Kale Consultants conducted a survey on the airline industry's readiness for IATA's Simplified Interline Settlement initiative, and over 80% of respondents from more than 55 airlines rated SIS compliance as a "high" or "very high" priority. It is considered to be "an essential initiative for the airline industry," Kale said. The industry-wide platform, aimed at removing paper from the billing and settlement process, is slated to go live later this year.
Air Berlin announced it will increase the number of executive board members from three to four as it prepares to join oneworld at the start of 2012 ( ATW Daily News, July 28, 2010). AB’s future executive board will comprise CEO Joachim Hunold, CFO Ulf Huettmeyer and COO-Operations and Human Resources Christoph Debus as well as a yet-to-be appointed CCO. Until the new appointment is made, Hunold will serve as acting CCO-Network and Sales.
US Dept. of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that US airlines carried 62.1 million scheduled domestic and international passengers in October, up 5.6% from the year-ago month. Traffic rose 7.7% to 68.2 billion RPMs on a 6.5% rise in capacity to 82.1 billion ASMs, producing a load factor of 83.1%, up 1 point year-over-year. Load factors for domestic and international flights were 83.4% and 82.3%, respectively.
Despite the unprecedented events of 2010 that challenged the airline industry, Austrian LCC Fly Niki President Niki Lauda told ATW in Vienna that the Air Berlin partner will report “positive results" for the year. He noted that although the airline lost nearly €12 million ($15.8 million) owing to the Icelandic volcanic disruption, it will post “six years of profit in a row” when it announces its full-year results.
IATA won what it called "a major court victory" in its dispute with Sabre over IATA's use of billing and settlement data stored in GDS databases for its PaxIS airline intelligence product when the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed Sabre's claim that PaxIS violated confidentiality obligations. Sabre filed the suit in 2006.
[Corrected version] Oneworld partners Qantas and American Airlines are to strengthen their longstanding relationship with the first step being the introduction by Qantas of four times weekly Boeing 747-400 service from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth International from May 16. At the same time the airline has decided to scrap its direct Sydney-San Francisco flights from May 14.
Delta Air Lines confirmed it has issued an RFP to "several major aircraft manufacturers" regarding a future order of as many as 200 firm aircraft with deliveries beginning in 2013 to replace aging DC-9s, Boeing 757-200s and Airbus A320s on mainline domestic flying.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission last week issued a proposed rule to place "position limits" on a number of commodities, including oil, that would restrict the amount of holdings a speculator could own, theoretically lowering the cost of commodities.
IATA won what it called "a major court victory" in its dispute with Sabre over IATA's use of billing and settlement data stored in GDS databases for its PaxIS airline intelligence product when the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed Sabre's claim that PaxIS violated confidentiality obligations.
Rockwell Collins was selected by Vietnam Airlines to provide a suite of avionics including its MultiScan Threat Detection System and Multi-Mode Receiver Global Landing System, for 36 new Airbus A321-200s. Deliveries will begin in 2011 and continue through 2014.
Lufthansa Systems said that Ethiopian Airlines signed a five-year agreement to use its Lido/TakeOff aircraft performance solution. Separately, Lufthansa Systems announced it has fully implemented its flight planning solution for Nouvelair, which signed a 10-year contract for Lido/Flight earlier this year.
ITA Software announced US Airways has deployed ReShop on its website, a solution that enables customers to change partially and wholly unflown domestic tickets through the "Manage Reservations" feature, reducing the number of manual transactions handled by the airline's reservations call centers.
Lufthansa Cargo said its FTKs reached a record level of 8.9 billion in 2010 as the transport of cargo and mail increased 18.2% compared to 2009 to 1.79 billion tons. LHC said the highest growth rates in 2010 were registered in traffic to the Americas (+24.9%) and Asia/Pacific (+20.6%). LHC increased its total capacity last year in part by returning all four parked MD-11Fs into service, raising its active fleet of MD-11Fs to 18. Load factor grew 7.3 points year-over-year to 70.9%.
US Dept. of Transportation said that November was the second consecutive month in which the nation's largest airlines experienced no tarmac delays of more than 3 hr. at US airports, claiming the trend further highlights the wisdom of the tough tarmac delay rule that went into effect in April ( ATW Daily News, Oct. 13).
State-controlled Cyprus Airways said its 2010 financial results are expected "to be significantly more loss making" than 2009. CY is expected to report a full-year loss of around €30 million ($38.7 million), widened from a loss of €3.3 million in the prior year, the government said.
AerCap Holdings said it signed 13 new aircraft lease agreements and delivered eight aircraft in the 2010 fourth quarter. Lease agreements inked during the period include three Airbus A319s for Frontier Airlines, two A320s for Brussels Airlines, an A320 for Donbassaerom, an A320 and an A319 for LAN Airlines, an A320 for P.T. Metro Batavia, a Boeing 757-200 for Delta Air Lines, a 737-400 for Vision Airlines, a 737-800 for Orenair and a 737-400 for Nok Air.
Airspace closures following the "unprecedented" snow disruptions, the Icelandic volcanic eruption and labor strikes were among the notable incidents that slowed down recovery in the European airline industry in 2010, the Assn. of European Airlines said.
Jakarta-based LCC Mandala Airlines suspended all flights Thursday pending a "major restructuring exercise" aimed at attracting new investors, but the financially troubled airline's future viability is unclear with its fleet of five Airbus A320 family aircraft being returned to lessors.
American Airlines took another step in its effort to assert control over how its inventory is distributed, selecting ITA Software's availability engine to manage its fare availability across all its channels.
Meet Ted Vallas, who may be the world’s oldest airline entrepreneur. His life story is fascinating and inspiring. While almost everyone his age is retired, he is starting a new airline. In the United States and of all places, in California. He may be one of the most remarkable people in aviation.
