With its launch still seven weeks away, new Japanese low-cost carrier Peach already has plans to substantially expand its network. Peach unveiled five new routes, all short-haul international destinations, to complement its first three. While it is not yet revealing the launch date for half its flights, the carrier signaled that all eight will begin with the summer 2012 schedule.
A capacity arrangement between U.S. operator Vision Airlines and the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism appears to be faltering just two months after implementation, with the Caribbean island nation choosing to rely on state-owned Bahamasair to provide lift to the five U.S. East Coast cities included in the accord.
Indonesia’s government has talked up the prospect of floating an initial public offering (IPO) for GMF AeroAsia, Garuda Indonesia’s maintenance arm, but the unit’s president director, Richard Budihadianto, downplays the prospect of an IPO this year. Budihadianto told local news media that his company is unable to conduct an IPO because Garuda Indonesia still accounts for 70% of GMF’s revenues. Under Indonesian stock exchange rules, a company is prohibited from conducting an IPO if its parent company accounts for more than 50% of its revenues.
Saab Sensis Corp. will install its airport surface surveillance technology at nine or more U.S. airports under a contract awarded by the FAA that could be worth up to $119 million. The FAA has long signaled that it was considering extending the number of airports that will receive the Airport Surface Detection Equipment–Model X (ASDE-X) system. While the latest contract is called Airport Surface Surveillance Capability (ASSC), it is essentially the same technology Sensis installed at 35 major airports under ASDE-X.
Lufthansa Technik (LHT) is now the sole owner of AirLiance Materials after buying its partners’ shares of the Chicago-based spare parts services provider. United Airlines, Air Canada and Lufthansa Technik formed the joint venture company in 1998, with LHT holding the majority of shares. The companies did not disclose the acquisition price or closing date. LHT intends to expand AirLiance Materials’ service portfolio and provide resources to enable the company to expand its international airline customer base and reach.
SkyTeam is launching the Skypriority initiative, a series of airport services to be applied alliance-wide. The program is based on Delta’s Skypriority services. The program includes priority check-in, baggage drop-off, service at airport ticket offices, transfer desks, security lines (where possible), boarding and baggage handling. Boarding passes for Elite Plus, First- and Business-Class passengers will also be branded accordingly.
AMR Corp. managers may soon have a little more paperwork to deal with if Delta Air Lines and TPG Capital proceed with separate plans to bid for the operator. According to The Wall Street Journal, which cites “people familiar with the matter,” the two companies are preparing bids and TPG has already approached AMR about a proposal. Delta, meanwhile, has contracted Blackstone Group to determine the viability of an offer. AMR, Delta and TPG are not commenting on the article. Blackstone was not available for comment.
A mining resources boom–particularly in Australia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia–has generated demand for Fokker aircraft, while the Dutch firm has also benefited from new rules in Indonesia. A total of 60 Fokker aircraft changed hands in 2011, and many of the acquirers were airlines in the Asia Pacific region, says Peter van Oostrum, director of aircraft remarketing at Fokker Services, the Dutch firm that supports out-of-production Fokker aircraft.
The U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) has initiated an accelerated proceeding to decide whether Frontier Airlines or AirTran Airways should get newly available rights to operate on the Chicago-Cancun route (Aviation Daily, Dec. 23, 2011). Under the accelerated schedule, all the filings will be completed by the end of the month.
Air India has more trouble ahead as employees threaten a strike and the civil aviation ministry pushes the airline to get its financial situation under control.
The EU Emissions Trading System discriminates against business aviation and still needs substantial work to be viable, the European Business Aviation Association says.
Embraer is starting 2012 with a slight year-over-year decline in the value of its backlog after a year in which commercial aircraft deliveries increased slightly but business aviation saw another drop in aircraft going to customers. The Brazilian aircraft maker delivered 99 executive aircraft in 2011, down more than 30% from the 144 units delivered in 2010. Both Phenom and large aircraft deliveries (the Legacy and Lineage product line) recorded declines last year.
US Airways’ pilots union has accepted a permanent injunction supporting the carrier’s claim that the labor group endorsed an illegal work action by its members, a move that ends at least one lawsuit between the airline and the US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA). The decision cements a preliminary injunction issued against the union by a judge in September that accepted US Airways’ claims that pilots conducted a “go-slow” action that was affecting the carrier’s operations, including on-time efficiency.
The effect of the European Union’s emissions trading system (ETS) on U.S. airline revenues could be negligible, and in fact, the pass-through of allowances to passengers could generate profits for the industry, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claim.
Despite grim economic news in Europe, U.S. airlines are poised for a better-than-expected first half of 2012, Wall Street analysts say. The first half of last year did not bode well for airlines, with continuing macroeconomic shocks and a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, both of which threatened to crimp both traffic and revenues. The second half was almost no better, with surging jet fuel prices and unrest in the Middle East. Despite these factors, the airline industry is on track to report a $2.1 billion net profit for the year.
Major U.S. airlines that sell seats on flights operated by regional airline partners were more than twice as likely to cancel their partners’ domestic flights than their own mainline domestic operations last year, according to an Aviation Week analysis of data culled from FlightStats Analytics. The analysis found that American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways canceled 1.51% of their own flights last year. But for regional flights on which they placed their codes, the cancellation rate was 3.33%.
Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo says its fleet expansion plans will remain unaffected by the aviation regulator’s recent concerns about the operational and financial viability of local airlines. The airline is on track to take delivery of 12 Airbus aircraft this year, Aditya Ghosh, president of IndiGo, says.
Poor sales in December added to Flybe’s financial woes, leading the U.K.-based regional carrier to issue a warning to stockholders that revenue will fall short of expectations. Moreover, airline management says the situation is not expected to improve substantially for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends March 31. The shortfall in revenue is “significant,” the airline acknowledges.
