Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, campaigning ahead of Oct. 14 national elections, said he would favor raising the limit for foreign investment in Canadian airlines to 49% from 25%.
Emirates, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Panasonic Avionics Corp. said they have introduced DVD-quality MPEG-4 digital audio and video media on the Panasonic eX2 IFE system. Panasonic said past IFE systems have used either the higher-compression, lower-quality MPEG-1 or the low-compression, DVD-quality MPEG-2 standards, forcing airlines to choose between larger libraries of lower-quality media or smaller libraries with higher quality.
"It's one small step for mankind," said air traffic services provider Airways New Zealand CEO Ashley Smout following the arrival of Air New Zealand Flight 8, the first "gate-to-gate optimized flight," at San Francisco International Friday. The 777-200ER flight, dubbed ASPIRE 1 (Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions), started in Auckland and consumed 4,600 litres less fuel than normal using a host of strategies to minimize fuel usage. That translated into 12 tons fewer CO2 emissions. ASPIRE is a joint initiative among US FAA, Airways NZ and Airservices Australia.
TAM signed a contract with OnAir, a joint venture between Airbus and SITA, that will enable its passengers to use cell phones or other mobile devices in flight on its A320s for voice, SMS messaging or e-mail on South American routes. The service is expected to begin in the second half of 2009 but is dependent upon approval from Brazil's National Agency of Civil Aviation and National Agency of Telecommunications. Also required is a legislative adjustment because current Brazilian law only authorizes cell phone use when aircraft are on the ground and doors are open.
Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer is expecting another loss in the current financial year but believes the carrier will pass Air India in terms of revenue for the 12 months ending March 31, 2009, to become India's leading airline.
European Court of Justice dismissed a claim for damages against the European Commission for the EC's decision to prohibit the proposed acquisition of First Choice by Airtours/MyTravel Group in 1999. "The fact that the Court annulled the decision of the Commission prohibiting the acquisition of First Choice by MyTravel does not make the Community liable in damages, since [it] did not manifestly and gravely infringe Community law," the ECJ ruled yesterday. Airtours tried to acquire UK tour operator First Choice in 1999, but the EC blocked the merger on competition grounds.
Venezuela National Civil Aviation Institute President Jose Martinez told American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines that they be will have to reduce flights to Caracas by the end of this month as a dispute between the US and Venezuela over airport security intensified.
GuestLogix yesterday reached agreement with US Airways to provide its Mobile Virtual Store solution comprising handheld devices and integrated software services. Solution is expected to streamline cash, credit and debit card sales from the inflight a la carte food and beverage menu. The carrier aims to deploy the technology across its mainline fleet by the first quarter of next year.
Austrian Airlines Group's deadline for potential bidders ends today, and CEO Alfred Oetsch told ATWOnline that at "the latest by the end of October we will know who will be our partner for the future." AAG's majority shareholder, state holding company OIAG, is offering its 43% stake in Austrian but may sell a smaller share because the deal is tied to the condition that Austrian shareholders retain 25% of the carrier.
Sabre Holdings acquired Flight Explorer, which it called "the leading provider of Commercial Aircraft Situation Display solutions providing real-time tracking, reporting and display of en route aircraft." Price and terms were not disclosed. Flight Explorer products will be integrated fully with Dispatch Manager, part of Sabre Airline Solutions' Flight Planning suite.
Lufthansa will base six A319s at Milan Malpensa next year to be operated by subsidiary Air Dolomiti and from February 2009 will offer direct flights from MXP to Barcelona, Brussels, Budapest, Bucharest, Madrid and Paris Charles de Gaulle. It will add London Heathrow and Lisbon in the 2009 summer. The carrier originally planned to operate E-195s but said "demand is high" and the upgrade is warranted. LH added that its expansion at MXP will create 150 new jobs.
Emirates said yesterday that its new service from Dubai to Los Angeles and San Francisco, scheduled to start Oct. 26 and Dec. 15 respectively, will operate initially on a thrice-weekly basis rather than daily as planned owing to delayed delivery of a 777-200LR caused by the Boeing machinists' strike. EK already has pushed back upgrading its Dubai-JFK A380 service from thrice-weekly to daily on Oct. 1 because of an unexpected delay in receiving its second A380.
Alitalia labor unions yesterday continued negotiations on whether to accept a restructuring plan and associated layoffs and new working conditions with the Italian government, AZ Administrator Augusto Fantozzi and representatives from CAI, the group of Italian investors including Air One that reportedly is willing to invest up to €1 billion ($1.4 billion) in an AZ restart.
Thomas Cook Group, TUI Travel and Lufthansa talks regarding a merger of their German carriers Condor, TUIfly and Germanwings are still ongoing and a decision could come soon, according to Thomas Cook Chief Executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa. "Pretty soon we will have to give the Condor staff some certainty," he told Reuters. He said he expects that antitrust authorities will approve the merger, which would create a carrier with 142 aircraft carrying 30 million passengers annually. "The advice that we are getting from lawyers involved is that we will probably get approval," he said.
SkyWorks Leasing arranged the sale of two Frontier Airlines A319s to a special-purpose company affiliated with VTB Leasing, Moscow, for onward lease to Rossiya Airlines.
Air France Industries and KLM Engineering & Maintenance signed a deal with South African Airways subsidiary SAA Technical for repair services and spares pool access across the carrier's fleet. AFI and KLM E&M currently provide component support for SAA Technical's 11 A319-100s, 15 A340-300s/-600s and 21 737-800s. Deal also covers AFI and KLM E&M subsidiary EPCOR, which maintains SAA's A340 APUs.
Developed by Boeing and certified two years ago in order to allow Gol to fly more efficiently to and from Brazil's urban airports, the 737-800 Short Field Performance aircraft now will help the company target business travelers more comfortable with the Varig name.
IATA, Eurocontrol and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization announced a three-way deal to "expedite efficiency improvements in European air traffic management" that will achieve annual savings of 470,000 tonnes of fuel, $550 million and 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The plan calls for an airspace redesign to accommodate a 0.1% reduction in routes equivalent to 4 million nm. per year and $28 million, another 0.7% to come from enhanced civil/military cooperation and improved flight planning (worth 30 million nm.
US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said yesterday that FAA has accepted recommendations from the independent review team, composed of nongovernment experts, that she established and dispatched in April to conduct reviews of US airlines' safety programs ( ATWOnline, April 21) following revelations about Southwest Airlines' noncompliance with an agency airworthiness directive.
Oxford Aviation Academy said this week that it acquired General Flying Services, an Australia-based ab initio training provider, under a deal backed by STAR Capital Partners. Financial details were not disclosed. GFS, which operates from two airports in Melbourne, last fiscal year trained more than 300 cadets (many from Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East) and anticipates more than 500 pilot graduates over the next few years.
Goodrich yesterday was awarded the contracts to supply the air data system and ice detection system on the A350 XWB, deals valued at more than $600 million over 20 years. The work will be performed by the company's Sensors and Integrated Systems division in Burnsville, Minn.
Farelogix signed a multiyear agreement with Air Canada to distribute ala-carte fare products, product attributes and flight passes to users of its FLX Platform through a direct connect with the carrier's AC2U platform. Technology allows travel agents to shop, price, book and service exclusive Air Canadae content.
AiRUnion COO Gustav Baldur said the struggling Russian airline alliance will be shut down at the latest by Sept. 30 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 9). Speaking to ATWOnline at an international symposium of the Austrian Aviation Assn., Baldauf said the AiRUnion project had failed. "Now we will present a new concept [to the State of Russia] today in Moscow [to show] how a replacement airline project could be functional."
