A European Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has ruled that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can review Ryanair’s minority shareholding in Irish carrier Aer Lingus, although the low-fare carrier is looking to appeal that judgment. The OFT last year threatened such a review, but Ryanair challenged the decision, saying it came too long after it took a minority stake in its rival in 2006. The OFT took the action after the issue was considered at the European Union level. OFT argued it had to wait for the EU activities to be settled.
Mexican operator VivaAerobus in October plans to launch its third U.S. service with the inauguration of nonstop flights between Gen. Mariano Escobedo International Airport in Monterrey and Chicago Midway International Airport. The service, which was approved in March by the U.S. Transportation Department, was expected to start in June, but the carrier this week unveiled plans to launch Oct. 14. VivaAerobus initially plans to operate flights on Mondays and Fridays.
Delta Air Lines became the first carrier to sign a partnership deal with LivingSocial, which offers daily deals on local businesses, products and services via its website, email alerts and iPhone and Android applications.
French air accident investigators looking into the crash of Air France Flight AF447 identified serious pilot training shortcomings that may have contributed to the loss of the Airbus A330-200 two years ago. Among the findings are that “the co-pilots had received no high-altitude training for the “unreliable [indicated air speed] procedure and manual aircraft handling” and also that there is no crew resource management “for a crew made up of two co-pilots in a situation with a relief captain.”
Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched a consultation over how it regulates the three largest London airports with a new and hard focus on improving passenger experiences.
The U.S. aviation industry is pressing Congress to extend funding for goverment programs providing support to start up commercial-scale production of renewable biofuels. With private investment still hard to find, U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) programs established under the 2008 Farm Bill are playing a key role in providing funding to scale up feedstock production and build the initial biorefineries.
JetBlue Airways on July 28 unveiled a business traveler-focused, three-month unlimited travel pass for customers flying to and from Boston Logan International Airport and Long Beach Airport in California.
Premium Aerotec , Augsburg, Germany, named Kai Horten CEO, succeeding Joachim Naegele, who has been serving as interim replacement for former CEO Hans Lonsinger.
As the FAA’s partial shutdown moves into its second week because House and Senate leaders failed to move from their entrenched positions, a global credit-rating agency says the impasse may eventually hit airports’ bottom lines. In a July 28 report, Fitch Ratings notes that airports are generally on solid financial footing.
Airline tickets are becoming a smaller slice of the revenue and transaction pie for Expedia Inc., which includes Expedia.com, TripAdvisor, Hotwire, Hotels.com and Classic Vacations. Hotel bookings accounted for 65% of $1.8 billion in revenue for the first six months of this year, whereas air sales, which have been shrinking for the site due to higher air fares and perhaps an effort by airlines to drive customers to their own sites, accounted for only 10% of revenue behind the advertising and media business at 13%.
Korean Air (KAL) has firmed up an order for 10 Bombardier CSeries aircraft and received options for more, marking the South Korean carrier’s return to smaller narrowbodies and signaling its intent to expand short-haul flights into China and Japan. Bombardier says KAL on July 29 signed a firm order for 10 CS300s and also has options for 10 more plus purchase rights for another 10. KAL is the launch customer for the CSeries in Asia, says Bombardier, but stops short of saying if it will be the Asian launch operator.
Strong order intake has led EADS to partly improve its guidance for full-year business performance, with a promise that earnings will improve materially next year. The updated outlook is largely driven by strong Airbus order bookings— mainly linked to the A320NEO (new engine option), which now has corporate parent EADS project a gross order intake of more than 1,000 aircraft for the year. It had booked 777 gross orders at mid-year and is already above 800 units year-to-date.
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) Sept. 12—A&D Finance Europe, London Sept. 14-15—Airlines, MRO, Aircraft & Engine Lessors: “The Tricky Triangle,” Dublin Sept. 26—Aircraft Composite Repair Management Forum, Zurich Sept. 27-29—MRO Europe 2011, Madrid Sept. 28—MRO Military Europe, Madrid Oct. 20-21—MRO IT, Chicago
Rolls-Royce, which is establishing an aircraft engine assembly plant in Singapore, has received a lot of assistance from the Singapore government, either directly or via government-linked companies and organizations.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ingrid Lee at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Aug. 1-5—Military Aviation Museum’s Warbirds and Wings Aviation Summer Camp, Virginia Beach, Va., 757-721-7767, www.militaryaviationmuseum.org Aug. 11-13—Eighth Annual Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition, Congonhas Airport, Sao Paulo, www.abag.org.br/labace2011/
Mexicana de Aviacion’s demise continues to boost rival Grupo Aeromexico’s operations, which in the second quarter recorded the best revenue, operating profit and net income in 15 years. The absence of any major Mexican competitor has turned a struggling operation into a relatively healthy one. For instance, the MXP51 million (US$4.3 million) net loss posted in the June quarter of 2010–a period when Mexicana still operated–this year turned into a MXP534 million net profit.
American Airlines has reached tentative agreements with its 80 simulator technicians and 160 ground school and simulator pilot instructors, both represented by the Transport Workers Union, although similar talks with the larger TWU unit that bargains for the airline’s fleet services workers appear to have stalled.
Fare competition and the excess capacity within Brazil have pressured Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes to adapt a strategy focused on profitability over market share, although the carrier is offering few details about its intentions. Instead the airline says it is concentrating on keeping the spread between unit costs and revenues “under control” until the “results of the action plan become fully apparent.”
LAN Airlines in October will introduce Airbus A320s into the fleet at recently acquired Colombian division Aires. The new fleet plan also expedites the replacement for three of the nine leased Boeing 737-700s currently operated by Aires. Initial plans, which were reiterated as recently as May, retained all nine 737s until 2014, when seven would be taken off lease and replaced with Airbus A320s from LAN’s fleet. Now, with the Colombian operation’s financial performance better than expected, LAN will replace three 737s with Airbus narrowbodies in 2012.
