UK CAA maintained its support for a mostly hands-off approach to the buying, selling and trading of airport operating slots among airlines in a new report co-authored with the UK Office of Fair Trading. "In the main, the fewer restrictions on secondary trading, the greater the likely efficiency benefits," the authorities argued in the report.
Embattled JAL Group CEO Toshiyuki Shinmachi, who stood fast against an attempted coup by four board members last month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 17), lost his battle to keep his position amid rising discontent and agreed yesterday to relinquish the CEO title and take over as group chairman. Shinmachi will be replaced as CEO following the June shareholders meeting by Senior VP-Finance and Purchasing Haruka Nishimatsu, a board member who joined the airline in 1972. Pending confirmation, Nishimatsu will be promoted to senior MD on all three JAL boards effective April 1.
Royal Brunei Airlines signed an MOU with Garuda Indonesia covering "commercially viable cooperation" including training, MRO, information and distribution technology, ground handling and catering. Separately, Royal Brunei will launch thrice-weekly service to Ho Chi Minh City from May 11.
Proposal by French President Jacques Chirac to impose a global tax on airline tickets to fund development in the Third World ( ATWOnline, March 1) moved forward yesterday as 13 countries including the UK, Norway and Brazil agreed at an international meeting in Paris to impose the tax, Reuters reported. Twenty-five other countries declined to tax air travel but said they will contribute to the new fund, which will be used to fight AIDS and other diseases.
Northwest Airlines and its flight attendants, represented by the Professional Flight Attendants Assn., reached an eleventh-hour agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement yesterday that, if ratified by union members, will result in the carrier achieving the $195 million in labor savings it sought from cabin staff when it entered bankruptcy.
Despite a record fourth quarter, LAN Airlines' consolidated full-year net income slipped 10.4% to $146.6 million from $163.6 million earned in 2004. While operating revenues surged 19.8% to $2.5 billion, driven by a 24.9% increase in passenger revenue, expenses rose 23.1% and operating income fell 17.7% to $141.6 million from $172.1 million.
Aer Lingus reported summary financial results for 2005 yesterday showing that full-year operating profit from continuing activities decreased 32.3% to €72.4 million ($86 million) from €107 million in 2004 while pre-tax profit soared to €82.6 million from just €1.1 million the year before. Details were not provided. Revenue fell 2.6% to €883 million. The Irish carrier said overall expenses grew by €10.8 million, reflecting a €33.1 million rise in fuel cost, a 39.9% reduction in distribution cost and an 11% cut in its workforce to 3,475.
Pilot unions at SAS Group's Scandinavian Airlines Businesses said Wednesday they will take legal action to undo the March 1 operational transfer of the pilots into the airline units in Sweden and Denmark ( ATWOnline, Feb. 15). Pilots at Norwegian unit SAS Braathens have been employed locally since 2004, the airline said in a statement. According to AFP, the pilots allege that the action violates labor law and their collective bargaining agreement with the airline. They are seeking Sek45 million ($5.7 million) in damages.
ATA Airlines emerged from 16 months in bankruptcy protection Tuesday focused on "incrementally improving our operations [and] challenging ourselves to operate as efficiently as possible," according to President and CEO John Denison.
United Airlines reached its first tentative agreement with the International Federation of Professionals and Technical Engineers covering wages, benefits and work rules. IFPTE covers 282 engineering employees based primarily in Chicago, Indianapolis and San Francisco. The union's ratification process is expected to conclude March 8.
Air Canada Regional affiliate Jazz officially is out of Toronto's close-in City Centre Airport following a court ruling earlier this week clearing the way for startup Porter Airlines to begin operations this fall sans competition. "We are certainly looking at it as a temporary suspension," Jazz spokesperson Debra Williams told ATWOnline.
US Airways is increasing its Hawaii service with the launch of daily Las Vegas-Kahului flights, the addition of a second daily Phoenix-Honolulu flight and new daily services from PHX to Lihue and Kona, all aboard 757-200s. EasyJet will launch four-times-weekly service between Basel-Mulhouse and Istanbul from May 24, daily London Luton-Istanbul flights from June 29, four-times-weekly Luton-Rijeka service from June 30 and daily London Gatwick-Marrakech service beginning July 4.
Getting a product from point A to point B in good condition for a reasonable price used to be the only thing that shipping customers really wanted. Those days, like 60-cent jet fuel, are long gone as customers require more sophisticated management of their supply chains.
Since 9/11, governments, airlines, freight forwarders and shippers have struggled with ways to improve air cargo security without impinging too heavily upon the flow of commerce. The Transportation Security Administration's soon-to-be issued rule expanding air cargo security throughout the supply chain and existing rules only now being implemented across the European Union are intended to strengthen barriers against terrorism. But the industry remains concerned about whether the new rules and the introduction of costly explosive detection systems will be more trouble than they're worth.
ACE Aviation Holdings named Chahram Boulouri president & CEO, Air Canada Technical Services. Air Berlin appointed Ulf Huettmeyer CFO. Air Security International promoted Steven M. Kellner to dir.-intelligence-Intelligence Div. AirTran Airways elected Arne Haak VP-finance & treasurer and Kirk Thornburg VP-maintenance & engineering. Alaska Airlines tapped Kevin Finan as executive VP-operations, Glenn Johnson as senior VP-customer service-airports, Robert Spero as chief pilot and Yvonne Daverin as MD-maintenance planning & material control.
Judging one's worth on the job market is never an easy task, but rarely has that process been more in the spotlight than today. This is an emotional issue at every level, yet all are asked to set emotion aside and focus on larger concerns. Ultimately emotions cannot be ignored, for unless the outcome of these compensation calculations is carefully proportioned and falls within an acceptable range as viewed from below, the seeds of disaster will be planted. Labor/management distrust and even hatred have accompanied some airlines' extinction and may have played a key role in their demise.
Determined to continue to give Phoenix air travelers the high level of customer service they now enjoy, Sky Harbor International Airport's managers are upgrading and expanding terminal facilities to keep up with the airport's 5% annual growth rate. FAA approval is expected this month for a new terminal complex, taxiway system and people-mover.
Low-cost carriers now account for about a third of the US market. For the most part, despite five years of restructuring and a few bankruptcy reorganizations, legacy carriers have yet to pare their costs down to the levels of JetBlue and Southwest.
Airline efforts to fend off the building pressure to penalize the industry for aircraft noise and emissions run into two key difficulties. First, as anyone familiar with the evolution of turbine aircraft powerplants can attest, the road to a cleaner engine is very rough indeed, with much money and time required to achieve each step of improvement. Second, visible signs of progress are hidden deep within the engine's guts with the exception of noise, which at least has some visible changes in fan and nacelle design. All the rest must be taken on faith in the measurements and the measurers.
JetBlue Airways has built a reputation as an airline that places a premium on customer service: A relatively new fleet of aircraft with roomy leather seats, 36-channel LiveTV at every seat, XM Satellite Radio, unlimited onboard snacks. Now the carrier has put its own stamp on the concession and retail program at its JFK Terminal 6 base.
Cairo International Airport has a clear-cut ambition: "We want to become both a passenger and cargo hub, particularly in the MENA region," says Ibrahim Ahmed Manaa, chairman of Egyptian Holding Co. for Airports and Air Navigation. "We want to rise to global competitive levels according to international standards and start to gradually apply air transport liberalization policies."
Opportunities to use the adjective Byzantine are few and far between, but even a passing glance at the paperwork labyrinth that confounds the airfreight business process gives one ample reason to whip out that rare modifier. There are around 40 documents that must accompany most kinds of cargo, and a good part of this wood pulp destruction has nothing to do with the business part of the process: It is government rules and regulations that are responsible for the felling of vast forests to feed the voracious paper appetite of the airfreight industry.
Worldspan chairman and chief executive Rakesh Gangwal anticipates that the GDS industry will undergo "major structural changes" in order to meet the needs of a still deeply troubled airline industry. "The airlines are hard pressed," he said during a conference call with investment analysts. "There is a rip-roaring need to change the whole model in how booking fees are established. We have to adapt to new realities, and it's not something we can do over the next three, four or five years. We've got to bring the booking fees down now."
