Virgin Atlantic Airways has named American Airlines executive Craig Kreeger successor to CEO Steve Ridgway, who is retiring from the airline. Kreeger’s recruitment comes just weeks after Delta Air Lines signed an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic from Singapore Airlines for £220 million ($360 million) and speculation that the U.K. carrier will join the SkyTeam alliance.
Gulf Air’s downsizing continues with the carrier’s withdrawal from three more markets. The state-owned airline between early February and late March will stop flying to Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu, citing “commercial reasons” for the decision. The cuts follow Gulf Air’s announcement two weeks ago that it is terminating services to Copenhagen and Rome in the coming weeks, again for “commercial reasons,” and the airline late last year stopped operating to Erbil, Iraq and Kabul. Gulf Air on Thursday will operate its last flight to Aden, Yemen.
Panama’s Copa Airlines in July will begin operating daily service between its hub at Tocumen International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport, the airline tells Aviation Week. The carrier does not intend to add many U.S. routes this year, and CEO Pedro Heilbron at the end of last year said much of the 14% capacity increase planned for 2013 will be frequency growth in existing markets.
LOT Polish Airlines is facing an imminent and drastic downsizing, according to comments made by Polish Treasury Minister Mikolay Budzanovsky. The minister yesterday told parliament that the airline in the first quarter will cut at least 30% of current jobs and significantly reduce its fleet. According to Budzanovsky, the airline will retire around 15 aircraft, more than a third of the 40 aircraft listed in LOT’s fleet by the Aviation Week Intelligence Network fleet database.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers - Singapore Changi, Jan 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Top Carriers - Singapore Changi, Jan 15-21, 2013, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Departures Airport Share ASMs (mil) Airport Share Seats/Dept
Construction of a fourth runway at Beijing Capital International Airport is looking increasingly likely, despite the facility’s geographical constraints and the declaration in 2008 that it would get no major further development. Officially, the fourth runway is under study, says a source with close ties to the airport. This source adds that it is quite likely to be built, increasing the airport’s capacity by 10-15%.
Uruguay’s legislature has transferred ownership of seven more Bombardier CRJ900ERs to an employee group that plans to relaunch the liquidated carrier. The seven regional jets are the aircraft that were intended to be sold to Spanish charter operator Cosmo, but that deal collapsed late last year. According to a source familiar with the transfer, the opposition party in Uruguay’s legislature, the National Party, objected to the transfer but President Jose Mujica rallied support by arguing that the revival of Pluna was of national importance.
FedEx and UPS are opposing an effort on Capitol Hill to expand pilot rest rules to their crews, arguing that the exclusion of cargo pilots from the FAA’s new rule recognizes operational differences between airfreight and passenger operations. “As we have long maintained, the FAA’s flight and duty time rules appropriately recognize the differences between cargo and passenger flying,” a UPS spokesman tells Aviation Week.
Investigators are looking into the causes of a fire that broke out in the aft electric equipment bay of a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 shortly after passengers deplaned at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Jan. 7. The JAL 787, which was delivered to the airline on Dec. 20, had been on the ground for 25 min. when smoke was detected in the cabin.
Just as the aluminum industry profits by turning one soda can into another, aircraft manufacturers are waiting for the day when composite scrap from their assembly lines, or parts reclaimed at an aircraft’s end-of-life, can be made flyable again.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers - Moscow Sheremetyevo, Dec 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Top Carriers - Moscow Sheremetyevo, Dec 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Departures
Berlin’s airport operator has called off the planned Oct. 27 opening of the city’s new international airport, citing problems with the fire protection system. According to Berlin Airports, the problems are so complex that the October opening is no longer tenable. Technical Director Horst Amann, who joined the operator a few months ago, said it was too early to determine a new opening date.
Repair station executives are bullish on 2013 business prospects, with more than half the respondents to a recent survey expecting revenue improvement in 2013. The survey, conducted by the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA), generated 180 responses, the association says. Big-picture takeaways include a more bullish outlook than last year’s survey, and a range of services driving the growth.
Estonian Air has avoided a potentially fatal strike by its pilots after the airline’s supervisory board on Monday endorsed the terms of a new collective agreement. The Estonian Airline Pilots Trade Association and management reached a preliminary agreement on pay conditions and productivity on Jan. 5, but the deal needed to be approved by the board. The deal is valid up till Jan. 31, 2014. Estonian’s pilots had been planning to go on strike Tuesday morning, after postponing the start date by one day.
A U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) proposal for a third round of “passenger protection” rules for air travelers is being pushed back until late May, almost a year-and-a-half later than originally planned. In the most recently posted monthly notice on pending regulations, the DOT says it is “awaiting development of additional data” before sending its proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review and then publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
Hawaiian Airlines and Airbus have signed a memorandum of understanding for up to 25 A321NEO aircraft to be delivered between 2017 and 2020. The 190-seat aircraft will augment the carrier’s fleet of Airbus A330s and Boeing 767-300s that currently serve the mainland, and will be used to open thin long-haul markets that cannot justify a widebody service, Hawaiian says. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, it could be worth as much as $2.8 billion at list prices for the 16 orders and nine options.
Air France Chairman and CEO Alexandre de Juniac is refuting rumors that the operator is in talks to increase its shareholding in embattled Italian carrier Alitalia. “There are no negotiations ongoing for the moment. The resources of Air France and Air France-KLM are extremely limited and do not allow us to make such operations,” de Juniac said Jan. 7 during a press conference in Paris to unveil Air France’s new pricing structure on short- and medium-haul routes.
US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA), which represents US Airways’ pilots, expects American Airlines and its unsecured creditors committee to finalize a merger agreement with US Airways by the end of January. The time line was disclosed by USAPA after its board approved a labor agreement to cover the initial months after a merger.
Two U.S. congressmen have introduced bipartisan legislation to expand new pilot rest rules to cargo pilots before the FAA rule goes into effect in 2014. The Safe Skies Act proposed by Reps. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) and Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) would subject cargo operators to the same flight time limits, minimum rest periods and other standards that passenger airline pilots must adhere to starting next year.
