Phil Parker, president and CEO of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, echoed those sentiments.These new flights to LaGuardia are very important to our region’s business community,” he said.Terrence Slaybaugh, director of aviation for the city of Dayton, said more than 100 passengers per day have been impacted by the lack of a daily non-stop flight from Dayton to New York.There are two daily departures for the flights, at 7 a.m. and 6:50 p.m.Weekend service includes a Saturday morning origination at 7 a.m. and a Sunday evening origination at 6:50 p.m.

Some 47 arrivals from the US to Heathrow have been cancelled. The cancellations currently run until 18.30 GMT.States of emergencySandy lost its hurricane status late on Monday as it neared the coast and collided with winter weather systems at about 20:00 local time on Monday (midnight GMT), but was still generating hurricane-strength winds.It caused a record surge of seawater in New York City, flooding car and subway tunnels and leaving much of lower Manhattan without power.The storm has so far been blamed for at least 16 deaths in several states.An estimated 50 million people could be affected, with up to one million ordered to evacuate homes. Some three million are without electricity.Public transport has been halted in several eastern cities, and thousands of flights have been grounded.Nine states of emergency have been called in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and District of Columbia.President Barack Obama warned Americans to follow emergency instructions if they are in the storm’s path.British national Chris Sell, who has lived in New York for 23 years, told BBC Radio 5 live: “I think the city has done an amazing job of getting us all ready for it. I really think we are all as ready as we can be.The flooding is the big thing. It feels a bit like it did after 9/11 but we are a tough breed here.”

We are excited to add Istanbul to our global route network, said Jim Compton, United’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer.This new service will provide customers throughout the United States, Canada and Latin America direct access to one of the most important cities in the region.United flight 904 will depart New York/Newark daily at 7:27 p.m. and arrive in Istanbul at 12:20 p.m. the next day. Flight 905 will depart Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport daily at 1:55 p.m. and arrive at New York/Newark at 6:02 p.m. the same day.

The airline will initially operate the services with three-cabin Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 183 seats – six in United Global First, 26 in United BusinessFirst and 151 in United Economy, including 67 Economy Plus seats with added legroom. Effective Aug. 28, the airline will operate the service with two-cabin Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 214 seats 30 in BusinessFirst and 184 in Economy, including 46 Economy Plus seats. Both United Global First and United BusinessFirst feature flat-bed seats, along with a wide range of premium-cabin services and amenities.

THY increased its revenue by 35 percent in the first three quarters of last year, as compared to the same quarters of 2010. In the same period the number of passengers flown by THY increased by 11 percent, reaching 24.3 million. With 176 aircraft in its fleet, the carrier operates 5,107 weekly flights to 187 domestic and international destinations.

The carrier’s fourth-quarter loss widened to 133 million kroner from 23.6 million kroner a year earlier, it said today, worse than the 91 million kroner deficit expected by analysts. The stock fell as much as 9 percent, the most since Oct. 4, and was down 4.7 percent at 76.5 kroner as of 11:29 a.m. in Oslo.Fuel expenses jumped 56 percent to 793 million kroner in the quarter, in part because Norwegian offered more flights. Revenue advanced 18 percent to 2.54 billion kroner.

Tickets from Sarasota to New York are on sale now for $109 if purchased by March 12 for travel between June 11 and July 31 (blackout dates of June 29 – July 9). Sunday and Friday flights are also blacked out from the $109 price. Those days are selling for $160 one way, though the first Sunday, June 17, is still at $109.Flights are scheduled to depart from SRQ at 5:35 p.m. and arrive at LaGuardia at 8:20 p.m. Flights from LaGuardia to SRQ will depart at 1:35 p.m. and arrive in Sarasota at 4:32 p.m.

The decision leaves United Airlines, which includes the former Continental Airlines, as the only carrier offering direct service to the New York City area. It currently flies from Halifax to Newark Liberty International airport in New Jersey.Jerry Staples, vice-president of marketing and business development at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, said the American Airlines move was relayed to the airport a few weeks ago.They let us know that as a result of their restructuring and Chapter 11 protection in the U.S., of course, that they would be stopping service,” Staples said.

“It’s always disappointing to see a carrier leave a market but, having said that, the door is open with them. We have very strong relationships with their executive and their planning teams. So once they go through the restructuring, we’ll be back talking to them about reinstatement of service on the JFK market.There is significant traffic to New York from Halifax, Staples said, noting that travellers not only use it to visit the city, but to utilize the vast array of worldwide connections available through JFK and Newark.The decision to terminate the route didn’t come as a surprise to Robert Kokonis, president of AirTrav Inc., an airline consulting firm near Toronto.

