Tag Archives: Embraer 170

Flybe announces a major expansion at Birmingham with seven new routes

Flybe (Exeter) has unveiled a major expansion of its operations at Birmingham Airport with the announcement of seven new routes that includes a six times a week service to Florence, in a first for the airport; daily flights to Cologne; a six times a week service to Toulouse; a five times a week service to Alicante and four times a week to Bordeaux, Palma Mallorca and Porto.

Flybe is also adding three of its 2×2 seat Embraer 175 jets to the airport thereby creating its biggest ever regional base with 12 aircraft, thereby creating more than 50 new Flybe jobs.

Travel is effective from April 10, 2014 to Alicante, Cologne, Florence and Porto; and from May 13 for the remaining three routes (Bordeaux, Palma and Toulouse), the majority of flights will utilize Flybe’s new 88-seat E175 jet aircraft (see above).

The company last week announced it will be boosting the frequency on three of its most popular European routes from the end of March namely those to Hanover, Milan-Malpensa and Stuttgart.

As a result of the seven new destinations, Flybe will now operate 32 routes to and from Birmingham for the Summer of 2014 with a choice of up to 375 return flights a week totalling an impressive 1.7 million seats.

Copyright Photo: Ole Simon/AirlinersGallery.com. Embraer ERJ 170-200STD (ERJ 175) G-FBJA (msn 17000326) taxies at Dusseldorf.

Flybe:

Routes from Birmingham:

Alitalia reaches its $412 million cash call goal, will keep flying

Alitalia (2nd) (Rome) has reached its goal to obtain $412 million in a cash call from its close investors according to Reuters. This will allow the struggling carrier to keep flying during the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. The cash call is part of the Italian government’s plan to keep the flag carrier flying while it searches for a new partner to rescue the airline.

Read the full story from Reuters: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Rolf Wallner/AirlinersGallery.com. Embraer ERJ 170-200LR (ERJ 175) EI-RDC (msn 17000333) taxies at Zurich.

Alitalia (2nd):

Air Lituanica to start Paris CDG service on February 14, 2014, Estonian Air cancels the contract

Air Lituanica (Vilnius) is planning to launch a new route to Paris (CDG) starting on February 14, 2014. The new route will initially be an extension of the Prague route four days a week but the destination will become nonstop service after April 27.

Schedule:

All Air Lituanica flights are currently being operated by Estonian Air‘s (Talinn) Embraer 170s but this relationship seems to be unravelling. Estonian Air has cancelled the contract with Air Lituanica and issued this statement:

As part of winding down flight operations in Lithuania connected to the termination of its contractual relationship with Vilnius-based Air Lituanica, Estonian Air has decided to service the Vilnius – Berlin route only through December 15, 2013 and Vilnius – Amsterdam through January 6, 2014.

“After Estonian Air was forced to terminate its contractual relationship with Air Lituanica due to repeated breaches by Air Lituanica, we have no intentions to serve these routes independently in long term. We are doing everything to fulfill our obligations to ticket holders and minimize any interruptions related to their travel plans,“ said Jan Palmér, the CEO of Estonian Air.

Only Estonian Air tickets (with number 960 – XXXXXXXXX) and partner airline tickets, such as KLM, Delta, Hahn Air, are be accepted on Estonian Air flights.

Estonian Air flight tickets on Vilnius-Berlin flights after December 15, 2013 and on Vilnius – Amsterdam flights after January 6, 2014 will be refunded.

Who will replace Estonian Air? Can Air Lituanica survive this cancellation?

Copyright Photo: TMK Photography/AirlinersGallery.com. Operated by Estonian Air for Air Lituanica, Embraer ERJ 170-100LR ES-AEB (msn 17000106) arrives at Brussels.

Air Lituanica:

Estonian Air:

FAA will not review California Pacific’s application until next year, CPA furloughs all employees

California Pacific Airlines (Carlsbad) is becoming the poster child as the hard-luck airline wannabe that could not fly because of the FAA’s inability to review and approve their Part 121 AOC application. The terrible saga continues. The company has suspended operations and furloughed all employees after receiving an official notification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that it cannot review their AOC application until at least next year according to this report by U-T San Diego. The would-be airline had until September 13 to resubmit its application which it did. The dream of CPA’s founder, Ted Vallas, 91, is slowly getting away from him. Vallas proposed the airline in 2010 and had raised at least $11 million from investors.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: James Helbock/AirlinersGallery.com. Meanwhile the pictured Embraer ERJ 170-100LR N760CP (msn 17000006) arrived in Nashville, TN in late July from Arizona.

