Goodyear has placed an order for three Zeppelin NT airships in a deal worth €14.5 million ($21 million) per unit. The airships will replace three blimps over the course of the next six years. They will be based in Ohio, Florida and California and used for advertising purposes. The order is the biggest ever for the Friedrichshafen, Germany-based company, which restarted building airships in 1997. Major components will be built in Friedrichshafen, but will be shipped to Akron, Ohio, for final assembly.
International air traffic fell by 0.3% in March compared with February as a result of the Japanese tsunami and political unrest in the Middle East, according to figures released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). “The profile of the recovery in air transport sharply decelerated in March,” IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani says. “The global industry lost two percentage points of demand as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).”
Introducing the Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index Designed for anyone with risk on the future level of airfares – for example Airlines, Banks/Credit Card Companies, Corporate Travel Managers, etc. The Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index tracks daily airfares within the domestic airline market. The Aero 100 delivers financial risk mitigation and protection against constant fluctuation of airline ticket prices by providing the price settling mechanism for Commodity Futures Contracts.
In its continued effort to curtail the number of runway incursions, Eurocontrol has issued an updated action plan to deal with the issue that calls for expanded incident reporting. The 104-page document spells out “the need to improve the quality of data provided in runway incursion incident reports and the need to disseminate the lessons that can be learned from the actual incidents.”
Investigators into the crash of Air France Flight 447 have located and recovered the memory unit of the aircraft’s flight data recorder (FDR). The unit was brought onboard the Ile de Sein search vessel on Sunday afternoon local time. Jean-Paul Troadec, head of French accident investigation bureau BEA, said the piece was “in good shape.” Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200, crashed in the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, off the Brazilian coast. The aircraft was on a scheduled flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board.
The European Commission says it is ready to explore with the U.S. how to expand the scope of a new aviation safety agreement and wants issues such as flight crew licensing and aircraft operations to be included rapidly. The agreement on cooperation in the regulation of safety between the European Union and the U.S. went into effect on Sunday.
A near 30% boost in capacity and traffic and an 11% increase in yield contributed to the best first-quarter results recorded by Grupo Aeroméxico in the past 15 years and cemented the airline as Mexico’s flag carrier. Revenues in the quarter grew 40% year-on-year to MXN7.9 billion (US$689.5 million) while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and rent more than doubled to MXN1.5 billion.
Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is spending too much time "fending off ill-conceived cuts" to infrastructure programs, he told an international transportation and economic development group meeting in Charleston, W.Va., yesterday. While the first place he says about $50 billion in waste, fraud and abuse in government spending could be cut is at the Pentagon, he adds that the Transportation Department is not immune. "You can't tell me there isn't some savings to be achieved there too."
Qatar Airways plans to close the deal to acquire a minority stake in Cargolux “in the next few weeks,” according to CEO Akbar Al Baker. “Qatar Airways would like to expand, and I have always said that we would be interested in other airlines if they are healthy and add value,” Al Baker said in Dubai.
GKN Aerospace, Redditch, U.K., and Boeing have agreed on a contract extension under which the aerospace firm will continue its key supplier relationship on the 787 widebody until at least 2020.
Southwest Airlines officially completed its acquisition of AirTran Airways on May 2. But while the two low-cost carriers marked the occasion with celebrations in Dallas and Atlanta, one of Southwest’s labor unions sounded a discordant note. Transport Workers Union Local 550, which represents about 180 flight dispatchers, complained that it does not have a new contract with Southwest, and it has been negotiating one since December 2009. The union says dispatchers have not had a new contract at Southwest since 1997.
The need to remain vigilant was cited repeatedly Monday as government and aviation industry leaders reacted to the reported death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. special forces in Pakistan.
Delta Air Lines and Australia’s Virgin Blue Group are significantly boosting their code-share network as they await U.S. regulators’ decision on whether they can tighten their partnership even further. The latest code-share expansion adds more Delta destinations in the U.S. beyond the Los Angeles gateway and more Virgin Blue routes from Sydney to other Australian and New Zealand cities.
Air Canada’s refusal to discuss a new labor contract is forcing its pilots union to put a deal forward for ratification despite the accord being roundly rejected by members during information briefings last month. The deal, which included terms for a new low-cost division and revised pension and salary terms, has also laid claim to the head of the Air Canada Pilots Association’s President Bruce White, who was recalled for his role in bringing the labor agreement to ballot.
The stalemate between Air India management and its striking pilots continued into the sixth day on May 2 as the national carrier could operate only 40 of its 320 daily domestic flights. Close to 90% of the flights have been canceled due to the strike by more than 800 pilots, an Air India spokesman says. “We will operate only 40 of the total 320 flights throughout the duration of the pilots’ strike ... all flights canceled are domestic, our international operations continue as per schedule,” the spokesman says.
Aerolineas Argentinas says U.S. carriers should not receive any of the $10.5 million it has placed into an escrow account over the years as a requirement for continuing its U.S. service. Earlier this year, four U.S. carriers requested that the money be disbursed to them (Aviation Daily, March 7), but Aerolineas told the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) April 29 that recent court decisions in Argentina should render that request moot.
The 23rd Annual Greater Washing Aviation Open (GWAO), held April 25 at the Lansdowne Golf Resort outside Washington, raised $104,000 to support the Corporate Angel Network and the Veterans Airlift Command. Raising this amount in a soft economy "was extremely satisfying," said GWAO Chairman Paul Bollinger.
Data Watch: Top Carriers-Paris DeGaulle May 1-7, 2011, Ranked By Scheduled Outbound ASMs Airport ASMs Airport Seats Departures Share (mil) Share /Dept. Air France 2,643 58.1% 822
By Andrew Weinstein, Director, Open Allies for Airfare Transparency For the millions of consumers and business travelers who have been confused and infuriated by airlines’ refusal to disclose their fees for things like baggage and seating, last month’s rule on consumer protections from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) was an anxiously awaited opportunity to restore full transparency to the system.
