Tripology lays off staff, seeks investor Kuoni buys TBA Global's U.S. DM division Sabre to launch multi-source, graphical agent desktop New Amex brand to serve small, medium-size companies Citing market conditions, Travelport drops plans for IPO Rue La La's private sales let travel products shine World news briefing
Commercial transport aircraft could be 100% powered by biofuels by 2037 in a best-case scenario, according to a new report by E4tech. Air Transport Action Group Executive Director Paul Steele, who fronted the industry's delegation at Copenhagen in December 2009, used an A380 event in Geneva on Jan. 21 to detail biofuel progress. According to Steele, a recent UK Climate Change Committee study conducted by E4tech showed that a worst-case scenario saw a 40% replacement of existing fuel with biofuels by 2040 and a best case of 100% by 2035-37.
Efficiency gains in air traffic management offer the quickest route to cutting aviation CO2 emissions, a report from the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University has found. According to the report, biofuels and technology improvements will boost efficiency significantly in the long term, but neither will have the global impact that improved flight management could achieve in the shorter term.
Airports Council International's Airport Carbon Accreditation continues to attract participants, with seven more airports across Europe added to the list in the past two months. The program independently assesses and recognizes airports' efforts to manage and reduce their CO2 emissions and certifies airports at four different levels of accreditation: Mapping, Reduction, Optimization and Neutrality.
British Airways in partnership with Washington-based Solena Group said it plans to establish "Europe's first sustainable jet-fuel plant" and will use the low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from 2014. The fuel will be derived from waste biomass.
Market Intel Group LLC has produced a new report supporting the warning by Fatih Birol, the International Energy Agency's chief economist, in the Dec. 18, 2009, issue of The Economist that oil production will peak in 2020 if a "business as usual" approach continues and no new discoveries are made. Ed Herlik, managing partner of MiG, told ATW's Eco-Aviation Today that the forecast, which the magazine calls "a new and striking claim," must be "music to the ears of anyone involved in biofuels."
Third Annual Eco-Aviation Conference will take place June 22-24 in Washington at the Marriott Metro Center. Organized by ATW, this year's conference will include sessions on developments in alternative fuels/biofuels, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, proposed environmental regulations in the US and their potential impact on airlines, green technology and industry self-help measures and other sessions devoted to this important subject.
Finnair said it is "exploring the possibility" of launching cargo flights between Helsinki Vantaa and unnamed Asian destinations by summer. It said January cargo demand on its Asian passenger flights rose 40% year-over-year. It serves a combined nine destinations in China, Japan, South Korea, India and Thailand.
Aegean Airlines announced last week that "discussions" between its main investor, Vassilakis Group, and Olympic Air controlling shareholder Marfin Investment Group "have taken place concerning the potential of a future cooperation," without elaborating. Aegean bid unsuccessfully for Olympic's assets when the Greek government privatized the airline last year ( ATWOnline, March 9, 2009).
US Dept. of Transportation on Saturday issued a show cause order tentatively approving the application for antitrust immunity from oneworld partners American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair and Royal Jordanian and also tentatively approved the three-way transatlantic joint venture among AA, BA and IB under which the carriers jointly will plan and manage capacity and share revenues.
Continental Airlines fleet service employees comprising ramp, operations and cargo agents voted in favor of representation by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Recaro Aircraft Seating said it signed a contract with Airbus to offer its CL3620 economy class seats on the A350. Under the contract, Airbus will include the seat in its A350 catalog "upon successful qualification." Recaro said it was its first agreement reached directly with the manufacturer to supply seats as an Airbus Contracted Supplier.
Virgin America is raising its flat fee for checked bags from $20 to $25 for bookings made on or after Feb.12 for travel on or after March 1. The fee will be the same for "a first checked bag. . .through a tenth checked bag," the airline said. First-class passengers' first and second checked bags will be exempt, as will the first bag checked by business-class passengers and economy passengers with refundable tickets.
