Luchtvaartnieuws / binnen en buitenland.

[Kano]

Geen versoepeling vloeistoffen vliegverkeer


De Telegraaf do 28 apr 2011

DEN HAAG -  Nederland gaat nog niet mee met een versoepeling van het Europese vloeistofbeleid voor het luchtverkeer. Een woordvoerder van de Nationaal Coördinator Terrorismebestrijding (NCTb) zegt donderdag dat een groot deel van de Europese landen de aanpassing van de regels niet invoert. „Nederland wil geen onnodige risico's nemen en voorkomen dat voor de reizigers onduidelijkheid ontstaat."

Dat betekent dat passagiers die van buiten de Europese Unie komen en op een Nederlandse luchthaven overstappen, nog steeds geen duty-freevloeistoffen mogen meenemen. „De Nederlandse overheid is voor het vervangen van het verbod op vloeistoffen door het controleren van vloeistoffen", vertelt de zegsman. „De overheid vind echter ook dat een opheffing van het verbod gezamenlijk moet gebeuren. Dat is nu niet het geval."

Bron: http://www.telegraaf.nl/reiskrant/9650590/__Geen_versoe-peling_vloeistoffen__.html?p=16,2

[Rich]

Planely brengt passagiers met elkaar in contact


Even naar London op en neer is niet zo'n probleem, maar wat als je helemaal alleen naar China of Australië moet vliegen. Dan is het best leuk als je al mensen kent. Als je samen met bekende mensen kunt vliegen, maakt dat de reis een stuk aangenamer. Maar wat als je toch alleen moet? Dan kijk je van te voren even op Planely om te zien wie er nog meer op die vlucht aanwezig is.

De oprichter Nick Martin leek het leuk om iets te ontwikkelen waarbij passagiers op voorhand contact kunnen maken met mede passagiers. Via zijn nieuwe initiatief kun je jezelf aanmelden of inloggen met Facebook, en de data met tijden doorgeven van je vlucht(en). Planely kijkt automatisch of er nog meer mensen op die vlucht aanwezig zullen zijn.

Ook geeft het aan of er mensen rond dezelfde tijd zullen vertrekken of rond dezelfde tijd zullen aankomen. Tijdens LeWeb '10 zal de dienst nader toegelicht worden en willen ze mensen motiveren om gebruik te maken van deze dienst. Voor deze conferentie komen mensen uit diverse werelddelen naar Parijs. Zij kunnen zichzelf vooraf aanmelden en alvast met andere bezoekers in contact komen.

http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/socialmedia/21070

[Rich]

Virtueel uit het raampje kijken.


Hoe vaak heb je je in het vliegtuig al niet afgevraagd waar je op dat moment precies overheen vliegt? Vaak biedt de inflight entertainment met een kaartje met de actuele positie van het vliegtuig uitkomst.

Lastiger is het wanneer je geen eigen schermpje hebt en op het centrale TV-scherm net een film wordt afgespeeld. Bovendien kun je op het kaartje in het vliegtuig alleen maar zien waar het vliegtuig zich op dat moment bevindt, maar informatie over de plek waar je overheen vliegt wordt niet getoond, laat staan foto's van die plek. Hier biedt MondoWindow uitkomst! Daarmee kun je namelijk informatie zien over de plekken waar je op dat moment overheen vliegt. Je tikt op je laptop, smartphone of tablet je vluchtnummer in en MondoWindow vertelt je real time wat er onder je gebeurt.

MondoWindow toont niet alleen de plaatselijke kaart, het punt waar je je bevind en de richting waarin je vliegt, maar ook Wikipedia-wetenswaardigheden en Flickr-foto's van de plekken waar je overheen vliegt. Dat is nog eens inflight entertainment! Zo kun je nog eens indruk maken op je medepassagiers met al je kennis over de plekken waar jullie overheen vliegen.

Een groot nadeel van MondoWindow is alleen wel dat je hiervoor een internetverbinding nodig hebt. Iets dat nog maar door heel weinig luchtvaartmaatschappijen wordt aangeboden. Sterker nog, veel luchtvaartmaatschappijen verbieden nog steeds het gebruik van internet tijdens de vlucht.

www.mondowindow.com

[Kano]

Zest Airways gets 4 planes




Manila Standard Today, Apr 30, 2011

Budget carrier Zest Airways will spend around $90 million this year to acquire and lease four Airbus units as it expands domestic and regional operations.

"Our capital expenditure for this year will reach $80 million to $90 million. This will be allocated for the new aircraft set for delivery this year," Zest Air president Alfredo Yao told Manila Standard.

