GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes Brazil's low-fare, low-cost airline launches direct flights from Porto Alegre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (10.2 million inhabitants) and Florianópolis in the state of Santa Catarina (5.5 million inhabitants) to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on September 16, 2005. GOL said that it is adding these new routes in order to meet customer demand in the southern region of Brazil for travel to Buenos Aires. GOL added Buenos Aires as the carrier’s first international destination eight months ago.

Luchtzak.be reports that American Airlines has been accused of safety violations in a civil lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in fines announced last Thursday (September 8) by U.S. Federal Prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York. American allegedly ignored an inspector's claim of fuel leaking from a wing during a Florida /New York flight.

Frankfurt Airport (FRA) again served more than five million passengers, the second time in the airport's history according to August numbers. Air cargo throughput reached 146,791 metric tons, a 3.0 percent increase over 2004. Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (HHN) improved its figures by 13.8 percent to 311,278 passengers.

Delta Air Lines in the news this week as bankruptcy looms still operates as one of USA’s vital transportation links resuming operations to New Orleans and is expanding service to Gulfport/Biloxi, Miss. The first Delta flight arrived at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans at 11 a.m. Tuesday (September 13). Jerry Grinstein, CEO of Delta Air Lines who must have other things to worry about, found time to think of others in need saying: "Delta was honored to play a role in providing relief to those affected by Hurricane Katrina's ravages. "Over the past two weeks, our flight crews have flown more than 30 planes full of evacuees—about 3,000 people—from the city's devastation. Now, Delta is focused on the next phase of Katrina's aftermath—beginning the efforts to clean-up and rebuild this great city." Keep ’Em Flying Delta, we say.

One day somebody at Lufthansa looked out a window at all the ULD containers that the airline owned and came up with a big idea. Jettainer is a joint venture established in 2003 by Lufthansa Cargo (LCAG), and an asset management company in Denver, Colorado. Now Jettainer owns all the Lufthansa ULDs and rents them back to the carrier. But one account does not a success make, so Jettainer is casting its net out there, looking for more business. Half of all the world's airlines will outsource their ULD management business by 2010, Jettainer said. More info: Dr. Mohammed Ali Seiraffi -info@jettainer.com or www.jettainer.com.

Kingfisher Airlines, India's only carrier from the people that brought you the beer, says it begins twice daily- nonstop services between Bangalore and Chennai & Bangalore and Hyderabad today (September 14, 2005), with two daily flights. Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman and Managing Director, Kingfisher Airlines said:“These new routes are part of Kingfisher Airlines' expansion plans that began in May 2005, adding up to 34 daily services.” The carrier adds two more brand new Airbus A320 aircraft during the September, October period. Whether Dr. Vijay who is also CEO of United Breweries will break a fifth to launch the new aircraft is not known.
www.flykingfisher.com.

“Deeper into the red in 2005 than previously forecast,” says IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani. With the full-year price for Brent crude expected to come in at around $57 per barrel, losses will rise to $7.4 billion, up from a forecast of $6 billion made in May that was based on an estimated average annual price of $47 per barrel. Bisignani who would be out of a job if everybody went broke and turned turtle, said that the $10 billion jump in annual fuel cost has resulted in "only" a $1.4 billion increase in the bottom-line loss owing to airline efficiency improvements and cost-cutting. Huh?

FedEx ordered six A300-600s plus options that will start being delivered in 2007. Big Purple operates 47 A300-600Fs plus 54 A310Fs.

Boeing and LOT Polish Airlines worked out a deal for 14 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, making LOT the first global network carrier in Europe to operate the jetliner.

Airbus delivered its 4000th aircraft Friday (September 9) to Lufthansa. The aircraft was an Airbus A330-300 model with 335 seats. Lufthansa was an early Airbus operator taking delivery of its first A300 aircraft in 1976.