Horizon Airlines and Republic Airlines have asked the FAA for three more months to comply with new filtered flight data requirements, because challenges encountered by supplier Honeywell mean necessary upgrades can’t be completed on their Bombardier Q400s by the rule’s April 2014 deadline.
A sharp rise in fourth-quarter maintenance costs didn’t keep Delta Air Lines from reducing full year-over-year maintenance expenses, despite growing its fleet—a notable achievement for a carrier that minimizes new aircraft expenditures in favor of squeezing the most out of its older airframes.
U.S. majors – with one notable exception – have reported few major wrinkles as they work to comply with FAA’s new pilot flight and duty time rules. The rules, finalized two years ago and in force starting Jan. 4., set new requirements for passenger carrier scheduling. Carriers that are providing feedback say a combination of more pilots, increased productivity and more efficient scheduling is helping them to comply.
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The merged American Airlines will combine its two operations centers into American’s existing facility in Dallas Fort/Worth (DFW), shuttering the US Airways flight operations center in Moon Township, just northwest of Pittsburgh. The move, announced in a letter to the affected staff from American Senior VP-Air Operations Tim Campbell, is not a surprise. American CEO Doug Parker has said that the larger DFW facility makes sense as a combined home for the merged carrier’s operations center functions.
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U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR) has invested $100 million in the Ireland-based helicopter leasing subsidiary of LCI, LCI Helicopters (LCIH). KKR will receive a minority stake in LCI Helicopters’ common equity, while LCI will use the injection to expand its fleet and position in the rapidly growing helicopter leasing business.
Regional aircraft manufacturer ATR says 2013 was a record year for deliveries, though the joint venture between Airbus and Finmeccanica’s Alenia Aermacchi division fell short of a goal to deliver 80 aircraft this year. CEO Filippo Bagnato said ATR sold 89 aircraft in 2013 and delivered 74 units during the year, beating the previous year’s record of 64. Firm orders were valued at $2.1 billion, with total sales volume amounting to $4.65 billion, including 106 options.
Surplus parts, already well-established in the engine aftermarket, are becoming more prominent in the components world and may be responsible for smaller across-the-board OEM spare parts price increases, a Canaccord Genuity survey of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) service providers reveals.
Singapore Airlines is still not ready to reveal whether it will take a seat on the board of Virgin Australia, even though the two other airlines that are major shareholders in the Australian carrier have elected to do so. SIA is “keeping our options open” regarding a Virgin Australia board seat, a spokesman tells Aviation Week, adding that “ultimately that is a matter for the Virgin Australia Board to assess.”
United Airlines, still content with not becoming a significantly bigger carrier, will continue to focus on strategies to become a better one, from running a more efficient operation to boosting the appeal of its services to customers. The carrier’s just-completed calendar year saw capacity fall 1.3%, the third straight annual decline. Current projections of a 1%-2% capacity bump in 2014 means that downward run will come to an end, but only through upgauging, not growing its fleet.
Southwest Airlines’s international expansion, set to begin this year as part of wrapping up its integration of AirTran Airways, won’t include major changes from AirTran’s existing international network until at least 2015, Southwest President and CEO Gary Kelly confirms.
Japan Airlines is using its new daytime slot allocations at Tokyo Haneda Airport to launch new international services, as well as shifting flights from Tokyo Narita Airport to the more desirable Haneda.
Bombardier Aerospace is to lay off 1,700 employees in a bid to contain costs after stretching out CSeries development by at least 12 months and seeing business and commercial aircraft orders decline in 2013. Announced Tuesday in an internal memo to employees, the layoffs will be split between 1,100 in Canada and 600 in the U.S. Plants in Northern Ireland and Mexico are unaffected, the company says.
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) plans to boost Superjet 100 regional jet production this year, nearly doubling the rate to 40 aircraft compared with 24 SSJ100s delivered in 2013, says SCAC President Andrey Kalinovsky. Aeroflot will continue to replace its initial batch of SSJ100s with upgraded aircraft specified as the full version. Russia’s largest carrier has 30 SSJ100s on order.
Deserts could become sources of biofuel, based on research conducted by Boeing and partners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The research has shown that saltwater-tolerant plants called halophytes, grown in coastal deserts and fed by seawater, can produce biofuel “more efficiently than other well-known feedstocks,” says Boeing.
JetBlue Airways and Etihad Airways have unveiled plans for a wide-ranging codeshare, which will initially cover 40 of JetBlue’s domestic routes. Subject to government approval, Etihad will initially place its code on 40 JetBlue-operated services from New York JFK and Washington Dulles. The DAILY reported that the announcement was likely this week (DAILY, Jan. 22).
