Chilean air company Sky Airlines got the green light to start operations in Peru and provide international coverage for passengers, cargo and mail from the Chilean cities of Santiago, Iquique and Arica to Peru’s Lima, Arequipa and Tacna.
The flights will encompass such routes as Santiago-Iquique-Lima and Lima-Iquique-Santiago with seven weekly flights, as well as Arica-Tacna and Tacna-Arica with a couple of weekly flights.
Oneworld is to beef up its position with new services in Latin America with the addition of two more carriers in the region –LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador. The two newest carriers in the LAN alliance will become affiliate members of Oneworld as soon as the necessary joining technicalities can be completed. All parties have committed to ensure that this takes place as early as possible in 2007.
With Chile-based LAN Airlines a full member of the alliance since June 2000, along with its domestic subsidiary LAN Express and Peruvian sister LAN Peru as affiliate members, the latest additions will mean Oneworld will have five Latin American airlines in its grouping.
LAN Chile’s affiliate LAN Argentina, announced Friday in Mar del Plata the beginning of flights to Patagonia and Brazil as part of its regional expansion policy.
Ushuaia and El Calafate are the two Patagonian destinations LAN Argentina will be covering as of next week and in early December two daily flights to Sao Paulo, said Damian Scokin the company’s General Manager during a business forum.
Virgin Atlantic Airways has launched new advanced shopping features to virginatantic.com using the Datalex TDP Shopping and Availability Management Solution, enabling an improved customer experience with calendar and price led shopping.
Virgin Atlantic website is now utilizing the advanced availability and shopping functionality of the Datalex Travel Distribution Platform (TDP) as part of a five-year partnership between Datalex and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Several major U.S. airlines have raised fares in some markets by $5 each way, after two unsuccessful efforts to increase prices in recent weeks.
American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines each said on Friday that they raised fares in domestic markets not served by low-cost carriers.
Continental Airlines’ load factor rose 2 percentage points from a year ago to 79.3 percent, setting a record for October, the airline said.
Continental said revenue per available seat mile increased between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent for the month, as demand remained strong in the traditionally weak period for air travel.