GuestLogix and Jetera Precision Media announced OnTouch Ads, available to carriers using the GuestLogix Onboard Retail Solution. GuestLogix will print destination-based advertisements on receipts issued from its POS handheld devices "featuring offers related to the passenger's various attributes and their travel itinerary." It said the long-term rollout "will include the integration of the new advertising service from GuestLogix with other OnTouch services deployed on travelers' mobile devices, including smartphones."
Air Algerie took delivery of the first of four 66-seat ATR 72-500s ordered in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 9, 2009). The remaining three also will be delivered this year, lifting the size of its 72-500 fleet to 12. ATR said it will provide assistance to the Algerian flag carrier with the installation, commissioning and operation of a new flight simulator, which is part of AH's plan to open a pilot training center in Algeria.
Spirit Airlines on Friday unveiled a feature on its website allowing potential customers to see how much of a given fare is comprised of fuel costs. "When a fare is $137 and fuel makes up $78 of that fare, customers can decide if the remaining $59 makes this a good time to buy," it said. The Miramar, Fla.-based LCC provides a chart showing how much fuel is used per passenger for A319 trips of various lengths with an 80% load factor. It also shows the current price of fuel and a per-passenger, per-trip fuel cost.
Moscow-based LCC Avianova said it signed a lease contract with Aviation Capital Group for two V2500-powered A320s. It currently operates two of the type and will take delivery of its third next month and the fourth in April. The airline is transferring from Vnukovo to Sheremetyevo in late March ( ATWOnline, Jan. 28). It plans to launch service to Ufa on March 5 and Perm on March 6 and already serves seven destinations from Moscow.
TAP Portugal will commence a thrice-weekly Lisbon-Marrakech service in June as part of an expansion strategy in Africa, which it said "is the only part of its network to have shown steady growth since 2001." Passenger numbers to/from Africa have risen 129% to 541,000 in that timeframe and Africa was also the only part of the TAP network to grow in 2009 (6.4%). Including the new route, it will serve 10 cities in eight African countries with 55 weekly flights to/from Portugal.
KLM 737-300 took off from Taxiway B at Amsterdam Schiphol on the evening of Feb. 11 instead of using Runway 36C. Flight KL1369 was bound for Warsaw and landed on schedule. Dutch investigators opened an inquiry into the incident, which the Dutch Safety Board described as "serious."
Kingfisher Airlines named former Delta Air Lines MD-Revenue Management, Pricing and Network Amit Agarwal senior VP-corporate development and planning. Air Berlin named SR Technics Senior Executive VP Helmut Himmelreich its new chief maintenance officer. Oman Air named former Coca-Cola executive Philippe Georgiou chief officer-corporate affairs.
The nine largest US airlines posted a cumulative net loss of $3.43 billion in 2009, ATWOnline calculated, considerably improved over a net deficit of $25 billion in 2008 when heavy goodwill impairment charges and Delta Air Lines/Northwest Airlines merger costs weighed down the collective bottom line.
Alitalia Group intends to strengthen its position at both Milan Linate and Malpensa with a three-year development plan calling for a "dual-brand and customer hub model" at MXP, including a repositioning of Air One as a Smart Carrier offering low fares on short-/medium-haul routes while reinforcing the Alitalia brand and offering on intercontinental flights. AZ will base two new A330s featuring its new business class at Malpensa and launch flights to Miami in June, adding to its current five intercontinental destinations.
Transaero Airlines, which operates 14 weekly codeshare flights with Austrian Airlines on the Moscow Domodedovo-Vienna route, is concerned about the Russian Ministry of Transport's decision to question OS's nationality. The government is arguing that, based on current bilateral agreements between Russia and Austria, OS no longer is considered a domestic airline following its acquisition by Lufthansa. It currently flies to Russia on temporary traffic rights ( ATWOnline, Feb. 8).
