US FAA yesterday proposed $9.2 million in civil penalties against US Airways and United Airlines for violations related to federal airworthiness directives and/or the airlines' own federally approved maintenance programs.
Mesa Air Group's Hawaiian subsidiary go! and Mokulele Airlines entered into a "joint venture" to collaboratively operate inter-island air service under both brand names.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker said Airbus should offer new engines on its A320s to ward off challenges from Bombardier and stay ahead of Boeing. Speaking to Bloomberg, al-Baker claimed that Pratt & Whitney's PW1000G geared turbofan fitted to the A320 would be "fatal" for Bombardier's CSeries jet, which is slated to enter service in 2013 powered by the same engine ( ATWOnline, June 17). Qatar is considering an order for the CSeries and his claims may well be part of the negotiations for a better deal.
Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Tony Tyler is "not getting too excited" about the carrier's September traffic figures despite positive trends in both the passenger and cargo sectors. Speaking with ATWOnline, Tyler did say that the airline, while remaining cautious, "expects an upswing in the last quarter of the year." CX and subsidiary Dragonair reported a 0.1% September traffic increase to 6.87 billion RPKs on a 9.7% capacity cut to 8.57 billion ASKs, driving load factor up 7.9 points to 80.2%.
Qantas deferred plans for additional flights between Australia and South Africa and decided against summer services to South Korea owing to "current market conditions," according to a regulatory filing citied by the Sydney Morning Herald. Iceland Express will operate seasonal four-times-weekly service from Reykjavik Keflavik to Newark aboard a 757 starting in June. Eastern Airways launched service to Bergen from Newcastle (five-times-weekly) and Aberdeen (six-times-weekly).
Japan Airlines is not commenting on reports in the Japanese media that it will seek ¥250 billion ($2.78 billion) in debt forgiveness from its creditors and increase its planned job cuts to 9,000.
ITA Software said yesterday that Air Canada will deploy its "pricing, shopping and Web front end modules across multiple online channels, including the airline's consumer website and travel agency website," with implementation scheduled for next summer.
The US airline industry generally welcomed the results of last week's ICAO High Level Meeting on Climate Change but appeared to be taking a guarded approach to the organization's call for a 2% annual improvement in fuel efficiency through 2020, in line with previous comments from IATA and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization.
Datalex reached agreement with Midwest Airlines to provide its Travel Distribution Platform, which will allow customers to shop and reserve both Frontier Airlines and Midwest flights in support of codeshare agreements. Frontier and Midwest were acquired by Republic Airways Holdings this year.
Swissport renewed its agreement with United Airlines to provide cargo handling service at Los Angles, San Francisco and Chicago O'Hare until 2012. It has handled the airline in these locations since 2003.
Japan yesterday joined US FAA, Airservices Australia and Airways New Zealand as a partner in the ASPIRE (Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions) program. ASPIRE flights use a host of optimized operational procedures and ATC routings, including tailored arrivals, to save time and fuel. "This is an important milestone in our collective effort to lessen aviation's environmental footprint," said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, who signed the agreement along with Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau DG Ryuhei Maeda.
AirBaltic named Vigo Legzdins its new chairman. Legzdins is also chairman of Latvian Roadworks and was previously state secretary of the Ministry of Transportation and head of its Investment and Transit Policy Dept. Nordic Aviation Capital, the turboprop lessor, named Jim Murphy chief commercial officer.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani met yesterday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at UN headquarters in New York, briefing him on aviation industry emissions goals that were presented at last week's ICAO High Level Meeting on Climate Change ( ATWOnline, Oct. 12). "I assured the Secretary General that the aviation industry is serious about its climate change responsibility," Bissignani said in a statement.
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."
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.
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.
