US Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) introduced legislation last week to implement the June deal to phase out the Wright Amendment. The arrangement reached by the cities of Dallas and Ft. Worth, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines requires congressional approval ( ATWOnline, June 16. "My bill will repeal the Wright Amendment over eight years and achieve a balance between Love Field and the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport with a significant benefit to consumers," Hutchison said.
Jet Airways began operating its first A330-200 between Delhi and London Heathrow. The aircraft seats 226 and is powered by Trent 772Bs. Jet also operates A340-300Es on the daily service. It shifted a dash 300E to its LHR-Mumbai route on which it began offering a second daily frequency effective July 10. Separately, Jet linked its frequent-flier program with those of Austrian Airlines and Thai Airways. Jet Privilege members can earn and use miles on flights operated by Austrian and Thai, whose loyalty program members can do the same on Jet flights.
Meggitt and AeroMechanical Services reached agreement involving joint marketing of Meggitt's condition monitoring system with AMS's Automated Flight Information Reporting System that will permit real-time transmission of aircraft flight and engine data to "airline and helicopter companies' financial, operational and maintenance decision-makers and aircraft and engine owners with inclusive lease contracts."
SAS Cargo signed a cargo capacity agreement with Spanair effective Sept. 1. SAS said the agreement will be useful particularly to Scandinavians sending or receiving freight from Africa and South America, since Spain is a major gateway from those continents. Cargo Counts, a unit of Lufthansa Cargo, no longer will be in charge of selling capacity on Spanair's 51 aircraft. SAS said it will sell capacity through GSAs and its own staff.
Vistair launched SafetyNet, a Web-based air safety and incident reporting system for airline personnel. It was developed initially for Ryanair and since has been adopted by FlyBE.
Delta Air Lines told the US Bankruptcy Court in New York last week that it has signed a letter of intent with ILFC to lease 10 757-200ERs. The aircraft, powered by Pratt & Whitney PW2037s, will be delivered from July 15 through Nov. 15, 2007, after undergoing C checks and painting, and will be leased for seven years and three months each, according to the filing. The rent figures were not disclosed.
OnAir selected mobile network provider Monaco Telecom as its ground infrastructure partner. Starting in 2007, OnAir will be launching GSM and GPRS mobile services on selected European flights, allowing passengers to make and receive phone calls and exchange text messages and e-mails using their own mobile phones and PEDs. Air France, bmi and TAP Portugal have signed up for commercial trials of the OnAir service.
US Bankruptcy Court judge reversed an earlier ruling and authorized Mesaba Airlines to terminate labor contracts with its 1,300 union employees. The Regional's pilot, mechanic and flight attendant unions all have warned they will strike if the company voids their deals. Mesaba, which said it will continue negotiating with the unions, must give 10 days notice before terminating the contracts. The carrier, which operates as a Northwest Airlink partner, wants a 19.4% reduction in labor costs over the next six years to ensure financial viability.
Lufthansa wants to increase the number of long-haul destinations it serves from Munich from 18 to 40 by the end of the decade, an LH spokesperson told ATWOnline.
Beirut International Airport was closed to air traffic indefinitely following yesterday's bombing by Israeli fighter jets in response to a Hezbollah raid from Lebanon into northern Israel. Two runways reportedly sustained heavy damage. Airlines throughout the region cancelled flights to Lebanon's capital and Lebanese carrier Middle East Airlines reportedly diverted planes to Cyprus. The bombing did not damage any aircraft or the airport's terminal.
US Department of Homeland Security is moving forward again with its proposal to require that it be given Advance Passenger Information for US-bound international flights before aircraft take off, a switch from the current policy that requires the information to be relayed within 15 min. after departure. DHS last year tried to impose a requirement that API data be transmitted 60 min. prior to departure, a step that would have required carriers to close flights 75 min. before departure, but retreated in the face of overwhelming airline resistance.
Northwest Airlines signed a five-year, full-content agreement with Galileo International, which said the deal made it the first GDS to sign full-content deals with every network carrier in the US. Separately, NWA announced the retirement of Barry Simon, executive VP and general counsel, on June 30. It named Perry Cantarutti VP-reservations.
