United Airlines and Shanghai Airlines announced a codeshare agreement yesterday covering 11 flights from May 15. UA flights included are Shanghai to Chicago O'Hare and San Francisco, SFO to Los Angeles, Newark and New York JFK, and O'Hare to Newark and New York LaGuardia. Shanghai Airlines will operate codeshare flights from Shanghai Pudong to Shenyang, Chengdu, Dalian and Qingdao.
US scheduled airlines' January employment rolls dropped 6.1% from January 2005 to 405,000, according to a US Dept. of Transportation report released yesterday, marking the 13th consecutive monthly decline in the number of full-time equivalent employees. The seven network airlines employed 270,000 FTEs, or 66.5%, while LCCs employed 17% and Regionals 14%. The latter figure represents a 1.8% year-over-year fall, the first decrease in Regional employment during the 13-month period.
Garuda Indonesia will introduce 737-800s on its daily Perth-Bali-Jakarta service beginning March 26, replacing dash 400s. The carrier said the route will be among the first to use the new aircraft because of Western Australia's importance to the Bali tourist trade.
Delta Air Lines needs to have a cost-saving agreement with its pilots soon, CEO Gerald Grinstein said yesterday. "They have to reach that agreement. We have got to get that done by late spring," he told ATWOnline in Atlanta. Delta wants pay and benefit reductions and efficiency improvements valued in excess of $315 million per year from its Air Line Pilots Assn. unit, which has offered $115 million on top of $1 billion in givebacks provided in 2004 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 13).
Sabre Travel Network signed a multiyear full-content access agreement with KLM. Kingfisher Airlines signed a deal with Galileo to make its fares and inventory available on the GDS.
Mesa Air Group has countersued Hawaiian Airlines, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin. In September, Mesa announced plans to start an inter-island carrier dubbed Project Hele with service to begin in the second quarter of 2006. In an effort to hold off the would-be competition, Hawaiian filed suit, claiming Mesa used proprietary information to bolster its startup proposal ( ATWOnline, Feb. 15).
US scheduled airlines experienced 32 accidents last year, three of which were fatal, resulting in 22 deaths, according to US National Transportation Safety Board preliminary safety statistics. In 2004, scheduled carriers operating under 14 CFR 121 (commercial transport aircraft with 10 or more seats) experienced 23 accidents, one of which was fatal, resulting in 13 deaths.
SkyWest Airlines took delivery of Bombardier's 250th CRJ700 last week in Montreal. It will be SkyWest's first aircraft operated for Delta Connection. It flies 180 CRJs including 57 CRJ700s.
Gol announced that subsidiary Gol Finance is offering perpetual notes to finance the acquisition of 737NGs. The notes will be senior unsecured debt obligations and have no fixed maturity date; however, they are callable at par after five years. The amount of the offering was not announced.
US Airways will launch daily Philadelphia-Portland, Ore., service June 1 aboard a two-class A320. Midwest Airlines is expanding its Kansas City and Milwaukee services from June 1. Frequencies will be added from Kansas City to Boston (to twice-daily), Los Angeles (to thrice each weekday during summer), Milwaukee (to seven flights per weekday), New York La Guardia (to four times each weekday) and San Diego (to twice-daily during summer). Flights are aboard 717s. From Milwaukee, Midwest will offer seasonal nonstop daily service to San Francisco through Sept.
Finnair selected the Rolls-Royce Trent 1700 over the GEnx launch engine to power the nine A350-900s it ordered late last year ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2005). The carrier also holds four options on the new widebody, which will begin delivering in 2011. The engine deal is worth close to €400 million ($487.4 million) at list prices.
Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA issued a statement in support of last week's decision by the Congressional subcommittee on economic security, infrastructure protection and cybersecurity to accept the Leave All Blades Behind amendment attached to the US Transportation Security Administration's reform bill. The amendment would reverse the TSA decision to allow certain kinds of scissors and tools back onboard aircraft ( ATWOnline, Dec. 5, 2005).
