US Airways has gained "competitive" slots at London Gatwick to enable the airline to launch services to the airport from Charlotte, North Carolina. Schedule details will be released soon. Earlier, Gatwick had offered slots that the US airline considered unusable for the service, and the resulting wrangle caused problems for US and UK officials negotiating "open skies" agreements. Swissair will begin direct services between Zurich and Miami for the first time in September. The airline will also launch twice-daily flights between Zurich and London Stansted which will be operated under the Swissair Express brand by UK-based Flightline. Swissair is also increasing its daily frequencies to various major European cities, while Cologne has been returned to the Swissair network and will be served three times daily from May. The Swiss domestic route between Zurich and Geneva is being expanded to 15 round trips a day. Meanwhile, the UK's Debonair will operate Swissair Express flights from Zurich to Turin (four times a day), Venice (four) and Bologna (three). Services are being reintroduced to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while flights to Dakar, Banjul and Bamako are being dropped but will be served by Swissair partner airline Sabena. Sabena will begin three times weekly services from Brussels to Jersey at the end of March, using an Avro RJ85. Gill Airways is launching a four times weekly service between Glasgow and Donegal Airport (Carrickfin) in Ireland, from the end of March, using Shorts 360s. KLM is starting three times daily services from Amsterdam to Kristiansand, Norway, using Fokker 50s and to Sandefjord Torp, Norway, using Fokker 70s. KLM partner Northwest is launching services between Minneapolis/St Paul and Oslo in May. Continental Express plans non-stop flights between Houston, Texas, and Chihuahua (10 June), Saltillo (1 August) and Torreon (22 November) in Mexico, using 50-seat Embraer RJ-145s.
Source: Flight International
