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aviation Airnorth to start services to Townsville from Wellcamp Airport Airnorth will commence direct jet services between Toowoomba (Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport) and Townsville, with onward connections to and from Darwin from November 28, 2016. Three return flights each week will operate every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Darwin to Townsville and then continuing on to Toowoomba with a same day return. Daniel Bowden, chief executive officer, Airnorth, said that the new flights further complement Airnorth’s existing Toowoomba direct services to Cairns and Melbourne. “This expansion of direct services from Toowoomba, to include Townsville, further benefits business and leisure passengers from the region and also opens up connectivity to Darwin via Townsville with great daytime services,” Bowden said. Bowden also welcomed the inclusion of the Qantas code on the new Wellcamp services and the opportunity for Qantas Frequent Flyers to earn and redeem Qantas Points. Qantas already codeshares on Airnorth services between Kununurra-Perth, Darwin-Kununurra, Kununurra-Broome, Darwin-Broome, Darwin-Gove, Gove-Cairns, DarwinTownsville and between Darwin-Dili (Timor-Leste), as well as Toowoomba (Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport)Melbourne and Toowoomba (Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport)-Cairns. Wizz Air adds Porto to Budapest Airport’s route network (back row) Sándor Saly, Senior Airline Development manager, Budapest Airport and Gábor Vásárhelyi, Corporate Communications manager, Wizz Air, welcomes the homebased carrier’s new year-round sun connection to Portugal’s coastal city, Porto. Budapest Airport has celebrated the arrival of its latest year-round sun connection with the launch of Wizz Air’s twice-weekly service to Portugal’s second largest airport, Porto. After recording healthy passengers numbers on its Lisbon service launched last March, the ultra-low-cost-carrier’s added its second Portuguese link from Budapest on September 4. Experiencing a 43 percent increase in indirect passengers to and from Porto last year, the coastal city shows a potential market of 16,000 passengers for Budapest. Using its A320 fleet, Wizz Air connects the Hungarian gateway to Porto for the first time, facing no direct competition on either of its Portuguese services. Kam Jandu, CCO, Budapest Airport, commented, “The high number of indirect passengers makes us confident that this route is going to be a great success for Wizz Air, serving as the perfect city break for both Hungarian and Portuguese passengers.” Delta and Korean Air expand partnership with new flights to Seoul Delta is expanding in Asia with a new service between Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Seoul Incheon International Airport beginning on June 3, 2017. The daily nonstop flight will operate with a 291-seat Boeing 777-200LR aircraft. Additionally, Delta and Korean Air are expanding their joint codeshare agreement. Delta’s new Atlanta flight complements Korean Air’s existing service, providing customers in the Southeast US with greater access to destinations across Asia. Together, Delta and Korean will offer round-trip connectivity to 142 destinations in the Americas and 33 destinations across Asia between their joint Atlanta-Seoul schedules. “Delta and Korean Air are expanding a 20+ year trans-Pacific partnership, and we believe the new Delta service between Atlanta and Seoul in conjunction with an enhanced partnership with Korean solidifies our joint position as leading carriers in the US-Asia market,” said Steve Sear, Delta’s president – International & executive vice president – Global Sales. In addition to new Atlanta-Incheon service, Delta and Korean Air will expand their codeshare partnership, providing customers with greater access to destinations throughout Asia and the Americas. Korean will place its code on Delta’s Atlanta to Seoul service along with flights to 115 US and Canada destinations beyond Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York City. Korean will also add its code to Delta’s Sao Paulo, Brazil flights from both Atlanta and New York City. Delta will expand its codeshare footprint to 32 Korean Air destinations beyond Seoul including new code to Taipei, Osaka, Singapore, Nagoya and Okinawa. The airline will also place its code on Korean flights from San Francisco and Houston to Seoul. Delta and Korean plan to launch the new codeshare in 4Q 2016, subject to government approvals. Korean’s Seoul-Atlanta flight is operated by Boeing 777-300ER with eight First Class, 42 Prestige business and 227 economy seats. The new Delta operated 777-200LR service offers 37 Delta One business, 36 Delta Comfort+ and 218 Main Cabin seats. Delta and Korean are two of the four founding members of the SkyTeam alliance which began in 2000. www.stattimes.com | OCTOBER 2016 33