Tag Archives: Airbus A319-100

Azerbaijan Airlines is coming to Berlin

Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) (Baku) has announced it is coming to Berlin. The airline will start twice-weekly Airbus A319 flights from Baku to Berlin (Tegel) on May 2.

The airline issued this statement:

The national carrier of Azerbaijan – AZAL – Azerbaijan Airlines announces the start of scheduled flights from Baku to Berlin commencing on May 2, 2015 and the opening of the ticket sales for this route from January 21. Flights to Tegel Airport (TXL) of the capital city of Germany will run twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays with departure from Baku at 07.25 and arriving to Berlin at 09.25 local time. The return flights from Berlin will be operated at 10.45 and coming to the capital of Azerbaijan at 18.40 at the same days of the week.

Copyright Photo: OSDU/AirlinersGallery.com. Azerbaijan Airlines Airbus A319-111 4K-AZ04 (msn 2588) is pictured in action at Moscow (Domodedovo).

Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Asia-1/Airlines-Asia1-AE/Azerbaijan-Airlines-AZAL

Lufthansa Group completes the transfer of non-hub routes to Germanwings

Lufthansa Group (Frankfurt) has issued this statement:

The Lufthansa Group has made a successful start to the new year with the transfer of the Düsseldorf–Zurich route from Lufthansa to Germanwings (2nd) (Cologne/Bonn) today (January 8, 2015). One of the biggest structural projects ever undertaken by the company has thus been successfully completed on time.

The concept of the new Germanwings was presented in December 2012, followed by the market launch on July 1, 2013.

The transfer of the Düsseldorf–Zurich route means that the decision to operate all domestic and European routes under Germanwings, apart from at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs, has now been fully implemented as scheduled.

In all, Germanwings has taken over 115 routes from Lufthansa in recent months, with the biggest number of routes (52) at Düsseldorf Airport.

The new Germanwings service between Düsseldorf and Zurich will comprise 24 flights per week, making it one of the most high-volume routes from the North Rhine-Westphalian capital. The early morning flight will depart from Düsseldorf at 7.00 a.m. In addition to this, there will be a midday flight at 1.30 p.m., an afternoon flight at 5.05 p.m. and an evening service at 6.55 p.m.

Germanwings (2nd) aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-2/Airlines-Europe-2/Germanwings-2nd

Spirit Airlines is adding more flights from Boston Logan Airport

Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood) is adding more flights to Boston Logan Airport, with new daily nonstop service from Boston to Las Vegas, and seasonal service from Boston to Detroit and Cleveland, beginning in April 2015.

With these additional routes Spirit Airlines will now operate nonstop flights from Boston to ten cities. Current routes include: Atlantic City, Chicago (O’Hare), Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Fort Myers, Myrtle Beach, and West Palm Beach. The daily service to Las Vegas and the seasonal service to Detroit and Cleveland will begin on April 16, 2015.

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-132 N534NK (msn 3395) prepares to depart from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Spirit Airlines aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-UnitedStates-3/Airlines-United-States3-QZ/Spirit-Airlines

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

Brussels Airlines to add Bordeaux and Zagreb

Brussels Airlines (Brussels) will launch a new service to Bordeaux on March 29, 2015. Bordeaux is the twelfth destination of Brussels Airlines in France.

Brussels Airlines will fly to Bordeaux four times a week during the entire summer season which starts at the end of March and lasts till the end of October. All flights are operated with Airbus A319 aircraft and the flight time is 1 hour 35 minutes.

Brussels Airlines has also announced flights to a second Croatian destination: Zagreb. On October 24, 2014 Brussels Airlines already announced six new European destinations for the 2015 summer season: Dubrovnik, Calvi, Lourdes, Olbia, Billund and St. Petersburg.

Starting on September 20, 2015, Brussels Airlines will operate six flights per week between Brussels and Zagreb, in the afternoon. Zagreb is the 18th European capital that Brussels Airlines connects to Brussels, and the third capital in Eastern Europe, next to Warsaw and Riga.

Copyright Photo: Stefan Sjogren/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-112 OO-SSK (msn 1336) prepares to touch down in malaga, Spain.

Brussels Airlines aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-1/Airlines-Europe-1/Brussels-Airlines

EasyJet flight attendants in France to strike on Friday

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (UK) (London-Luton) flight attendants, angry over scheduling and pay, announced a strike on Friday. The planned action is expected to force the low-cost carrier to cancel about half its flights in France the day after Christmas day.

Though workers from SNPNC-FO and UNAC unions said their strike is to start on Christmas, there are no flights scheduled that day, so the walkout will only impact travellers flying on December 26.

EasyJet said in a statement it “doesn’t know exactly how many workers are to down tools”, but anticipates fewer than half of all flights will be impacted.

The British airline will know the extent of the strike Tuesday because aviation workers are legally obligated to announce strikes 48 hours in advance.
But general director, of EasyJet’s France operations, François Bacchetta told AFP agency the company expected “less than half of flights” to be cancelled.

“On Monday, we will pre-emptively cancel a certain number of flights in order to transfer passengers, so they can adjust their plans,” he said.

Workers are upset over schedules that “can change twenty times per month”, making “family life totally impossible”, said Laurent Nicolas of the SNPNC-FO flight attendants’ union.

Bacchetta acknowledged the demands of the industry were “complicated” and that he understood the “frustration” of workers.

But he was less lenient with protests over salaries, which he said were currently entering annual negotiations.

EasyJet employs about 1,000 people in France, including 600 flight attendants.

Read the full report from The Connexion: CLICK HERE

Assistant Editor Oliver Wilcock reporting from Manchester.

EasyJet (UK) aircraft slide show:

EasyJet announces two more new routes including Paris CDG-Tel Aviv

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) is expanding it’s route map with the airline confirming via their Twitter account that they are launching a new route connecting Tel Aviv (Ben Gurion) to Paris (Charles de Gaulle Airport), starting on March 30, 2015.

The low-cost airline also confirmed at the same time that it is expanding its London (Gatwick) operations, with the addition of flights to Figari, in Corsica, launching on June 14, 2015.

Report by Assistant Editor Oliver Wilcock from Manchester.

EasyJet aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-1/Airlines-Europe-1/EasyJet-UK

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:

EasyJet announces 19 new routes for summer season 2015

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) is continuing it’s ever-expanding route map by announcing 19 new routes for the summer season of 2015.

The new routes were released on the carrier’s website. They are as follows:

Amsterdam – Corfu (June 30) twice weekly
Amsterdam – Ibiza (June 30) three times weekly
Amsterdam – Palermo (June 29) twice weekly
Bristol – Bilbao (April 19) twice weekly
Bristol – Isle of Man (April 19) four times weekly
Bristol – Zakinthos (May 13) once weekly
Hamburg – Alicante (March 30) twice weekly
Hamburg – Bologna (March 29) three times weekly
Hamburg – Irakleion (June 27) twice weekly
Hamburg – Paris Orly (March 29) once daily
Hamburg – Pisa (March 30) twice weekly
Hamburg – Thessaloniki (June 29) twice weekly
Lisbon – Ponta Delgada (March 29) three times weekly
London Luton – Split (June 16) three times weekly
Manchester – Kefalonia (June 16) twice weekly
Manchester – Split (June 17) twice weekly
Newcastle – Corfu (June 7) once weekly
Newcastle – Rhodes (June 4) once weekly
Newcastle – Split (June 2) twice weekly

Sophie Dekkers, easyJet’s UK Director, said:

“We’re pleased to be continuing our growth with additional new routes for next summer placed on sale today.”

“This underlines our commitment to both leisure and business passengers across the UK, making it easy and affordable for them to connect to a choice of summer destinations and we expect our new routes to be especially popular.”

Reported by Assistant Editor Oliver Wilcock from Manchester.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EZGA (msn 4427) lands at EuroAirport serving Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg..

EasyJet (UK) aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-1/Airlines-Europe-1/EasyJet-UK

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: