offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

Toronto-Sydney, NS

More than 40 per cent increased capacity year-over-year starting May 1 with daily deployment of 136-seat Air Canada rouge Airbus A319 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service, following the seasonal transfer of this route from Air Canada.

Montreal-Mexico City

New, up to five times weekly, summer seasonal service starts May 2 operated by Air Canada rouge, with 136-seat Airbus A319 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

Ottawa-Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood

Seasonal service now extended to year-round, operated twice weekly by Air Canada with 97-seat Embraer 190 jets offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

In addition, starting in May 2015, Air Canada will transfer to Air Canada rouge its Calgary-Varadero and Montreal-Varadero routes which will be operated with 142-seat Airbus A319 aircraft, as well as its Montreal-Martinique route operated with 136-seat Airbus A319 offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

Copyright Photo: SM Fitzwilliams Collection/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 C-GITP (msn 1562) arrives in Shannon, Ireland.

Air Canada aircraft slide show:

Czech Airlines to add seven new destinations next summer after years of cutbacks

Czech Airlines-CSA (Prague) has announced it will add seven destinations for the 2015 summer season.

In stages, Czech Airlines will launch operations on its regular scheduled connections to Oslo (OSL), Billund (BLL), Cork (ORK), Bilbao (BIO) and Bologna (BLQ). The carrier also plans to launch two new connections with Russia – flying to Kaliningrad (KGD) and Kazan (KZN). Additionally, Czech Airlines will launch a connection between Billund and Oslo, and Copenhagen and Stockholm.

The airline continued;

“After a year of cutbacks, we plan to expand the existing Czech Airlines’ network starting the 2015 summer season. We feel that there is a significant business potential in our new destinations which we would like to use fully. At the same time, we would like to capitalize on Czech Airlines great reputation in the Russian market and, effective April 2015, service a total of nine destinations in Russia,” said Jozef Sinčák, Chairman of Czech Airlines Board of Directors, and added: “We have set the new destinations timetables in a way to best use the market potential and at the same time appeal to both local and transfer passengers as the connections were designed with the customers’ priorities in mind. We will operate all new destinations using the existing free capacity of Czech Airlines and thus improve the fleet use.”

New Czech Airlines’ Routes in North Europe

Czech Airlines will launch operations on its Prague – Oslo route on March 30, 2015. At the beginning of the summer season, the carrier will service the route twice weekly. Effective May 30, 2015, two more return connections will be added on this route, which will then be operated with four weekly frequencies until the end of the summer season. Czech Airlines will use Airbus A319 aircraft exclusively to service the route. The new Oslo service was designed for local – i.e. point-to-point passengers from the Czech Republic and Norway and also for transfer passengers travelling from Norway to Mediterranean cities – destinations offered by Czech Airlines for the second year during the summer season on a code-share basis with Travel Service. For now, Czech Airlines plans to operate the Oslo connection on a seasonal basis.

New Czech Airlines’ flights to Billund, Denmark are scheduled to first take off on March 29, 2015. The route will be operated by the carrier four times a week, year round, by ATR 42 aircraft with the option of using a larger ATR 72 aircraft if necessary. Business travellers and tourists from both countries – i.e. the Czech Republic and Denmark, form the target group of this new flight.

On work days, i.e. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, these Czech Airlines’ flights will continue from Billund to Oslo. The carrier wants to apply its successful model of the Prague – Bratislava – Košice and Prague – Hamburg – Gothenburg routes.

Czech Airlines’ News in West and South Europe

A new Cork connection will be serviced from May 14, 2015 until the end of the summer season with two return flights a week. The timetable was tailored to the priorities of the main target group, i.e. tourists from the South-West part of Ireland travelling to Prague for a long weekend, complemented by Czech tourists headed to explore the South of Ireland.

Czech Airlines will service its new connection to Bilbao during the main operational season, i.e. between June 1 and September 30, 2015, offering two return frequencies a week. The Bilbao connection, just as the other new connections, was designed predominantly for tourists. Czech Airlines will service both the Cork and the Bilbao route by Airbus A319 aircraft. Both connections will be operated on a seasonal basis, i.e. with services break during the winter seasons.

Czech Airlines will be returning to the Prague – Bologna route after a four-year pause. The carrier will operate it year round four times a week with ATR 72 aircraft from March 29, 2015. This connection was designed for business travellers and tourists alike.

Czech Airlines’ Plans in Russian Market during 2015 Summer Season

Despite this year’s year-on-year drop in passenger demand for travels between Russia and the Czech Republic, Russian market has been of great significance for Czech Airlines with high potential for further development thanks to the option of launching operations to new destinations located there. That is why Czech Airlines plans to launch two new connections within the market at the beginning of the 2015 summer season – to Kaliningrad and to Kazan.

