Assn. of European Airlines blasted Polish air navigation service provider PANSA's decision to raise its fees next year by 32% for flights across Polish airspace and by 62% for operations into and out of Polish airports. PANSA said it needs to increase fees to compensate for the loss in traffic due to the economic downturn. Polish airspace covers an area of more than 300 sq. km. and occupies a key position, straddling both north-south and east-west traffic flows.
Continental Airlines Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner said yesterday that while the airline industry has seen slight economic improvement this year as fuel costs have lowered and credit markets have loosened, "we're still bouncing along the bottom."
Transaero Airlines took delivery of its third Tu-214. The aircraft is part of a contract between Transaero and Financial Leasing Co. for 10 of the type signed in 2005. While it has delayed the delivery schedule for the aircraft, the carrier remains "strongly committed to this contract," CEO Olga Pleshakova said. "We never had any complaints about the reliability of these aircraft."
CSA Czech Airlines plans to codeshare on China Eastern Airlines' Frankfurt-Shanghai Pudong flights from March 28. Air Arabia will launch twice-weekly Sharjah-Samara service from Oct. 26.
Hainan Airlines received US Dept. of Transportation approval to operate flights between Beijing and Hawaii, Honolulu's Star Bulletin reported, adding that Hawaiian tourism officials believe service could begin before year end. Hainan reportedly will use A340s to operate once-weekly flights, with the service eventually upped to thrice-weekly.
China Southern Airlines launched "e-freight" service on its Guangzhou-Dalian route and said it will offer largely paperless cargo carriage on additional routes by year end. It said the initiative could save CNY1 million ($146,300) annually. It is the first Chinese carrier to implement e-freight, which is being pushed strongly by IATA ( ATW, June 2008).
Proposed cooperation on transatlantic services by American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia received another rebuke late last week when AA's 11,500 pilots, represented by the Allied Pilots Assn., stated their "unequivocal opposition" and urged the US Dept. of Transportation to reject granting antitrust immunity for the venture.
Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, a Mubadala Development Co. subsidiary, signed an agreement with Airbus to become a member of the manufacturer's worldwide MRO network.
The Civil Air Navigation Services Organization yesterday welcomed the achievements of last week's ICAO High Level Meeting on International Aviation and Climate Change but expressed disappointment that it "did not recommend any actions for [member states] to undertake themselves to assist the aviation industry in meeting its environmental goals."
ExpressJet Holdings reported that September traffic in its Continental Express scheduled service operation rose 19% to 617 million RPMs on an 11% lift in capacity to 808 million ASMs. Load factor was up 5.5 points to 76.3%.
Lufthansa announced yesterday that it will re-launch onboard Internet service next year in conjunction with Panasonic Avionics following a nearly four-year hiatus sparked by Connexion by Boeing's 2006 failure.
Gulf Air took delivery of a new A320, the first of 10 it has on order. They are powered by CFM56s and fitted with 136 seats including 16 in business class. The carrier will add all 10 A320s by the end 2010.
US FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt reported that "serious runway incursions were down 50% for the most recent 12-month period compared to the previous year." FAA said there were 12 "serious incursions" at US airports during the US government's fiscal year ended Sept. 30 and only two involved commercial carriers. In the previous fiscal year, the agency recorded 25 serious incursions including nine involving airlines. Those numbers were largely unchanged from FY07 during which there were 24 serious incursions including eight involving airlines.
Approval of the first alternative fuel specification for aviation jet fuel in 20 years has set the stage for approval of sustainable aviation biofuel blends by the end of 2010, according to FAA Aviation Fuels Specialist Mark Rumizen.
United Airlines Chairman and CEO Glenn Tilton, in his role as chairman of the US Air Transport Assn., called for large-scale US government loans, loan guarantees and grants to jumpstart development and mass production of alternative fuels, including biofuels for the airline industry. Speaking to the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative in Washington on Sept. 30, Tilton said the US government "has a critical role to play" in making biofuels commercially viable. "We need sustained funding and commitment from government and private investment sources. .
Emirates Airlines President Tim Clark slammed governments for using aviation as a cash cow under the guise of an environmental tax. Speaking with Eco-Aviation Today, he claimed that the EU has followed the UK's lead by directing that ETS revenue should go to the general treasury, "which destroys the credibility of the environmental movement at a government level. Why aren't the funds going to engine makers to help fund better engines? Why isn't it going to renewable power sources?"
UK Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis defended his decision to allow a third runway to be built at London Heathrow against a challenge from the Committee on Climate Change (see item below) in a speech to the UK Aviation Club last month.
US Senate's proposed cap-and-trade climate change legislation, introduced at the end of September by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D.-Mass.), contains more aggressive emissions reduction targets but covers aviation emissions in the same way as the House-passed version of the bill ( ATWOnline, June 30), according to Air Transport Assn. VP-Environmental Affairs Nancy Young.
Air New Zealand is achieving an approximate 1.6% better fuel burn from its blended winglet program on its 767-300ERs than guaranteed, according to GM-Operations and Chief Pilot Dave Morgan. In a briefing in Auckland, Morgan told Eco-Aviation Today that Aviation Partners Boeing had guaranteed a 3.8% improvement and that ANZ expected to get 4.5% but is actually achieving 5.3%. "The 3.4-m.-high kinked tips will save us 1.3 million liters of fuel on each 767 and 16,000 tonnes of CO2 annually," he said.
ICAO concluded its High Level Meeting on International Aviation and Climate Change Friday with a reaffirmation that the organization is the preferred channel to address aviation's impact on the environment ahead of the upcoming UN Copenhagen Climate Summit in December. But it stopped short of adopting all of the recommendations contained in a working paper submitted by IATA, Airports Council International, Civil Air Navigation Services Organization and the International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Assns.
In one of the hardest-hitting speeches in recent times, Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe lashed out at the "inconvenient truth" that the world's leaders, regulators and airlines are continuing to "invest enormous resources the world over in debating climate change regulatory frameworks and yet failing to take even the most basic steps to actually reduce emissions."
Alitalia will commence four routes from Turin in December: Four-times-weekly to Amsterdam and twice-weekly to Berlin Tegel, Moscow Sheremetyevo and Istanbul Ataturk. It will add another weekly frequency to each route in mid-January.
Air New Zealand is in the final stages of a campaign to replace its fleet of 15 737-300s, a number of which come off lease in the next few years. ANZ is weighing buying additional A320s (it currently operates 12) to replace the 737-300s or replacing both types with up to 30 737-800s. It has considerable flexibility because most of its A320s are leased and will start coming off those leases in 2010. It also holds 20 A320 options at attractive prices, but they will expire next year.
EC VP-Transport Antonio Tajani said Friday that the EU is seeking to end the ban on passengers carrying liquids and gels using a phased approach that will employ security technology. "There is a will to remove this discomfort," he told reporters. "We want to put out a clear signal [the ban]. . .should come to an end one day. I hope 2014 might be the end of the transition period." The EC is considering requiring major EU airports to install technology that could screen liquids to detect explosive material by April 2012
