Negotiations currently under way between American Airlines and its pilots union could determine the carrier’s future as a standalone entity, sources familiar with the matter tell Aviation Week.
Airbus Chief Operating Officer-Customers John Leahy expects the A320NEO to retain a market share of about 60% over the long term. Leahy on Thursday told the French American Foundation in Paris that he does not expect the current share of about two-thirds to hold, but that Airbus will lead the market in that category by a significant margin.
Two unions, one based in the U.S. and the other in Australia, have joined forces in an alliance designed to coordinate airline and transport workers’ reactions to international airlines. Both unions are called the Transport Workers Union (TWU), although until now they had no formal relationship with each other despite the similar names.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of October 25, 2012, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
Rockwell Collins has completed the second of two joint ventures (JVs) in China to build avionics for the Comac C919 narrowbody aircraft. The final agreement calls for Rockwell Collins and China Electronics Technology Avionics Co. (Cetca) to jointly develop the communications and navigation systems for the C919, projected to enter service in 2016.
Employees at India’s beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines yesterday ended their weeks-long strike after management ensured payment of months of unpaid salaries by the end of this year. “The airline’s protesting pilots and engineers have agreed to resume duty from Oct. 26, having accepted management’s proposal to disburse salary for the month of March in 24 hours and for April by Oct. 30. The salary for the month of May will be paid by Nov. 13,” says CEO Sanjay Aggarwal in a statement.
Aeromexico expects to add 6% more capacity to its system in the fourth quarter and through next year. The capacity growth will come primarily from up-gauging to larger aircraft and not through the addition of new routes and frequencies, CEO Andres Conesa told analysts Oct. 24 during the company’s third-quarter call.
Using Boeing 757 aircraft helped boost the fuel efficiency of Allegiant Air’s fleet by more than 7% in the third quarter and contributed to another quarterly high-margin profit. Before the arrival of the 757, which Allegiant uses mainly for services to Hawaii, the Las Vegas-based carrier relied exclusively on low-efficiency MD-80 aircraft. Because Allegiant owns its MD-80s, it can respond to rising fuel costs by using them less.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expanding the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) program, which uses a risk-based approach to screening cargo. ACAS, a volunteer program started in 2010, vets data to create profiles of known shippers and known shipments, which enables screeners to adjust security measures based on risk. The program is used to screen cargo originating at non-U.S. locations and arriving in or transiting the U.S. on participating passenger and freight carriers.
US Airways plans to eliminate the last of its Boeing 737-300s from its fleet by the end of the year. Under the carrier’s fleet replacement plan, the Arizona-based airline will retire five 737-300s and two 737-400s in the fourth quarter of 2012, while adding six Airbus A321s, a spokesman tells Aviation Week. The retirements would leave US Airways with 30 737-400s and remove all remaining 737-300s.
South Korean low-cost carrier Jeju Air next month will take delivery of its 12th Boeing 737-800, establishing the company as the largest and most successful of the country's LCCs. The latest 737-800 will be leased from International Lease Finance Corp., says an airline executive. The airline will use it to launch a daily nonstop service from Seoul Incheon to Cebu, in the Philippines, from Nov. 29, he adds. It started a daily nonstop service from Seoul Incheon to Guam on Sept. 27 and has been posting quarterly profits, the executive adds.
Despite the customary “price pressure” of introducing an updated model against strong competition from the Airbus A320NEO, Boeing is seeing a payoff from the improved fuel technology offered in its re-engined 737 MAX from customers who are willing to pay a premium above current models to get it, Chairman and CEO James McNerney says. “We are getting paid for the new technology that we are putting into the airplane,” he said. “Customers are recognizing the value that they are getting with this new airplane.”
Delta Air Lines by the end of this year may decide to add new 76-seat regional jets from Bombardier or Embraer to its operations, but is still determining if that order will go on its own balance sheet or on that of one of its regional airline partners, CEO Richard Anderson says.
Despite a sustained outcry from the defense community about the potential devastation of sequestration, the U.S. airlines’ leading trade group says that the budget cuts will not affect the country’s air transport system. “No one knows what might happen should sequestration occur,” a spokeswoman for Airlines for America (A4A) tells Aviation Week, adding that the group was encouraged by President Barack Obama’s Oct. 22 debate statement that sequestration “will not happen.”
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has revealed an order for five more Airbus A380s and another 20 Airbus A350-900s, stressing its confidence in the future of premium air travel. The new order brings SIA’s A350-900 fleet to 40 aircraft. Delivery of the first A350 is due in 2015. SIA also operates 19 A380s, but had none left on order backlog. It says deliveries of the five new units will start in 2017.
Air Canada and United Airlines have agreed to carve out 14 hub-to-hub operations to gain Canadian regulatory approval for a transborder joint venture that was blocked in mid-2011. The agreement with the Competition Bureau of Canada allows the two operators to proceed with a combination of their transborder operations akin to a broader transatlantic joint venture involving the two airlines and Star Alliance partner Lufthansa.
