Swissair is to suspend some flights to Hong Kong, citing high user charges at Chek Lap Kok Airport. The Swiss flag carrier's two weekly Boeing MD-11 Zurich-Mumbai, India-Hong Kong services are to stop operations from 24 March. Lauda Air, SAS, United Airlines and Varig have already reined in some Hong Kong services. United is to suspend flights via London to New Delhi and also services via Hong Kong from 4 April because of poor profits and the coming summer seasonal traffic downturn. United is considering nonstop flights between the USA and India, however. Ghana Airways and South African Airways are to codeshare on the Accra-Johannesburg route in what is labelled the first step towards greater co-operation Philippine Airlines (PAL) has signed a codeshare deal with Malaysia Airlines for the Manila-Kuala Lumpur, Manila-Kota Kinabalu, Manila-Kuching and Cebu-Kota Kinabalu services. Vice-president for marketing Felix Cruz says this will maintain its market presence until it can restore its own Malaysia services. PAL is gradually increasing other service frequencies following its effective bankruptcy. The Cebu, Philippines-Tokyo Narita flights are to increase from two a week to daily from mid-March, and Manila-Singapore flights will rise from 10 to 14 weekly on 2 April, then to 17 in June. US Airways is expanding its low-fare Metrojet operations by adding services from Washington Dulles Airport, Virginia, to Atlanta Hartsfield, Birmingham, Alabama, and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. All Nippon Airways is to replace its Osaka, Japan-Sydney, Australia, service with codeshare flights by Star Alliance partner carrier Ansett Australia, and has indicated that more Star Alliance codeshares will follow. New Air, a low-fare US start-up which plans to equip with Boeing 737s or Airbus Industrie A320s and begin operations before year-end, has applied to the US Department of Transport for 75 take-off slots at New York Kennedy Airport.
Source: Flight International
