Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) recently appointed president Ramon Ang wants to build a new airport for Manila, and is planning to present his plan to the government early next year. The new airport would occupy a 2,000-hectare (4,940-acre) site, Ang told reporters on the sidelines of PAL Holdings’ shareholder meeting. Ang declined to disclose the site of the planned airport, but says it is within a 15 min. drive of Manila’s Makati business district.
Singapore wants to develop expertise in air traffic management (ATM) that it can sell to other countries. To ensure Singapore has the intellectual capital, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) is establishing a S$200 million ($160 million) fund that will provide grants and funding for research institutions involved in ATM. “We will invite like-minded and forward-looking partners, both local and foreign, to join us in this endeavor,” says Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew.
A “significant number” of flight attendants have shown interest in American Airlines’ voluntary buyout offer, which could eliminate the need for furloughs, a source close to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) tells Aviation Week. In the term sheets proposed in April, management had sought 1,200 furloughs, but AMR Corp. shied from quantifying its furlough needs in the contract offer the APFA recently ratified. Furloughs, if necessary, are contingent on how many flight attendants take the $40,000 “voluntary early out.”
The FAA has ordered Bombardier CRJ200 operators to remove certain Goodyear main landing gear tires from service because of a wear problem that could lead to failures. The order, delivered via an immediately adopted airworthiness directive (AD 2012-0881), affects new Goodyear tires made in Brazil. The tires are exhibiting tread separations and tread-area bulges due to low adhesion along the tire shoulders, or edges, the FAA says. Retreaded tires are not affected.
Japan Airlines (JAL) and British Airways (BA) are taking a major step toward their proposed joint business venture by beginning code-share flights on the Tokyo-London route. The two carriers have been tightening their relationship since the Japanese government granted them antitrust immunity in May. This allowed them to discuss fares and schedules, and they will now be aligning their fares on the Tokyo-London flights.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Antalya - Istanbul, August 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Antalya - Istanbul, August 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Depts. Share ASKs (000) Share Seats/Dept.
Aerovision International has acquired 10 Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft that have been in storage for two years, raising the possibility that some of them could be retired even though the oldest of the 50-seat regional jets.
You can now register online for Aviation Week events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or contact: Lydia Janow, 212-904-3225 or 800-240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada only) Sept. 20-21 —Aviation Week MRO IT Conference & Showcase, Hyatt Regency Miami, Miami, Fla. Oct. 9—Aviation Week Aircraft Composite Repair Management Forum, Amsterdam RAI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Oct. 9—Aviation Week MRO IT Europe, Amsterdam RAI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
LAN Airlines has much to be excited about. It merged with TAM on June 22, becoming part of the largest South American airline entity in terms of passengers, destinations and fleet size. The airlines already are cross-selling cargo and passenger flights, as well as code-sharing on some international routes from Santiago, as they work to combine into a single customer network.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Sept. 9-12—Airports Council International-NA 21st Annual Conference and Exhibition, Calgary, Canada, www.aci-na.org/conferences/ Sept. 11-13—Airline Engineering & Maintenance: Asia Pacific Conference, Crowne Plaza Mutiara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysa, www.airlineengineering-asiapacific.com/
With their Boeing 787-8 fleets gradually building up, Japan’s two major airlines are now looking to increase the number of long-haul routes where the new aircraft will be used. All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) were the first two carriers to receive the 787, and they still account for almost all the 787-8s delivered.
In observance of the U.S. Labor Day holiday, Aviation Daily will not publish an issue dated Sept. 4. Aviation Week Intelligence network subscribers may visit www.aviationweek.com/awin at any time for news updates.
Airbus and the two Chinese partners in its Tianjin final assembly line have signed a framework agreement to continue the cooperation beyond 2016, the end of the current business plan. The agreement is not a final and binding contract; further negotiations will be held to clarify contractual details. Airbus, the Tianjin Free Trade Zone (TFTZ) and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic) have assembled A320-family aircraft in Tianjin since 2009. The existing contract expires in 2016, when 284 aircraft will have been built.
Lufthansa Systems , Keisterbach, Germany, extended the appointment of CEO Stefan Hansen by five years. It also elected Simone Menne, CFO of Deutsche Lufthansa, as chair of the Supervisory Board.
US Airways and American Airlines parent company AMR Corp. are now in formal negotiations on a possible merger. The U.S. carriers on Friday jointly announced that they have entered a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) “under which both companies have agreed to exchange certain confidential information and, in close collaboration with AMR’s Unsecured Creditors Committee, to work in good faith to evaluate a potential combination.” Deal Brokered
Startup Korongo Airlines, based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is looking to add routes in the Central African country after four months of operations. Korongo flies six weekly roundtrips between Lubumbashi and Kinshasa and four from Lubumbashi to Johannesburg. Once a week, the aircraft stays in Johannesburg overnight for maintenance. Most of the services are operated with a Boeing 737-300, while a BAe-146 is used in the Kinshasa-Lubumbashi market.
Grupo Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines have reached a tentative agreement to build a new, jointly operated aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center in Queretaro—instead of expanding the existing one at Guadalajara as previously planned—and expect it be fully operational by 2014. Under the memorandum of understanding signed by the carriers, they will move work currently being performed at Guadalajara International Airport to the new facility at Intercontinental Airport in Queretaro, next to that state’s Aerospace Park.
