Virgin Atlantic says it expects a four-percentage-point increase in its share of transatlantic business travelers from the new upgrades to its upper-class cabin and new business traveler services at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport. Virgin says its market share for business-class travel on U.S. routes already has increased from 22% from January to September last year to 25% for the same period this year.
Qantas is criticizing assumptions made by Australian regulators about future competition on Australia-South Africa routes after the carrier was denied a long-term extension for its code-share with South African Airways (SAA).
India’s government has granted international airport status to facilities in Lucknow, Varanasi in northern India and Mangalore, Tiruchirapalli and Coimbatore in the South. “All these airports are capable of handling medium capacity-range, long-range type aircraft and are also equipped with facilities for night operations,” says Finance Minister P Chidambram.
The addition of Taiwan to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP) could yield a windfall to airlines, with passengers from the Asian nation expected to double to 350,000 a year. Citizens of any of the 36 VWP countries can travel visa-free to the U.S. after being pre-screened through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization. South Korea was the last country admitted to the VWP in November 2008. Between 2009, the first full year of its inclusion in the VWP, and 2011, arrivals from the country grew from 744,000 to 1.2 million, U.S. Travel Association statistics show.
Click here to view the pdf Aircraft Operating Costs and Statistics, 12 Months Ended March 2012, Jet Aircraft Pages 4-5 of 10) MD80 Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas
The turbulent path that every startup airline must navigate is clearly apparent in the latest batch of new entrants seeking approval from the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT).
Expressair has added Dornier 328JETs to its fleet of 328 turboprops and Boeing 737s to expand its network in eastern Indonesia. The Indonesian carrier, which is based in the eastern city of Makassar, has added four 328JETs, according to Siggi Gilason, a minority shareholder in the airline and owner of Aero Nusantara Indonesia, an Indonesian maintenance, repair and overhaul provider that leases aircraft to airlines in Indonesia, including Expressair.
South Africa’s government, which is playing an increasingly vocal role in South African Airways’ (SAA’s) operations, would consider a new venture in Ghana. Public Enterprise Minister Malusi Gigaba is publicly advocating an expansion plan that would open affiliates in East and West Africa to reduce SAA’s reliance on long-haul revenues. Ghana is one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of October 3, 2012, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
Click here to view the pdf Aircraft Operating Costs and Statistics, 12 Months Ended March 2012, Jet Aircraft (Pages 2 and 3 of 10) A319 Manufacturer: Airbus
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is opposed to having Clark Airport become the main international gateway for the Philippines, and also is concerned about an Indonesian government plan to develop a new international airport for Jakarta. IATA argues that Clark’s location is too inconvenient for travelers. “I think Clark will continue to have a role, but it is hard for it to be ‘the solution,’ considering the airport is 100 km (62 mi.) from the city,” IATA Director General Tony Tyler says in response to a question from Aviation Week.
The FAA on Oct. 29 will satisfy a key prerequisite in its plan to relaunch controller-pilot datalink communications (datacomm) as the first controller receives training on a Thales ATM-built automation system at Memphis International Airport. Following training, Memphis controllers and cargo operator FedEx in November will begin departure clearance (DCL) operations at the airport, the first step in a wider datacomm rollout at major U.S. airports.
Air Canada has appointed a tour operator veteran to head its latest venture, which combines the airline’s Vacations unit with a newly created leisure carrier. Michael Friisdahl, who will be president and CEO of the as-yet-unnamed, wholly owned subsidiary, has 25 years’ experience in the travel industry in a career that started with a Canadian tour operator and most recently included seven years as CEO of Thomas Cook North America.
Upcoming deliveries of Airbus A330-200 aircraft will enable Hawaiian Airlines to take the unusual step of upgauging its proposed Auckland route five months before its launch. The carrier says bookings have been so strong for the three-times-weekly service—the only New Zealand flight in the carrier’s network—that it will put A330s on the route when it debuts in March instead of the smaller Boeing 767-300ERs it said it would use when the Honolulu-Auckland flight was announced in July.
Airports Council International-North America has thrown its support behind the privatization of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Luis Munoz Marin International Airport.
Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, London Heathrow - New York Newark Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way, London Heathrow - New York Newark Virgin Atlantic British Airways Others 2007Q1 416
The FAA’s En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system suffers from ongoing program and contract management weaknesses despite being on “stronger footing” than earlier in a federal review process, the oversight arm of the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) finds in a new report.
American Airlines and its pilots union returned to the bargaining table yesterday to negotiate a new contract, the Allied Pilots Association (APA) tells Aviation Week. Management has pushed to resume talks, and last night APA’s board agreed to begin negotiations, reversing a decision from last week to decline American’s offer. “We decided to be the adults in the room and resume talks,” an APA spokesman says. “The focus now is to get an industry-standard contract.”
Large insurance companies, sovereign pension funds and other non-traditional sources will step up to fill a void in capital funding for used aircraft, predicts Domhnal Slattery, the CEO of Avolon, a Dublin-based aircraft lessor. Currently, there is a “very shallow pool” of capital providers for debt financing of aircraft in their “mid-lives,” or about 8-15 years, he acknowledged on a conference call about an Avolon study of aircraft retirement trends. But Slattery does not expect that to continue.
Latam Airlines Group’s Brazilian unit TAM next year will cut 7% of its domestic capacity, in addition to the 2% already trimmed from the carrier’s 2012 schedule. TAM has steadily been pulling capacity out of the Brazilian domestic market as the country’s economic performance dips. But with forecasts indicating worse to come, TAM CEO Marco Antonio Bologna now says the cuts will be expanded. Growth may return to the domestic schedule from 2014, a spokeswoman tells Aviation Week.
Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines has canceled all operations following a strike by some of its employees, who say the privately owned carrier has not paid their salaries since March. The airline has told civil aviation authorities that it will restart operations in the next few days, after it has settled this labor dispute. An airline spokesman says management will “review the situation on Oct. 4 or the day on which the strike is called off, whichever is earlier.” The airline has halted the sale of tickets until then, he adds.
