Bologna Airport has recruited the services of an unusual car for its follow-me drivers to direct pilots to their parking positions after landing.

Since 6th May, a Lamborghini Aventador LP has been in use. It is painted with a red and white chequered livery, and furnished with Follow Me signs. Drivers have been trained to use the car by Lamborghini test driver, Mario Fasanetto.

The use of the car is to promote the 50th Anniversary of Automobili Lamborghini, and will also see an exhibition on Lamborghini inside Bologna’s main terminal.

The V12 engined car will be in use, guiding up to 140 flights per day at Bologna Airport, until 16th May.

Emirates has announced a surprise new route, linking Milan Malpensa Airport with New York JFK Airport.

The route will be flown daily using a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, starting 1 October 2013.

The existing 3x daily Dubai-Milan Malpensa appears to remain unchanged.

Air Canada‘s new leisure airline has been announced, and it’s called ‘Rouge’.

The national carrier of Canada announced a few months ago that it was seeking to set up a new carrier to handle lower cost flights to Europe and the Caribbean using Boeing 767 and Airbus A320 aircraft in 2013.

Rouge will initially fly from Montreal and Toronto, and will launch operations on 1 July, 2013. It features a new colour scheme on its two A319s and two 767-300s.

For enthusiasts, look out for some new destinations, including Edinburgh. The full list of flights are:

Toronto to:
Athens
Cayo Coco
Edinburgh
Holguin
Kingston
Liberia
Puerto Plata
Punta Cana
Samara
San José
Santa Clara
Varadero
Venice

Montreal to:
Athens

All flights will have introductory low fares to take advantage of.

Here’s a fascinating video where the camera is strapped to the nosewheel of a Boeing 777F and facing backwards. It shows the aircraft on final approach and landing at Milan Bergamo Airport in Italy.

Volotea, the new Spanish low-cost carrier, has announced its third base will be Palermo in Italy.

The new base will commence from March 2013, and will see two Boeing 717 aircraft based there. There will also be 13 new routes added from the airport – both domestic and international. These include:

Ancona
Bordeaux
Florence
Genoa
Ibiza
Nantes
Naples
Olbia
Palma de Mallorca
Santorini
Trieste
Venice
Verona

In the airline’s first year of operations, it has carried over half a million passengers and create 230 jobs; it will create a further 50 with its new base in Palermo.

Speaking in Palermo, Carlos Munoz, founder and CEO of Volotea, said:
“The decision to open our third European base could only lie with Palermo, a city in which we believed and invested a lot since the beginning of our operations.

“Palermo has given us excellent results right from the start, as evidenced by the more than 65,000 passengers in the airport in just six months of activity, which has contributed to its status as one of the most popular of our extensive network.”

Rome Fiumicino “Leonardo da Vinci” Airport has big expansion plans that will see an additional terminal and up to two extra runways
built.

The first artists impression of the new terminal has been released. It shows a ‘H’-shaped building to the north of the existing terminals and runway 07/25.

It is expected that €12 billion will be spent constructing the new terminal and access roads. However, the construction will take into account environmentally friendly energy production, such as solar panels, and a railway station since it is anticipated that 50% of all passengers will reach the airport using public transport.

The large terminal will benefit the enthusiast, with large glass windows and close-up views of the parallel runways to either side.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines System are to retire their last McDonnell Douglas MD-87 aircraft in September.

The airline currently only has one example still flying - OY-KHU (MSN 53336). However, historically the airline operated a large number of the type from all of its hubs to destinations around Europe. Some were also leased to Spanair for a time.

The final flight is scheduled to be SK2692 from Venice Marco Polo Tessera (VCE) to Copenhagen Kastrup (CPH) in the evening of September 1.

Russian airline Transaero has been focusing on Italy in its latest expansion plans.

It recently inaugurated flights between Moscow Vnukovo and Rome Fiumicino, which now runs 5x weekly using Boeing 737 aircraft. The maiden flight was operated by one of the airline’s Boeing 777-200 aircraft as part of the publicity surrounding the event.

Additionally, Transaero will begin flights from Moscov Vnukovo to Venice, St. Petersburg to Rome Fiumicino, and St. Petersburg to Milan Malpensa from tomorrow.

Then, from 30th June, it will begin flights from Moscow Vnukovo to Milan Malpensa.

The airline is hoping to drastically increase its presence in the Italian market, and with its ever expanding fleet of modern aircraft, you will start to see more and more of their colours at Italian airports.

Flying a fleet of seven Boeing 717 aircraft, sourced second-hand from the manufacturer, Volotea is positioning itself to serve small- and mid-sized cities across Europe initially from bases in Venice Marco Polo (Italy), Nantes (France), and Ibiza (Spain).

The airline is run by former founding members of Vueling Airlines, and has its corporate headquarters in Barcelona.

Volotea’s first flight took off on 5th April from Venice, bound for Palermo – one of the 76 routes announced by the airline, and one of a number of domestic routes within Italy – set to challenge the dominance of Alitalia and Ryanair in this much sought-after market.

In fact, Venice Marco Polo will clearly be the bigger base initially, with 24 routes planned.

The airline will not initially venture as far north as the UK, Ireland or Scandinavia, choosing to focus on Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Poland.

The choice of Boeing 717 is interesting for a low-cost airline, but is likely due to the cheap prices of sourcing them, and the regard with which they’ve been held in Spain over the past ten years. Nevertheless, for the enthusiast, this offers another chance to fly on the relatively rare type in Boeing’s stable (Blue1 is currently the only other European operator of the type).

All going well, the airline is likely to expand into other territories fairly soon, but I also suspect some routes will be non-starters, and others will see frequency changes. For a full list of planned routes, see Volotea’s homepage http://www.volotea.com/en/destinations/

The sixth leg of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner World Tour has been announced, covering dates in late April and early May.

This tour is to introduce the aircraft to customers, potential customers, and airport staff who will be working with the aircraft once deliveries begin to the many airlines who have ordered the type. The tour has already taken in many airlines and customers in many countries around the world.

This latest leg sees the aircraft – ZA003 N787BX – leave Seattle on 21 April and visit the following airports:

22 April – London Heathrow, UK
23 April – Manchester, UK
25 April – London Gatwick, UK
27 April – London Heathrow, UK
1 May – Oslo, Norway
4 May – Taranto, Italy
7 May – Washington Ronald Reagan, DC
11 May – Dallas Ft Worth, TX
14 May – St. Louis, MO

Public tours of the aircraft will not be available, but many of these airports will likely have plenty of spotters in attendance for the arrival. I know Manchester’s Aviation Viewing Park will likely be packed for it, just like it was for the first Airbus A380 landing.

You can keep up with the tour at this link: http://www.newairplane.com/787/dreamtour/