The House Homeland Security's transportation security subcommittee Wednesday defeated amendments to raise the passenger security fee and to eliminate the Transportation Security Clearinghouse from competing in the task of providing background screening at airports.
New checkpoint procedures going into effect this week at U.S. airports will no longer require children 12 years old and under to remove their shoes as they proceed through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening.
American Airlines has started to trim its fall schedule and expects to cut a further 0.5% from its fourth-quarter capacity, although plans for 2012 have yet to be determined. The cuts, unveiled by VP-Corporate Development and Treasurer Beverly Goulet during Deutsche Bank’s Aviation and Transportation Conference, are part of an effort to optimize the carrier’s operations as its peers also revise capacity plans for the remainder of 2011 and into 2012.
Emirates officially confirmed Thierry Antinori as its new executive VP-passenger sales worldwide, succeeding Richard Vaughan, who plans to retire. The 49-year old Antinori will take on his new role Oct. 1.
The interagency Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) responsible for maintaining the long-term vision for U.S. airspace modernization is developing a revised 2025 “end state” for NextGen, recognizing that traffic growth is not expected to meet projections made when the program was launched in 2003. While the FAA is responsible for implementing NextGen and is focused on capabilities that can be deployed in the mid-term, by 2018, JPDO is the custodian of the overall architecture and long-term vision.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) finds Lufthansa’s mandatory retirement age of 60 for pilots to be illegal. The court says that sending pilots into retirement at 60 constitutes discrimination on grounds of age. Lufthansa and its pilots union, Vereinigung Cockpit, say they will wait for the ruling to be converted into national law and then start renegotiating their collective bargaining agreement.
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The vast majority of Air Canada’s flight attendants has authorized a strike action if the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) fail to reach a new tentative labor agreement. Some 98% of the flight attendants who participated in the 10-day ballot voted in favor of the strike authorization. And while this does not mean a strike is ensured, CUPE notes that a labor action could be called as soon as Sept. 21.
SAS Group is making major changes to its senior management as the airline launches its new 4Excellence strategy. Deputy CEO John Dueholm and Chief Commercial Officer Robin Kamark are leaving the airline, CEO Rickard Gustafson said on Wednesday.
Six months after the devastating earthquake that struck Japan, engine maker Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) is still regrouping and implementing new strategies to limit its exposure to future calamities. The company’s Soma plant, the IHI facility closest to the epicenter of the March 11 earthquake off the Northeast Coast, suffered the most damage and was also affected by the radiation scare generated by the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, badly hit by the tsunami that followed the quake.
Germany's Frankfurt Airport has posted its best August in terms of passenger traffic, but cargo tonnage declined by 7% to 172,415 metric tons. The airport served 5.35 million passengers in August, a 2.5% increase compared with the previous August. In the first eight months, it has managed 37.45 million passengers, a 7% increase year-on-year. Another August record came in accumulated maximum takeoff weights, which increased 1.2% to a record-breaking 2.56 million metric tons.
Delta Air Lines is considering the addition of an Economy Comfort class for its domestic fleet because sales for it have been so strong on its international services, President Ed Bastian says. Delta already installed Economy Comfort, which offers more legroom and recline, on all international aircraft to create a product category and price point between business class and regular economy.
Public-private partnerships for NextGen airspace modernization projects will be eligible for funding support from the infrastructure bank that would be established under the Obama administration’s American Jobs Act, says a senior government official.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R.-Ala.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee’s transportation security subcommittee, will oppose any increase in the passenger security fee as the subcommittee meets today to consider a committee print of the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act of 2011. An amendment is expected seeking to raise the $3 fee to $5 or more, in keeping with proposals in President Obama’s budget.
Newark Liberty International Airport and San Francisco International Airport had the lowest on-time arrival performance of the country’s 29 busiest airports in July, with a third of the domestic flights arriving at each airport at least 15 min. later than scheduled, newly released U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) figures show. Chicago O’Hare International Airport had the lowest on-time performance for departing domestic flights, at 68.8%. San Francisco ranked next to last at 70.2% and Newark just a notch above it at 70.8%.
The House of Representatives voted unanimously Tuesday to extend FAA funding through Jan. 30, 2012, and pressure is mounting to pass a longer-lasting FAA reauthorization measure the next time around. Though the bill, which is coupled with short-term highway legislation, still awaits Senate passage by the end of the week, the process is not nearly as contentious as the one that caused a two-week partial shutdown of the FAA in late July.
Delta Air Lines is done with aircraft orders for “the next couple of years,” President Ed Bastian said Sept. 13, quashing speculation that an order for smaller single-aisle aircraft remains in the offing. “We are done talking about aircraft for the near to medium term,” Bastian said in a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Aviation & Transportation Conference. “We are very comfortable where we sit with our fleet orders ... I do want to put to rest any thought we’re in the market considering a new aircraft decision,” he added.
Boeing says it will adapt a touch screen interior control panel that flight attendants use on the 737 for the 767s it is adapting for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-46A tanker contract. BAE Systems, which developed the touch panel for the Boeing Sky Interior product improvement package now being implemented as an upgrade option for the 737NG family, will produce the controls for the tankers at its Johnson City, N.Y., and Fort Wayne, Ind., facilities.
James Albaugh, head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, suggests the U.S. government could stimulate the economy and put "thousands of unemployed engineers to work" by implementing the NextGen air traffic modernization project. Speaking yesterday to the AeroClub of Washington, Albaugh said the $1 billion investment in NextGen proposed by the government in President Obama's new jobs bill is not enough to get the program off the ground. He called for a broader aerospace industry policy that will maintain the U.S. competitive advantage in the industry.
