Unijet Group is to take over full ownership of Leisure International Airways by the end of April 1997, increasing its shareholding from the current 40 per cent.
Continental Airlines introduced a daily route from New York/Newark to Quito via Bogota, a weekly flight to Düsseldorf, and second daily flights to London/Gatwick and Frankfurt at the start of July.
El Al has launched five weekly services between Tel Aviv and Amman, using its own B757s and Arkia's Dash 7s. The carrier has signed a cooperation agreement with Royal Jordanian.
Air Jamaica was set to introduce five weekly services from Chicago/O'Hare to Nassau in June.
British Airways and Aerovias DAP started joint weekly return flights from London/ Heathrow to the Falkland Islands via Santiago in June. Passengers fly with BA to Santiago and on to Mount Pleasant with the Chilean airline. BA introduced a daily service from Birmingham to Toronto via New York/John F Kennedy in July.
All Nippon Airways and Air Canada are to start codesharing on daily flights between Osaka and Vancouver from August, using Airbus A340s.
Northwest Airlines will increase its nonstop flights from Minneapolis-St Paul to Tokyo from one to four weekly between July and September. The carrier will reduce services to three per week in winter but plans a daily service for summer 1997.
The UK Department of Transport is set to introduce tighter controls for passenger charter flights operated by fifth freedom carriers. From winter 1996, such carriers will be limited to 10 return flights per season and they will have to apply six weeks in advance.
Emirates launched a twice-weekly Dubai-Melbourne B777 service in June.
LOT, Malev and CSA have entered into a three-way agreement, allowing tour operators to link London with Warsaw, Prague and Budapest. LOT will start a Manchester-Warsaw service in summer 1997 and CSA expects to double Manchester-Prague services to four a week from November.
Air 21 and Reno Air signed a marketing agreement to improve connectings through Reno/Tahoe Airport.
Qantas opened the world's first economy class airport lounge in June at Sydney's International Airport. The 280-seat lounge caters for domestic/ international transit passengers.
United Parcel Service and Danzas plan a European agreement, whereby Danzas would deliver packages over 70kg and UPS concentrate on its express delivery service.
Source: Airline Business
