Airline News - Europe.

European Commission warned the Greek government that it must adhere to a May 2005 European Court of Justice ruling and recover [euro]161 million ($194.6 million) in state aid given to Olympic Airways, now Olympic Airlines, between 1998 and 2002. The EC said Greece has two months to "react" to the decision or it will refer the case back to the Court and seek financial penalties. The government still is trying to privatize the airline. Apr 5, 2006 UK and Russian governments signed a new aviation agreement that will lead to "a significant expansion" in air services between the two countries, the UK government announced. The bilateral grants bmi the right to operate alongside British Airways on the principal London-Moscow route and doubles the number of services permitted to 70 per week--35 from each country. The number of flights permitted on the Manchester-Moscow route will increase to 14 per week. The agreement also opens new destinations and routes, including Moscow to Liverpool and Birmingham, London to Kaliningrad and Krasnoyarsk, from London through Ekaterinburg to points beyond Russia and from any point in the UK to any additional new point in Russia to be nominated by the UK. UK airlines will receive a substantial increase in the number of flights they are permitted to operate through Russian airspace on routes to the Far East, and UK and Russian carriers may enter into codeshare agreements on each other's services. The deal also entitles two airlines from each side to operate up to 14 all-cargo services per week between the countries. Apr 5, 2006

Aer Lingus 

Aer Lingus commenced thrice-weekly Dublin-Dubai service on March 28, its first non-US long-haul flight. Passengers can reach an additional 21 destinations from Dubai through a partnership with Emirates. The carrier said it expects more than 70,000 passengers on the route in the first year. Apr 4, 2006

Aeroflot

Aeroflot's summer schedule will include frequency increases of 30% to CIS countries, 28% to Southeast Asia, 20% to the Americas and 15% to Africa and the Middle East, the airline announced. Flights in Russia and Europe will go up by 14% and 9% respectively. New services will be introduced to Karlovy, Vary and Bratislava. In total it will operate flights to 87 cities in 47 countries. Apr 7, 2006

Air France, KLM 

Air France and KLM now have a combined Internet check-in service. Regardless of which of the two airline websites you visit, the result is the same. As a passenger you can check in online between 30 hours and one hour prior to departure. In some cases (for KLM flights to the US from Amsterdam, Rome, Frankfurt and Mumbai), Internet check-in is possible between 24 and one hour prior to departure. Of all KLM passengers departing on an e-ticket from Schiphol, some 30% currently check-in online. At the start of this month, no less than 76% of all the tickets sold by KLM were e-tickets. With effect from May 2006, KLM accepts all e-tickets issued by its SkyTeam partners and vice versa. This means that from now, passengers only need a single e-ticket for flights operated by the different SkyTeam carriers. http://www.airfrance.co.uk http://www.klm.com Apr 9, 2006

LTU 

LTU will operate one of its three weekly Dusseldorf-Southwest Florida International Airport flights and its weekly Munich-RSW flight as nonstops effective May 2 and 3 respectively, dropping the Miami stopover prior to arrival at RSW. Apr 3, 2006

Lufthansa, BusinessJet Class

Lufthansa and BusinessJet Class Sign Private Jet Agreement. BusinessJet Class, the first marketing and automated distribution system for private jet charter, has signed an agreement with Lufthansa, the first commercial carrier to offer its own private jet service, Lufthansa Private Jet. This agreement now gives travel agents the ability to book Lufthansa scheduled flights in conjunction with Lufthansa Private Jet flights, seamlessly and exclusively on the BusinessJet Class reservation system. Apr 4, 2006

Swiss International

Swiss International Air Lines and Spanair, Star Alliance partners as of Saturday, entered into a codesharing arrangement effective May 1 covering flights from Zurich and Geneva to Barcelona, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca and Malaga. Apr 3, 2006

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic Airways committed itself to capturing more business and premium traffic with Friday's announcement of a three-year "global growth plan" that it expects to produce a 10% increase in business travelers in the coming year. It will add services on popular business routes, including a fourth daily London Heathrow-New York JFK flight, and launch a Dubai service. All routes soon will feature the carrier's Upper Class Suite, which will include access to its new Clubhouse lounge opened last week at LHR, limousine service to and from the airport, in-flight massage and other amenities. The growth plan also includes new seating in premium economy and economy cabins and a more efficient check-in and boarding process at Heathrow's Terminal 3. The airline said more details will be released later this year. Apr 3, 2006