California Pacific:

Alitalia is thrown a lifeline, will continue to fly (for now)

Alitalia (2nd) (Rome) received good news yesterday (October 11) when its board of directors (including Air France-KLM) approved a capital increase as part of the Italian government’s sponsored 500 million euro bailout plan according to this report by Reuters. However with the airline losing an estimated 10 million euros a day, this amount will be exhausted in the next two months. Clearly the airline needs another financial overhaul to reduce costs and increase revenue. The Italian government has also called for Alitalia to join an alliance.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Paul Denton/AirlinersGallery.com. Embraer ERJ 170-200LR (ERJ 175) EI-RDB (msn 17000331) climbs away beautifully from Geneva.

Alitalia:

Air Lituanica to add both Prague and Munich in September

Air Lituanica (Vilnius) will add two new routes next month. The new carrier will add a new route to Prague, Czech Republic on September 20 and another to Munich, Germany on the following day. Both new routes will be served with the second Air Lituanica Embraer 175. The 86-seater is being leased from the manufacturer’s subsidiary ECC Leasing. Also from September 15, the company‘s aircraft will fly to Amsterdam not once but twice a day.

Air Lituanica:

Route Map:

California Pacific is again rejected by the FAA for an AOC

California Pacific Airlines (Carlsbad) will not fly, at least not for now. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and this report by U-T San Diego, the FAA has again rejected the scheduled passenger airline application for the paper airline. The FAA cited various deficiencies in the application relating to safety, maintenance and inspections. The would-be airline has until September 13 to resubmit its application. CP Air remains confident it can correct the errors in its resubmission. The founder, Ted Vallas, is 91.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: James Helbock/AirlinersGallery.com. Meanwhile the pictured Embraer ERJ 170-100LR N760CP (msn 17000006) arrived in Nashville, TN in late July from Arizona.

California Pacific:

Read all the previous news articles:

Air Lituanica starts its third route to Berlin

Air Lituanica (Vilnius) on August 5 started its the third route to Berlin (Tegel), following new service to Brussels and Amsterdam.

Copyright Photo: TMK Photography/AirlinersGallery.com. Operated by Estonian Air, Embraer ERJ 170-100LR ES-AEB (msn 17000106) approaches Brussels for landing on its flight from Vilnius.

Air Lituanica:

Air Lituanica launches scheduled passenger operations

Air Lituanica (Vilnius) as planned, commenced scheduled passenger operations with an Embraer 170 leased from Estonian Air. The new airline launched its first route on June 30 to Brussels. On July 8 the second route to Amsterdam will be started. The airline intends to expand later to Berlin, Prague, Munich, and Moscow.

Top Copyright Photo: Karl Cornil/AirlinersGallery.com (all other images by Air Lituanica). Embraer ERJ 170-100LR ES-AEB (msn 17000106) arrives at Brussels on the inaugural flight.

Bottom Copyright Photo: Air Lituanica. The formal ribbon cutting ceremony at Vilnius for the first departure to Brussels.

Finnair to continue to fly to Tel Aviv year-round, rumors of a possible merger with SAS

Finnair (Helsinki) will continue to operate its new route to Tel Aviv also during the winter season. As of November 1, Finnair will continue to fly to Tel Aviv with the similar frequency as during the on-going summer season, twice a week on Mondays and Fridays, but with new timetables that better fit Finnair’s Asian and European connections.

Finnair flights arriving from Asia on Mondays will have a good connection to Tel Aviv. The connecting flight from Helsinki departs at 3.40 p.m. (1540) and arrives in Tel Aviv at 8.05 p.m.(2005) The return flight from Tel Aviv departs at 8.55 p.m. (2055) and arrives in Helsinki at 1.35 a.m. (0135) the next day.

On Fridays the flight departs from Helsinki at 6 a.m. (0600) and arrives in Tel Aviv at 10.25 a.m. (1025). The return flight from Tel Aviv is well connected to Finnair’s Asian flights in the afternoon.

The flights to Tel Aviv are operated with an Airbus A320 aircraft.

Finnair will also operate five scheduled flights a week from Helsinki to Dubai during the winter season. In addition, a charter service is provided on Tuesdays.

In other news, there are media reports of a possible merger with Scandinavian Airlines-SAS (Stockholm). According to this report by Reuters, new Finnair CEO Pekka Vauramo sees both advantages and disadvantages with a possible merger. other than that, both airlines are not commenting on the reports.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Finally, Finnair has leased three Embraer ERJ 170s to AeroMexico Connect.

Top Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Finnair’s Airbus A320-214 OH-LXF (msn 1712) arrives at Amsterdam.

Finnair:

Bottom Copyright Photo: TMK Photography/AirlinersGallery.com. Finnair’s Embraer ERJ 170-100STD OH-LEL (msn 17000139) in now dressed in full AeroMexico connect colors. The airliner is pictured passing through Toronto (Pearson) on June 15 and will become XA-SAC with the Mexican carrier.