Airline News - Europe.

Assn. of European Airlines, AEA criticized the US government's new requirement that carriers operating flights to the US collect and retain passenger data for US authorities. The extra data requested, such as emergency contact information and e-mail addresses, are not available on passports and "go well beyond what is currently required by the EU-US agreement," AEA said in a statement. The association suggested that US authorities instead should consider using standardized locator cards for passengers arriving from high-risk regions. It said it "insists that the costs incurred should be reimbursed." Mar 2, 2006

Assn. of European Airlines said 21% of members' departures were delayed by more than 15 min. in 2005, an increase over the three prior years when the rate hovered at around 19%. London Heathrow was the most affected airport, with 27.9% of departures delayed. AEA said the problems causing many delays would be solved through a Single European Sky and "coherent European policy on airport capacity." Feb 27, 2006

Air Baltic

Air Baltic started four weekly flights from Riga to Dusseldorf on March 1 using 737-500s. Mar 3, 2006

Air Berlin

Air Berlin is invading a big Lufthansa market. From April 24, Germany's second-largest carrier will start up to four daily weekday flights from Zurich to Frankfurt. Mar 3, 2006

Air Berlin will launch six-times-weekly services from Berlin and Hamburg to Copenhagen as well as a twice-daily Dusseldorf-Copenhagen service from May 2. Daily Berlin-Helsinki flights also will commence in May. Feb 27, 2006

Austrian Airlines 

Austrian Airlines will delay its new services from Vienna to Erbil. Flights to the Kurdistan region were scheduled to start March 12. Austrian would have been the first European carrier to offer direct flights to Iraq and said it has not given up on launching the route at a later date. Feb 27, 2006

Fuel costs sink Austrian hopes for 2005. An ill-timed expansion coupled with a lack of fuel hedges put an end to Austrian Airlines Group's profit hopes for 2005 as the company reported a net loss of [euro]129.1 million ($153 million) compared to income of [euro]43.9 million for 2004. Although the company did not provide a fourth-quarter result. The parent of Austrian, Austrian Arrows, Lauda Air and Slovak Airlines lost [euro]59.4 million in the December period compared with income of [euro]37.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2004. "2005 was not a success at all and a big disappointment," outgoing CEO Vagn Soerensen said during the results conference. Mar 1, 2006

Austrian and Croatia Airlines will increase codeshare operations on the Vienna-Split route to nine flights per week and on Vienna-Dubrovnik to eight weekly flights. In addition, Croatia Airlines said it will close its Split-Munich and Zagreb-Prague services by the end of March. Feb 27, 2006

British Airways 

British Airways has raised the issue of lack of air capacity to South Africa as the country prepares to host the 2010 football World Cup. With airlines already reporting very high demand for this year's tournament in Germany, BA fears fans will not be able to secure flights in four years as routes to South Africa are so tightly controlled. http://www.ba.com Mar 5, 2006

Cirrus Airlines 

Cirrus Airlines, a German Regional will implement e-tickets on domestic flights starting March 26. It also will add a second ex-Swiss International Air Lines Embraer 145 to its fleet. Feb 28, 2006

Cyprus Airways 

Cyprus Airways has submitted its restructuring plan to the Cypriot government and the European Commission for approval. In the interim, it said it has raised a short-term, government-guaranteed loan that, along with the pending sale of its Eurocypria subsidiary to the government, will help it "maintain its liquidity at satisfactory levels." A long-term loan and share capital increase will finance the company once its restructuring is approved, it added. Mar 1, 2006

Iberia

Iberia has blamed the rise of low-cost airlines in its traditional territory for a 7% drop in earnings. The Spanish giant said strong competition around Europe and within the Iberian peninsula was hitting profits, and, although its South America routes are performing well, it did face growing competition from Air France/KLM. http://www.iberia.com Mar 5, 2006

Iberia's annual profit doubles on capital gains. Propelled by [euro]663 million in gains from the sale of its stake in Amadeus and its agency reservations system Savia, Iberia reported that full-year 2005 net income jumped 98% to [euro]395.8 million ($469.2 million) from [euro]199.9 million earned in 2004.Excluding the special gains, however, bottom-line results would have declined sharply, as full-year EBIT slumped 35.7% to [euro]116.4 million from [euro]181.1 million while the carrier fell into the red for the fourth quarter, losing [euro]6 million versus income of [euro]49.8 million in the comparable 2004 period. Mar 1, 2006

Iceland Express

Iceland Express will launch a twice-weekly service from Akureyri to Copenhagen on May 30 using MD-90-30s. Feb 27, 2006

Tarom

Tarom announced a four-times-weekly 737 service from Bucharest to Barcelona starting with the summer schedule. Together with codeshare partner Austrian Airlines, Tarom will offer four weekly services from Iasi to Vienna, five from Sibiu to Vienna and five on the Cluj-Vienna sector. It also increased the number of frequencies to Athens, Thessaloniki, Munich, Larnaca, Dubai, Amman, Cairo, Budapest and Warsaw Feb 28, 2006

Ukraine International

Ukraine International Airlines took delivery of a 737-400 leased from GECAS. It also is planning to take delivery of two dash 500s leased from Boeing Capital Corp. within the next six weeks. Feb 27, 2006

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic is looking for up to 12% of the Dubai market as it prepares to start flights later this month. Sir Richard Branson's carrier is hopeful of taking traffic from British Airways, Emirates and Etihad when flights start on March 28. Its only Middle East destination will be served daily from June 2 when flights are increased. http://www.virgin-atlantic.com Mar 5, 2006