Australian carrier Alliance Air plans to set up a second major maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) base for Fokker jet aircraft. Alliance has been doing heavy maintenance checks on Fokker 70/100s at its MRO base in Brisbane and on Fokker 50s in Adelaide, but it has decided to add heavy checks in Adelaide, says Alliance Air.
The Obama administration constantly touts the need for new infrastructure jobs, but work in airport construction is disappearing fast as the FAA shutdown continues. Montana’s Glacier International Airport, for example, has delayed a $6 million taxiway rehabilitation project until next year. The area around Glacier has a 13% unemployment rate and could have used the 50-70 jobs. The same applies to a now-deterred runway, taxiway and apron project at Fresno, Calif.'s Yosemite Airport, where 220 jobs are at stake and unemployment stands at 16.8%.
Worldwide passenger and cargo traffic contracted by 1% in June from May, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The reduction reflects the effects of slower economic growth, but at least on the passenger side, demand is still growing by 4.4%, compared with last year. Air cargo traffic was down by 3%, however. “For passenger traffic, this is a speed bump in a gradual post recession improvement. But air cargo continues in the doldrums at 6% below the post-recession peak,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
Spirit Airlines reported a $16.9 million profit and 14.8% operating margin for the second quarter, in the South Florida-based low-cost carrier’s first earnings report since completing its initial public offering.
Lufthansa confirmed an order for a total of 30 Airbus A320NEO (new engine option) family aircraft. The deal, originally announced in March, includes 25 A320NEOs and five A321NEOs. The airline also selected Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines to power the aircraft. The aircraft will be delivered between 2016 and 2019.
Embraer’s maintenance support contract with U.S. regional Compass Airlines has been extended to 2020. The deal includes inventory and technical support for the carrier’s fleet of 36 Embraer 175 twinjets.
Continued growth in its Asian air network contributed to a 13.3% year-on-year rise in UPS’s international sales in the second quarter, although operating profits and margin were affected by currency shifts and fuel hedge losses. The company’s domestic operation, however, was more robust in the quarter and helped the operating margin grow 1.4 percentage points to 12.9% on a 21.1% rise in operating income to $1.7 billion. Company-wide, revenue improved 8.1% to $13.2 billion, while net income rose 25.8% to $1.1 billion.
Asked to stop reaping profits from the partial shutdown of the FAA, the Air Transport Association (ATA) says airlines will continue collecting the fees, citing an “excessive tax burden” on the industry. Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) on Wednesday wrote a letter asking Delta Chairman and CEO Richard Anderson, as the current chairman of the ATA, to persuade airlines to set aside revenues they gain by continuing to collect money from passengers that otherwise would have gone to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund.
La Palma Airport has opened a new terminal in hopes that it will strengthen its role as a hub for Spain’s Canary Islands. The terminal offers ground level check-in for travelers in an arrangement of 24 desks and four baggage carousels. Parking for 448 vehicles covers a basement area of two levels. A nine-gate departure area occupies the third floor, where shopping and dining are available.
Morpho Detection Inc., the security unit of Safran Group, has acquired Syagen Technology, Tustin, Calif., which specializes in mass spectrometry technology. Morpho will operate Syagen as a technical center of excellence.
European aerospace giant EADS has for the second time this year dipped into its cash pool to make a services-oriented acquisition for one of its operating units, with a $504 million deal to acquire Satair to bolster Airbus’s service offering. The move—along with the acquisition of Vector Aerospace for Eurocopter—is part of EADS’ wider strategy to boost service revenue across the company.
India’s second-largest budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd. is exploring partnerships with global low-fare carriers as part of its second phase of international expansion. The airline currently serves only two international destinations—Kathmandu, Nepal, from Delhi and Colombo, Sri Lanka, from Chennai—and plans to start flights to 10 more international destinations, including points in South and West Asian countries.
An apparent sick-out by Continental Airlines pilots is forcing flight cancellations at Newark International Airport. Few details are available and United Continental Holdings is not blaming the 24 dropped flights on any work action, but canceling flights this late in the month because crews are unavailable usually indicates that pilots have orchestrated the problem.
Southwest Airlines is canceling service on 12 routes early next year—an unusually high number for the low-cost carrier, which attributes most of the cuts to demand-lowering fare increases necessitated by higher fuel prices. The fare increases have been “fairly moderate,” says Bill Owen, lead planner for scheduling. But even those “have shrunk the market,” he says, and most of the markets now being cut were small ones for Southwest. “They shrunk to the point where they are no longer profitable for us.”
Antigua’s LIAT says a labor action by workers based at Maurice Bishop International Airport in Grenada forced the cancellation of four services to the island nation July 26. The carrier says it is seeking to work with the employees’ collective bargaining group, the Technical and Allied Workers Union as well as the Grenada government to “bring a speedy resolution to this matter,” although it gives no indication when the “go slow” action will end.
The Australian airport operator MAp has agreed to swap assets with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) Board, a transaction that will increase MAp’s investment in Sydney Airport to 85% and transfer its investment in Copenhagen and Brussels airports to the Canadian group.
Brazil’s Grupo TAM will extend OnAir’s connectivity and telecommunication system to its long-haul fleet after completing trials on short-haul services. The plan, which still requires an airworthiness certificate, calls for the installation of OnAir’s systems on 12 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft (four of which are in operation), 10 Airbus A330s and all 27 A350s scheduled for delivery between 2014 and 2018, starting in the second half of 2012.
Ryanair will introduce Leipzig as its ninth destination in Germany in November. The airline will start three weekly flights to Rome Ciampino Airport and daily services to London Stansted. The airline recently decided to suspendGerman domestic flights given the new air service tax introduced in January. It is also making massive cuts to its largest base, Frankfurt-Hahn Airport.
Southwest Airlines appearance technicians have rejected a tentative agreement on a new six-year contract that would have become amendable in February 2015.
American Airlines is boosting services into Fort Lauderdale with new flights planned from its hub at Los Angeles International Airport and expanded schedules from Chicago O’Hare International and Dallas/Fort Worth International airports. The carrier says the new schedule, which adds the new LAX flight Nov. 17 and another daily from the other hubs Feb. 9, will increase its departures from the Florida airport by 30%. The carrier will serve all three markets with Boeing 737-800s.
U.S. lawmakers continued to claim the inclusion of U.S. carriers in the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) is illegal at a House aviation subcommittee hearing July 27.
