American Airlines will launch daily round trip service between its hub in Miami and Cap-Haitien, Haiti (CAP) beginning October 2, 2014, subject to government and regulatory approval. This will be the airline's second destination in Haiti. American Airlines has flown to Haiti's capital city, Port-au-Prince, for more than 40 years. 

"We believe this new service is important not only for our customers, but also as an important catalyst to develop the north coast and open up this historically significant destination," said Art Torno, American Airlines' Senior VP of the Latin America region. 

American Airlines will operate its Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the route which seats 160 passengers in a two class configuration. 

"We are thrilled that American Airlines has decided to launch the first nonstop service from the United States to Cap-Haitien," said Haitian Prime Minister Laurent S. Lamothe. "This new route represents a tremendous opportunity for significant economic impact for our country by connectingMiami directly to the second city of Haiti."

The Schedule:

Flight #	Departs	Arrives
AA1632	Miami 9:50am	Cap-Haitien 11:50am
AA1659	Cap-Haitien 2:00pm	Miami 3:59pm

American Airlines has timed the flight to allow passengers coming from Cap-Haitien to connect to over 100 destinations across its route network. 

 

*Seating chart image via Seatplans.com

 

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will relaunch service to Bogota, Colombia and new service to Cali, Colombia. The airline is moving to increase its South American presence. KLM will start the service on March 31, 2015. "South America certainly has caught our interest as we look to grow," said Pieter Elbers, KLM CEO. 

KLM will use its Boeing 777-200 aircraft on the routes, which seat 35 passengers in World Business Class, 34 in Economy Comfort, and 249 in Economy-a total of 318 passengers. 

This new service will operate three-times weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and will be part of KLM's summer schedule. 

The Schedule:

Departure	Arrival	Days of Service
Amsterdam 12:30	Bogota 16:25	Tu.,Th.,Sa.
Bogota 17:55	Cali 18:55	Tu.,Th.,Sa.
Cali 20:35	Amsterdam 14:15 (+1)	Tu.,Th.,Sa.

Air France-KLM operates service to 15 destinations in Central and South America from Paris-CDG and Amsterdam including: Bogota, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Cali, Caracas, Cayenne, Guayaquil, Lima, Montevideo, Panama City, Paramaribo, Quito, Rio de Janiero, Santiago de Chile, and Sao Paulo. 

"The service to Bogota and Cali will expand the number of KLM’s Latin American destinations to eleven," said Elbers. 

 

*Seating chart image via Seatplans.com

Air Algerie flight 5017 lost radar contact 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, early Thursday. It was supposed to arrive at Algiers' Houari Boumediene Airport about four hours later. Air Algerie said via Twitter that the plane has apparently crashed in the Tilemsi area of Mali, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the southeastern city of Gao.

There are varying reports of how many people were on-board but it appears that the MD-83 was carrying at least 116 people in total, including six crew members.

The airline also tweeted that among those on board were 50 people from France, 24 from Burkina Faso, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, four Germans, two from Luxembourg, one from Mali, one Cameroonian, one Belgian, one Ukrainian, one Romanian and one Swiss. Lebanese officials said there were at least 10 Lebanese citizens on the flight.

The MD-83 is part of the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 family of twin-engine, single-aisle jets.

The plane belongs to a private Spanish company, Swiftair, but it appears to have been operated by Air Algerie.

"We have lost contact with the plane," Swiftair said.

"At this moment, emergency services and our staff are working on finding out more on this situation."

According to a CNN meteorologist, at the time of the flight, there were thunderstorms in the area of the flight path.

Air Algerie is Algeria's national airline, with flights to 28 countries.

 

*Article image via Wikimedia Commons