AIRLINE NEWS

AIR VISTARA that began operating in India on January 9, announced that it will rotate on-board meal options every six days. Passengers can choose from 17 special meals 24 hours prior to departure. DELTA AIRLINES will operate three daily Los Angeles-Portland flights, four daily Los Angeles-Las Vegas flights, one daily Salt Lake CityKansas City flight, and one daily Salt Lake City-Las Vegas flight. These services will fly the Boeing 717 from June 2015. BRITISH AIRWAYS will commence operating six flights a week on the London (Gatwick)-Vienna, Austria route starting from September 17. The route will be served by its A319 aircraft. AIRASIA, Malaysia’s low-cost airline will launch a new route starting May 7. This is the thrice weekly Kuala Lumpur-Visakhapatnam direct flight. The other two routes launched recently are the twice weekly Kuala Lampur-Pontianak and the Johor Bahru-Medan flights in Indonesia. DURGAPUR IN WEST BENGAL opened India’s first private greenfield airport on April 14. Currently it is connected to New Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and is in talks with airlines to commence flights to other cities. SPICEJET is in the process of leasing seven Boeing 737 aircraft this month as part of its revival plan. Its fleet strength now totals to 22. Under the new ownership of Ajay Singh, the company has shown significant improvements, and has even had out of court settlements with agitated lessors. SAS will debut a new Stockholm to Hong Kong service on September 10. The airline plans to roster A330300 and A340-300 aircraft on the five-times weekly route. AMERICAN AIRLINES has taken delivery of its first B787-9. It will fly the Dreamliner between Dallas/ Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare from May 7, before launching it internationally on services from Dallas/ Fort Worth to Beijing on June 2 and Buenos Aires on June 4.