Continental Airlines selected General Electric's GEnx engine to power its recently ordered fleet of 10 787s, becoming the first North American customer for the powerplant on the 787. GE valued the order at more than $250 million. Deliveries are set to begin in 2009. The other customer for the GEnx on the Dreamliner is First Choice of the UK with six aircraft on order. The GEnx still is the exclusive engine being offered on the proposed A350 and GE and Airbus have signed agreements to transition to firm orders for 122 aircraft with seven customers.
American Airlines said Friday that "the skyrocketing price of jet fuel" had "forced" it to suspend 15 daily roundtrips at its Dallas/Ft. Worth and Chicago O'Hare hubs and end service between Chicago and Nagoya at the end of October. The temporary cuts take effect beginning Oct. 5 and last at least through Oct. 29, when AA will make the decision whether to resume service.
Aegean Airlines is a possible candidate to be the next Star Alliance regional member. The Greek carrier begins codeshare services with Lufthansa this autumn. Lufthansa, which was the sponsoring airline for Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines to join Star regional, could offer the same option to Aegean. "Normally the carrier decides which sponsoring partner they want. But we would be interested to help," Lufthansa Group Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told ATWOnline.
Discover the World Marketing opened an office in Malta to handle sales and marketing representation for Alitalia, bringing the number of Discover offices to 83 in 54 countries.
Independence Air expects to eliminate some 600 jobs in the coming weeks, representing 18% of the workforce, as it matches employment levels to a reduced number of aircraft and daily departures. "As a result of the change in our operations, our overall employment will go from 3,400 to 2,800," spokesperson Rick DeLisi told ATWOnline Friday. "This will be accomplished through a variety of methods." In addition, the current 350 daily departures will be reduced to 230. At startup the carrier had up to 600 daily departures.
Lufthansa Commercial Holding GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, is selling its 52.6% stake in Loyalty Partner GmbH to British private equity company Palamon Capital Partners. Lufthansa said it will realize a book profit of around €100 million ($121 million) in the just-ended third quarter. After the sale, the carrier will continue "the successful cooperation between Miles & More and the Payback bonus card program operated by Loyalty Partner." Iberia board is expected to approve its 2006-08 Director Plan when it meets Thursday.
EasyJet is seeing further management changes in the wake of the appointment of Andrew Harrison to succeed Ray Webster as chief executive effective Dec. 1 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 2). Webster announced in May that he would be retiring. Joining the exodus of senior managers is COO Ed Winter, who stepped down Sept. 30 and is being replaced by Mike Szucs, who came to easyJet from British Airways in 2003. Winter joined the Luton-based LCC in August 2002 when it acquired BA's Go Fly low-fare subsidiary, where he held the COO position.
Qantas appears to be moving toward a 787/777 order after airline sources confirmed to ATWOnline that the carrier and Boeing are close to finalizing a longer-range variant of the 777-200LR that would have a reach of just over 10,000 nm. (18,500 km.), enabling the Australian airline to operate from Sydney to London nonstop year round with 250 passengers.
Swissport is selling its 49% shareholding in its S. Stuttgart Ground Services joint venture to AHS, citing a desire to focus on its majority-owned operations. Terms were not disclosed. The JV dates back to 2001 when it was established by Swissport Stuttgart and Flughafen Stuttgart. The sale to AHS is being done "in amicable agreement" with Stuttgart Airport. The transaction will be transparent to customers and no redundancies or major organizational changes are planned. Current CEO Klaus Knopfle will remain as head of the company, Swissport said.
AirTran Airways' approximately 300 mechanics and aircraft inspectors, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, ratified a new 48-month labor contract. The airline said more than 70% of IBT members voted in favor of the agreement. AirTran will introduce service from Richmond to Ft. Myers Feb. 15 with a single daily roundtrip using a 717. It begins nonstop service between Richmond and Orlando on Nov. 8 as previously announced. AirTran also announced a fifth daily nonstop from Richmond to Atlanta effective Nov. 16.
International passenger traffic growth slowed in August from the torrid pace set in the first seven months of the year, IATA reported. August international traffic (RPKs) rose 6.1% compared to August 2004 versus a year-over-year improvement of 8.3% for the first eight months of the year. Cargo traffic increased just 2.8% in the month against an average of 3.6% year-to-date through August. "While we have tracked a softening cargo market since the beginning of the year, this is the first indication of a slower demand for passenger services.
Boeing employees represented by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ratified their tentative agreement with company in voting Thursday, putting an end to the nearly four-week walkout that began Sept. 2. In a statement, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Alan Mulally said, "We're very pleased with today's contract ratification by our machinists and look forward to their return to work. Our focus now shifts to ensuring a smooth restart of our production system and a return to a steady flow of airplane deliveries to our customers.
There are areas of the world, notably the US and UK, where credit cards are ubiquitous. There are more than half-a-billion credit cards floating around the US; the average household has eight. In the UK there are more cards than people. The widespread use of plastic-as-payment in these countriesalong with the development of the electronic tickethas enabled the migration of airline ticket sales to the Internet with substantial savings to carriers. But in much of the world, credit card usage is still in its infancy.
Consumer electronics advances and airline expansion, particularly overseas, have rekindled an inflight entertainment industry that faded considerably following 9/11.
In what is likely to be a boon to long-distance romances in the U.S., Site59.com has launched "Meet Me In. . .," a tool that assembles discounted last-minute weekend packages from two departure points to a single destination. A traveler departing New York and another departing from Los Angeles can purchase a single package with hotel and flights in Miami, for example.
As legacy airlines struggle to reduce expenses to combat the rising tide of low-cost carriers, the LCCs are arming themselves with the legacies' last weapon in their armory: Frills. New York's JetBlue led the way with free live television programming. Canada's WestJet recently introduced the same product with systems purchased from JetBlue, which owns the company, and Australia's Virgin Blue and Jetstar are adding satellite TV or DVD players.
AAXICO hired Juergen Schibalski as regional business development mgr.-Hamburg office and Paula Glover as dir.-sales-the Americas. ACE Aviation Holdings named Brian Dunne executive VP & CFO, succeeding Rob Peterson, who becomes executive VP-finance & CFO at Aeroplan. Greg Cote was named senior VP-corporate finance & strategy. Aerospace Products Int'l. chose Jean-Marie Pogu as senior VP-marketing & sales. Air Transport IT Services appointed T. Jeffrey Shull senior VP-airport solutions.
Even the shocking events of the late summer periodsix fatal accidents over a six-week period resulting in the deaths of more than 500 personshave not diminished the public's appetite for air travel, or even for travel into remote regions of the globe where sophisticated landing aids may be as rare as modern aircraft and airports.
The old Scottish prayer that begs protection from dangers including "things that go bump in the night" may be a favorite of pilots trying to find their way around dark, fogbound airports. A system that can answer that prayer, and provide in-cockpit merging and spacing capabilities during approach from cruise to the ground as well, seems heaven-sent, and that is what a new technology called SafeRoute from Aviation Communication and Surveillance Systems promises. ACSS is a joint venture of Thales and L-3 Communications.
If you want something done right, the saying goes, you'd better do it yourself. It's a maxim that the people at Apple Vacations took to heart when they were examining ways to make the air portion of their packaged holidays more reliable and of higher quality. That was the impetus behind the creation of USA 3000, which began operations with a pair of leased A320s in early 2003 and expects to have up to 15 of the twinjets by year end. The carrier is privately held and is led by CEO John Mullen, whose family owns both companies. It does not release financial results.
Last year, ICAO's Air Navigation Commission tasked its Flight Crew Licensing and Training Panel to investigate whether a new pilot's license could respond to airline demands for pilots better prepared to operate modern aircraft and systems at a lower cost. The new license, referred to as the Multi-Crew Pilot License, also is seen as a basis to introduce competency-based training for other pilot certificates at a later date. The initial push for change came from Germany.
Orbitz filed its lawsuit against Worldspan in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, on Sept. 16, charging the GDS company with violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act. Worldspan responded by filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on Sept. 19, charging Orbitz with violating the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Both parties are seeking $50 million in damages.
When members of the European Regions Airline Assn. head for Gothenburg, Sweden, this month, they will find a full plate of discussion topics at the annual General Assembly. Judging from the menu, some of these, such as high airport and ATC costs and onerous EU regulations, have generated more than a fair share of heartburn for member carriers over the past year.
With Northwest Airlines set to return 15 CRJs to lessors and Delta Air Lines expected to downsize its wholly owned Regional subsidiary Comair, eyes are focused on Independence Air, which could saturate the market for 50-seat regional jets if it enters bankruptcy and liquidates as some analysts expect. The financially struggling carrier already has cut its fleet from more than 80 CRJ200s to 57, with more reductions likely to follow.
