To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) May 14—24th Annual Greater Washington Aviation Open, Lansdowne Golf Resort near Leesburg, Va., email [email protected] or www.gwao.org May 14-16—International Air Transport Association/International Civil Aviation Organization’s Global Runway Symposium, Intercontinental Hotel, Amman, Jordan, www.iata.org/events
Saab 340 operator Timor Air, which marketed itself as a Timor Leste carrier, has suspended operations, but it plans to restart using Airbus A319s. The carrier’s founder, Jerry Desousa, says the airline has suspended operations indefinitely and will no longer use the Saab 340. Timor Air had wet-leased the turboprop from Australian carrier Vincent Aviation and used it to provide services linking Darwin, in Australia, to Timor Leste’s capital Dili.
Regional airline OLT Express Germany is close to acquiring Stuttgart-based Contact Air, which recently lost a contract to provide capacity to Lufthansa. Industry sources tell Aviation Week that a letter of intent has been signed and that Contact Air staff were informed of the deal May 11. None of the airlines involved would comment on the matter.
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) May 15 — Aviation Week Webinar: Mitigating Weather Delays with NextGen Capabilities, 11 a.m. ET May 23-24—MRO Regional (Eastern Europe, Baltics and Russia) Conference & Exhibition, Crowne Plaza, Vilnius, Lithuania Sept. 19-21 — MRO IT Conference & Showcase, Hyatt Regency Miami, Miami, Fla.
Delta Air Lines is adopting new arrangements with its Essential Air Service providers that drop code-sharing in favor of a contract to sell its partners’ tickets on its own website. The first such deal has been finalized with Great Lakes Aviation, which is replacing Delta Connection services on 10 routes in the Midwest. Under this deal, Delta will sell Great Lakes’ flights on its website for connections with Delta services on a single itinerary and single fare.
Southwest Airlines is counting on small blocks of “aggregated” connections and an increase in origin-and-destination traffic to maintain most of the AirTran Airways routes at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport when operations there are fully integrated, but insists AirTran’s hub-and-spoke system will not be adopted.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers - Singapore Changi - May 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Top Carriers - Singapore Changi - May 15-21, 2012, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs
Rockwell Collins has begun modifying a Hawker Beechcraft King Air 250 for flight testing of the touchscreen embedded display system (EDS) versions of its Pro Line Fusion integrated avionics.
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.
A Mexican bankruptcy judge May 11 finalized the transfer of Mexicana de Aviacion shares to Med Atlantica, but the judge also approved a new set of investors, Grupo Fides Gestion Financiera, to join Med Atlantica in capitalizing the bankrupt carriers. Groupo Fides, which has the backing of pilots, ground-handlers and flight attendants, may now join the bidding for ownership of Mexicana.
International Airlines Group (IAG) plans to sell BMI Regional to Sector Aviation Holdings and shed the unit it never wanted to acquire from Lufthansa. The Aberdeen Airport-based regional airline was part of IAG’s purchase of BMI British Midland after Lufthansa failed in its efforts to divest the unprofitable subsidiary. IAG says it will receive £8 million (US$13 million) in cash for the regional carrier.
Click here to view the pdf Fuel Watch: Global Jet Fuel Prices (midpoint) As of May 9, 2012• compared with previous week and previous year cts/gal prev. week prev.
The United Steelworkers (USW), which represents 1,800 flight attendants at Pinnacle Airlines, is objecting to Delta AirLines’ proposed debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing for the regional operator’s Chapter 11 reorganization, arguing that it imposes “overly aggressive and unrealistic milestones for collective bargaining.”
Air India has ceased all bookings on certain long-haul international flights and continues to cancel services as an industrial action by pilots of beleaguered state-run carrier Air India entered its third day.
Virgin America wants to generate at least 5% of its revenue from interlining and code-sharing and is well on its way to reaching that target, CEO David Cush says. San Francisco-based Virgin America already has 11 interline agreements and plans to begin code-sharing with Virgin Australia late this summer. The airline, however, will not disclose how much the current deals contribute to the top line.
U.S. airlines could be flying fuller aircraft this summer thanks to the recovering economy and a record number of international travelers, Airlines for America (A4A) said this week in its summer forecast. Load factors are expected to be up slightly from last summer’s 85-87% by as much as a “point or two,” noted John Heimlich, the trade group’s chief economist.
Indonesian officials have located the crash site where a Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Corp. Superjet 100 regional jet went down May 9. The crash site is near Mount Salak, in the West Java province, close to the last coordinate the country’s search and rescue agency gave as the known position. Images provided by the Indonesian air force show a relatively small impact area on the steep mountainside. The coordinates of the crash site are given as 106 43’ 15” east and 06 43’ 08” south.
