Intelligence – February, 01 2008

Intelligence – February, 01 2008

Air India is to become a Star Alliance member. The process can expect to take a year or more. Air India recently merged with Indian Airlines and is expected to expand significantly over the next six years …

Virgin America will start nonstop flights between Seattle and San Francisco on March 18, 2008 with nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Seattle beginning April 8 …

Frontier’s Lynx has taken flight. Lynx will serve destinations within a 750-mile radius of Denver, including Rapid City, Sioux City, Tulsa, Wichita and Billings. There are plans to expand the Lynx network to include mountain towns like Aspen and Steamboat Springs …

United Airlines has launched service from Los Angeles to Frankfurt and Mileage Plus members can earn between 1,500 and 7,500 bonus miles for flying the new route through March 31, 2008 …

Chateaux & Hotels de France is a new SkyMiles hotel partner and SkyMiles members can earn double miles for stays through April 9, 2008 …

Northwest Airlines/KLM announced new daily nonstop flights between London Heathrow and Detroit (beginning May 1, 2008), Minneapolis/St. Paul (beginning March 29, 2008) and Seattle (beginning June 1, 2008). Customers who purchase tickets between Seattle and London before July 21, 2008, will get up to 15,000 bonus miles. Travel must be between June 1 and July 31, 2008 …

American Airlines will launch daily nonstop flights from New York (JFK) and Barcelona, Spain beginning April 24, 2008 …

Look for a new transatlantic airline from British Airways. The airline will be separately branded and is set to begin flights from New York (JFK) if it can get the slots to cities in Europe including Brussels, Paris, Milan, Rome and Frankfurt. The aircraft are expected to have lie-flat seats in business class with a premium economy section — no word yet if regular economy will be offered or how the new airline will relate with British Airways Executive Club …

Etihad Guest and Oman Air Sindbad members can now earn miles when flying with both airlines because of a new partnership between the two programs …

The Department of Transportation has finalized its decision on new U.S.-China routes. US Airways will fly from Philadelphia to Beijing beginning on or around March 25, 2009. Also around the same time, flights between Chicago-Beijing service by American, Newark-Shanghai by Continental and Detroit-Shanghai by Northwest. If all goes through as planned, there will be 112 flights per week to China in 2009 …

Delta Air Lines recently added several flights from New York (JFK) to Central America and the Caribbean and the airline filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation to add nonstop service between JFK and Bogota, Colombia and flights between Atlanta and Medellin and Cali in Colombia …

Delta customers will soon be able to fly nonstop and get Delta miles between Los Angeles and London (Heathrow) on an Air France 777. The flights will begin operating from Los Angeles on March 30 and from London on March 31, 2008.