Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of January 16, 2013, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
Australia’s competition watchdog is granting interim approval for Qantas and Emirates Airline to begin some aspects of their proposed partnership, even though a final decision on the linkup is not due until March. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Dec. 20 granted tentative approval for the partnership in a draft determination. The latest decision allows the two airlines to prepare to implement their plan, pending a final ruling.
Fokker Services says 51 Fokker aircraft last year changed hands, indicating that operators are attracted to the company’s campaign to promote the out-of-production aircraft. Director of Aircraft Remarketing Peter van Oostrum says the 51 aircraft deals were spread across 11 existing Fokker operators and six new operators.
American Airlines yesterday unveiled a new livery and logo, updating the carrier’s brand for the first time since 1968. The new livery features a stylized U.S. flag on the aircraft’s tail, along with the word “American” in a custom sans-serif font along the front quarter of the fuselage. Most significantly, the fuselage of the aircraft is painted silver, a departure from the decades-long tradition of unpainted, polished-aluminum fuselages (Airbus A300-600s aside.)
Airlines and safety regulators around the world, including the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), are following the U.S. FAA’s lead and grounding Boeing 787 fleets until the aircraft’s battery problems can be resolved. Air India and Chile’s LAN Airlines have suspended 787 operations in conjunction with their national regulators. Japan’s two major airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways (ANA), were the first to ground their 787s, and Japanese aviation authorities have since echoed the FAA directive.
Cathay Pacific CEO John Slosar says improved passenger traffic and “a lift” in cargo demand in the second part of 2012 stemmed a weak performance in the preceding six months, although the Hong Kong-based carrier is withholding specific details until its full-year results are released mid-March.
American Airlines, which posted record revenues in 2012, remains cautious about the prospects of a merger with US Airways as CEO Tom Horton tells employees that the company is evaluating if the merger is “the right step for American at this time.” Just weeks ago, Horton said a merger decision could come “within weeks,” which people familiar with the matter said could indicate a deal will be reached by the end of this month. The company’s three unions remain vocal in their support for the merger.
Ryanair is making full use of a 2006 open-skies agreement between the European Union (EU) and Morocco to establish two operational bases in the North African nation later this year. The new bases, the first for Ryanair outside the EU, will be located at Fes-Saiss Airport and Marrakesh Menara Airport. Ryanair will permanently assign a single Boeing 737-800 at Fez and two narrowbodies at Marrakech. Ryanair is the second EU airline to establish an operational base in Morocco, joining Belgium’s Jetairfly, a wholly owned subsidiary of TUI Travel.
Atlas Air is leaving its full-year 2012 earnings guidance unchanged for 2013 as new deliveries of Boeing 747-8Fs are expected to offset a weak cargo market . The New York-based cargo operator expects to report full-year 2012 earnings of more than $4.65 per share, in line with its November forecast. Although that figure is lower than the $5.10 Atlas forecast earlier last year, the company nevertheless expects to post a double-digit profit for 2012 and beyond even though airfreight operations worldwide continue to remain largely stagnant.
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), a vocal supporter of the FAA’s NextGen air traffic management initiative, has been named chair of the U.S. House of Representatives panel charged with oversight of aviation policy. LoBiondo will chair the aviation subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) announced yesterday. Shuster, however, has said he will give priority to other modes of transportation, such as highways, railways and ports, over aviation.
Porter Airlines says its operations at Newark Liberty International Airport will not suffer if a court approves American Airlines’ petition to revoke a contract leasing four slots to the Canadian turboprop operator. “We fully anticipated that American could try to recover the slots through bankruptcy protection and have made arrangements for our current schedule to be maintained,” a Porter spokesman tells Aviation Week. “We have a contingency in place that ensures there will be no change to our service level, including number of flights or flight times.”
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers - Seoul, Jan 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Top Carriers - Seoul, Jan 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Departures Airport Share ASMs (mil) Airport Share Seats /Dept.
Singapore-based leasing company BOC Aviation has ordered 50 Airbus A320-family aircraft. The total includes both A320s and A321s, and 25 of the aircraft will be from the Airbus NEO range. BOC Aviation will make its engine selection “at a later date,” Airbus says. The latest order is in addition to the one BOC placed in 2010 for A320-family aircraft.
The FAA has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would bar the personal use of electronic devices (PEDs) in the cockpit from taxi until the aircraft is parked at the gate of its destination airport. The NPRM implements a provision of last year’s FAA Reauthorization Act, which prohibits the use of PEDs, such as laptops and mobile phones, on the flight deck while the aircraft is being operated. However, FAA determined the mandate of the law was too broad because it did not define what constitutes operation of the aircraft.
An unusual split winglet design, strikingly similar to the “dual feather” wingtip feature revealed by Boeing in May 2012 for its upcoming 737 MAX derivative, has been launched by Aviation Partners Boeing (APB) for retrofit on up to eight versions of the current Next Generation 737. The winglet development, dubbed the Split Scimitar, has been officially launched with an order from United Airlines and initially will be certified for retrofit of 737-800s.
Ukraine-based AeroSvit Airlines has initiated a restructuring program that will drastically cut its international network as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. AeroSvit is one of the growing list of airlines in Central and Eastern Europe struggling to stay afloat amid a hostile operating environment marked by high fuel prices and economic contraction.
Aeronautical Engineers (AEI) expects to receive a supplemental certification from the FAA certification by the end of this week for its program to convert MD-80s to freighters, enabling the company to begin production on the first of 20 orders by the end of this month. Those 20 orders bolster AEI’s confidence in its expectation for orders for more than 200 converted MD-80s in the next 10-15 years, says Robert Convey, VP-sales and marketing for the Miami-based conversion specialist. AEI is the only company performing conversions on MD-80s.
