Austrian Airlines and Swissair have confirmed taking a 18.37 per cent stake in Ukraine International Airlines through a holding company in which Austrian Airlines holds 77.78 per cent and Swissair 22.22 per cent.
KLMwill inaugurate twice weekly services to Abidjan and to Nagoya via Sapporo from April 1997 and will cut twice weekly services to Colombo, Guinea, and Khartoum from April 1997. Services will be withdrawn to Surabaya and Denpasar in June 1997, while services to Dhaka stopped in December.
Northwest Airlines will extend its daily Newark-Amsterdam service to Mumbai (four times a week) and Delhi (three times a week) in cooperation with KLM. The move will give the two partners daily services to India's two main cities, although bilateral restrictions mean the US carrier's DC-10 services cannot be operated as a codeshare.
Swissair will begin twice weekly MD-11 services to Ho Chi Minh City via Bangkok from October.
Debonair Airways launched daily services between London/Luton and Rome/ Ciampino in November, as well as daily flights from Rome to Barcelona, Rome to Munich (with an onward connection to Düsseldorf Express), and Rome to Copenhagen via Munich. The UK carrier has also extended its service from Munich to Barcelona on to Madrid.
Transbrasil launched a four times weekly services to London/Gatwick from Sïo Paulo via Rio de Janeiro, stopping alternately in Recife or Salvador, in November.
British Airways franchisee Maersk Air was set to launch a six times weekly service between Birmingham and Berlin in January 1997, using Boeing 737-500s.
Ansett Australia introduced E-Ticket, United's ticketless travel system, in 28 domestic destinations in November, and plans to go international.
Air Jamaica plans to start a daily service linking Barbados with New York, originating in St Lucia four days a week and Antigua three times a week from February 1997. This will be followed by a second service to Atlanta in March or April. Both services will be operated by MD83s. The airline will also start a weekly nonstop services to Los Angeles in March 1997 from Barbados and plans to go twice weekly in May.
TAP Air Portugal is to start non-stop twice weekly flights from Lisbon to Bangkok in April 1997, using an A340.
Royal Brunei Airlines was set to start daily services from London/Heathrow to Brunei via Abu Dhabi and/or Yangon, Dubai and Singapore in December, using B767-300s.
United Parcel Service plans to start codesharing to Los Angeles with Nippon Cargo Airlines in mid-1997.
Royal Nepal Airlines has started a weekly flight between Paris/Orly and Kathmandu.
Jet Airways is to establish Chennai (Madras) as its fourth hub linking it with Delhi, Bangolore and Pune. The Indian independent will also launch services from Mumbai to Pune and Indore by May.
Spanair started operating twice-weekly scheduled charter service between London/Gatwick and Madrid in November.
Source: Airline Business