They have to take a look at ways to reduce the costs of their financial activities and certainly they’re looking at their operation from top to bottom, looking for opportunities to save money,” he said.They’re going to be looking for routes such as Halifax, which perhaps are marginal producers or potentially losing money, so that doesn’t surprise me.While there is an extensive network of connections to Europe and Latin and South America out of Newark, travellers out of Halifax will see a difference, at least in the short term, Kokonis said.The nice thing about JFK is you’ve got a lot of international carriers serving that destination, which do not serve Newark, and definitely not LaGuardia, so not having that certainly that is a loss,” he said.

For Nova Scotia, certainly, it’s a loss, because it’s a great route for the business community.Kokonis speculated that Air Canada or its regional carrier Express (formerly Jazz), which is based out of Halifax, could step in to fill the void.Don’t ever say never to Air Canada (which) announced a flight to JFK last week from Toronto, and they haven’t been in the JFK market for probably 12 years or longer.Staples said discussions with other airlines are ongoing, though he declined to name them.We’ve been in conversation with other carriers and have every expectation to believe that you’ll see additional capacity put on New York.He said Delta Airlines will resume service to LaGuardia Airport on May 26, after having suspended direct service to JFK a couple of years ago.As of mid-July, Delta will offer two flights a day to LaGuardia.And right now their schedule shows that they’ll fly year-round once a day in the winter of 2012-13,” Staples said.So the option in between April 3 and May 26 for New York will be on United/Continental through Newark airport.

BWI announced last year that it was among several new markets that had received approval to provide service to Cuba by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. President Obama announced last January that the administration planned to expand charter flights to Cuba, which had been limited to three airports in Miami, Los Angeles and New York City.

The heaviest snow will fall later today and accumulations may reach 8 inches in the Chicago area, said Charles Mott, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Romeoville, Illinois.The winds are going to increase, too, late this afternoon or evening, making the rush hour interesting, Mott said by telephone.The weather service has issued winter storm warnings and advisories stretching across the Midwest and extended them in the Appalachian Mountains.

A winter weather advisory means falling snow will make travel difficult. A winter storm warning means significant snowfall is expected and travel will be dangerous. The weather service advises limiting travel to emergencies and keeping a flashlight, food and water in vehicles.Mott said this is the first significant snowfall for Chicago in what has been a mild winter. As much as 14 inches may fall in northern Indiana, according to the weather service.The storm is expected to track across the Great Lakes and into southern Ontario, Mott said.

Snow in Toronto

Toronto is expected to get light snow and rain late today and tomorrow, according to Environment Canada’s forecast. Freezing rain warnings have been issued for the eastern end of Lake Ontario, including Kingston, Ontario.A winter weather advisory has been issued on the U.S. side of Lake Ontario, including Buffalo, New York, and an ice-storm warning has been issued for northern New York from Watertown to Massena, according to the U.S. weather service.Two to 4 inches of snow is expected in Buffalo tomorrow and Detroit may receive 2 inches. In addition to the Midwest storm, heavy snow is also falling across the northern New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.As much as 8 inches of snow and 2 inches of sleet may fall by tomorrow in Berlin, New Hampshire, about 150 miles north of Boston.

The airline said in a statement it was managing to ensure the operation of around 80 percent of some 1,000 daily flights, short- and long-haul, at the two major Paris airports, Orly and Charles de Gaulle on Sunday.Several unions are urging cabin staff to strike until the end of Wednesday, raising the prospect of serious disruption during what is a busy travel period. One of their grievances is a plan to reduce staffing on long-haul trips.Tuesday, November 1 is a public holiday in France and many people take Monday off to extend the weekend break. It also falls during the mid-term school holidays.

Transport Minister Thierry Mariani denounced the strikers, saying they were shooting themselves in the foot by disrupting air traffic in a peak period.Management has been very clear. There is no threat of job cuts,” he told LCI television. “If the company has problems, it’s not a five-day strike at a big exodus time that will improve its image and competitiveness.Air France’s Michel Emeyriat, executive president of ground operations, said the unions’ grievances were pure fantasy and accused them of irresponsibly insinuating that the airline was running flights with fewer cabin staff than required under safety regulations.

“This strike has no reason to exist,he said on BFM TV, adding that there had been few last-minute flight cancellations but that the airline was delivering on a forecast to run an 80 percent service.The airline offered refunds for cancellations or delays of more than five hours in advisories on its website, www.airfrance.fr.Air France issued a statement last Thursday saying it could not understand union demands and was in fact considering recruiting rather than shedding staff.But the unions are unhappy with reorganization of flight staffing and say the carrier is adopting the policies of low-cost operators.Shares in Air France-KLM, which is due to publish financial results on November 9, took a hit this week when a media outlet said it was preparing to issue a profit warning. The carrier said last Tuesday, in response to that media report, that it would not publish any financial information before November 9.

Air France-KLM, Europe’s largest airline when measured by revenue, was formed by the merger in 2004 of Air France and Dutch carrier KLM. The industrial action concerns only the French side of the operation.Another major world airline, Australia’s Qantas Airways, grounded its entire fleet on Saturday in a bitter labor dispute.