Lufthansa CEO-Group Airlines and Corporate Human Resources Stefan Lauer was appointed chairman of the six-member board of directors at bmi effective yesterday. He succeeds founder Michael Bishop, who is leaving the board. LH Manager-Hub Development and Capacity Management-Frankfurt also was named to the board, joining Lauer, CEO Nigel Turner and Deputy CEO Tim Bye as executive directors. Lufthansa's takeover of bmi was approved last week ( ATWOnline, June 23).
The European Commission extended the deadline of its investigation into the takeover of Austrian Airlines Group by Lufthansa by at least 14 days, or up to a maximum 90 days although a decision is expected to come in about two weeks. Sources close to both AAG and the Austrian government told ATWOnline that a 20% reduction in Austrian's capacity may be a condition for approval and would be acceptable. The airline is considered to be too large for its home market, with or without Lufthansa.
GE Aviation said it "successfully completed a customer trial of its ClearCore engine wash effluent collection system" on a Virgin Atlantic Airways CF6-80C2-powered 747-400 at London Heathrow. According to GE, ClearCore will be offered as either an effluent collection system working with "existing front-end wash equipment" or as a complete wash and collection system.
Virgin Atlantic Airways CEO Steve Ridgway said yesterday that the carrier will cut its winter capacity by 7% year-over-year, putting up to 600 jobs in jeopardy. "The outlook for the industry is as bleak as ever and all airlines are having to shrink their businesses," he said, according to press reports. "We will look to minimize the number of compulsory redundancies and ensure we treat our staff as fairly as possible." VS's London Heathrow-Chicago O'Hare service will be suspended, while flights to Hong Kong will be halved.
Air Canada said technical, maintenance and operational support employees represented by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers rejected the tentative pension funding moratorium and contract extension agreement reached last month by a 50.8% margin ( ATWOnline, June 17). Clerical and finance workers ratified by 93.2% and 87.7% margins respectively. AC and IAMAW "will meet promptly to discuss next steps," the airline said.
AirBridgeCargo Airlines added Milan Malpensa to its network, launching twice-weekly 747F flights to/from Moscow Sheremetyevo. ABC already operated 31 weekly flights to/from Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo linking Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Budapest and Zaragoza with Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong ( ATW, May 2009). The Volga-Dnepr scheduled services subsidiary also operates flights to Krasnoyarsk. ABC appointed Kales GSA as its general sales agent in Italy.
Eleven member airlines of the Arab Air Carriers Org. will be the first users of SITA's new Aircraft Emissions Manager when the solution becomes available commercially in October, AACO and SITA revealed yesterday at the latter's Air Transport IT Summit in Cannes.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh said he remains committed to the A380 and "could make a case to take this capacity earlier than scheduled." BA placed an order for 12 A380s in September 2007 as part of its long-term fleet modernization, with deliveries beginning in 2012. "There is a big cost reduction compared to the 747s [we currently operate]," he said yesterday. "With fuel prices over $70 and maybe heading to $100 a barrel the difference in unit cost becomes even more distinct," he told ATWOnline during a press conference at the SITA Air Transport IT Summit in Cannes.
Shanghai Airlines hopes to maintain its membership in Star Alliance even after its merger with China Eastern Airlines, which most likely will join SkyTeam, Chairman Zhou Chi said. He noted that Shanghai needs to discuss the matter with Star airlines. "Also, whether we can maintain it or not will be up to which global airline alliance CEA joins," he said. CEA Chairman Liu Shaoyong has said internally that the carrier prefers SkyTeam, which already includes China Southern Airlines.
ANA raised its firm 787 commitment to 55 aircraft from 50, according to a document released yesterday detailing the company's plan to issue 575 million new shares worth an estimated ¥182.62 billion ($1.9 billion) that will be used largely to finance new aircraft.
The G8 Summit that took place this week in Italy reaffirmed support for ICAO's role, in cooperation with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in addressing emissions reductions targets and policy for the international airline industry post-2012. The G8 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US, together with the European Union.
