Transasian Air Express, a Transasian Air Australia subsidiary, launched freight services on 5 February with an ex-Pacific Air Express Boeing 727-200 Freighter. The aircraft is contracted by Transasian to Ansett Air Freight on the nightly Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane cargo service and will operate contract charters from Brisbane to the Pacific Islands over the weekend. Lauda Air is introducing a codeshare with Ansett on the Australian carrier's flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Cairns, Perth, Hobart and Launceston. Lauda recently upped its Austria-Australia services to five flights a week. Continental Express plans to begin a daily Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet service, between Houston and Zacatecas, Mexico, on 2 May. Iranian private airline Mahan Air has launched a new once weekly service between Tehran and Seoul, via Bangkok. Flights are operated by an Airbus A300B4. Lufthansa will introduce a three times daily service between Berlin and London City on 25 March using an 80-seat Avro RJ85. Meanwhile the German airline is awaiting approval from the regulatory Cartels office to boost its co-operation with Eurowings. This will see the airlines offering 1,500 codeshare flights weekly from the end of March. British Airways franchisee GB Airways is introducing flights between London Gatwick and Agadir, Morocco with the start of its winter 2001 programme in October. US Airways Express is upgrading its services between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Columbus, Ohio, with the replacement of 19-seat J31s by 37-seat Bombardier Dash 8-100s. The aircraft are operated by Piedmont Airlines. BWIA West Indies Airways is to team up with a group of private investors to form a new regional airline Tobago Express. The airline launches next month, operating two Dash 8-300s on an "air bridge" between Port of Spain, Trinidad, and the island of Tobago.
Source: Flight International
