A rate dispute between four airlines and a pipeline company transporting jet fuel to the three major New York-area airports is just one piece of a much broader, nationwide U.S. airline industry-pipeline company disagreement over when and how the rates are regulated.
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Mitsubishi Aircraft engineers had completed detailed design work on the MRJ prior to an announced delay in the program due to prolonged design engineering work. They are not still studying the regional jet’s design, as mentioned in an Oct. 10 update on the Japanese aircraft’s development. And the development of Boeing 777 replacement detailed in another Oct. 10 article on composite manufacturing is expected to see a new widebody enter service before the end of the decade.
Synergy Group, a Brazilian investment company headed by German Efromovich, is proposing to buy state-owned TAP Portugal. Synergy owns a majority stake in AviancaTaca Holding and is an investor in Mexican low-cost operator Volaris. AviancaTaca is not investing in TAP, but a spokeswoman tells Aviation Week that Synergy has made an offer. Financial details, however, are not being disclosed, and it is unclear if Synergy is partnering with another investor to comply with European foreign ownership regulations.
Canadian low-fare operator WestJet has finally announced the brand for its proposed regional feeder operation. The new carrier, WestJet Encore, will launch in the second half of 2013 with a fleet of Bombardier Q400 aircraft to serve markets considered too small for the mainline carrier’s Boeing 737 fleet. Encore's fleet will number at least 20 Q400s and could rise to 45 if Calgary-based WestJet firms all its options. Few other details are being disclosed, although WestJet says it will announce a schedule for WestJet Encore in early 2013.
The FAA is urging transport category aircraft operators and repair stations to check inventories and maintenance records for windows and other glass parts that may have been part of an elaborate records falsification scheme by a former repair station in Florida.
Qantas and Emirates Airline have won the support of an Australian government department in their quest to form a long-haul partnership, although their proposed link-up continues to draw criticism from numerous other quarters.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of October 12, 2012, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
American Eagle Airlines dispatchers and operations coordinators represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) have tentatively accepted the AMR Corp. subsidiary’s new contract offer. These workers are the last unionized labor group at American Eagle to reach a consensual agreement with management, says a spokeswoman for AMR. The six-year tentative agreement requires no pay cuts and provides for pay increases in 2015 and 2016. The deal includes voluntary early-outs, although the number of buy-outs has not been determined.
The FAA in August 2013 will flight test a prototype of its next generation traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) on a Convair 580. Called the airborne collision avoidance system X (ACAS X), the system is designed to allow for next generation air transportation system (NextGen) air traffic changes that include reduced separation procedures, while improving the number of resolution alerts that airlines are already experiencing with current separation criteria.
Lufthansa will retain the Germanwings brand for its new lower-cost venture, which is scheduled to launch next year, and has marked the announcement by pulling out of vast parts of its current European network and transferring flight operations for non-hub traffic from the mainline carrier to the current Germanwings network.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) forecasts sales of about 100 civil derivatives of its XC-2 aircraft in the next 30 years, should the manufacturer decide to proceed with such a program after completing the development of its military transport.
Thales’ air traffic management division is adapting eye-tracking technology from the parent company’s inflight entertainment (IFE) unit as a possible operational and training tool for air traffic controllers.
Indonesian carrier Sriwijaya Air is planning to establish a new low-cost subsidiary called Nam Air as it transitions its mainline operation from a low-cost model to full-service. Some news reports in Indonesia have suggested Nam Air will be a full-service carrier, but this is incorrect, Jefferson Jauwena, Sriwijaya’s corporate planning and business development director, tells Aviation Week, adding, “It’s more likely to be a low-cost carrier.”
FedEx expects to gain the bulk of a program to improve profitability by $1.7 billion by fiscal 2015 from its Express unit as the Memphis-based shipper responds to a dip in airfreight demand.
Delta Air Lines is telling its pilots that the first groups of Boeing 717 aircraft it receives under its lease from Southwest Airlines will be based in Atlanta and Detroit. As more of the 88 aircraft come into the fleet, the carrier will add New York and Minneapolis/St. Paul as 717 hubs. Pilots also have been told by flight operations management that the first three 717s will arrive in September 2013. It did not specify whether the New York airport would be John F. Kennedy International or LaGuardia, but Delta is building the latter as a domestic hub.
The majority of the 50 Boeing 737-900ERs and 737 MAX aircraft Alaska Airlines just ordered will be for fleet replacement, the carrier’s CFO tells Aviation Week. “We plan to use two-thirds of these aircraft for fleet replacement and one-third to position us for very modest growth over the next decade,” Brandon Pedersen says of the Oct. 10 firm order for 20 737-8s, 17 737-9s and 13 737-900ERs, in a deal worth $5 billion at list prices.
