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.
The future of Mexicana de Aviacion is in question, as the new bankruptcy court judge overseeing the case has given the consortium that took control of the bankrupt carrier until Oct. 3 to reveal its financing. Med Atlantica, which took control of Mexicana in May with the promise of a $400 million investment in the airline, has been ordered by the judge to disclose how it intends to finance the acquisition, a source close to the airline tells Aviation Week.
Marana Aerospace Solutions, citing an increased demand for parting out aircraft and expectations for even higher demand in the future, has set aside one of its hangars and created a dedicated team of workers to handle a business activity that until recently had been considered an “afterthought” in its range of services.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant Travel Co., the parent of low-cost carrier Allegiant Air, says more investors may be in the wings for a joint venture it has created with companies in France and Canada for mobile technology and software services.
Singapore-based low-cost airlines Tiger Airways Singapore and Scoot, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding toward deep and wide-ranging cooperation. Under the initial phase of this partnership, each carrier will market joint itineraries between Phuket, Thailand; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, destinations served by Tiger; and Sydney and Gold Coast, Australia, served by Scoot. Customers may purchase a single itinerary for travel from Australia, via Singapore, to Tiger’s destinations.
RAK Airways plans to add two more Airbus A320s to its fleet in 2013 to increase the size of its network and boost frequencies to existing destinations. Based in Ras Al Khaimah, one of the United Arab Emirates, the carrier plans to fly to Dammam, Saudi Arabia, early next year. It also wants to operate more flights to India, particularly to Cochin and Trivandrum, RAK CEO John Brayford said at the World Routes conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Honeywell company UOP has received a U.S. Defense Department (DOD) grant to revamp a refinery on the U.S. West Coast to supply up to 22 million gal. a year of bio-derived diesel and jet fuel. The agreement is part of a Pentagon-led effort to scale up production and drive down the costs of advanced biofuels as drop-in replacements for conventional kerosene fuels.
Thanks to improvement among value carriers, mostly in Asia, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is adding a bit more than a billion dollars to its 2012 airlines profit forecast, but that is still 51% off last year’s pace, and the improvement seen coming next year still will not allow airlines to reach the healthier 2011 or 2010 levels.
KLM and Air France, partners with Delta Air Lines and Alitalia Airlines on a joint venture agreement for transatlantic services, will make changes in those services again this winter as the partners try to adjust their schedules for seasonal shifts in demand and higher fuel prices. KLM, for example, is citing “fluctuating seasonal demand and soaring fuel prices” as the reason it will not serve Miami this winter. Also, as it did a year ago, it will suspend its Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport flights until next summer.
Click here to view the pdf Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way - Chicago O’Hare - London Heathrow Nonstop Passengers Per Day Each Way - Chicago O’Hare - London Heathrow American United Others
The Uruguayan government has auctioned seven of bankrupt Pluna’s Bombardier CRJ900ERs to Spanish charter operator Cosmo for $137 million, a source close to the airline tells Aviation Week. The government did not reveal plans for the remaining six CRJ900ERs. Last month, the government postponed the auction, saying it wanted to sell Pluna’s 13 aircraft and route authorities in one bloc to create a new Uruguay-based carrier. A further stipulation was that the winning bidder would take on part of Pluna’s workforce.
