JetBlue Airways has filed a complaint with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) against the government of the Netherlands for repeated rejection of slot requests at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. In a filing on 14 February, the New York-based carrier goes so far as to ask the US government to forcibly confiscate slots from Dutch carrier KLM as a last resort, after repeatedly being thwarted by “blatant” discrimination from Amsterdam’s slot coordinator Airport Coordination Netherlands (ACNL). Jetblue reveals in the filing that it is “ready, willing and able” to launch flights to the Dutch city from John F Kennedy International and Boston Logan International airports. The airline, which currently operates flights to London from both US cities, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its plans to serve Amsterdam. In its complaint, JetBlue outlines numerous recent requests to ACNL for permission to operate flights between the East Coast of the USA and Amsterdam, the primary airport that serves the Netherlands, and third busiest airport in the world by passenger volume. “The refusal of the government of the Netherlands to make slots available to JetBlue is due to the government’s noise reduction plan involving a drastic reduction in the number of annual flight movements at Amsterdam,” JetBlue says. The airline contends the Dutch government’s conduct violates the US-European Union Open Skies agreement, as well as the International Air Transportation Fair Competitive Practices Act of 1978, which ensures competition between air carriers in a foreign market is not unjustifiably or unreasonably restricted or harmed. As early as last September, the carrier had asked for two slots previously held by Russian airline Aeroflot, beginning in the summer 2023 travel season. “These slots, if allocated to JetBlue, would support one daily, roundtrip flight between Amsterdam and JFK/Boston using environmentally friendly Airbus A321LR aircraft, which are quieter and lower-emitting than the vast majority of aircraft serving Amsterdam today,” the airline writes. A week after the request, ACNL denied it. Story has more.<br/>
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Transatlantic budget carrier Norse Atlantic Airways is to open two services between London Gatwick and Florida in May. The airline says it will operate to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale from 25 and 26 May respectively. The Fort Lauderdale flights will initially be thrice-weekly rising to four-times weekly. Norse Atlantic will serve Orlando four-times weekly, before increasing the frequency to daily for the summer peak.<br/>Norse Atlantic already operates to New York JFK from the UK capital airport, a connection which began in August last year. The airline uses a fleet of Boeing 787s. It will operate the new US flights with its Norse Atlantic UK division. Norse Atlantic chief Bjorn Tore Larsen says the airline aims to disclose more routes shortly and serve more US destinations from Gatwick than any other carrier. Its planned expansion will ”lead to a substantial increase of the airline’s presence in the UK”, the company states. Over the course of January the operator conducted 229 flights, transporting just over 35,000 passengers, with an average load factor of 52%. It also carried out 15 charter flights.<br/>
Moldova has temporarily closed its air space, the tiny eastern European country’s national airline said on Tuesday. “Dear passengers, at this moment, the airspace of the Republic of Moldova is closed. We are waiting for the resumption of flights,” Air Moldova said on Facebook. The announcement comes at a time of tensions between the former Soviet republic and Russia as Moscow wages war in Ukraine, which shares a border with Moldova. <br/>
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the central bank to increase the amount of foreign currency allocated to Dubai's Emirates, after the airline suspended flights to and from Nigeria because it was unable to repatriate funds. Nigeria is facing severe dollar shortages, forcing many citizens and business to seek foreign exchange on the black market, where its naira currency has progressively weakened. The United Arab Emirates airline suspended its Nigerian flights on two occasions last year as local currency earned from ticket sales was trapped in Africa's most populous nation. In a telephone conversation with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday, Buhari requested a resumption of Emirates' flights to Nigeria and the lifting of a "blanket" visa ban imposed on Nigerians by the UAE, Buhari's office said. "Buhari assured the UAE leader that the issue of the Emirates funds was receiving appropriate attention alongside those of other foreign airlines operating in Nigeria," it said in a statement. The central bank in August 2022 released $265m to airlines to settle outstanding ticket sales, after which Emirates resumed its Nigerian flights in September, only to suspend them from the end of October due to the same issue of blocked funds. The IATA said last year that Nigeria was blocking airlines from repatriating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.<br/>