US Airways says the first days of the FAA furloughs are demonstrating that there is no cushion for unscheduled absences, such as sickness and jury duty, which compounds the already difficult operating environment at the nation’s largest airports. The warning comes as the FAA says more than 1,200 flight delays on April 22 were due to controller staffing reductions. The agency added that it was “experiencing staffing challenges” on April 23 at its New York and Los Angeles en route centers and its Dallas-Ft. Worth and Las Vegas terminal radar approach control centers.
U.S. airlines are asking the Transportation Department (DOT) to suspend its time restrictions on tarmac delays until the sequestration-related furlough of air traffic controllers is over, which could be as late as Oct. 1. The FAA is furloughing controllers for one day in every two-week pay period through the rest of this federal fiscal year, and is predicting a significant increase in flight delays as a result, especially at some of the country’s busiest airports.
Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which has had problems in recent years with its instrument landing system (ILS) transmitters, is talking with Honeywell to install a ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) to improve air traffic management. “We are far down the path with an agreement with Manila airport,” says Brian Davis, Honeywell Aerospace vice president-airlines Asia Pacific. Manila’s airport is one of the most congested in Asia and the surrounding residential area does not allow for the addition of a new runway.
Boeing 787 chief project engineer Mike Sinnett says in hindsight he would have “challenged” the test assumptions in the evaluation and certification phase of the main and auxiliary power unit lithium-ion batteries for the 787.
Vueling Airlines will become a subsidiary of International Airlines Group (IAG) after the majority of the Barcelona-based low-cost carrier’s shareholders accepted a revised takeover bid. The Vueling board of directors on April 9 approved IAG’s buy-out offer of €9.25 ($12) a share, which it said was a “fair” price. The low-cost’s board also said that Vueling’s full integration into IAG offers significant strategic opportunities for future growth and development.
The FAA’s decision to begin air traffic controller furloughs nationwide on April 21 is raising bipartisan ire in Congress, with calls for the agency to provide more information on budget-cutting alternatives or to at least suspend the furloughs for a month.
State-owned military aircraft manufacturer Indonesian Aerospace (IAe) is using its supplier contacts to develop its commercial maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business. Andi Alisjahban, IAe’s director of technology and engineering, speaking to Aviation Week at the Airlines and Airports Conference and Exhibition in Jakarta, says the company plans to perform engine maintenance and overhauls on CFM International CFM56 and Pratt & Whitney PW100 engines.
Indonesian airport operator Angkasa Pura II is just months from opening Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma Airport to scheduled jet operations in an effort to relieve congestion at the city’s main gateway Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Angkasa Pura II’s President Director, Tri Sunoko, says the operator is working to accommodate schedule jet operations at Halim, and that “hopefully it will happen in one or two months.” Angkasa Pura II plans to refurbish the passenger terminal, he adds.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Bogota - Medellin, April 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Bogota - Medellin, April 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Departures Share ASKs (000) Share Seats/Dept.
Australia’s competition watchdog has given the green light to Virgin Australia’s purchase of a majority stake in Tiger Airways Australia, with the financial plight of the Tiger operation emerging as the deciding factor. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says it will not oppose Virgin Australia’s proposed purchase of a 60% share in Tiger Australia. Under the terms of deal announced in October, Virgin initially will pay A$32.5 million ($33.3 million) to Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings for the stake.
Delta Air Lines says it has reached agreements to receive enough Bakken crude oil in the second half of the year to supply 10% of its refinery’s supply, providing a boost to an ancillary operation that is striving for its first profitable quarter. Eventually, Delta expects to increase the Bakken contribution to 75,000-100,000 barrels per day, which would be about 40-55% of the refinery’s capacity.
Finnair has sold its 4.7% stake in low-fare carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle for €54 million ($70.4 million), producing a €34 million capital gain for the Finnish operator. The stake was of no strategic value to Finnair; the airline acquired the holding in 2007 when it sold its Swedish affiliate FlyNordic to Norwegian.
CFM International has started final assembly of the first Leap-1A for the Airbus A320NEO, a key phase of its engine program, and is expected to freeze the configuration of the Leap-1B for the Boeing 737 MAX at the end of this month. The General Electric and Snecma joint venture is developing three versions of the Leap engine. In conjunction with the new Airbus engine, CFM is developing an almost identical -1C variant for the Comac C919, which is due to enter service in 2016.
A higher-than-expected level of leisure traffic contributed to weakened first quarter yields at Air Canada, which expects to post a C$260 million ($253.3 million) net loss for the first three months of the year. The carrier notes that the March quarter’s results also are depressed by a C$10 million charge related to weather and a C$24 million impairment for its Airbus A340-300 fleet, which is not in operation.
International Airlines Group (IAG) has proceeded with another part of its fleet renewal strategy by signing a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for 18 A350-1000s and 18 options. All of the aircraft included in this deal are destined for IAG’s British Airways (BA) operation, but the operator also negotiated commercial terms and production slots for an additional batch of aircraft that would be allocated to its Iberia division.
The president and CEO of JetBlue Airways is “disappointed” with the carrier’s fleet of Embraer 190s and says the airline continues to struggle with maintenance costs on the 100-seat E-Jets. “We should never have been the worldwide launch customer of a new airplane,” David Barger said in an April 21 address to the Harvard Business School’s Aerospace & Aviation Club in Boston. “We weren’t big enough.”
Lufthansa’s flight operations yesterday were essentially grounded as a result of a one-day strike called by trade union Verdi. The airline operated about 30 of its 1,800 scheduled daily services after ground staff walked off the job early in the morning. All Lufthansa stations were affected, and unlike in previous strikes the airline could operate most of its long-haul services.
Major U.S. airlines say they expect to lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue each month because of flight delays and cancellations caused by the FAA’s furlough of air traffic controllers, which began April 21. Many carriers also say they are cancelling hundreds of flights to try to mitigate delays. Delta Air Lines, for example, says the additional cancellations will range from about 150 on a good weather day to nearly 400 on a bad one.
General Electric says its $4.3 billion purchase of Avio will have no impact on the Italian supplier’s contracts with Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. The Avio acquisition currently is being scrutinized by U.S. and European antitrust investigations, but GE Aviation President and CEO David Joyce reassures his rivals that any contract work with Avio will be fully honored—including the manufacture of the gearbox for Pratt & Whitney’s PW1500G for Bombardier’s CSeries.
As Japanese airlines begin installing the battery fix developed by Boeing for its grounded 787s, the carriers are turning their attention to flight tests and the eventual resumption of scheduled service with the aircraft. Both All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines confirm that the battery modifications on their 787s started April 22. The two rivals account for the majority of the 787s delivered so far, and they have been hardest hit by the aircraft’s grounding due to problems with its lithium-ion batteries.
