AIRLINE NEWS.

Aloha Airlines and www.alohaairlines.com is boosting its service between Oakland and various Hawaii destinations to five roundtrips a day this summer. Aloha is launching seasonal service linking Oakland and Lihue, Kauai on June 17; it will continue through Sept. 6 2004. The carrier also is adding a second daily flight between Oakland and Honolulu on July 2. It currently provides nonstop service between Oakland and Honolulu; Kahului, Maui; and Kona, on the Big Island, all using Boeing 737-700 aircraft accommodating 12 passengers in first class and 112 in coach.

Gavarnie Holding has completed its purchase of Island Air from Aloha Airgroup effective May 11. With the sale, Aloha Airgroup, parent company of Aloha Airlines, can focus on its primary Hawaii and long- haul routes. Island Air's new owner plans to more than double its fleet of 37 seat de Havilland Dash-8 aircraft over the next few months and to significantly expand the scope of its interisland service. Thus, Island Air is set to launch daily service between Maui and Kona on the Big Island on May 13 2004. Island Air is continuing its marketing agreements with Aloha Airlines.

American Airlines filed a domestic across-the-board fare increase of $2 each way to offset its rising fuel costs. The increase is effective immediately and applies only to travel within the U.S. American said the price of crude oil is at its highest level since 1990 at $40 per barrel. Each one-cent rise in the price of a gallon of jet fuel costs American $30 million per year. There was no word at press time if other airlines were considering matching the increase.

American Airlines will open a second U.S. gateway to Belgium with a daily nonstop service between New York's JFK International and Brussels. American currently provides daily nonstop service between Chicago's O'Hare International and the European Union's capital city. The new daily service from New York will be flown on board a Boeing 767-300 aircraft with seating for 28 Business Class and 182 Coach Class passengers. The flight from New York departs at 6:25 p.m. landing next day at 7:55 a.m. in Brussels. The return flight leaves Brussels at 10:00 a.m. with a same day landing at JFK airport in New York at 12:15 p.m.

China Southern Airlines is now selling e-ticket packages that bundle air tickets with passes to scenic spots along the Lijiang River in Guilin. Li Kun, vice president of the airline, said passes to scenic spots, such as Yuzi Paradise, Guanyan and Earthly Paradise, are cheaper when purchased through the airline. "This new cooperation will improve the process under which these leisure destinations have partnered with travel agencies in the past and developed new product opportunities for the airline, while developing new customers and increasing visitors to the world-famous Guilin vacation destinations."

China Airlines and Delta Air Lines will start bilateral code share cooperation on transpacific services between the U.S. and Taiwan. Delta will begin placing its code on China Airlines flights between Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and New York-Kennedy, and Taipei on May 1 2004. Delta will also place its code on China Airlines' new service between Seattle and Taipei set to launch on June 22. China Airlines began the first phase of code share cooperation last June by placing its code on Delta flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Salt Lake City and Cincinnati.

JetBlue Airways has been ranked number one for 2003 in the annual Airline Quality Rating released by researchers at Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The rating looks at on time performance, passenger complaints, baggage handling and denied boards, and applies a formula to weigh these factors. This is the first year JetBlue, ATA, AirTran and Atlantic Southeast Airlines were included. The report said the performance measures show an increasing gap between the performance of the legacy and the low-cost carriers. The 14 airlines were ranked as follows: JetBlue, Alaska, Southwest, America West, US Airways, Northwest, Continental, AirTran, United, ATA, American, Delta, American Eagle and Atlantic Southeast. US Airways was the top carrier in 2002. Overall, the airlines performed slightly better last year due to a large drop in customer complaints. Northwest saw the best improvement, going from ninth to sixth.

Lufthansa German Airlines and Connexion by Boeing announced that passengers on LH 452, flying May 17, 2004 from Munich, Germany, to Los Angeles, Calif., will become the first air travelers to experience real-time, WiFi-based, high-speed Internet connectivity on a commercial flight. The new system is being installed on Lufthansa's A340-300 aircraft and five planes already have the new technology. Lufthansa plans to offer this new service to all passengers traveling long haul from Munich and Frankfurt by 2006. Using a FlyNet portal, passengers can access free updates for news, travel information, shopping and frequent flyer details, whereas the Connexion by Boeing is a fee-based service that allows travelers to surf the Web, send and receive emails with attachments, and set up a secure data connection via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to their corporate intranets or mail servers. The latter will cost either a flat rate of $29.95 for the entire flight or $9.95 for 30 minutes plus 25 cents for each additional minute.

Qantas and British Airways are adding interline e-ticketing within the oneworld alliance at the end of the month on their routes between Australia and Europe. E-ticketing is still not offered across the entire network of the two airlines, but will be eventually. Qantas introduced interline e-ticketing in November with American. The oneworld alliance wants to extend this by the end of this year.

Qantas is celebrating 50 years of serving North America. The 84-year old Australian flag carrier launched Sydney to San Francisco and Vancouver via Fiji, Nadi International Airport in 1954. To commemorate this half-century heritage of flight, Qantas will embark on celebrations across North America. The carrier will also use the celebration to announce first-ever nonstop service between Los Angeles and Brisbane, as well as an additional four new weekly services between Los Angeles and Sydney.

Spirit Airlines was selected as a 2004 Business of the Year in an awards ceremony sponsored by the South Florida Business Journal and Union Planters Bank. The Fort Lauderdale-based carrier has grown from 439 South Florida-based employees to more than 1,000 in the region and nearly 3,000 in the 16 markets served by the airline in North America.

Southwest Airlines said that in the first quarter of 2004, its SWABIZ corporate booking tool at www.southwest.com logged 88 percent more bookings from registered corporate customers than in the first quarter of 2003. Southwest recently announced it had created a full-time sales force to focus on SWABIZ and that customers booking through SWABIZ would continue to receive double Rapid Rewards credit through the end of this year. Now, Southwest says it also has tied SWABIZ into its 24- hour customer service support line at 800-435-9792 for help with existing travel reservations.

Southwest has three days of promotions and festivities planned May 8-10 2004 to celebrate its move into the Philadelphia market. In addition to water cannons that will christen the airplanes as they pull up to the gate, employees will be on the tarmac to cheer for the flights as they come in, and to hand out Mother's Day flowers and gifts at the ticket counter. Chairman Herb Kelleher will be led through the Terminal E sky- bridge by a Mummers band, where he will declare the city free of high fares and will ring a "Liberty" bell and sign a declaration of independence with a Texas-sized quill pen. Free snacks will be given to Southwest passengers.

US Airways will become a full member of the Star Alliance on May 4 2004. Jaan Albrecht, CEO of Star Alliance, said, "US Airways will significantly strengthen our network and product offering especially into and out of the eastern U.S. seaboard and the Caribbean via its hubs in Philadelphia, Charlotte and Pittsburgh." US Airways customers will then be able to accrue and redeem miles on any of the 15 member airlines.

US Airways is reducing flights to/from Pittsburgh. US Airways President and CEO Bruce Lakefield has informed Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell of business changes the company is forced to make, which likely will necessitate fewer flights and fewer destinations served out of Pittsburgh. Lakefield told Rendell on May 5 that the airline was entering into labor negotiations in which it will be discussing more point-to-point flying and lower operating costs. US Airways intends to continue to be the dominant carrier in Pittsburgh, and Lakefield said as negotiations continue, things could change, but there will not likely be any significant changes in its Pittsburgh fall schedule.