New online visa travel rules to US take effect

LONDON (AP) — New rules went into effect Monday requiring people traveling to the U.S. under the visa waiver program to register online in advance, instead of filling out paper forms in flight or at the airport.

The new program, designed to improve U.S. security, has been voluntary since August, but became mandatory Monday. Travelers are being asked to fill out the forms at least 72 hours in advance of travel.

There were no signs of confusion Monday as the new system was implemented at London Heathrow's sprawling Terminal 5 — departure point for many U.S.-bound flights.

"I knew about it because my travel agent told me, so I had already taken care of it online," said Jo English as she checked in for a business trip to Miami.

The rules cover the citizens of 35 countries — from nations in Europe and Asia, to Australia and New Zealand — who don't require a visa to enter the U.S.

Derwood Staeben, U.S. consul general in London, said nearly all applications would be approved in less than 10 seconds. He said travelers would not be required to give any more information than is already requested on the paper immigration forms, which are being replaced.

"The important change is that we're automating the existing process and requiring it to be done in advance," he said. "The response time is generally about four seconds."

Travelers filling out the online form will be told whether their request is authorized, denied or pending, he said. Those who are marked "pending" must check back in 72 hours to see if they have been approved, he said.

People whose application is denied must apply to the U.S. Consulate for a visa, he said.

He said the U.S. Congress mandated the change.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department said in a statement that it will take a reasonable approach to travelers who have not obtained an approved travel authorization, but warned that travelers without authorization do risk being delayed or denied entry to the U.S.

There is no fee for the service, he said, and the travel authorization is valid for two years. He warned that operators of some unscrupulous Web sites are charging fees for this service, which is designed to be free of charge.

People can apply for travel authorization at any time, and Staeben said about 14,000 applications per day are being received.

On the Net:
New travel forms: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov

New routes launched - Saturday 20 December - Friday 9 January

British Airways CityFlyer has begun weekend only flights from London City (LCY) to Lyon (LYS) aimed at the winter ski market. Saturday flights operate early in the morning while Sunday flights operate in the early evening. One of the airline’s Avro RJ 100s operates the service. British Airways now operates to around a dozen destinations from the airport.

Swiss niche carrier Helvetic has re-launched scheduled services from Zurich (ZRH) to the Macedonian cities of Ohrid (OHD) and Skopje (SKP). Both destinations will be served for the rest of the winter season with either one or two weekly flights operated by a Fokker 100. Helvetic had wound down its scheduled services to focus on charter flights but it is now re-starting a limited programme of scheduled services to niche destinations.

Last year’s “New Routes Champion” Ryanair appears determined to hang on to the title this year as well as it has launched over 20 routes in the last three weeks. Some 13 of these are weekly (Saturday) routes to ski destinations.
There are further weekly routes from Gothenburg Save (GSE) and Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) to Klagenfurt (KLU), and from London Stansted (STN) to Lourdes/Tarbes (LDE). There are also new thrice-weekly services between Alicante (ALC) and Palma de Mallorca (PMI), Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) and Krakow (KRK), Edinburgh (EDI) and Palma de Mallorca (PMI), and London Stansted (STN) and Basel (BSL). The Stansted to Basel route used to be operated by easyJet but they have chosen to drop their daily Luton and Stansted services in favour of a double-daily service from London Gatwick which started at the end of October. Finally, Ryanair has started another route from easyJet’s biggest base at London Gatwick (LGW) to Dűsseldorf Weeze (NRN). Flights operate daily.

Transavia.com has added two further ski routes to its winter network. Rotterdam (RTM) gets a new twice-weekly connection to Friedrichshafen (FDH) in southern Germany while Brussels (BRU) is linked to Salzburg (SZG), also twice-weekly.

Wizz Air starts the new year with six international routes all involving the Ukraine. From Kiev (KBP) the airline has started serving Cologne/Bonn (CGN), Dortmund (DTM), Katowice (KTW), Oslo Torp (TRF). Cologne/Bonn and Oslo are each served thrice weekly, Dortmund four times and Oslo just twice. Meanwhile, Wizz Air is also starting international services from Lviv (LWO) to Dortmund (DTM) and London Luton (LTN). Dortmund will be served thrice weekly and Luton four times weekly. With the addition of these two international routes from Lviv Wizz Air is now the leading airline at the airport with around 38% of scheduled seat capacity followed by Ukraine International Airlines with 24%.

Source: AnnaAero

Italian airport traffic down almost 13% in November; only Bergamo with five new Ryanair routes bucks trend

Latest traffic figures for Italian airports show that only one of the largest 13 airports reported traffic growth in November. While traffic across all Italian airports was down an alarming 12.5% in November (it was down 8.5% in October), Milan Bergamo’s traffic was up 12%. This was in part due to the five new routes to Brindisi, Fez, Ibiza, Madrid and Palermo that Ryanair launched at the end of October.

Domestic traffic was hardest hit in November (down 16.4%) while international traffic was ‘only’ down 9.4%. In November Italy’s year-to-date growth finally went negative with total passenger numbers since January reaching 125.2 million, down almost 1% on a year ago. The network restructuring and capacity cutbacks introduced by Alitalia in the run-up to its privatisation have clearly been a contributing factor, but traffic is also down at airports where Alitalia’s share of traffic has traditionally been low.

Among smaller airports the only ones reporting growth in November were Cuneo (+131.7%), Parma (+45.8%), Rimini (+6.3%) and Cagliari (+0.9%).

Source: AnnaAero