SA AIRPORT TAXES SET TO RISE Airline authorities have expressed concern over the recently announced proposed increases in South Africa’s Airport Passenger Tax, writes South Africa’s Travel News Weekly (TNW). The proposed tax increase, announced by fi nance minister, Pravin Gordhan, in his budget speech in February, is a 27% increase in airport taxes on international fl ights to South Africa, and a 25% increase in tax for travel on fl ights from SA to SA Customs Union States.
CEO of the Airline Association of Southern Africa, Chris Zweigenthal, said: “The volatile state of the industry means that further cost increases are likely to be absorbed by many of the airlines themselves. We believe that the proposed tariff increases need to be reviewed urgently to ensure the sustainability of the airline industry in South Africa.”
According to the CEO of the Board of Airlines Representatives South Africa, Allan Moore, such an increase would “fl y in the face” of efforts by the tourism ministry to encourage inbound tourism to South Africa. “The tax, imposed on all passengers fl ying across SA borders, is discriminatory in that it does not apply to domestic passengers and is almost double the amount paid by regional passengers,” he said.
KOREAN READIES FOR A380 Korean Air’s fi rst A380 now proudly displays the airline’s distinctive livery. The aircraft, the fi rst of Korean’s 10 on order, will start operating from Seoul to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Later in the year, following the delivery of more A380s, it will operate to New York and Los Angeles.
DELTA BACK IN CAIRO, EXPANDS AT HEATHROW Delta intends to reinstate direct service to Cairo from New York JFK from early May, the airline’s senior vice president – Europe, Middle East and Africa, Perry Cantarutti, told Routes News in late February. It suspended the route during the Egyptian political crisis, but catered for Cairo-bound passengers on Air France and KLM fl ights.
Cantarutti, who is based in Paris to work with Delta’s SkyTeam partner Air France, was in London to brief the media on Delta’s new fl ights from Heathrow to Boston and Miami, which start on
Auckland will get a direct route to Guangzhou from April 8 when China Southern Airlines launches a three-times weekly service operated by an A330-200 aircraft. The airline said this would mark the fi rst direct fl ight between Mainland China and New Zealand.
Dragonair is set to increase frequencies from Hong Kong to Kaohsiung and a number of destinations in Mainland China from March. Flights to the southern Taiwan city will increase
10
March 27 and will bring the airline’s offering to 10 daily fl ights from Heathrow to the US.
He said that Delta is committed to expanding its offering at Heathrow and pointed out that in July 2007 it had no service at the London hub. By the end of March it will serve six US hubs – Atlanta, Detroit, New York JFK, Minneapolis, Miami and Boston. “We will continue to look at our Heathrow portfolio,” he said. All of Delta’s services at Heathrow are operated in cooperation with its joint venture partners, Air France–KLM and Alitalia.
from 32 to 42 weekly fl ights. An additional service will be added to Xiamen, bringing it to a total of four fl ights a day, and three more weekly fl ights will be added to Ningbo, bringing it to a total of 10 fl ights a week.
Melbourne Airport’s international passenger traffi c grew 18.5% in January, compared with the same month last year. Nearly 631,000 passengers passed through the airport in January, up 98,313 on 2010. Its
fastest
growing markets include China (32.9%), Singapore (25%) and Malaysia (21.8%), New Zealand (19.7%), India (15.8%), USA (11.1%) and UK (10.8%).
SkyTeam is adding Middle East Airlines–Air Liban (MEA), the fl ag carrier of Lebanon, to
its membership from 2012. MEA is currently renewing its fl eet and looking to increase its network in Europe, the Middle East and West Africa.
www.routes-news.com
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