United Airlines is launching the first-ever nonstop service linking Washington, D.C., with Moscow with low fares and a bonus-mile offer. The inaugural flight is scheduled to depart Washington Dulles on March 29.

US Airways flies to Europe. It flies to Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. But it does not fly to South America, and it wants to fill that void in its route system.

Air traffic controllers in Guyana returned to work Thursday nearly one week after striking, according to the Stabroek News. High on the workers’ list of demands was a 10-percent retroactive payment. While Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo said he made no promise of payment to the workers, he did guarantee that the letters of dismissal they received late Wednesday night would be rescinded if they returned to work by 2 p.m. Thursday. Director of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Zulficar Mohammed told the Stabroek News Thursday night that the airport had returned to full operations following the workers’ return and night flights were expected to resume after being suspended since Sunday.

Britain’s easyJet said last week first-half revenues were likely to come in better than expected partly due to a rise in business passenger numbers, sending its shares higher.

Codeshare partners Aer Lingus and United Airlines intend to launch service between Washington Dulles and Madrid in March 2010. Flights will go on sale this April.

Strike action by air traffic controllers at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) in Guyana over the past four days has forced the administration of the facility to cut night flights. Guyana Civil Aviation Director Chief Zulfikar Mohamed says the airport is being closed at 6 pm to relieve the senior managers who are directing air traffic. Up to midnight Monday, the entire airport was shut down because there was no controller to manage the system. Flights arriving at the airport in the evenings are now rescheduled to touch down during the morning hours. At present, a foreign plane that is currently in Guyana to conduct flight checks, in order to certify the VOR, is grounded at the airport, as a result of engineers joining their colleagues on strike. There is no one at the control tower in the evenings to address any emergency situation affecting flights that might be in Guyana ’s airspace; and in the event that flights experience difficulties outside of Guyana’s airspace that may force them to make an emergency landing, they will have to seek out either Trinidad or Suriname. If they are unable to so do, they could be in dire straits. All air traffic controllers have been off the job since Friday, having served notice that they were protesting a number of outstanding issues, among which are salary increases for 2008 and outstanding payment of retroactive overtime reimbursements. The strike began Friday night over union demands for salary increases of 5 percent. The government says it cannot grant the pay hikes because it needs to upgrade airport safety equipment. The new airport schedule has forced Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines to cancel flights in and out of Guyana.