Southwest Airlines unveiled details of its new Washington Dulles operation yesterday, having announced its intention three months ago to start service at the airport ( ATWOnline, April 5). It will occupy two gates on Concourse B, hire about 40 local employees and start flying Oct. 5 with services to Chicago Midway (seven-times-daily), Orlando International (twice-daily), Tampa (twice-daily) and Las Vegas (daily). "Dulles will be a fantastic complement to our Baltimore/Washington operation," CEO Gary Kelly said.
Austrian Airlines Group said its ontime performance has suffered as a result of poor ATC at its Vienna hub and it expects several million euros of extra costs. Labor issues and union squabbles at Austro Control have reduced slots at the airport from 40-45 per hr. to just 25. Austrian expected 83% ontime performance, but in the past several days it has dropped to 60%. Separately, the carrier will implement several organizational changes on Sept. 1 that it said should boost quality and productivity.
US FAA yesterday unveiled an Airspace Flow Program that the agency said will result in fewer weather-related delays by allowing controllers more leeway in canceling or delaying flights. Using new computer technology, controllers will delay or cancel only those flights that "are expected to encounter extremely bad weather." Aircraft routed in the wider vicinity of major thunderstorms will be allowed to take off on time as long as ATC judges that they won't fly directly through the storm. Previously, such flights were delayed or cancelled.
Lufthansa Cargo is evaluating replacement of its 19 MD-11 freighters, which have an average age of eight years, as it looks to brace itself for tough competition in the years ahead. "Maybe during this year, but at the latest in 2007, we have to make a decision," Executive Board Member-Operations Karl-Heinz Koepfle told ATWOnline in Frankfurt. He didn't specify a possible replacement type but admitted, "there is not much choice anyway." The 747-400ERF, 747-8 or 777F are LHC's most realistic options.
JetBlue Airways will launch a four-times-daily New York JFK-Columbus service on Oct. 3 and a daily Columbus-Boston flight on Oct. 18. Both routes will be operated with Embraer 190s.
China and Japan reached an air services agreement yesterday that provides for a 20% increase in the number of passenger flights between the countries and a doubling of cargo services, Reuters reported. Thirteen carriers from each country will have access, up from the current six. The number of permitted flights will rise to 547 per week, with Chinese carriers operating 300.
One-off costs related to air traffic control, "irregularities" at Oslo Gardermoen and ground and engine mishaps took a chunk out of Norwegian's second-quarter profit, which came in at NOK17.8 million ($2.8 million) after taxes, a figure that represented a 20.3% improvement over earnings of NOK14.8 million in the year-ago period but was "below our expectations" for the current term.
BAA named Stephen Nelson CEO replacing Mike Clasper, who stepped down yesterday. The move comes less than three weeks after Ferrovial Group took control of the UK airports operator. Nelson joined BAA in September 2005 from J Sainsbury, where he was marketing director and a member of the operating board. He became a member of the BAA board in April. Meanwhile, Ferrovial announced yesterday that Ferrovial Aeropuertos MD Luis Sanchez Salmeron is BAA's deputy CEO and will serve as the primary go-between for Ferrovial and BAA.
Frontier Airlines flew 813.1 million RPMs in June, a 21.8% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity grew 17.7% to 954.9 million ASMs and load factor climbed 2.9 points to a record 85.2%. Passenger RASM rose 8.1% to 9.89 cents and yield increased 4.4% to 11.51 cents. Gol flew 1.24 billion RPKs in June, a 60.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 47.4% to 1.6 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 6.2 points to 77.3%.
Siemens Energy & Automation's Airport Logistics Division was awarded a $28 million contract to design and build the baggage handling and inline screening system at JetBlue's new Terminal 5 at JFK. The terminal is scheduled to be completed in early 2009.
CityJet, Air France-KLM's Dublin-based Regional subsidiary, said it has concluded negotiations for the acquisition of 23 Avro RJ85s worth a combined $221 million. The supplier was not announced but likely they will come from BAE Systems, which continues to manage a number of the aircraft. CityJet will take first delivery in November. It now operates 19 BAe 146s. "The close relationship of the new aircraft type to the BAe 146 currently operated allows the airline to dovetail its introduction into the existing fleet," CityJet said.
