AIRLINE & TRAVEL NEWS

Song launched its first international service, operating from New York JFK to Nassau. It initially will offer one daily nonstop roundtrip between the destinations. Dec 2, 2004

Southeast Airlines of Largo Florida (not to be confused with South East Asian Airlines of the Philippines http://www.flyseair.com) is the latest of the so-called budget carriers to stop flying. The DC-9 (and derivatives) operator has suspended all operations. Originally founded as Sun Jet over a decade ago it first sought bankruptcy protection in the late 1990s reemerging under its present title in October 2003. http://www.flyseal.com Dec 13, 2004

Southeast Airlines, a tiny Florida-based low-fare public charter carrier, ceased operation Tuesday. A statement on the company's website said the action was "due in part to the unplanned and uncontrollably high cost of fuel combined with a low yield environment." Southeast operated a mixed fleet of DC-9s and MD-80s connecting a handful of secondary cities in the Northeast and Midwest to Florida. Dec 2, 2004

Southwest Airlines is continuing to boost its service at Chicago Midway with new daily nonstop flights to Portland, which are slated to begin April 3 2005. Dec 10, 2004

Star Alliance has now confirmed that Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines will both become regional members on 15 December 2004 as predicted in last week. Lufthansa will be the sponsoring airline in both cases, each operator transferring their respective frequent flyer programs to Lufthansa's Miles & More scheme. Adria Airways is focused on Ljubljana linking the Slovenian capital with more than 20 mainly European destinations. Croatia Airlines, based in Zagreb, currently serves 26 European destinations with 430 weekly flights. http://www.staralliance.com Dec 6, 2004

Styrian Spirit, the Seering (Austria) Bombardier CRJ operator on Jan 17 2005 is to inaugurate a twice daily service from the Slovenia city of Maribor (Slovenia) to Paris Charles de Gaulle via Salzburg. Established in 2002 the airline already operates from Zurich to Krakow, Graz and Salzburg, and also from Graz to Stuttgart. The flights ex-Salzburg will be flown in cooperation with Air France. Seeb here is chief executive Otmar Lenz close by an CRJ 200LR, one of three in the fleet. http:/www.styrianspirit.com Dec 13, 2004

Swiss International Air Lines will start a twice-daily service from Zurich to Bologna and a thrice-daily service to Genoa operated by Denim Air F50s Jan 17 2005. Swiss is reducing its Geneva-New York service to six times per week during the winter season. It will start scheduled service using a BBJ configured for 56 passengers on wet-lease from PrivatAir, which provides similar services to Lufthansa. The BBJ will operate six times weekly from Jan. 16 2005 between Zurich and Newark. Dec 16, 2004

Transavia launched its new logo and brand, transavia.com, as it prepares to reintegrate its LCC experience Basiq Air as of Jan. The airline announced in Sept. that it would shelve the Basiq Air brand, which sold low-fare scheduled flights operated by Transavia, and "absorb the experience" into the Transavia brand. Transavia.com, now an independent division of Air France-KLM Group, is the Netherlands' largest leisure airline. Dec 16, 2004