Delta will start two flights from JFK to Denver and San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April, to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in June, and to San Diego in July. In addition, Delta will start new commuter service to Charleston, Savannah and Greensboro and increase frequencies to some other Midwest cities. The regional flights will be operated by Chautauqua Airlines under the Delta Connection brand.

Delta, which has some of the highest costs in the industry, launched a low-fare subsidiary, Song, last year to compete with lower-cost rivals. Song will start two flights from JFK to Fort Myers, Florida, in May.

WIZZ Air, the Anglo-Hungarian latest addition to Europe’s growing fleet of low cost airlines, plans to start operations in May 2004, to coincide with EU accession. It will start flying from its base in Katowice, southern Poland, but also plans to fly out of Budapest later in May. WIZZ will operate on a multibase principle and will focus on Central and Eastern European markets, expanding rapidly to five bases.

Thai Airway International’s own low cost airline, Nok Air said on Thursday it would launch in June, heating up competition in Thailand’s low-cost market. Nok Air — Nok means “bird” in the Thai language — would initially fly to six destinations in Thailand. “The pie is very big. There’s 65 million people in Thailand and only five million fly” said an official. Two other discount airlines, Thai Air Asia and One-Two-Go, are currently operating in Thailand with cut-price fares at roughly a third of regular prices.

Singapore Airlines plans to set up a low cost airline, Tiger Airways, with the people we just love to hate, Ryanair. ValuAir also plans to launch a similar carrier this year.

Uk budget airline easyJet have announced that they are to add seven new routes, including three to Hungary, the CzechRepublic and Slovenia, bringing its total to 135 routes. The latest expansion follows confirmation last November of a new base in Berlin, from which it would fly to six countries. Passengers will be able to fly to Basel in Switzerland and Ljubljana airport in Slovenia from Stansted in Essex. LutonAirport in Bedfordshire is to offer new flights to Budapest in Hungary. Other new routes, to Naples, Ibiza, Faro and Prague will depart from Gatwick.

Giant holiday company Thomson is to start a new low-fare airline operating from Coventry airport at the end of March 2004. The new carrier, to be called Thomsonfly.com, will fly to 10 European destinations: Palma, Valencia, Rome, Naples, Nice, Malaga, Venice, Pisa, Ibiza, Marseilles and Jersey. Prices will start from £3.99 one way. Visit www.thomsonfly.com for more information.

Southwest Airlines has launched a service that allows some passengers to print their own boarding passes via the Internet before heading to the airport. The service is aimed at increasing efficiency for the carrier and convenience for customers while cutting down on the work load of gate agents. Southwest customers with an electronic, ticketless reservation can print their boarding pass for the first leg of travel on the day of travel. Once at the airport, those without bags to check who printed their own boarding passes can go directly to security screening.

Silk Air, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, is ending flights to Bangladesh after less than two years of operation, a company official said on Thursday.

Pacific Blue Airlines, the New Zealand arm of discount Australian airline Virgin Blue, announced it would start flying between Wellington and Sydney from March 10.

Dragonair, Hong Kong’s second-largest airline, said it will begin flights to Tokyo in April, heating up competition with rival Cathay Pacific Airways.

Singapore Airlines are set to enter the record books with the world’s longest non-stop service when it flies to Los Angeles on February 3. Both the New York service and the 16-hour flight to Los Angeles are targeted at business travellers and will cut up to six hours from its current flight time, and up to two hours for Los Angeles.