United Airlines and the operator of Washington Dulles International Airport are in talks over a potential multi-billion dollar upgrade that could see the airport’s widely derided Concourse C/D finally replaced. The project, which Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter said is in a “conceptual” phase, would replace the 46-gate C/D facility with a modern structure in phases. “As proud as we are of Dulles, it was never designed for what it’s doing today,” United CEO Scott Kirby said earlier in October. The C/D facility was built as two temporary concourses in the mid-1980s and connected near the end of that decade after United established a hub at Dulles. Various crises, including the 1990-91 recession, 9/11 and the Great Recession, limited both the airline and the airport’s ability to replace the concourses. The works would build on the proposal for a new roughly 535,000-sq.-ft concourse south of the existing Concourse C designed to replace a regional aircraft facility on Concourse A. Virginia environmental authorities signed off on the regional gates replacement in July.<br/>
star
Aegean Airlines has taken a bigger step into the Romanian market by becoming the majority shareholder in leisure operator Animawings, the Greek carrier said on 14 October. Aegean acquired a 25% stake in the airline – which was established by tour operator Memento Group – in 2020, but has now upped its holding to 51%. “The long-standing and successful partnership with [Memento Group] is evolving into a joint business venture in Romania,” says Aegean CE Dimitris Gerogiannis. “We strongly believe in the potential of the Romanian market and the capabilities of our partner Memento Group.” Aegean says it will provide the Romanian carrier with three aircraft for the summer 2022 season for charter and scheduled flights. The Greek carrier will “oversee and support operations”, it says, while Memento will provide commercial functions. Animawings launched operations in July 2020 with its first flight from Bucharest Henri Coanda airport. Its website advertises services to destinations including Hurghada, Zanzibar, the Maldives and Dubai.<br/>
China’s Civil Aviation Administration ordered five domestic and foreign airlines to suspend some flights from Monday after multiple coronavirus cases were found on board, it said in a statement. The carries included Air China, which had six infections detected on an inbound flight from Frankfurt to the northeastern city of Changchun, the administration said Friday. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, EL Al Israel Airlines and Condor Flugdienst GmbH were required to pause two flights each after cases were found on flights to Shanghai and Xi’an, it said. Shandong Airline was also required to suspend some services.<br/>
The vaccinated travel lane (VTL) arrangement has helped to lift demand for Singapore Airlines (SIA), as the designated carrier for the quarantine-free travel arrangement reported an uptick in passenger traffic and group passenger load factor. The flag carrier noted in its filing of operating statistics to the Singapore Exchange on Friday that Singapore's first VTLs with Brunei and Germany last month have boosted demand, especially to the European country. The group's total passenger traffic rose by 4.4% in September, while its group passenger load factor improved by 1 percentage point month-on-month to 18.5%, on the back of strong demand for the Frankfurt and Munich VTL services. The passenger load factor, which measures the percentage of available seating capacity filled by paying passengers, was 1.3 percentage points higher year-on-year, driven by stronger demand for flights to Europe and the Americas, SIA elaborated. But the carrier's cargo load factor at 87.4% was 1.6 percentage points lower year-on-year as SIA expanded its capacity by about 57% and loads (freight tonne-kilometres) rose by about 54%. The group expects its passenger capacity to reach around 37% of pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels by December, according to its current published schedule. The passenger capacity, SIA reported, was at 32% last month.<br/>
Singapore Airlines has announced it will officially ramp up its flight schedule to and from Australia from 1 November, as NSW prepares to reopen its international borders. The airline has also announced it will bring its Airbus A380s back into service on select flights between Singapore and London from mid-November. Singapore Airlines has announced that come November, it will reinstate all 17 weekly flights between Singapore and Sydney, for fully vaccinated Australian residents and citizens. The move makes Singapore one of the first foreign airlines to announce a large-scale return to Australia since the Prime Minister last month announced the country’s international borders would reopen to citizens and residents. It comes after NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet announced that fully vaccinated overseas arrivals would be welcomed back into the state with no quarantine requirements from 1 November. Vaccinated passengers can now book flights between Singapore-Sydney and Sydney-Singapore, with eligible passengers urged to book those flights tagged as ‘For Eligible Passengers Only’.<br/>