The U.S. Transportation Department’s auditor this week is opening two investigations into a rise in operational errors and into a voluntary safety reporting program the FAA says is causing the increase in aircraft breaching minimal separation limits. Citing a near 53% increase in FAA operational errors between fiscal 2009 and 2010 to 1,887 incidents, the DOT’s Office of Inspector General in a May 11 letter says legislators are concerned about the rapid growth of errors, the accuracy of the reporting and possible safety implications.
Andrew Watterson is now VP of planning and revenue management at Hawaiian Airlines, a position he has held for more than a month, Hawaiian announced yesterday. Watterson had been a partner with consulting firm Oliver Wyman, which co-sponsors the annual Phoenix Aviation Conference, for the past 12 years. He worked to overhaul U.S. and European airline pricing and yield management models and increase ancillary revenues. Prior to Oliver Wyman, he was with Ernst & Young in Atlanta and Paris.
City officials in Cleveland, Ohio, worried about the potential loss of their Continental hub status following that airline’s recent merger with United Airlines, are trying an innovative strategy to retain air service at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport—they are leaning on businesses to fly more, and to fill the seats in the front.
British Airways and the union representing its cabin crew have struck a deal that should end a protracted labor battle that has seen numerous work stoppages, if employees ratify the accord. The deal emerged after several rounds of talks and mediation efforts failed in recent years and comes days before a new deadline for the union to set strike dates was about to be reached. The balloting of more than 10,000 members is to take one month, with the union leadership recommending approval by members.
Click here to view the pdf Mishandled Baggage Reports, March 2011 Total Baggage Enplaned Reports Per 1,000 Passengers Rank Airline Reports Passengers Current
Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero) posted a 37% increase in first quarter net profit. Net profit for the three months ending March 31 rose 37% to SG$45 million ($36 million) from SG$33 million, says ST Aero. Revenues rose 2% to SG$452 million from SG$445 million, it says.
The U.S. Travel Association is recommending policy changes to the visa system that it says could create as many as 1.3 million jobs in the tourism industry if implemented. The travel-industry advocacy group says restrictive U.S. visa and entry policies have cost the country's economy jobs and revenue. If its proposals are implemented, the U.S. travel Association says $859 billion could be added to the country's economy by 2020.
Spirit Airlines priced its initial public offering May 12 at $14 to $16 a share for 20 million shares, which could raise nearly $300 million for the South Florida-based low-cost carrier. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Spirit estimated its net proceeds from the future offering at approximately $276.3 million, based on an assumed offering price of $15—the midpoint of the range. Selling the shares at $16 would increase its net proceeds by $18.8 million; selling at $14 would lower the total by the same amount.
Oneworld partners American Airlines and Qantas are seeking antitrust immunity for a transpacific joint business arrangement. The airlines, while avoiding the revenue sharing normally associated with such agreements, intend to use immunization to jointly manage Qantas’ transpacific services from Australia and New Zealand to the U.S. and coordinate these with domestic and beyond services and joint pricing initiatives, which in turn will provide improved product offers, especially for corporate customers.
SIA Engineering posted a 10% increase in net profit for the full fiscal year thanks to increased business volumes resulting from last year’s global economic recovery. Net profit rose 10% to SG$259 million ($210 million) for the year ending March 31, due to a 10% rise in revenue to SG$1.1 billion, SIA Engineering tells the Singapore stock exchange. Share of profits from overseas joint ventures rose 11% to SG$144 million, it adds.
Elias Habayeb, senior VP-investments and financial services at American International Group, on May 11 was named CFO at AIG subsidiary International Lease Finance Corp., effective immediately. In this new role, Habayeb will lead the leasing company’s financial operations including treasury, insurance, accounting and enterprise risk management. He reports to President Fred Cromer. Between 2005 and 2009, Habayeb served as CFO of AIG’s Financial Services Division, which included ILFC.
FAA has revamped a sweeping pilot training proposal to address industry concerns and fold in some of the congressional mandates stemming from the February 2009 Colgan Air crash.
U.K.-based airports operator BAA saw passenger traffic jump 31.3% and air transport movements 23.5% in April, driven by London Heathrow and Edinburgh airports, which posted their busiest April on record. Heathrow handled 5.8 million passengers and Edinburgh 776,000. Combined, BAA’s six airports processed 9.1 million passengers.
Copa Holdings’ systemwide load factor grew two percentage points in April to 75.5% as a 23.9% year-on-year rise in capacity to a little more than 1 billion available seat miles produced a 27.1% increase in traffic to 776.7 million revenue passenger miles. International services, which dominate Copa’s operation, posted load factor gains of 1.7 points to 76.1% in April as the company continued its dramatic expansion with a 27.4% rise in supply to 933.4 million ASMs and a 30.2% increase in traffic to 710 million RPMs.
The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is proposing a bill that would authorize the creation of a $5 billion American Infrastructure Investment Fund to spur investment in U.S. infrastructure in 2012 and 2013.
It’s perhaps a sign of the challenges SAS faces that its first quarter 373 Swedish kronor ($59.6 million) net loss shows things may be improving. But high fuel costs are putting at risk a positive full-year result. The loss is almost half that of a year before, on revenue of 9.2 billion kronor down from 9.5 billion kronor the year prior.
A surveillance and situational awareness system that combines a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) is set to be introduced on a range of Airbus aircraft.
New developments in negotiations between the House and Senate over the FAA reauthorization bill have increased the chances of the legislation being passed before the latest extension expires at the end of May, says House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica. Without revealing specifics, Mica says progress made this week makes him more confident that agreement can be reached. The differences are now down to “a few items,” Mica says at Aviation Week’s NextGen Ahead conference.
Air Berlin’s financial situation is becoming increasingly worrisome after the airline posted a massive loss for the first quarter, when equity declined from €505 million ($722 million) at the end of last year to €376 million ($537 million) by the end of March.
The start of April marked an important moment in the six-year history of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) with the release by the European Commission of carbon dioxide emissions data for 2010 showing that production of the greenhouse gas (GHG) went up by roughly 3% last year, compared with 2009 levels.
LAN Airlines’ load factor grew 5.5 percentage points in April to 77.1% as an 18.9% rise in capacity generated a 28% increase in traffic. International traffic, which accounted for about 69% of the month’s total, improved 29.2% on 16.6% more capacity. Loads, as a result, increased 7.6 percentage points to 77.9%. Domestic operations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru rose 25.5% in April on a 24.3% increase in supply, which in turn added 0.7 points to the 74.7% load factor recorded in April 2010.
The U.S. and Colombia signed an open-skies accord May 10 in Bogota. The deal marked the 100th open-skies pact negotiated by the U.S. In 2010, in the Latin America and Caribbean region, the U.S. completed open-skies deals with Barbados, Brazil and Trinidad & Tobago.
