American Airlines is canceling its daily flight to New Delhi, ending service to Burbank and closing a ground services equipment refurbishment facility in St. Louis as part of an operational plan that was formed prior to the carrier’s Chapter 11 filing in late November. The plan also calls for a staff reduction in San Juan, P.R., where the airline has withdrawn capacity under the “cornerstone” strategy that focuses on operations in Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.
Click here to view the pdf Data Watch: Top Carriers, Los Angeles-New York CityYear Ended Second Quarter 2011, Ranked By Passengers Data Watch: Top Carriers, Los Angeles-New York City Year Ended Second Quarter 2011, Ranked By Passengers Pax Daily Pax
Air France-KLM is being urged to quickly implement capacity cuts even as the airline group reports that last year’s traffic growth was able to keep pace with capacity. The airline says that its December passenger load factor increased one percentage point from the same month a year earlier. Passenger and capacity figures were up sharply because of a weak base in 2010, when weather severely affected operations.
Spirit Airlines has finalized an agreement to order 75 more Airbus A320s, including 45 NEO aircraft, to be delivered from 2016 through 2021. But it still has not selected an engine. The South Florida-based, low-cost carrier had signed a memorandum of understanding on the order with Airbus in mid-November. Spirit disclosed the final agreement in a Jan.
Lufthansa is concluding its biofuel test flights this week and will operate a Frankfurt-Washington Dulles transatlantic flight using biofuels on Thursday, Jan. 12. The airline plans to use a Boeing 747-400 for the flight. A total of 40 tons of biosynthetic fuel will be used. Lufthansa has operated 1,187 test flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg using a dedicated Airbus A321 since July 2010. One engine used 50% biofuel, the maximum currently allowed.
Airlines operating at Philadelphia International Airport are opposing an expansion plan that will add a fifth runway and extend two more, citing unrealistic expectations by the city’s leaders and questionable cost projections. The charge is led by US Airways, which hubs at the airport and accounts for about 70% of all operations. The opposition also comes as the city of Philadelphia attempts to negotiate new lease terms with its airlines; US Airways’ current deal, for instance, expires in 2013.
Eurocopter sees residual concerns from the Chinese military over efforts to ease lower airspace restrictions, but still expects liberalization to take hold and drive growth in the country’s demand for rotorcraft.
Grupo TAM’s shareholders have approved the company’s merger with Chilean operator LAN Airlines, a vote the Brazilian carrier calls “an important step” in the creation of Latin America’s largest carrier. The approval, which TAM says was unanimous, allows LAN to offer shareholders 0.9 shares for every one share they currently have in the Brazilian company. LAN’s merger with TAM, which will create a new entity called Latam Airlines Group, is expected to be finalized in March.
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) Feb. 1-2—MRO Middle East 2012, Dubai, United Arab Emirates March 7—54th Annual Laureate Awards, Washington March 13-14—Innovation Supply Chain Showcase, Orlando, Fla. April 3-5—MRO Americas 2012, Dallas April 3-5—MRO Military Conference & Exhibition, Dallas Nov. 29-Dec. 1—Certification Together-AeroConseil, Toulouse
The European Aviation Safety Agency, in a first analysis of 2011 safety trends, notes a small drop in global fatal air accidents from the prior year. Overall, the industry recorded 45 fatal accidents, compared with 46 the year before, when looking at aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of more than 2,250 kg, EASA notes. Although the number of accidents has been trending downward in the past decade, the 2011 result is still far above the 38 fatal accidents recorded in 2009.
The process of reforming the U.S. entry visa system has begun, but not soon enough to benefit would-be attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the largest U.S. trade show, which kicks off tomorrow in Las Vegas. A major Chinese exhibitor backed out of the show because its staff members could not secure visas in time, according to the show’s organizers.
Recent unit revenue guidance indicates that many U.S. carriers will post a healthy fourth quarter when they release financial results this month. The latest update, from Alaska Air Group, indicates a 5-6% improvement in passenger revenue per available seat mile (ASM) to 11.70-11.80 cents for the Seattle-based operator. Costs, meanwhile, are set to rise 2-2.5% to about 7.9 cents per ASM when fuel and special items are excluded. This unit cost forecast is slightly higher than guidance to stockholders issued in mid-December.
The pending merger between Chile’s LAN Airlines empire and Brazil’s Grupo TAM will combine very similar, relatively young fleets heavily reliant on Airbus narrowbodies and leasing contracts, according to the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN).
The head of the Airports Council International for North America (ACI-NA) is urging lawmakers to pass a two-year extension of the FAA’s operating authority, rather than reaching an agreement on the underlying bill. The current, 22nd extension expires Jan. 31. Lawmakers have been haggling over a deal on several differences between the House and Senate versions of a long-term FAA reauthorization bill.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ingrid Lee at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jan. 10—SM4 Advanced Forum in Emergency Response Planning featuring Don Chupp, president-Fireside Partners, and sponsored by Global and the NorCal Business Aviation Association, Red Lion Inn, Oakland, Calif., 510-635-5300
Japan Airlines plans to re-enter the stockmarket as early as September with an initial offering of shares, according to wire reports. Citing unidentified sources, the reports say JAL intends to raise between ¥500 billion and ¥1 trillion ($6.5 billion-$13 billion) from the share sale. The government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. (ETIC) essentially owns JAL since it stepped in to help restructure the carrier when it entered bankruptcy protection in January 2010.
The past year has seen a lot of turbulence in the stock market, but there have been a few bright spots for investors in aerospace and defense companies. Shares in suppliers of aerospace components fared particularly well in 2011 as Airbus and Boeing ramped up output, and soaring order numbers added to the airframers’ already bulging backlogs.
U.S. Gulf Coast jet fuel, the benchmark used by both the U.S. government and the domestic airline industry, ended the year with an average price of $3 per gallon, the highest on record, according to data from the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Agency (EIA). The previous record was set in 2008, when crude oil prices jumped to more than $140 per barrel. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the price of jet fuel remained below $1 per gallon, rising above that point only in 2004, the data show.
