In a highly welcomed move, Blue Islands has declared its decision to introduce new ski routes from Southampton Airport. As per the announcement, it appears that the carrier, based in the Channel Islands, will start offering its flights to Zurich and Geneva from 26th October. The airline has stated that the two flights introduced in this route will be operated six days in a week between Sunday and Friday. It is said that the carrier will deploy a 31-seat Dornier 328 aircraft.

In a statement made regarding this route, Derek Coates, the chairman of Blue Islands, observed that the new routes would connect to Switzerland through Jersey.

He too stated that the airline had perceived the increasing demand in this route based on the analysis of market trends, wherein last year alone not less than 360,000 people flew to Switzerland through an airport other than Southampton. He added that the airline was positive the new route would prove  popular and highly profitable for the airline.

In a recent move, GE Aviation and Iberia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would see Iberia becoming the preferred regional fulfilment centre within the Europe, Africa and the Middle East region. This covers overhaul, maintenance and repair services of CFM56-5A engines.

As per this agreement, GE Aviation will enter into a contract with Iberia for MRO services on CFM56-5A engines that are operated by different customers in the region. On the other hand, Iberia will establish an OnPoint solution agreement with GE for the material & services to be deployed in the process of maintenance, overhaul and repair of the CFM56-5A engines.

Tom Gentile, vice president and general manager of GE Aviation"s Services organization said, "Iberia is a well established MRO provider. The MOU and subsequent OnPoint solution material agreement will allow CFM56-5A customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East to have their engines repaired by Iberia and have access to the same high-quality OEM spare parts and repair offerings that GE Aviation can provide."

Manuel Lopez Aguilar, General Director of Iberia Maintenance & Engineering added, "The signature of this agreement represents for Iberia Maintenance a big step ahead in our strategy to be one of the top leaders of engine maintenance service providers. Being a member of the GE network demonstrates that you have attained the highest standards of quality, efficiency and customer support, and this is the commitment of Iberia to our customers and GE."

In a recent statement, China Airlines announced that its new Kaohsiung-Manila services will start on 1st October 2008. The airline has decided to offer a daily services on this route. As part of this new launch, Flight CI 637 will depart from Kaohsiung at 09:05, and will arrive in Manila at 10:45. The return flight CI 638 has been scheduled to take off at 11:45 and will arrive in Kaohsiung at 13:25. It is important to note that the new schedule offers more frequencies and added convenience for passengers travelling from southern Taiwan.

The airline is to deploy an Embraer E190 jet in this route. Notably, China Airlines has leased this aircraft from its subsidiary, Mandarin Airlines. Most notably, the said aircraft has been configured into two classes. There are 8 seats in the Premium Economy Class and 88 seats in the Economy Class. It is further interesting to note that the E190 jets are high-tech, medium-range jet airliners manufactured in Brazil, which Mandarin Airlines began to introduce into its fleet in June 2007.

At the outset, the present move by the airline forms part of the new round of capacity redeployment attempted by the CAL group in the said region. Also, it is very important to note that CAL is continuously enhancing the range and portfolio of its products and services as part of its commitment to serve more number of passengers in the southern Taiwan region.

Through a recent statement, the Civil Aviation Authority has joined hands with the group that has been demanding that BAA should sell off about three of the seven airports owned by the firm.

At the outset, it is to be noted that several airlines have backed the preliminary report issued by the Competition Commission, which concluded that the Spanish-owned regulator is enjoying an unhealthy monopoly on airports located across the southeast region of England.

In response to the report, BAA has recently said that it was keenly looking for a buyer for Gatwick Airport. However, it has not given any heed to the calls by the commission directing the airport owner to sell off another London airport in addition to one in Scotland.

The largest airport owner in Britain, BAA has said that it would rather consider taking legal action against the Competition Commission of UK, challenging the "substantive errors" made by the watchdog group in its recent report suggesting a break-up of BAA"s business holdings.

On the other hand, the Manchester Airport Group, one of the prospective buyers of the Gatwick Airport owned by BAA is seriously trying to push the move forward by enjoining the competition commission to designate an exclusive trustee for independently supervising the sale of this property.

BAA, which is owned by Ferrovial, the Spanish firm, has strongly criticised the report published by the commission, which has said that there was a severe lack of competition across all seven of the operator"s airports, which had drastically reduced their performance. Eventually, the monopoly watchdog group has suggested to the government that BAA should be compelled to sell off three of its airports, including two in London and one in Scotland.

In a prediction made on Thursday, an industry analyst has noted that the parent company of Air Canada is well poised to buy back the 25 percent of the country"s biggest airline for a sum of CAD$215 million (USD$209 million).

Remaining significantly down for more than 12 months on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the shares of Air Canada have recently surged by more than 15 percent or 65 Canadian cents to CAD$4.85. 

According to Jacques Kavafian, the Research Capital analyst, it appears that ACE Aviation will pay about CAD$8.50 a share for the stake, which is nearly double the closing price recorded on Wednesday.

According to the statement made by one of the top officials, it appears that British Airways has decided to offer direct flight services to connect London and Hyderabad. The said service is to begin operating from this December. Being the second largest market for the airline outside the US, the airline has been ensuring the necessary measures to significantly strengthen its network in India.

Addressing a group of reporters, Amanda Amos, the British Airways" Area Commercial Manager observed, "We plan to launch a direct flight from Hyderabad on December 7.

To operate this proposed new route, BA is to deploy a Boeing 777 aircraft. According to Amos, it appears that there will be five flights operated in a week.

In an interesting and highly welcomed move, Virgin Atlantic has declared that it has teamed up with the National Film and Television School (NFTS) once more to offer its own 'film festival in the sky'. Notably, since the month of February during this year, the airline has been displaying nine short films produced by the graduates of the NFTS as part of its in-flight entertainment system, which have highly appealed to a good number of its customers.

Interestingly, passengers have been asked to vote on their favourite films during this campaign. Following this, the top three shorts selected by the voting process will be passed on to the panel of judges that features some of the highly popular and respected directors and producers.

Enabling thousands of people to watch these films, these three movies produced by student filmmakers will also be screened on the flights of Virgin Atlantic until the end of this year.