AIRLINE & TRAVEL NEWS

Delta Air Lines at the end of Nov. 2005 began interline e-ticketing with British Airways, America West, Aloha and Midwest Airlines. Delta aims to be 100% e-ticket by the end of 2005. Dec 2, 2004

Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines early next year will begin code sharing on select flights. Commencing Jan. 10 2005, Delta will place its code on Alaska flights from Seattle and Anchorage to five destinations while Alaska will start code sharing on Delta flights from Seattle, Anchorage and Portland (Ore.) to four destinations. The code sharing is part of a larger comprehensive marketing agreement the two signed earlier this year that also includes access to lounges and the ability to accrue and redeem miles in each other's frequent-flyer programs. Dec 15, 2004

Denim Airways, Dutch, and a one time operator into London City Airport, is to expand its network of scheduled flights from Zurich International Airport with two new destinations: Bologna (twice daily) and Genoa (three times daily) from 17 January 2005. The move comes just six months after the successful launch flights from Zurich to Venice (three times daily) and Florence (daily). The airline, based in Eindhoven, also flies from Augsburg to both Berlin-Tegel and Dusseldorf. It operates 14 Fokker 50 and 5 DH8 aircraft. http://www.denimairways.com Dec 20, 2004

Disneyland may be having problems in Paris but that is not the case in the Far East. With Mickey Mouse's emporium now well established in Tokyo the Walt Disney Company has confirmed that a Hong Kong branch will open on 12 September 2005 on a site at Penny's Bay on Lantau Island, not far from the new Hong Kong International Airport. Disney predicts a massive 5.6m visitors for the first year, around one third from the mainland. With Hong Kong presently booming it looks like air seats to the Special Administrative Region will be at even more of a premium! The company is already advertising for cast members, no problem for Mickey but we will wait to see what a Chinese Tinkerbelle is like! http://www.hongkongdisneyland.com/eng Dec 20, 2004

Donbassaero Airlines in the Ukraine began code sharing on Lithuanian Airlines' three weekly flights on the Vilnius-Kiev route under a new agreement. Dec 16, 2004

EasyJet, like virtually all the so-called budget carriers, continues to expand at a prodigious rate, even to the extent that the staff cannot keep up with developments. Its latest offering is three new routes from Belfast (Geneva, Inverness and Palma) bringing the BFS total by the height of next summer to 84 daily services and 17 routes. easyJet is also expanding its Italian operations with four new routes connecting the UK and Germany with some of Italy's most attractive destinations. Gatwick to Olbia commences 27 May 2005, Luton to Cagliari commences 21 April whilst Berlin to Olbia and Pisa both commence 8 April. easyJet currently operates 16 routes to Italy: Stansted to Bologna; Gatwick and Paris to Milan; Berlin, Stansted and Paris to Naples; Bristol, Dortmund, Geneva, Gatwick, Newcastle, Nottingham East Midlands to Rome; Luton to Turin; Bristol, Gatwick, Nottingham to Venice. Readers are strongly advised to visit the easyJet website for up to the minute route information. http://www.easyjet.com Dec 6, 2004