The fuels subcommittee of ASTM last month approved a new specification for alternative jet fuel derived from the Fischer-Tropsch method. The approval means that this fuel has cleared a significant milestone and once approved by ASTM and endorsed by FAA, synthetic paraffinic kerosene from the FT process can be blended with conventional fuels and used as a substitute for crude oil-derived jet fuel by airlines, private aviation and the military. Approval of FT-SPK will pave the way for near-term approval of sustainable plant-based biofuels.
Clear, which offered passengers the opportunity to speed through designated security lanes at 18 US airports for a $200 annual fee, abruptly ceased operations in June. Parent Verified Identity Pass said on its website that it "has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations" and that it "will continue to secure [customer data] and will take appropriate steps to delete the information." However, it said it could not issue refunds "because of its financial condition."
European Commission Director-Air Transport Daniel Calleja defended ICAO against those who suggest that it has failed to deliver on a plan to reduce aviation emissions ( Eco-Aviation Today, 6/09). Speaking at last month's Paris Air Show, he claimed that although there have been difficulties, the recent report by ICAO's Group on International Aviation and Climate Change is a "workable framework for which ICAO should be given a mandate post-Copenhagen to develop a global agreement."
As our World Airline Report (beginning on p. 24) makes clear, the past 12 months have not been kind to commercial air transport. ICAO has estimated that the scheduled airline industry posted an operating loss of $9.6 billion in 2008, or $3.8 billion if fuel hedges are excluded, while IATA puts the net loss at $10.4 billion and expects a further $9 billion in red ink this year.
United Airlines told a group of congressmen and senators that it would delay by up to 60 days the implementation of a policy that denies certain agencies the right to use the carrier's credit card merchant accounts to process credit card sales for United tickets.
As passenger traffic continues a downward trend, airports must deal with the immediate impact while not losing sight of the need to plan for long-term growth. That was the consensus at the ACI-Europe Annual Assembly and Conference in Manchester in June.
As ATW detailed last year, IATA has been making a strong "e-freight" push, calling on carriers to eliminate the piles of paper that accompany the movement of cargo by air ( ATWOnline, June 1, 2008). IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani has pointed out repeatedly that the documents traveling with air cargo could fill 39 747 freighters annually and that they add an estimated $1.2 billion to the global industry's yearly costs.
World airport traffic remained "stubbornly low" in May, according to Airports Council International, but there are indications that the downturn may be bottoming out. Airports participating in the association's passenger and freight "flash reports" recorded an 8% decrease in passenger traffic compared to the same month in 2008, with international traffic down 9.3% and domestic down 6.8%. Through the first five months of the year, total traffic was off 7.5% compared to last year while the rolling 12-month decline was 5%.
If you disappoint your passengers, "it will be public, and it will live forever," Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt said at the recent SITA IT Summit in Cannes, France. Harteveldt was talking about social media phenomena such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter, which allow travelers to broadcast their experiences immediately to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people.
Airservices Australia and Naverus signed a contract that will lay the foundation for the world's first nationwide Performance-Based Navigation network, which will deliver significant reductions in aircraft emissions and noise, reduced flight miles and substantial fuel savings.
BAA has set targets to reduce its absolute CO2 emissions from fixed sources by 15% by March 2010 and 30% by March 2020 compared with 1990 levels. For 2008, BAA met its target of reducing emissions at London Heathrow by 3% and in fact lowered them by 8.6%, with the additional 5.6% largely due to reduced flying. While BAA conceded that it is not likely to be able to meet next year's target, it is confident that the 2020 target will be met through "focused energy reduction and efficiency strategies" across all of its airports.
Nearly half the proceeds--about $59.5 million--of St. Louis's new $125 million bond issue will pay for the next phase of Lambert Field's Airport Experience terminal and concourse modernization program, continuing through 2012.