Yao, who also owns beverage company Zest-O Corp., said Zest Air would lease two Airbus 320 units and purchase the other two.

The first two Airbuses are set to be delivered between May and June and the other two scheduled in October. The aircraft, Yao said, would serve Zest Air's additional flights for its Kalibo-China, Cebu-China and Manila-Singapore routes.

The carrier bought an Airbus 320 and leased one in December to bring its fleet to six Airbuses and four Modern Ark 60s.

Yao also said the airline was negotiating with a Middle Eastern airline for a possible marketing and property partnership.

"Zest Air will be in conjuncture with a Middle Eastern carrier for the use of asset and marketing of routes. However, we have not yet finalized a deal," he said.

The airline is looking at over 2.5 million passengers this year from around 1.5 million passengers in 2010. It expects to boost revenues to P7 billion to P8 billion this year as a result of the regional and local expansion.

Zest Air earlier said plans to mount flights to Taipei, Palau, Singapore, Bahrain and Dammam remained in the pipeline, depending on the delivery of more planes later this year.

The budget carrier operates in domestic destinations: Boracay via Kalibo, Bacolod, Busuanga, Calbayog, Catarman, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Marinduque, Masbate, Puerto Princesa, San Fernando, San Jose, Tablas, Tacloban, Tagbilaran and Virac.

Zest Air flies to Incheon and Pusan, South Korea, from Kalibo and Cebu.

The carrier started operations in 1996 as Asian Spirit, which was run by a cooperative. It was turned over to Yao in March 2008 and renamed Zest Airways in September 2008.

Yao said earlier that flights from Kalibo to Incheon, Korea and Shanghai were getting good load factors. He said Zest Air was mulling over the introduction of flights from other Zest Air hubs to these destinations.

Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideBusiness.htm?f=2011/april/30/business1.isx&d=2011/april/30

[Kano]

Foreign air travel to cost more; oil firms cut gas prices


Manilastandardtoday, 9 May 2011

EIGHT foreign airlines have asked the Civil Aeronautics Board to allow them to impose higher fuel surcharges, a request likely to drive up the cost of foreign air travel if granted.

The cost of jet fuel has shot up 45.6 percent over the last year.

Japanese airlines sought the biggest increases, with Japan Airlines Co. seeking to raise surcharges to $92 from $58 per sector for outbound and inbound Japan flights.

All Nippon Airways Co. said it would charge $92 from $58 for flights between the Philippines and Japan, $288 from $202 to the United States, Canada and Mexico, and $185 from $127 to Hawaii via Japan.

Cathay Pacific Airways And Hong Kong Dragon Airlines want to raise their surcharges to $132.10 from $113.30 on flights to and from Hong Kong.

Singapore Airlines and SilkAire Pte. have applied to raise fuel surcharges to $34 from $30 for economy class, to $47 from $41 for business class, and to $55 from $48 for first-class flights between the Philippines and Singapore.

Jin Air Co. advised the aeronautics board that it would charge $55 for flights to Incheon in South Korea.

Qatar Airways is seeking to raise its surcharges for outbound flights from Manila and Cebu to $105 from $102.

Philippine Airlines wants to raise its fuel charges to Honolulu to $155 from $130.

The latest data from the International Transport Association showed that the price of jet fuel rose 45.6 percent to $141.8 a barrel on April 29 from a year ago.

The group said the average price of jet fuel in 2011 stood at $127.4 a barrel, increasing the fuel bill for international airlines by more than $60 billion.

Jet fuel was most expensive in Latin and Central America at $148.4 a barrel and cheapest in the Middle East and Africa at $139.4 a barrel.

Jet fuel prices in Asia stood at $138.8 a barrel on April 29, up 44 percent from a year ago.

Over the weekend, oil companies cut the price of regular gasoline by P1.25 a liter and diesel by P1.75 a liter to reflect lower oil prices in the world market.


Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=2011/may/9/news2.isx&d=2011/may/9

[Kano]

Noy allows opening of NAIA Terminal 3


(The Philippine Star) Updated June 02, 2011

MANILA, Philippines -  President Aquino has agreed to proceed with a plan to operate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 while just compensation for its builders is being decided by the courts.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said yesterday the issue could still take longer because of the legal options available to all parties.

He added that the government's legal team is preparing its actions as the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco) elevated the expropriation proceedings to the Court of Appeals after the Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 117 ruled that the government should only pay Piatco some $175.78 million, a far cry from its claim of $842.80 million.

Ochoa said they are still discussing the issue because the arbitration and expropriation cases are "tickly."

