Ibaraki Airport, a new ¥22 billion ($234.7 million) facility located about 50 mi. north of Tokyo, opened on March 11 amid criticism that it is a waste of money and with just one airline tenant. Asiana Airlines began flying daily to Incheon, but no additional new service is scheduled until Skymark Airlines launches daily flights to/from Kobe later this month. It was designed to alleviate congestion at Haneda and Narita, both of which are expanding, and to attract low-cost carriers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said its annual report monitoring the performance of the country's largest airports produced evidence that Sydney "has increased profits by permitting service quality to fall below that which the airlines reasonably expect." ACCC gathers data on SYD, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne Tullamarine and Perth "due to concerns that they might use their monopoly position. . .to increase profits at the expense of airlines and passengers."
Ground staff at the world's airports reduced the number of mishandled bags last year by 23.8%, resulting in savings of $460 million for airlines, according to SITA's "2010 Baggage Report" released in late March. SITA said that 2.2 billion passengers reported the mishandling of 25 million pieces of luggage in 2009, 7.8 million fewer bags than in 2008 and an improvement of more than 40% from 2007 numbers.
The protracted saga concerning a third runway at London Heathrow continued in late March as the High Court in London ruled that the UK government's policy supporting another runway "was untenable" because it was inconsistent with the Climate Change Act of 2008.
Global passenger traffic dropped 2.7% to 4.4 billion in 2009, according to Airports Council International, which said that a "return to growth activity by year end" helped mitigate the damage caused by "steep declines" in the first quarter. The number of international passengers was down 4.2% to 1.8 billion and total aircraft movements fell 5.5% to 63.9 million. Freight plunged 8.2% to 71.3 million tonnes.
When Turkish Airlines launched an advertising campaign last year featuring Hollywood actor Kevin Costner praising its operation and customer service under the tagline "Feel Like a Star," it was clear that it had taken the next step in a strategy that has seen it rise to the top of the charts of fast-growing network carriers.
Mixed in with the unusual, the unfortunate and the unprecedented events in commercial aviation last year were two highly expected developments that did not materialize: A significant slowdown in deliveries of large transport aircraft accompanied by a decrease in production rates.
NCR Corp. announced that Grupo TACA is deploying a self-serve enterprise software solution that "enables passengers to manage a broad range of check-in services, beyond simple check-in, through the Web or at a kiosk," including changing seats or adding frequent-flier information. The capability is available at San Salvador's Cuscatlan International.
Gategroup announced a series of contracts worth nearly CHF200 million ($187.9 million) combined, highlighted by deals with Virgin Atlantic Airways and American Airlines. Virgin awarded inflight catering and provisioning at its 10 North American destinations for three years to gategroup subsidiaries Gate Gourmet, Pourshins and Supplair. AA extended its Gate Gourmet and Pourshins contract at Los Angeles. Other agreements include catering for Aer Lingus at Washington Dulles and Chicago O'Hare and Swiss International Air Lines at San Francisco, Boston and ORD.
Royal Jordanian launches online check-in today. Service is available 24 hr. prior to departure for passengers leaving Amman for all international destinations except those in the US. The remainder of the network will be added "at a later stage," RJ said.
Hawaiian Airlines announced a tentative four-year labor deal with 600 aircraft inspectors, mechanics, line service workers, cleaners and contract service personnel represented by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. HA said it now has reached new deals with all labor groups.
ST Aerospace reached a $750 million, 10-year maintenance-by-the-hr. deal with Jet Airways covering the CFM56-7B engines powering the Indian carrier's 67 737NGs. Work by STA subsidiary ST Aerospace Engines will involve off-wing, on-wing and on-site support, as well as fleet technical and asset management support.
Skyservice Airlines, a charter and business aviation carrier based at Toronto Pearson, shut down yesterday and went into receivership. It said, "Recent changes in the Canadian vacation tour market combined with Skyservice Airlines' debt level have rendered the company unable to maintain profitable operations." Thomas Cook Canada filed the application for receivership, claiming that Skyservice owed C$8.6 million ($8.4 million) due March 30.
Air Canada and Asiana Airlines said they signed an MOU to create "a strategic partnership," building on their existing Star Alliance partnership and codeshare agreement. AC operates daily year-round nonstop service between Vancouver and Incheon with same-plane service from Toronto Pearson and codeshares on eight Asian routes operated by OZ. Asiana codeshares on seven routes operated by AC including YVR-ICN, as well as several domestic Canada routes. Canada and South Korea signed an open skies agreement in 2009.
Boeing will take an income tax charge of approximately $150 million on its first-quarter earnings statement owing to the recently passed health care reform legislation in the US, which no longer allows companies to claim a tax deduction related to prescription drug benefits for retirees. The tax increase does not take effect until 2013, but accounting standards dictate that the writedown must occur in the period when the legislation is passed, Boeing said.
