Click here to view the pdf Arab Air Carrier Organization Monthly Traffic - July 2012 Arab Air Carrier Organization Monthly Traffic - July 2012 RPK % Chg. ASK % Chg.
United Airlines on Sept. 21 became the first U.S. carrier to take delivery of a Boeing 787-8. The aircraft, powered by General Electric GEnx-1B engines, is one of 50 United has ordered, including 36 787-8s and 14 long-range 787-9s. United's new 787 has 36 first-class seats, 72 in business-class and 111 in economy, 219 seats for an aircraft that nominally can seat 250 passengers. United expects to receive four more 787-8s by year-end.
Pinnacle Airlines’ agreements to continue flying 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 and 76-seat CRJ900 aircraft for Delta Air Lines through July 2022 contain no minimum usage requirements and a rate reset in 2018—potentially fatal provisions, given the regional carrier’s current reliance on Delta as its only long-term customer and its assertion that it is already losing money on the contracts. The Memphis, Tenn.-based regional carrier disclosed details of the contracts in a legal brief seeking bankruptcy court approval to impose cost cuts on its unionized pilots.
A report destined for the German parliament’s economics committee lists numerous concerns about the proposed merger of EADS and BAE Systems. The Ministry of Economics report says the proposed golden shares, which are supposed to give governments veto rights on key strategy questions, are not absolutely certain to provide the kind of protection to state interests that EADS and BAE Systems claim. The report also questions the legality of issuing golden shares to three governments under current European law.
Canadian budget carrier WestJet says it will continue to convert its interline partnerships into more extensive code-share arrangements following the completion of an upgrade with British Airways (BA) on selected WestJet flights connecting Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto to Ottawa, Edmonton and Victoria. A WestJet spokesman tells Aviation Week that the airline will continue to view code-shares as extensions of its interline partnerships. For the most part, code-shares “will be evolutions” of interline arrangements, he says.
A major supplier is expecting the surplus in aftermarket parts for commercial aircraft to double to 10% in the next 10 years because of the increased retirement of aircraft. “[For] everybody that plays in this space, there are going to be increased surplus sales,” Peg Billson, president of Chatsworth, Calif.-based Ontic BBA Aviation, tells Aviation Week. Ontic provides parts for mature aircraft.
Introducing the Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index Designed for anyone with risk on the future level of airfares – for example Airlines, Banks/Credit Card Companies, Corporate Travel Managers, etc. The Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index tracks daily airfares within the domestic airline market. The Aero 100 delivers financial risk mitigation and protection against constant fluctuation of airline ticket prices by providing the price settling mechanism for Commodity Futures Contracts.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has adopted a plan to modernize airport screening that closely resembles the Checkpoint of the Future concept unveiled last year by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Like IATA’s, ICAO’s model relies on a risk-based approach that combines technology with an improved screening process. The plans differ in their expression of target dates: IATA sets goals for 2014, 2017 and 2020, while ICAO refers to near-term, intermediate and long-term goals.
Click here to view the pdf Arab Air Carrier Organization Monthly Traffic - July 2012 Arab Air Carrier Organization Monthly Traffic - July 2012 RPK % Chg. ASK % Chg.
Amendments to a Senate bill that would bar U.S. airlines from participating in the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) endorse a global system for mitigating aviation’s carbon dioxide emissions.
In striking contrast to many business aircraft manufacturers, Bombardier Aerospace is on a building spree in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, where it is building facilities to fabricate, assemble, outfit and deliver new and larger models of business jets.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office says it has complied with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ruling that certain alleged subsidies for Boeing aircraft should be removed. In the filing submitted to Geneva Sept. 23, the USTR says the NASA and U.S. Defense Department funding to Boeing that the WTO in May ruled were illegal subsidies have been removed, bringing the U.S. fully in compliance with the WTO decision.
Bombardier Aerospace is working with two operators to streamline the mid-life maintenance inspection of its 50-seat CRJ200 regional jet. The Canadian airframer will test the new procedure in early 2013 on a CRJ200 provided by U.S. operator SkyWest Airlines, Todd Young, Bombardier’s VP of customer services, tells Aviation Week. He would not, however, identify the second carrier.
Australian leaders are trying to finally resolve a politically charged question that has vexed their predecessors for decades—where and when should Sydney’s second airport be built? While it is making some headway, the government is faced with a tangle of conflicting interests that could stall the effort again.
JetBlue Airways CEO Dave Barger says he cannot rule out the possibility that the New York-based low-cost carrier will acquire widebody aircraft in the future. “We have not studied widebodies, but we won’t say never,” Barger said at the Boyd Group International Aviation Forecast Summit in Dallas. “We are the largest domestic carrier at JFK [New York John F. Kennedy International Airport] and can’t rule out widebodies.”
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of September 20, 2012, compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
Flight Safety International , New York LaGuardia Airport, promoted David Davenport to VP of the Savannah Learning Center and Fabio Miguez to manager of the Columbus, Ohio, Center, replacing Chip White, who moved to the Gulfstream Center. Daniel McLellan was promoted to regional operations manager and will continue as manager of the Dallas/Fort Worth Center.
Southwest Airlines’ flight attendants on Sept. 21 approved an agreement that establishes their pay and scheduling and per diems for work on international flights, as well as domestic flights over water to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, three months after the carrier’s pilots did the same. The attendants, who in May rejected a proposed agreement for such flying, passed this one with 57% approval among the 5,873 union members who voted. More than 4,000 attendants did not cast ballots.
Chinese authorities intend to allocate Beijing’s much-delayed second airport to SkyTeam alliance airlines, which include China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, the largest and third-largest carriers in China.
The FAA says that the magnitude of software issues with its En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) program is not as severe as indicated by the U.S. Transportation Department’s primary watchdog. In congressional testimony presented on Sept. 12, DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel said controllers and technicians have identified and reported “in excess of 900 new high-priority software issues that need to be addressed” during operational trials at the first nine ERAM sites.
More flight attendants than expected took American Airlines’ buyout package, eliminating the need for furloughs and possibly generating a new round of flight attendant recruitment for the Fort-Worth-based carrier. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) says 2,205 flight attendants have opted to take the “voluntary early out,” which was offered as part of the new contract APFA members ratified last month. The buyout includes a $40,000 payment and allows members to bid on a retirement date.