Connections between Prague and Kazan will be operated by Czech Airlines twice weekly, using Airbus A319 aircraft. The timetable for the new Prague – Kaliningrad route is designed in the same way as the Prague – Kazan connection, using the same attractive combination of weekdays of operations for weekend and mid-week stays in Prague. Czech Airlines will operate the service using ATR 72 turbo propeller aircraft. Both connections will be operated year round.

Effective 2015 summer season, Czech Airlines will service a total of nine destinations and operate eleven regular scheduled connections between the Czech Republic and Russia. Alongside the mentioned Kazan and Kaliningrad services, there will be Czech Airlines’ services from Prague to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Rostov upon Done, Ufa and Perm, alongside two connections from Karlovy Vary to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Copyright Photo: Karl Cornil/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 OK-OER (msn 3892) with the special Instaforex markings departs from Brussels.

Czech Airlines aircraft slide show:

Czech Airlines puts its new Airbus A319 “Wow Prague” logo jet into service

Czech A319-100 OK-NEP (14-Wow Prague-L)(Tko) PRG (Czech)(LR)

Czech Airlines-CSA (Prague) on November 21 put its Airbus A319-112 OK-NEP (msn 3660) painted in this new “Wow Prague” special livery into revenue service.

Photos: Czech Airlines. The sub-titles are “Fly to the City of Magic”.

Video: Washing Czech’s Airbus A330-300:

Video: The “Wow Prague” slogan is part of a city-wide unified promotional campaign to bring visitors to the historic city:

Czech Airlines aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-1/Airlines-Europe-1/Czech-Airlines-CSA

Atlantic Airways to start Edinburgh, Scotland flights on March 30

Atlantic Airways (Vagar, Faroe Islands) will start a new route next summer to Edinburgh, Scotland. The route will be operated twice-weekly with Airbus A319s starting on March 30, 2015 per Airline Route.

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Atlantic Airways Airbus A319-112 OY-RCI (msn 3905) taxies at Amsterdam.

Atlantic Airways:

Finnair’s third quarter net profit declines by 38% to $20.8 million

Finnair (Helsinki) reported a third quarter net profit of €16.6 million ($20.8 million) ending on September 30, down over 38% from the amount of €27 million ($33.8 million) reported for the same quarter in 2013.

CEO Pekka Vauramo commented:

“Finnair’s passenger and cargo revenue for July–September declined year-on-year, causing our turnover to decrease to 622.7 million euros. The decline in unit revenue, caused primarily by the strengthening of the euro against key Asian currencies, continued in the third quarter, although at a slower rate than earlier in the year. Growth in passenger volume and the progress of cost reduction measures were not sufficient to compensate for the weak revenue development, as our operational result fell to 26.7 million euros.

In order for Finnair’s profitability to improve, it is essential that we increase unit revenues and maintain tight control over costs. By the end of September, we had nearly achieved the overall target for our 200-million-euro cost reduction program. The program will be completed by the end of the year. The savings agreements we concluded with pilots and cabin crew in September and October will contribute to our cost competitiveness from 2015 onwards. I am very pleased with the outcome of the negotiations, as they not only produce cost savings, but also enable us to continue to develop our operations together with our personnel.

In August, we announced a number of product upgrades with which we pursue additional revenue. We expect our first A350 aircraft, which join our fleet in late 2015, to show an impact on our profitability from 2016 onwards. A significant improvement in revenue before that, however, would require a substantial recovery in domestic market demand and a substantial decrease in the world market price of fuel.” –

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 OH-LVA (msn 1073) completes its final approach to the runway at Zurich.

Finnair aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-2/Airlines-Europe-2/Finnair

Video: Business class on Finnair:

American Airlines’ first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner emerges from the Boeing paint shop

American Airlines‘ (Dallas/Fort Worth) first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (N800AN, msn 40618) emerged from the paint shop this morning at Boeing’s Everett facility. American has released these photos.

N800AN will be delivered in December. The first 787-8 is scheduled to enter revenue service in early 2015 initially on domestic routes.

American has 42 Boeing 787s on order including 16 787-8s and 26 787-9s, with 58 options. The airline is scheduled to take delivery of two 787s this year, 11 in 2015, 13 in 2016 and nine in 2017.

American will replace some of its older Boeing 767-300s with the new 787s.

In other news, US Airways has repainted its Airbus A319-112 N744P (msn 1287) (below) in the 1974 Piedmont Airlines (1st) (Winston-Salem) livery now with American titles. US Airways is gradually repainting all of the legacy jets with American titles.