JetBlue Airways announced a new leadership structure in its legal, corporate finance, government affairs, supply chain, finance and information technology departments. VP, General Counsel and Assistant Secretary Jim Hnat was named senior VP. Director-Litigation and Regulatory Counsel Joanna Geraghty was named VP-associate general counsel. John Harvey now is senior VP-corporate finance and treasurer and will oversee the carrier's new VP-fuel position. VP-Government Affairs and Associate General Counsel Rob Land was promoted to senior VP.
In conjunction with a study it commissioned to quantify the effect of the inclusion of air transport in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, the European Low Fares Airline Assn. yesterday declared its support of the "principles" behind the policy but demanded an end to the "sloppy thinking and hysterical persecution" that finger aircraft as a leading emissions contributor. The association also protested the possibility that the EU may limit the scheme to intra-EU flights, thus singling out short-haul carriers and LCCs.
News from Travel Technology Update: American Airlines warned travel agencies that if they use more expensive booking channels, they may be asked to share the expense. In a letter signed by David Cush, vice president and general sales manager, the airline noted that its full-content agreements with the GDSs expire this year, and it reiterated that it may not participate in all four systems. Cush urged agencies to "consider adding other sources of fare content or leaving yourself the flexibility to add other sources of fare content."
Cyprus Airways contracted Mercator to handle its passenger revenue accounting operation. Mercator is part of Emirates Group. Jeppesen will provide its Airport Mapping Database for Thales' On-Board Airport Navigation System developed for Airbus aircraft. Jeppesen's AMDB currently includes 300 major airports, with more being added at customer request. Mesa Air Group selected UltiPro Workforce Management software from Ultimate Software, a provider of Web-based payroll and workforce management solutions.
AerCap, a major aircraft lessor and financier based in the Netherlands, said it signed an agreement to acquire Miami-based AeroTurbine for an undisclosed price. AeroTurbine specializes in aftermarket commercial aircraft engine and parts sales and holds an FAA-approved Certified Repair Station license to support its engine leasing and trading activities. It was founded in 1997 by CEO Nick Finazzo and COO Robert Nichols, who will remain in their current positions, according to AerCap.
In a letter signed by David Cush, vice president and general sales manager, the airline noted that its full-content agreements with the GDSs expire this year, and it reiterated that it may not participate in all four systems. Cush urged agencies to "consider adding other sources of fare content or leaving yourself the flexibility to add other sources of fare content." American's move came in the wake of the agreement between Sabre and Amadeus that gives the GDS companies the option of backing each other up in the event an airline drops out of one of the systems.
Continental Airlines broke the silence on the US side in the standoff between US and Venezuelan authorities, announcing Friday that it "will try to accommodate travel needs of passengers flying to and from Caracas through its extensive network into the region" if Venezuela follows through with its threat to restrict access of US carriers from the end of this month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 27). CO said it will allow passengers to exchange tickets without penalty or apply for refunds.
Flynordic, Finnair's Stockholm-based low-cost subsidiary, faces significant challenges in adapting to new market realities in Sweden. "Every airline is losing money [there], including us," Finnair CEO Jukka Hienonen told ATWOnline in Helsinki. "The Swedish market has changed." Asked how much time remains for Flynordic to improve its results, he said, "more important than time is to find the right direction. We need more efficiency on the route network and frequencies.
Latin American Airline Assn. members flew 10.88 billion RPMs in January, a 1.7% rise over the year-ago month. Capacity grew 1.3% to 15.02 billion ASMs, raising load factor 0.2 point to 72.5%.
CAE will design the first full flight simulator for the ARJ21 regional jet being developed in China by AVIC I Commercial Aircraft Co. CAE valued the deal at C$15 million ($13 million). The ARJ21 is a 90-seat RJ expected to enter service in 2009. "The CAE-built ARJ21 simulator will be delivered to the ACAC Customer Service Center that is to be established in Shanghai," said AVIC I VP Qinghong Xu.
