News From The Americas

Richard Maslen February 11, 2011

FRONTIER ADDS MILWAUKEE REGIONAL ROUTES

US carrier Frontier Airlines, part of the Republic Airways Holdings group, is to launch a range of new flights within Wisconsin and services to Michigan, out of Milwaukee. From April 18 it will use an Embraer ERJ 135 to operate 13 weekly flights on the Milwaukee – Rhinelander – Ironwood and Milwaukee – Manistee routes. Great Lakes Aviation currently provides service on each route, with double daily flights using a 19-seat Beech 1900D, under a codeshare arrangement with Frontier, but it is expected to terminate its flights when Frontier enters the market in its own right. Capacity on the route will be almost doubled from 266 weekly seats to 481 following the introduction of Frontier’s regional jet equipment.

DELTA AND WESTJET AGREE INTERLINE PARTNERSHIP

US carrier Delta Air Lines and Canadian operator WestJet have entered into a commercial partnership on flights between the two countries. Under the terms of the agreement, customers of each airline will be able to purchase connecting flights on one ticket, receive boarding passes for all segments at their first check-in, and baggage clearance through to their final destination. Delta has also started a codeshare arrangement with Brazilian operator GOL, providing connections on 56 flights from Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia and the Brazilian cities of Belem, Belo Horizonte, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Florianopolis, Fortaleza, Goiania, Iguassu Falls, Joao Pessoa, Navegantes, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador, Teresina and Vitoria. Delta currently offers 31 non-stop weekly flights between the US and Brazil, including services from Atlanta to Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia; from New York JFK to Sao Paulo; and between Detroit and Sao Paulo. In the year ending November 2010, more than 3.4 million O&D passengers travelled between the two countries.

LACSA BOOSTS GUATEMALA CITY – MEXICO CITY SCHEDULES

LACSA, the only member of the Grupo TACA group to offer international flights under its own IATA code, is to boost frequencies between Guatemala City and Mexico City. The airline is to offer a double daily schedule from March 4, with ten flights operated by Embraer 190s and four using larger Airbus A320s. LACSA is currently the sole airline on the route, which generated more than 105,000 O&D passengers in the year ending November 2010, a period during which Mexicana had also served the market.

JETBLUE AND SOUTH AFRICAN MAKE CODESHARE APPLICATION

US budget carrier JetBlue Airways and South African Airways (SAA) have made a joint application to the US Department of Transportation for the approval of a codeshare arrangement on domestic US flights. Under the terms of the deal, which could come into effect later this month, SAA's 'SA' code will appear on JetBlue's flights from New York JFK to Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Ft Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington Dulles. It will also use the code on flights from Washington Dulles to Boston, Ft Lauderdale and Orlando.

LANPERU TO LAUNCH LIMA – MONTEVIDEO SERVICE

LANPeru is to inaugurate flights between Lima and Montevideo from April 1, six months after it originally planned to launch the route. The airline had planned to offer a five-times weekly link in November 2010, but has confirmed that it will now serve the route with six rotations per week. LAN has already secured a notable 22 per cent share of the 20,000 O&D traffic on the route via its Chilean operation LANChile with flights via its Santiago hub, and will compete directly with TACA International which offers five flights per week on the route.

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