Qatar Airways and Boeing said Wednesday that the airline has placed firm orders for three 777 freighters and two 777-300ERs valued at $1.4 billion at list prices.
Qantas' international operations are in serious jeopardy within months if Australian unions press ahead with claims for guaranteed job security, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation warned.
Cheapflights invests in Scandinavian meta search firm Amadeus report looks at airport of the future Ryanair adds fee to cover costs of ‘force majeure’ rules IATA rule sorts out whose bag fees apply on interline trips GuestLogix unveils OnTouch Analytics platform for airlines Travelport, Amadeus report 2010 earnings World news briefing
SITA is building a community cloud computing infrastructure dedicated to the air transport industry and will launch the first cloud applications and services in June, CEO Francesco Violante revealed at a briefing on Tuesday in London.
LOT Polish Airlines and Continental Airlines launched a codeshare agreement April 2 under which CO will place its code on LOT Warsaw service to Newark, London Heathrow, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Subject to government approval, CO will also place its code on WAW–Paris Charles de Gaulle. LOT will place its code on CO flights between EWR and Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington Dulles.
Southwest Airlines promoted Matt Buckley to vice president-cargo and charters. Arik Air received IOSA certification from IATA, the second Nigerian carrier to receive the certificate, but the only Nigerian carrier on IOSA registration to be fully operational under its own AOC. It operates more than 150 flights daily from its Lagos hub.
AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines received two additional Boeing 767-300ERs on operating leases. It plans to launch nonstop services from Kiev Borispol to Colombo, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City later this year. This summer, VV will operate about 80 international routes in 33 countries, including transcontinental services to New York JFK, Toronto, Beijing, Delhi and Bangkok. Two 737-800s will be delivered in March and April 2012. In 2013-2014, VV will also receive four 737-900ERs, becoming the first East European operator of this type.
Virgin Atlantic Airways deployed its first Airbus A330-300 on a Manchester-Orlando flight, marking the first time the carrier has deployed a twin-engine jet on a transatlantic route. The A330 is part of an order of 10 placed in December 2009, and is the first to be delivered. "We are delighted to be welcoming the A330 to our fleet," said Virgin CCO Julie Southern. "We look forward to increasing services on existing routes as well as adding new long-haul routes with these new planes, whilst improving our fuel efficiency."
Southwest Airlines found small, subsurface cracks on two more Boeing 737-300s on Tuesday, bringing the total to five that have been grounded in the aftermath of Friday's midair fuselage skin rupture on Flight 812 ( ATW Daily News, April 5).
Ryanair announced deep cuts of “up to 80%” at its Alicante base from October 2011, following AENA Alicante’s decision last week to force passengers to board via airbridges instead of stairs, which it asserts “will cost more than €2 million ($2.8 million) per year.”
A Georgian Airways CRJ100 operating a UN mission flight crashed Monday afternoon in DR Congo as it attempted to land at Kinshasa Airport. The UN said 28 of the 29 passengers and all four crew were killed.
AVIC's Commercial Aircraft Engine Co. is accelerating the research and development of a domestically produced, second engine option for the 150-seat COMAC C919, according to GM Wang Zhilin.
US National Transportation Safety Board said it is inspecting a Monday incident in which a United Airlines Airbus A320 en route from New Orleans to San Francisco experienced smoke in the cockpit, forcing the aircraft to return to MSY 20 minutes after departure.
British Airways was fined $1.6 million and Cargolux fined $4.6 million for operating an illegal cartel to fix airfreight rates on flights into New Zealand.
American Airlines and Expedia Inc. said they signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow the companies to resume doing business together. Details were sparse and raised more questions than they answered, The companies said that effective immediately, access to American’s fares and schedule information is restored to Expedia and Hotwire sites worldwide. The information will “initially” be provided to Expedia via the GDS technology that was used prior to their breakup.
Airports Council International reported that global international passenger traffic rose 7.8% year-over-year for the month of January, while domestic traffic at the world's airports heightened 6.5% for the month. Airfreight traffic grew 6.8%. In terms of total passengers (domestic and international), Asia/Pacific airports registered the strongest growth at 10.2%, followed by Latin America/Caribbean (up 8.7%), Middle East (up 8.6%), Europe (up 7.7%), Africa (up 7.3%) and North America (up 2%).
News from Travel Technology Update: American Airlines and Expedia Inc. said they signed an MOU Monday that will allow the companies to resume doing business together. Details were sparse and raised more questions than they answered. The companies said that, effective immediately, access to American's fares and schedule information is restored to Expedia and Hotwire sites worldwide. The information will "initially" be provided to Expedia via the GDS technology that was used prior to their breakup.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol officially opened a 15,000-sq.-m. baggage hall as part of its effort to increase the handling capacity of AMS by 40% to 70 million bags annually. The South Baggage Hall is located on the south side of Departure Hall 1 and is able to facilitate handling for several airlines for both check-in and transfer baggage. In the future it will be a dedicated SkyTeam hall.
City of Chicago said it plans to issue more than $1 billion in revenue bonds this month "in order to finance runway and other enabling capital projects" at O'Hare International, a move that culminates a whirlwind couple of months that saw United Airlines and American Airlines--the airport's two largest tenants by far--file a lawsuit to stop expansion and US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood help broker a compromise to allow construction to move forward at the world's third-busiest passenger airport.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani warned last month that Brazil "will never reach its full potential without major changes in its aviation policies," pointing in particular to airport and ATC infrastructure.