"The point there is we can do anything now, we can proceed with the rehabilitation, renovation and the eventual operation on the NAIA 3 in the best way that we can manage to do that," Ochoa said after sending off President Aquino at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City for an overnight state visit to Brunei Darussalam.

He said they understand the sentiments of the German firm, Fraport AG, and the German government, but he noted that the Piatco case is something that the Aquino administration inherited.

"We can understand their exasperation on the settlement of the issue but then over the years, it has gone a bit more complicated and various issues have cropped up that we have to really sort of analyze," Ochoa said.

He said the decision of the Pasay RTC is welcome because "from our view, we won because the court had already settled the issue on just compensation. But there are still (legal) options from all sides."

The Aquino government had ruled out any compromise deal on the issue, saying the administration would only adhere to just compensation.

"These are the realities in our country, and we realize that it is quite difficult that we inherited the case. We have to dig up what happened really, but this time we really know," Ochoa said.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=692142&publicationSubCategoryId=63

[Kano]

NAIA T3 operations to slow down

   

Journalonline June 04, 2011


OPERATIONS at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 is expected to slow down after several ramp controllers will leave their posts to resume their regular duties at the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

Only five ramp controllers will be left at the NAIA T3.

One of the five ramp controllers, Milo Basilio, happens to be the head of the group and performs management function. He will be forced to take over when the need arises.

The ideal number of ramp controllers for each of the four airports should be 15  for every eight-hour shift, or 60 within 24 hours.

Due to lack of licensed ramp controllers, only 44 are assigned at the premier airport. NAIA has four groups of ramp controllers, one each for NAIA Terminals 1, 2 and 3, including the Old Manila Domestic Airport.

The CAAP ramp controllers were allowed to moonlight at NAIA T3, along with retired colleagues, because of the difficulty of finding licensed workers.

Basilio said ramp controllers provide direction, information, guidance and warnings to aircrafts about to take off or touch down. They have been complaining of low salary and long hours duty.

NAIA general manager Jose Angel Honrado said they are now in the process of replacing the ramp controllers who have left the NAIA T3 posts.     Willy Balasa

Source: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/news/metro/6616-naia-t3-operations-to-slow-down

[Kano]

Airphil Express launches its Cebu-Hongkong inaugural flight on July 28‏


Positivenewsmedia

MANILA, June 8 (PNA) -- AIRPHIL Express, the country's fastest growing budget carrier, will launch its Cebu-Hongkong inaugural flight on July 28 with flights leaving Cebu at 7:00am and departs Hongkong for Cebu at 10:30 am daily.

It is also scheduled to operate charter flights from Shanghai and Canton (China) twice weekly to Kalibo upon acquiring its permit from the aviation body next month.

Freddy Herrera, the carriers Senior VP- Marketing & Sales and concurrently PR & Spokesman, said the country's leading budget airline has chosen Hongkong and China because of its potential for growth.

Herrera said that the delivery of four Airbuses last year had allowed AirPhilexpress to expand its flight offerings in the domestic and regional routes. The carrier is set to acquire 18 more aircraft until 2013 to support the route expansion.

Four of the 18 Airbus 320s arrive last year, while six more A320 aircraft will join the fleet this year, five in 2012 and another three in 2013.

"As we built up our fleet, we want to fly our planes and it is but fair to have as much access to this market", we want to stimulate the market, you make them want to fly and by offering low fares".

He said that the carrier is doing aircraft turn around in 20 minutes for turbo prop aircraft and 30 minutes for our A320's.

"You fly domestic during daytime because not all airport in the country have night landing facilities and fly regional at night in order to maximize the aircraft utilization.

The thing kasi with the airplane parang taxi yan, you want to fly more so that you are able to spread the cost over every flight or trip that you want, hindi lang pang boundary, may extension pa," Herrera said.

Earlier, tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said that the Philippines may exceed its 3.8 million target for tourist arrivals this year as it registered a 13 percent increase on tourist arrivals from January to April from the same period last year. (PNA)
DCT/OO/utb

Source: http://positivenewsmedia.net/am2/publish/Tourism_24/Airphil_Express_launches_its_Cebu-Hongkong_inaugural_flight_on_July_28.shtml

[Rich]

Aviapartner staakt op Brussels airport.  Hinder verwacht.

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/942/Economie/article/detail/1276063/2011/06/08/Aviapartner-staakt-op-Brussels-Airport---hinder-verwacht.dhtml

[Rich]

Aviapartner staakt op Brussels airport.  Hinder verwacht.

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/942/Economie/article/detail/1276063/2011/06/08/Aviapartner-staakt-op-Brussels-Airport---hinder-verwacht.dhtml

UPDATE:

Mogelijk vluchten geschrapt van 40 maatschappijen.