Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, Chicago O’Hare - London Heathrow Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, Chicago O’Hare - London Heathrow American British Airways Others 2008Q4 589 45
Delta Air Lines has put its first wi-fi-equipped international aircraft—a Boeing 747-400—into service, the carrier says. The aircraft also marks the debut of Gogo’s Ku-band satellite-based connectivity service. Delta is installing the service on its entire international fleet. The carrier has Gogo’s ground-based service on its 570-aircraft mainline domestic fleet. Delta’s 747 fleet is the first to get the service. Three have been modified, and the other 13 will be done by mid-year.
Air France KLM Group is analyzing whether it should ramp up development of its low-cost Transavia subsidiary into a truly pan-European airline with bases across the continent, Air France KLM chairman and CEO Alexandre de Juniac tells Aviation Week. In an exclusive interview at the group’s headquarters at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. de Juniac said a decision will be made in the coming months.
Southwest Airlines wants to keep two former Frontier Airlines slots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) that it has been using on a daily DCA-Kansas City International Airport (MCI) flight while American Airlines wants to wrestle them away and stave off competition proposed by the three other applicants. The Department of Transportation (DOT) temporarily allocated the slots to Southwest after Republic Airline Inc. told DOT on Jan. 24 that subsidiary Frontier would stop flying its daily DCA-MCI route on Feb. 1.
Singapore’s Changi Airport is stepping up passenger security levels in light of possible lapses revealed by Malaysia Airlines’ MH370 disappearance. “In the light of MH370, the [Changi] security agencies have reviewed security measures and have enhanced some of the checks with stronger ground presence,” said Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police (Airport Police Commander) Sam Tee.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is cautioning airline pilots to exercise “vigilance” in the approach phase of a flight to avoid “potentially catastrophic mistakes.” The safety alert, issued Wednesday, follows wrong-airport landings by Southwest Airlines and Atlas Air two months apart in January and November, respectively.
Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, New York Kennedy - Paris DeGaulle Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, New York Kennedy - Paris DeGaulle Air France American Others 2008Q4 2,009 334
Brazil’s GOL netted $40.7 million in U.S. Export-Import Bank-backed bond issuance to help finance an engine services contract with Delta Tech Ops—the third such deal in two years, the bank reports. Tech Ops has a five-year agreement to overhaul the airline’s CFM56-7Bs. The first two deals were done in 2012 as part of an $84.8 million Ex-Im Bank commitment supporting the contract.
New details about communications between the missing Malaysia Airlines 777-200 and an Inmarsat satellite show an additional, “partial ping” occurred 8 min. after the final hourly contact between the aircraft and spacecraft. Using an analysis of satellite data furnished by London-based Inmarsat, Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) says evidence of the final, partial signal between the MH370’s L-band terminal and Inmarsat’s gateway Earth station occurred March 8, when the plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Virgin America is counting on its bold moves in Dallas to spur enough demand to justify making Love Field its third-largest base, behind Los Angeles and San Francisco. Earlier this month the airline said it wants to move its North Texas operations from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Love this fall, by securing two Love gates that American must shed as part of divestitures from the American/ US Airways merger.
Air Canada’s low-cost Rouge subsidiary is beefing up its intra-North America operations and expanding west, adding five U.S. cities and doubling its Canadian stations by launching service in Calgary and Vancouver. The expansion will see Rouge take over current Air Canada service between Vancouver and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Anchorage, as well as between Calgary and Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The changes will be made by July 1.
The chairman of the U.S. House aviation subcommittee, tasked with leading the lower chamber of Congress in crafting its version of the next FAA reauthorization bill, said today that his panel’s priorities are the streamlined NextGen ATM overhaul and forthcoming domestic-flying UAS regulations, particularly how they manage safety and personal privacy concerns.
GE Aviation will provide technical support to air navigation service provider Airports Authority of India (AAI) to speed deployment of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) flight paths throughout India. “India has more than 50 mid-sized airports which could benefit immediately with track-mile and fuel savings from RNP,” says Giovanni Spitale, general manager of GE Aviation’s Flight Efficiency Services.
An Australian Senate committee has approved the government’s proposal to remove foreign ownership restrictions on Qantas, although the dissenting opinions from opposition lawmakers on this panel highlight that it will be very tough to pass. The governing Liberal-National Coalition government is introducing a bill to repeal certain ownership rules that apply only to Qantas and not to its competitors. It would also remove a requirement that vital services – including maintenance – be mainly based in Australia.
The growing airborne search for the lost Malaysia Airlines aircraft in the so-called southern corridor is not disrupting regular air traffic operations, says Airservices Australia.
Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings, parent company for the Tigerair group of LCCs in southeast Asia and Taiwan, has ordered 37 Airbus A320neos—but bumped an existing order for nine conventional-engine A320s. The move will save money and help position the carrier for route and service expansion. Explaining the decision, Tiger Air Chief Executive Officer Koay Peng Yen noted in a statement that Tiger has “...re-calibrated its strategy and taken the necessary steps to re-position Tigerair for a brighter future.”
Air Berlin is expected to be de-listed and its major shareholder, Etihad, is understood to be planning to increase its stake in what could be the beginning of a new phase in its partnership strategy, industry sources tell Aviation Week. The companies did not comment.
Inmarsat analyzed satellite data from routine flights to learn patterns that helped investigators conclude that data received from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) shows the aircraft's last known position after hours of flying was over a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. The new analysis, done by Inmarsat and the U.K. Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) with contributions from Boeing and others, convinced Malaysian officials that the Boeing 777 flew south after it disappeared from radar and it did not land safely.
General Electric’s share of the total Boeing 787 announced orderbook has officially broken the 50% barrier with the selection by Air France-KLM of the GEnx-1B engine to power its mixed fleet of 37 owned and leased 787-8s and 9s.
China Eastern will build up air services in the Chinese northwestern province Gansu on behalf of the local government, according to a framework agreement signed by the airline and the province. The move extends two current trends in Chinese aviation: airlines’ strengthening of operations in the west of the country, and the setting up or enlargement of services thanks to subsidies from local governments that see commercial air services as an aid to economic growth.
