The U.S. opposes the relocation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) headquarters from Montreal to Doha, Qatar, because it would be too disruptive and would not save much money, says Duane Woerth, the U.S. representative on the ICAO council. “We’re not interesting in moving it anywhere,” the ambassador said in response to questions after a speech at the International Aviation Club in Washington. “It is extremely disruptive,” he added, especially to employees.
If you represent a U.S. public-use airport seeking improvement grants under the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP), do not wait too much longer to submit new requests because end-of-year discretionary awards will be pinched, according to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is forecasting a gloomy year ahead due to a slump in cargo traffic and weak passenger demand for long-haul markets in Europe and the U.S. “The global economic outlook remains uncertain, with the ongoing weakness in the euro zone and sluggish recovery in the U.S.,” says SIA in a statement. “Forward bookings for the next few months are almost flat compared to the same period last year.
Allegiant Air is challenging Southwest Airlines on a handful of routes where it believes the low-cost carrier has raised fares too much, an “experiment” for a carrier that normally strives to avoid direct competition.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on May 22 will hold a hearing on the nomination of Anthony Foxx as U.S. Transportation Secretary. Foxx, who was nominated by President Obama April 29, currently is mayor of Charlotte, N.C., and has been credited for improving the city’s transportation infrastructure.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Dubai - Riyadh, May 15-21 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Dubai - Riyadh, May 15-21 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Departur
The U.S. Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) this week will begin an audit of the FAA’s runway safety programs to address a growing number of serious runway incursions. The FAA defines runway incursions as any unauthorized intrusion onto a runway, whether by aircraft or vehicle, and categorizes occurrences into four groups, with Category A representing the most severe incidents and Category D the least important. Causes of incursions are classified as controller actions, pilot deviations or vehicle/pedestrian errors.
The White House has nominated Michael Whitaker, an airline industry veteran, to fill the deputy administrator role left vacant by Michael Huerta’s Jan. 1 appointment as head of the FAA. Whitaker, who currently works for the air transport division of Indian conglomerate InterGlobe Enterprises, has more than 20 years of experience in the airline industry, first with Trans World Airlines and then at United, where he worked for 15 years. Whitaker was senior vice president for alliances, international and regulatory affairs at United before joining InterGlobe in 2009.
In April, the FAA and other U.S. government agencies completed the third and final operational field test in a two-year, $8 million program to study the physical and electromagnetic interference between radar systems and wind turbine farms, and to identify mitigation techniques to address this issue.
Advocates of U.S. airlines on Capitol Hill continue to pressure the Obama administration to stop the creation of a customs preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport. This week the Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee adopted language proposed by Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) that, if enacted, would force U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide further justification for a facility at Abu Dhabi, which no U.S. airline serves.
Virgin Atlantic has unveiled a plan to reduce costs by £45 million ($69 million) this fiscal year after posting a £96 million loss for the 12 months ending Feb. 28. The cost savings initiative will target “non-customer-facing back-office operations” such as IT, and “cross-functional working practices,” the airline said May 16 in its earnings statement.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of May 15, 2013, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
The great strides that Africa’s commercial aviation industry has made in recent years—with the emergence of stronger scheduled carriers such as Egypt Air, Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways—has actually been a bad development for Africa’s wet-lessors. “Wet-leasing is not as popular as before,” says Apandi Lakhiyalov, the group CEO of Aerovista, a leasing company based in Dubai that offers wet-leases in Africa and other emerging markets using its Georgian and Tanzanian air operator certificates (AOCs).
A restructuring plan is bringing HNA Group’s Chinese passenger airlines under the control of the biggest and first of them—Hainan Airlines—which in turn is setting out to coordinate operations, align service levels and, in the case of two of the group’s carriers, try out low-cost operations.
A group of airlines operating mostly brand new Boeing 777-300ERs powered by General Electric GE90-115Bs are either replacing entire engines or transfer gearboxes on individual units after GE alerted them to the potential for a gear separation.
LAN Airlines will resume Boeing 787 service in the next few days, after completing a nearly two-hour test flight of the modified lithium-ion battery system for the widebody’s auxiliary power unit. The airline has not given a date for resumption of 787 service, saying only that flights will commence “in the coming days.” LAN says it has worked with 30 Boeing technicians to make the needed modifications to the battery system on the three 787-8s in its fleet.
Delta Air Lines now says it expects to be receiving about 50,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil a day for its Trainer, Pa., refinery by the end of this year, a figure that would account for more than a quarter of facility’s 185,000 barrel-per-day processing capacity. Last month, Delta disclosed that it had already reached agreements to receive enough Bakken crude oil in the second half of the year to account for 10% of its refinery’s supply. Eventually, the airline expects to increase the Bakken contribution to 75,000-100,000 barrels per day.
Boeing’s goal of achieving 60 787 deliveries in 2013 came one step closer this week when All Nippon Airways (ANA) accepted Line No. 83 from the factory in Everett, Wash., the first since the company halted deliveries in January after regulators shut down 787 commercial flights due to battery failures. Launch customer ANA, which operates the largest 787 fleet, now has received 18 of the 66 aircraft it has ordered. The Tokyo-based carrier is to resume commercial 787 services on June. 1.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Buenos Aires - Madrid, November 20-26, 2011, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Buenos Aires - Madrid, November 20-26, 2011, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way
Introducing the Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index Designed for anyone with risk on the future level of airfares – for example Airlines, Banks/Credit Card Companies, Corporate Travel Managers, etc. The Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index tracks daily airfares within the domestic airline market. The Aero 100 delivers financial risk mitigation and protection against constant fluctuation of airline ticket prices by providing the price settling mechanism for Commodity Futures Contracts.
