The European Commission’s plan to tighten airport takeoff and landing slot use-it-or-lose-it rules as part of a much anticipated airport policy package is drawing a mixed response from industry.
Click here to view the pdf Aircraft Operating Costs and Statistics, 12 Months Ended March 2011, Jet Aircraft Pages 9 and 10 of 11 MD11 Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas
The passenger name record (PNR) data agreement hammered out by the European Union and the U.S. in November is far from a done deal, a European Commission official tells Aviation Week. The new agreement, initialed on Nov. 17, replaces a hard-fought deal that was signed in 2007, after EU member states and members of the European Parliament raised concerns about data protection and security (Aviation Daily, Nov. 18). When the new agreement was approved, both sides lauded it as a significant improvement over the old deal.
Boeing and the International Association of Machinists in Aerospace (IAM) District 751 in Seattle have brokered a deal to ensure production of the 737 MAX re-engining program at that single-aisle jet’s traditional home factory in Renton, Wash., coupled with a new four-year contract that comes nine months before the current one expires. The agreement covers 34,200 IAM members in Washington, Kansas and Oregon and is subject to a member vote on Dec. 7.
American Airlines' Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing is affecting the carrier's sale/leaseback arrangement with European lessor AerCap. The company and American in July agreed on a sale/leaseback deal covering 35 Boeing 737-800s. AerCap notes that four of those aircraft have been delivered and leased to American; the carrier also operates two additional AerCap 737-800s. The lessor notes that “under U.S. bankruptcy law, American Airlines has the right to reject these leases; however, we do not expect them to do so.”
The European Union by today must explain how it is complying with WTO rules regarding subsidies to Airbus. Dec. 1 marks the end of a six-month compliance period that began when the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body accepted an appellate report confirming that certain EU subsidies to Airbus are illegal under WTO trade rules. The WTO ruling came in a case the U.S. brought against the EU over over subsidies for large civil aircraft. An appellate ruling in the EU case against the U.S. for alleged subsidies to Boeing is still pending.
The Star Alliance will announce its new CEO at the Chief Executive Board meeting scheduled for Dec. 12-13, industry sources say. The alliance has agreed on a list of three candidates, but the final selection has not been made. According to the sources, Alex de Gunten, executive director of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), is one of the three people on the list. Star officials declined comment.
The Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) says the role governments in the region have played in aviation should be a model for the rest of the world, rather than a stigma. The growth of airlines in the Arab world would “of course not have been possible” without the “facilitating role” of states, AACO Director General Abdul Wahhab Teffaha said at the organization’s annual general assembly in Abu Dhabi. European carriers still are accusing their Arab rivals of receiving unfair financial support in their home countries.
A Hawaiian interisland carrier that has offered charter and cargo service with small aircraft for nearly three decades plans to introduce scheduled service on at least one route and expand its cargo business by adding two larger aircraft. Trans Executive Airlines of Hawaii, which does passenger business as Interisland Airways and cargo business as Transair, revealed its plans in a Nov. 23 filing with the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT). The airline needs authorization for the change in operations, which it wants to implement on April 1.
Just hours into its court-protected reorganization, AMR Corp. has started overhauling its fleet and, as expected, its MD-80s are the primary target. The operator’s Nov. 29 initial bankruptcy filing clearly stated that its cost structure forced the company into Chapter 11, and that labor and fleet expenses must be reduced for American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines to survive. For the fleet, this means rejected leases and renegotiated financing packages. In the late hours of AMR’s first day in bankruptcy, the first part of that strategy was launched.
As numerous diverted flights sat on the ground with their passengers for as long as seven hours at snowbound Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Conn., on Oct. 29, officials at an airport about 100 miles away knew something that the airlines that kept sending their flights to Bradley did not.
Inmarsat selected Aircell and OnAir to be distribution partners as it prepares to roll out its Global Xpress satellite service beginning in mid-2013. Inmarsat is investing nearly $1.2 billion in the Inmarsat-5 satellite constellation, which will use three Ka-band satellites to provide Internet connections at speeds of up to 50 Mbps. The service is expected to launch on a regional basis in mid-2013.
Click here to view the pdf Top Carriers: Fort De France - Paris Orly, November 20-26, 2011, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Top Carriers: Fort De France - Paris Orly, November 20-26, 2011, Ranked By Scheduled Seats Daily Each Way Departures Share ASKs (000) Share
Implementing a technical fix on the first Rolls-Royce TrentXWB flight test engine will delay the start of those trials into next year. The engine eventually will power the Airbus A350. The exact date for the flight of the Airbus A380 flying testbed equipped with one TrentXWB and three regular Trent 900s has not been set, but it will not take place before the year-end, according to Airbus.
AMR Corp.’s four traditional pension plans have $8.3 billion in assets to cover about $18.5 billion in liabilities, although the U.S. government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) expects to assume responsibility for the majority of these obligations should the airline operator close its pensions under its newly filed Chapter 11 reorganization.
Lao Airlines, which recently received its first Airbus A320 and is awaiting a second, eventually wants to add a longer-haul Airbus A321 to its fleet, and also plans to take its first ATR 72-600 in 2014.
Several leading U.K. aviation figures lashed out angrily yesterday in response to the Chancellor’s failure to address the controversial air passenger duty (APD) in the country’s Autumn Statement. The planned increase in the APD, announced in the March 2011 budget, will be double the rate of inflation. The increase goes into effect in April.
As part of its cost savings plan, Finnair will phase out four Airbus A320s and increase aircraft utilization throughout its fleet to make up for the lost capacity. To avoid early-return penalties, the aircraft will be returned at the end of their lease periods, starting next fall. According to the Aviation Week Intelligence Network database, Finnair, which has a fleet of 65 aircraft, operates 29 A320-family airplanes, all of which are leased, and it has five more on order.
South Korea is hoping an agreement to liberalize air services with Macau will open an opportunity for its low-cost airlines to indirectly serve the much larger Hong Kong market. Budget carrier Jin Air began flying between Seoul and Macau this month with five weekly services, competing with Air Macau’s daily operation. Macau and South Korea agreed on Nov. 23 to remove restrictions on the frequency of flights between them, the South Korean transport ministry says.
A number of airlines canceled flights or reduced capacity into the U.K.’s busiest airport yesterday because of a planned strike by public sector workers. The strike, thought to be the largest in the country since 1926, will see a walkout by U.K. Border Agency (UKBA) staff at airports and seaports along with up to 2 million other public sector workers in an ongoing row over pension reforms.
Safety investigators are looking into another incident of a lithium battery overheating on board an aircraft, this time involving an iPhone 4 carried on an Australian Regional Express Airline (Rex) Saab 340B. The most recent incident occurred Nov. 25 on Rex Flight ZL319 shortly after the aircraft landed in Sydney following a flight from Lismore. The airline reported the iPhone “started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow, and was dropped to the cabin floor.”
A U.S. Transportation Dept. (DOT) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on providing relief areas for service dogs has run into strenuous objection by airports. The NPRM suggests that at least one relief area for service animals be provided per terminal. The DOT estimates the cost per terminal to be about $5,000, with the low and high costs ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.
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