Australia has decided not to open its domestic market to foreign carriers, but is to increase the number of overseas carriers allowed to serve gateways such as Cairns and Canberra. Singapore Airlines regional subsidiary Silk Air has launched its first Indian route, with twice-weekly Airbus A320 services to Trivandrum. US charter operator Sun Country has launched into the domestic scheduled market with low-fare services out of Minneapolis/St Paul. Destinations served daily are Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York JFK, Orlando, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle, with fewer frequencies to Anchorage, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Houston, San Antonio, and Washington Dulles. British Airways' franchise partner CityFlyer Express will launch weekday (plus Sunday) services on 22 October between London Gatwick and Shannon, using British Aerospace Avro RJ100s. A Saturday service will begin in the second quarter of next year. CityFlyer will also increase daily services to six from Gatwick to Dublin, beginning in October, and to three to Cork, from August. UK low fare carrier Debonair launched thrice-weekly services from London Luton to Perugia, Italy, on 1 June. Qatar Airways will operate daily services from London Heathrow, UK, via Doha, Qatar, to Kathmandhu, Nepal, from 31 October, saying its four-times-weekly Nepal service has proved popular with the leisure market. Swissair has taken advantage of the removal of sanctions against Libya with a new twice-weekly schedule to Benghazi. Services to the capital, Tripoli, were restarted on 2 May. Iberia has suspended its four services a week to Moscow, Russia, pleading air traffic control congestion domestically and in Europe. The Spanish national carrier, in the throes of privatisation and a dispute with its pilots, has also delayed service increases to Buenos Aires, Argentina; Caracas, Venezuela; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Source: Flight International
