OAG signed a deal with lastminute.com to distribute real-time flight status information directly to UK-registered mobile devices. The lastminute.com Flight Alert Service includes more than 190 airlines and relays any significant changes in the time, terminal or gate of a registered flight directly to individuals via SMS Flight Status Alerts.
American Eagle unveiled new direct service between Columbia, S.C., and Dallas/Ft. Worth. It will operate thrice-daily flights aboard 50-seat ERJ-145s. Qantas will offer another flight between Sydney and Los Angeles each Tuesday from Dec. 20 through Jan. 24, adding more than 2,000 seats. Air France introduced a 777-200 to its nightly Paris-Dubai service, increasing weekly capacity by 16%. The aircraft will seat 270 in a three-class configuration. AF's five-times-weekly daytime flights will continue aboard A330-200s.
BWIA West Indies Airways appointed GM Nelson Tom Yew as CEO and a new five-person board chaired by Arthur Lok Jack. The management restructuring was part of a deal negotiated with the government of Trinidad and Tobago, which pumped $250 million into the airline last month, the Associated Press reported. UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, announced the appointment of William R. Norman as senior VP-United Services, the company's maintenance and engineering division.
Thai and South Korean investors have partnered to launch Sky Star Airways, a Bangkok-based airline hoping to position itself as a full-service carrier with fares between LCCs and large conventional airlines. The Bangkok Post reported that SSA was registered with capital of 400 million baht ($9.8 million) and expects to obtain its license and be airborne as early as December with service between Bangkok and Incheon.
Goodrich Corp. was chosen by Hamilton Sundstrand Power Systems to supply an integrated fuel injection system for the APS5000 APU for the 787. Boeing earlier awarded Goodrich contracts for the 787's cargo handling system, wheels and electronic braking, exterior lighting, nacelles and thrust reversers, proximity sensing system, fuel quantity indicators and fuel management software.
Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes yesterday announced a record third-quarter net profit of R$138.2 million ($61.1 million), a 19.8% margin and up 42.6% from net income of R$96.9 million in the year-ago period.
AITAL, the Latin American Airline Assn., rescheduled its annual Latin American Airline Leaders Forum to Dec. 13-15 at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort in South Florida. The event originally was scheduled for last week and was postponed due to Hurricane Wilma.
Saint-Gobain Flight Structures is expanding its Ravenna, Ohio, plant in order to manufacture lightweight aerospace composites used in components such as cargo doors and wingtips. The Ravenna plant is a self-contained operation specializing in design, manufacture, repair and certification of composites and Saint Gobain's Norton radomes.
Denim Air's new CEO, Matthijs Boertien, said the carrier is evaluating larger aircraft including the F70/F100 or members of the Embraer 170/190 family. A decision could be made by spring. Denim currently operates 14 F50s and five Dash 8s on an ACMI basis. Most recently, it secured agreements to operate F50s for Air Mauritania and Air Senegal, Boertien said. The airline also unveiled an ACMI Plus service, which provides full operational support that includes sales distribution and marketing support.
American Airlines launched its first new international service from Terminal D at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport yesterday, flying nonstop to Osaka. The daily flights will be aboard 777s equipped with 16 first class, 35 business class and 185 coach seats. Osaka is AA's 33rd international destination from its DFW hub and its fifth nonstop route to Japan.
Pinnacle Airlines reported a third-quarter net loss of $21.4 million and an operating loss of $32.4 million, which company officials attributed to an after-tax charge of $34.5 million for items related to the recent bankruptcy filings of Northwest Airlines and Mesaba Airlines. The Northwest Airlink carrier posted a net income of $12.6 million in the year-ago period. Excluding the charge, Pinnacle reported pro forma net income of $13.1 million for the 2005 quarter.
After an all-night flight to Brazil, JetBlue CEO David Neeleman was ready to take delivery of the first 100-seat, GE CF34-powered Embraer 190. But there was an unexpected snag: He had forgotten to pack a necktie for the ceremony. Aides scrambled to find one. After a few phone calls, someone came up with a yellow silk print tie that would go with Neeleman's dark blazer and tan pants. And who helped out early that September morning? "My job is to make David look good," says JetBlue COO Dave Barger with a laugh. "I'm the operations guy, so it is expected that I should have a tie."
In 1920, the Australian states of Queensland and Northern Territory lent their names to a new airline that would grow to be, 85 years later, one of the premier air transportation companies in the world. Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd., or Qantas, was formed in the years after World War I to serve the vast reaches of the Outback.
Dubai International Airport is gaining momentum as a world cargo hub. Year after year it moves upward in the Airports Council International ranking of freight throughputfrom No. 29 in 2000 to No. 22 in 2001, No. 20 in 2002, No. 19 in 2003 and No. 18 in 2004.
How would you define the current market situation in general? Overall demand is finally reaching and starting to exceed the levels of 2001. But even this modest upturn in the MRO industry, linked especially to the strong growth of many new low-cost providers, is being diminished to some extent by counter-trends, with market consolidation occurring only slowly. Worldwide, downward pressure on prices persists and market recovery per se does not mean yield is recovering. Size matters in MRO. High market penetration and a certain throughput level are key to success in this
Japanese politicians have been banned from using them, Italian politicians are having loudspeakers installed under their parliamentary seats to drown them out and many prestigious golf clubs ban them at the entry gate. They are the most annoying thing in our lives and 70% of air travelers say they do not want them on aircraft. They are mobile phones.
Sabre lost a bid to end the U.S. Transportation Department's authority to regulate independent GDS companies. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that in a 1952 law that gave the department the authority to regulate ticket agents, Congress' definition of "ticket agent" was "sufficiently broad" to include GDSs.
Aeromexico appointed Carlos De Uriarte regional dir.-US West Coast. Air Transport Assn. named David Castelveter VP-communications. Alaska Air Group announced the retirement of Executive VP-Operations George Bagley. ASIG tapped David L. Aschenbach as VP-sales & customer service. Atlantic Southeast Airlines welcomed Bryan T. LaBrecque as president & COO. Boeing chose Ahmed Jazzar as president-Boeing Saudi Arabia and Michael Probasco as president-Boeing Middle East Ltd.
Airports are not all created equal, this is clear. This does not refer simply to available facilities but also must encompass market, the economic power of an airport's region. At the top are airports flooded with demands for slots and terminal space, carriers eager to crawl over their competition's corporate bodies to get in and stay in, believing their economic welfare depends upon it.
Two issues must be resolved before China can experience explosive growth in online travel, and neither is insurmountable, according to participants at TravelSky Technology Ltd.'s China Travel Distribution Future Forum 2005 in Beijing. The first is widespread implementation of electronic ticketing in what is expected to become the world's largest travel market. The second issue may prove more challenging: facilitating online payment for online purchases in a country in which credit cards are relatively scarce.
The presence of the A380 at the Dubai Air Show this month in Emirates livery says it all: The new Airbus "baby" will play an intrinsic role in Emirates' and Dubai International Airport's shared goal to become global players. Emirates Airline has ordered 45 A380s, two of which are freighter versions, and the Dubai Dept. of Civil Aviation, which operates DXB, is sparing neither cost nor effort to accommodate the 555-seater.
The good news for maintenance, repair and overhaul suppliers is that the market is in full recovery mode. Stronger-than-expected traffic demand in 2005 is causing airlines to fly their aircraft harder, many of the thousands of jets ordered between 1996 and 2000 are coming due for heavy checks, and relatively few airlines are investing in new repair facilities.
You can say this about Piedmont Airlines: It is a company with staying power. Since its formation in 1931 it has changed names, ownership, aircraft and location, yet still it lives today as a wholly owned subsidiary of US Airways operating in the Major's Express network. That resilience will serve Piedmont well as it confronts the possibility of still more change ahead after US Airways' merger with America West Airlines in late September.
Two new airliner power-plants are offering an unprecedented choice: With engine bleed air to power aircraft systems, or without. It's a package deal, of course; in order to get the bleedless powerplant one must order the 787, while the A350 only comes with bleed air.
Paramount Airways, a new Indian Regional carrier, signed a nine-year, $12 million OnPoint Solutions service agreement with GE Engine Services for MRO of the CF34-8Es powering the airline's five Embraer 170s/175s.