All Images by American Airlines (except the slide show by AirlinersGallery.com).

American Airlines (current):

Piedmont Airlines (1st) Aircraft Slide Show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-UnitedStates-2/Airlines-UnitedStates-2/Piedmont-Airlines-1st

Alitalia to lay off 994 employees with the start of its winter schedule

Alitalia (2nd) (Rome) in a cost-cutting measure following the 49 percent investment by Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi), will terminate 879 ground crew employees, 61 pilots and 54 flight attendants according to Ria Novosti citing a report by the Italian news agency Adnkronos. The cut employees will begin receiving notice on October 31. Previously the beleaguered carrier had already eliminated 700 positions through through resignations or retirements.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

In other news, with these employee cuts, Alitalia will also trim its fleet. According to ch-aviation, partner Airberlin (Berlin) will add 14 ex-Alitalia Airbus A320s as it goes to an all-Airbus fleet.

Finally the carrier issued the details about its winter schedule that started on October 26:

On Sunday, October 26, Alitalia’s schedule for the winter season 2014-2015 took effect with validity through March 28, 2015.

The schedule will operate 3,650 weekly flights on 124 routes (7 more than the 2013-2014 winter season) and 83 destinations, of which 26 in Italy and 57 destinations in 41 other countries worldwide.

The main highlights of Alitalia’s winter network are:

• the launch of new daily direct flights between Rome and Marseilles reinforcing Alitalia’s offer between Italy and France, and new service to Skopje (Macedonia) and Marrakech (Morocco) launched in recent months;

• the launch of a code share agreement between Alitalia and Airberlin, second largest German airline, making available 412 weekly direct Alitalia and Airberlin code shared flights between Italy and Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as many Airberlin domestic flight and Alitalia domestic and international flights;

• the launch of flights replacing Air One Smart Carrier discontinued service between Pisa and Catania and between Milan Malpensa and Tunis;

• the commitment to providing continued and increased service to Albania with a total of 96 flights to Tirana from 8 Italian airports: Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Pisa, Bologna, Bari, Turin, Venice and Genoa;

• an increase in the intercontinental network compared to the winter season 2013-2014 with the addition of frequencies to Brazil (+1 weekly frequency to Rio de Janeiro and +3 frequencies to Sao Paulo) and the increase of frequencies between Rome and Abu Dhabi (+2 weekly frequencies).

• on the international network, compared to 2013-2014, there will be an increase of service between London City and Milan Linate, between Tirana and Rome (+6 weekly frequencies), from Rome to Tel Aviv and Bucharest (+3 weekly frequencies), from Rome to Madrid (+2 frequencies), to Zurich, Toulouse, Athens, Prague (+1 frequency) and from Milan Linate to Frankfurt (+2 weekly);

• on the domestic network, compared to the winter season 2013-2014, increased service from Milan Linate Airport to Pescara (+5 weekly frequencies) and introduction of flights between Rome Fiumicino and Alghero in territorial continuity;

• continued service, in territorial continuity, from Lampedusa to Palermo and Catania and Palermo to Pantelleria and Trapani to provide the citizens of Lampedusa and Pantelleria reliable and consistent connections to Sicily, the rest of Italy and international and intercontinental destinations within Alitalia’s network;

During the month of September 2014, Alitalia transported 2,273,629 passengers, an increase of 0.5% compared to the same period last year.

In addition, the load factor in September reached 82.6% (+3.2 percentage points compared to September 2013).

In September flights to and from Rome Fiumicino hub recorded a load factor of 85.8%, 4.4 percentage points higher than in September 2013. This result is especially guided by the increase by 1% on transit passengers in Rome airport with a load factor increase of 2.9 percentage points on connecting flights to and from Fiumicino.

Early October figures confirm the growth trend: in 22 days of October domestic routes from Rome Fiumicino recorded a +5,8% increase in passengers and an average load factor of 79.4% (+2 percentage points compared to 2013).

Positive results also on the routes served by the Milan Linate airport, in the first 22 days of October, which showed an increase in passengers by 3.8% and an average load factor of 70.2% (+3.4 percentage points compared 2013).

Copyright Photo: Jacques Guillem/AirlinersGallery.com. In April 2014 Alitalia introduced this “Discover Friuli Venezia Giulia” Airbus A319 logo jet in support of the Colibri (Hummingbird). Friuli Venezia Giulia is the only region in Italy where the endangered Hummingbird maintains a natural habitat. A319-112 EI-IMI (msn 1745) taxies past the camera at Paris (Orly).

Alitalia (2nd) Aircraft Slide Show: