Tag Archives: Dulles

Alaska Airlines is coming to Washington’s Dulles International Airport

Alaska Airlines (Seattle/Tacoma) on March 11, 2015 will begin daily nonstop service to Dulles International Airport from its SeaTac hub.

With the launch of Alaska’s Dulles flight next spring, Alaska customers will have nonstop access to all three D.C.-area airports from Seattle/Tacoma, including Reagan National Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport – more flights than any other carrier.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-890 N592AS (msn 35190) with Aviation Partners Boeing Split Scimitar Winglets arrives in Anchorage.

Alaska Airlines aircraft slide show:

Trans States Airlines to operate 36 additional Embraer ERJ 145 regional jets for United Airlines

Trans States Airlines (subsidiary of Trans States Holdings, Inc.) (St. Louis) has announced that it will operate 36 Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft provided by United Airlines (Chicago). Trans States expects to begin taking delivery of and starting scheduled service with these aircraft under the United Express brand and livery in February 2015, with deliveries slated to continue through the first quarter of 2016. The aircraft will be moved from ExpressJet Airlines to Trans States by United.

Trans States Airlines has been providing United Airlines regional service under the United Express brand since 2003. The addition of these 36 aircraft will increase the fleet size of Trans States Airlines from 29 to 65 aircraft, more than doubling its current fleet size. Trans States Airlines currently has 25 aircraft in service with United, all of which are 50 seat Embraer ERJ 145s. The remaining four ERJ 145s in its fleet are operated as US Airways Express.

Trans States currently serves 25 cities and operates approximately 190 daily flights.

Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum/AirlinersGallery.com. Trans States’ Embraer ERJ 145LR (EMB-145LR) N845HK (msn 145842) in the old 2004 livery approaches the runway at United’s Dulles International Airport hub near Washington.

United Express-Trans States aircraft slide Show:

Map: Trans States currently operates in these cities as United Express and US Airways Express.

Frontier Airlines to start Miami-Washington Dulles flights on December 21

Frontier Airlines (2nd) (Denver) has announced plans to add twice-weekly service between Miami International Airport (MIA) and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) beginning in December according to Miami International Airport. The new service announcement comes less than one month after the domestic low-cost carrier revealed that it would be launching 38 weekly departures from MIA to four additional domestic destinations.

The new nonstop Miami-Washington D.C. service is scheduled to begin on December 21, the same day that Frontier will launch nonstop flights from MIA to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Flights to Washington Dulles will operate on Thursdays and Sundays, using the carrier’s 168-seat Airbus A320 aircraft (above). On December 20, Frontier will launch nonstop service from Miami to Denver, Philadelphia and New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Previously in September, Frontier announced it was coming to Miami starting on December 20 with new routes operating to Chicago (O’Hare), Denver, New York (LaGuardia) and Philadelphia. Washington Dulles is a new addition to the original announcement.

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-214 N227FR (msn 6184) with Grizwald, the Bear, arrives in Washington (Reagan National) in the new 2014 livery.

Frontier Airlines (2nd):

Delta to introduce the Boeing 717 on five routes from the Minneapolis/St. Paul hub

Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) continues to expand Boeing 717 operations as more aircraft are released from AirTran Airways. As previously reported, AirTran will operate its last flight on December 28.

Delta will introduce the 717 to the Minneapolis/St. Paul hub starting on January 6, 2015 with a route to Charlotte. Kansas City, Madison and Philadelphia will be added on February 13 followed by Detroit on March 2 per Airline Route.

Delta is also assigning the 717 to two new routes from the Atlanta hub to both Georgetown (December 20) and Nassau (January 12) in the Bahamas.

Delta Aircraft Slide Show (current livery):

Lufthansa to drop service to Abu Dhabi next summer

Lufthansa (Frankfurt) has announced it will drop its daily route from Frankfurt to Abu Dhabi, the home of Etihad Airways. The route will be dropped on March 29, 2015. The German airline has been getting increased price competition from Etihad and its partner Airberlin (Berlin) on the route.

The route is operated with Airbus A330-300s.

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A330-343 D-AIKJ (msn 701) arrives at Washington’s Dulles International Airport.

Lufthansa Aircraft Slide Show:

Silver Airways consolidates its operations around the SAAB 340B and Florida

Silver Airways (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood and Gainesville) starting on November 6, 2014 is further expanding its already extensive Florida schedule by adding nearly 40 percent more flights within the Sunshine State. Silver Airways’ increased flying starting November 6, 2014, includes additional service to/from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Key West, Orlando, Fort Myers, Tampa, Pensacola, and Tallahassee. In addition, Silver recently started new service between Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood and Jacksonville, and between Orlando and Key West this summer.

Details of the schedule changes in Florida:

Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood

Within Florida, Silver currently flies nonstop from Fort Lauderdale to Key West, Tampa, and Orlando, as well as one-stop service to Gainesville, Pensacola, and Tallahassee. In addition, Silver offers nonstop service to seven destinations in the Bahamas, including Bimini, Grand Bahama (Freeport), Eleuthera, the Abacos (Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay), and Exuma (George Town). Increased flights starting November 6, 2014 include:

an additional nonstop weekday flight between Fort Lauderdale and Key West for a total of four daily nonstop flights;
an additional weekday flight between Fort Lauderdale and Tampa for a total of four flights per day, plus increased weekend service;
weekday service between Fort Lauderdale and Orlando increasing from three to five flights per day, plus increased weekend service;
daily same plane one-stop service between Fort Lauderdale and Gainesville;
same plane one-stop service between Fort Lauderdale and Pensacola increasing from two to three flights per day;
same plane one-stop weekday service between Fort Lauderdale and Tallahassee increasing to more than two flights per day.

Key West

Silver currently flies nonstop to Key West from Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Tampa and Orlando. Increased flights starting November 6, 2014 include:

an additional weekday flight between Fort Lauderdale and Key West for a total of four daily flights;
a second daily flight between Fort Myers and Key West;
increased weekday flights between Tampa and Key West for a total of four daily flights;
two additional nonstop flights between Orlando and Key West for a total of three nonstops, and an additional one-stop for a total of five daily direct flights;
and daily same plane one-stop flight between Jacksonville and Key West.

Orlando

Silver currently flies nonstop from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale, Key West, Fort Myers, Gainesville, Tallahassee and Pensacola, as well as to Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas. Increased flights starting November 6, 2014 include:

increased weekday service between Orlando and Fort Lauderdale from three to five flights per day, plus increased weekend service;
two additional nonstop flights between Orlando and Key West for a total of three nonstops, and an additional one-stop for a total of five daily direct flights;
an additional flight between Orlando and Fort Myers for a total of two daily flights;
an additional flight between Orlando and Pensacola for a total of three daily flights;
an additional flight between Orlando and Gainesville for a total of three daily flights, as well as convenient mid-day arrival and departure times.

Fort Myers

Silver currently flies nonstop from Fort Myers to Key West and Orlando. Increased flights starting November 6, 2014 include:

resumption of second seasonal flight between Fort Myers and Key West;
an additional nonstop flight between Fort Myers and Orlando for a total of two daily flights.

Tampa

Silver currently flies from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Key West, Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Pensacola. Increased flights starting November 6, 2014 include:

increased weekday service between Tampa and Key West for a total of four daily flights;
increased weekday service between Tampa and Fort Lauderdale from three to four daily flights, plus increased weekend service.

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. SAAB 340B N442XJ (msn 442) arrives at the Dulles International Airport hub.

Silver Airways:

Silver Airways Aircraft Slide Show:

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

Current Route Map: Silver Airways retired its last Beech 1900D with the closure of the Cleveland hub. The regional carrier previously closed down its Atlanta and Montana operations. Besides some remaining EAS routes from Washington (Dulles) the company is now concentrating its operations in its original location, the state of Florida and the Bahamas.

United Airlines to drop the Washington Dulles-New York JFK route

United Airlines (Chicago) will drop the Washington (Dulles)-New York (JFK) route on October 26. ExpressJet Airlines (Atlanta) currently operates the United Express route with CRJ200s per Airline Route.

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. ExpressJet Airlines’ Bombardier CRJ200 (CL-600-2B19) N877AS (msn 7579) arrives at the Washington Dulles hub.

United Airlines (current):

United Express-ExpressJet:

National Airlines helps to bring medical and relief supplies to Monrovia, Liberia

National Airlines (5th) (formerly Murray Air) (Orlando) is helping in the Ebola relief efforts in Liberia. In cooperation with the United States Government, National Airlines, using one of its Boeing 747-400 Freighters, carried a planeload of medical and other relief supplies from New York to the Monrovia Airport.

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. Formerly operated by Air France, Boeing 747-428 (F) N952CA (msn 25238) arrives at Washington’s Dulles International Airport (IAD).

National Airlines (5th):

CDC Map of affected Ebola areas in West Africa:

British Airways brings the Airbus A380 to Washington Dulles, adds three routes from London Gatwick

British Airways (London) yesterday (October 2) began flying its new 469-seat Airbus A380 aircraft between London Heathrow and Washington Dulles International Airport. This marks the first and only nonstop A380 service between the two nations’ capitals. The airline also officially unveiled its new, improved business and first class lounge for customers departing from Washington D.C.

British Airways will initially operate five A380 services a week from Washington Dulles. This will increase from the end of October to a daily A380 service, in conjunction with the daily flight BA 292, operated by a Boeing 747-400 and the thrice weekly flight BA 264, operated by a Boeing 777.

British Airways has ordered 12 A380s for delivery by 2016. The airline currently has six A380s in service. The first flight was operated with the pictured Airbus A380-841 G-XLEB.

British Airways currently flies its A380 aircraft from Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Johannesburg, with Singapore beginning on October 28 and San Francisco in April 2015.

In other news, British Airways has added another three new routes to its 2015 London Gatwick schedule. Seville in Spain, Funchal in Madeira and Las Palmas in Gran Canaria with the first flights from March 29, 2015.

The news follows announcements on eight other new London Gatwick routes, taking the total number of destinations British Airways flies to from London Gatwick to over 50 for Summer 2015.

From December this year, new winter sun and ski destinations will include Fuerteventura, Friedrichshafen and Grenoble.

Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands will operate from December 13 this year and other sunshine routes launching for summer 2015, will include Cagliari in Sardinia, Heraklion in Crete, Rhodes in Greece and Bodrum and Dalaman in Turkey.

The services to all three destinations will be served by a mixture of Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft from London Gatwick.

Top Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com (all others by BA). Airbus A380-841 G-XLEB (msn 121) taxies at Los Angeles to the gate.

Below Photo: The cabin of the Airbus A380:

British Airways:

Lufthansa is facing a strike by its pilots tomorrow

Lufthansa (Frankfurt) has issued this statement today:

Lufthansa regrets the announcement of strike action by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union (VC) for tomorrow (Friday). This morning – and therefore just a few hours before the start of talks that had been agreed for today – the union announced that there would be a strike at Germanwings if agreement wasn’t reached today (Thursday) on the issue of transitional benefits for pilots.

In a letter on Monday, Lufthansa had proposed today’s talks in order to resume negotiations and had prepared a suggestion on what form further negotiations should take. As per Lufthansa’s invitation, the aim of these talks would primarily have been to specify an orderly process and a timetable for further negotiations.

Dr Bettina Volkens, Chief Officer Human Resources and Legal at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, says: ‘We are very disappointed that we cannot avert strike action. The impression given is that the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union had already decided to strike. It is unrealistic to expect to reach agreement on a new model for sustainable transitional benefits in the course of a single day. The fact that an ultimatum for concluding a wage agreement was issued on the morning of negotiations – even though we made it clear that the talks would initially have to be about what form the further negotiation process should take – is very unusual and incomprehensible.’

Lufthansa and Germanwings will now be primarily focusing on limiting the impact of the strike. The strike action announced for Friday will coincide with the end of school holidays in Thuringia and Saxony. Dr Bettina Volkens says: ‘We will do everything to provide the best-possible service to Germanwings passengers and, if possible, to get them to their destination in spite of the strike.’

Prior to the strike, Lufthansa had already made an offer to the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union at the start of April concerning future early retirement from flight service and had therefore created a basis for further negotiations. This offer would provide all cockpit staff with the option of early retirement from flight service, including in the future.

In concrete terms, Lufthansa’s offer on transitional benefits provides for the following:

• For employees who have been working at Lufthansa since before 1 January 2014, Lufthansa will bear the costs of early retirement, including in the future. This means that employer-financed transitional benefits will be maintained for several decades.

• For employees who start or have started work at Lufthansa after 1 January 2014, it will still be possible to retire early from flight service. However, the costs of this will no longer be borne by Lufthansa, but rather by the employees. In the event of incapacity for flight service, a purely employer-financed insurance policy will still be included for all employees.

• The individual age for retiring from flight service will be raised, depending on the length of service, from 55 for more senior up to 60 for younger employees. The longer employees have already been in the company, the less affected they will be by the increase in the earliest possible individual retirement age. Employees who have been with the company for a very long time are not affected at all by the changes.

• Today, on average, cockpit crew leave Lufthansa German Airlines at the age of 59. In future, the average age for employer-financed retirement from flight service at Lufthansa German Airlines is intended to go up gradually over several years to 61. The average age of 61 reflects an overall trend in society towards a longer working life.

Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 747-830 D-ABYP (msn 37839) with the special 1500th Boeing 747 markings departs from Washington (Reagan).

Lufthansa: