Soaring global airline profitability driven by sustained low oil prices is setting the aftermarket up for significant growth in 2015 and 2016, RBC Capital Markets analysts say.
In an effort to avoid “costly [public relations] and litigation,” United Airlines will open a Digital Operations Center at its Chicago headquarters to more effectively monitor social media, message boards and other online channels, the carrier told employees in a recent note.
The FAA has contracted the same three companies currently running its contingent of 252 civilian-staffed control towers—Midwest ATC Services, Robinson Aviation and Serco Management Services—to continue operating the facilities for five years.
Heathrow—which is publicly campaigning to be the site of a new runway against rival Gatwick Airport—says it could cut domestic-passenger charges by a third to encourage airlines to increase the number of domestic services to destinations in the British Isles.
“I’m not going to say anyone has done anything wrong, but the important thing to keep in mind is that accident investigations should be conducted on a non-punitive basis,” Tyler said on April 8.
Airbus’s largest order for the month came from Air Lease Corporation. The Los Angeles-based lessor firmed up an order for 30 Airbus A321neo LR aircraft, valued at approximately $3.73 billion at current list prices, and 25 Airbus A330-900neo widebodies, valued at approximately $7.12 billion at current list prices.
Installations are slated to start in August, with the Danish cargo carrier’s entire fleet expected to be done in about a year. The upgrade work will be done in Ireland.
To date, the FAA has refused an outright ban on the technique, despite nearly a decade of pressure by the NTSB. UPS separately says it plans to prohibit the practice in its pilot manuals.
Flights to Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, and Toulouse are most affected, according to Air France, which revealed drastic short-haul schedule reductions in response to DGAC’s request.
This week, the carrier filed an application with the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) to launch a one-stop service to Honolulu, and executives also said they are moving ahead with efforts to fly to an unnamed European destination.
WestJet’s decision to break in its Boeing 767s on the competitive Toronto-Calgary route could be more than just strategy to winning the ETOPS certification needed to operate overwater flights, analysts at Raymond James say. “If this increased frequency . . . is successful at attracting more passengers, especially in the corporate segment, it could become regular part of WestJet’s summer schedule as it transitions ‘sun destination’ capacity to the domestic market after the winter months,” a Raymond James research note says.
The flow of parked aircraft back into the fleet and potential deferrals should not disrupt the record backlogs at Airbus and Boeing, the lessor notes in “Aircraft Retirement and Storage Trends,” a study released late last month.
Most airline executives maintain that low oil prices are not a new normal but a temporary blip. This has led most airlines to say they will not be opening new markets or changing fleet and capacity plans despite oil being in the $50-per-barrel range.
“An examination of the flow of maintenance work among and between regions reveals that North America contracts more airframe maintenance to the rest of the world than it provides to other regions,” Cavok notes in is recently released 2015 MRO forecast.
NASA will work in partnership with five organizations to push the development of composite materials for improved aircraft performance under a new consortium established under the leadership of the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) in Hampton, Virginia.
In 2014, the average Spirit passenger paid $55.03 in fees, up by $1.19 from 2013, or about 2.2%. Non-ticket income per passenger jumped 4.8% in 2012-13, the year before last. Earlier year-over-year (YOY) increases, not surprisingly, were much greater.
The US Airways Dividend Miles program has been folded into the AAdvantage loyalty program, and as of March 28, members of both programs belong to American’s frequent-flier system.
Company management is expected to announce its first-flight date in the coming days. “We plan to start operations in two weeks,” an airline executive says.
