The former maintenance department of Hainan Airlines, GCA Technik, is about to expand its product lines to tap into a growing Chinese MRO market. The year-old company is either building or expanding product lines related to maintenance of engines, components and business jets, technician training, narrowbody painting and heavy maintenance. However, it suffers from a serious limitation—no FAA certificate as a foreign repair station.
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) May 10-12—Aviation Week NextGen Ahead, Washington Marriott at Metro Center, Washington, www.aviationweek.com/events May 17-18—Aviation Week Events, Affordability Requirements Forum, “Creating Leaner Defense Programs,” National Press Club, Washington, www.aviationweek.com/events May 24-25—A&D Cybersecurity Conference, Washington, www.aviationweek.com/events
The Massachusetts Port Authority is offering “a very competitive compensation and benefits program” for the individual selected to replace retiring Massport CEO and Executive Director Thomas Kinton. Boyden Global Executive Search is looking for a “transformational, highly respected professional” with skills typically associated with a field marshal, according to Massport. The job oversees Boston Logan, Hanscom Field and Worcester Regional airports, the Port of Boston and Cruiseport Boston.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ingrid Lee at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) April 25—Greater Washington Aviation Open 23rd annual golf tournament, Lansdowne Golf Resort, Lansdowne, Va., [email protected], www.gwao.org April 26—International Aviation Club Luncheon featuring Abdul Wahab Teffaha, Secretary General, Arab Air Carriers Organization, The City Club of Washington, Washington, 202-508-8937, email [email protected]
Scheduled passenger flights originating at Chicago Rockford International Airport recorded a 93% load factor on average as the airport had its third busiest passenger traffic month ever in March.
U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees will begin voting May 23 for a union to represent the group of about 43,000 workers, which will be either the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) or the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).
Major airlines are accusing avionics suppliers of performing unauthorized repairs on their parts, warning of legal repercussions if it does not stop. At an Avionics Maintenance Conference in Memphis last week, American, Delta, FedEx and JAL representatives said manufacturers of avionics components are improperly leveraging intellectual property as a way to keep mum about the maintenance procedures.
JetBlue Airways says it is phasing out its code-share agreement with Cape Cod-based regional carrier Cape Air in favor of a purely interline arrangement that encompasses more destinations now that JetBlue is able to accept interline bookings on its own website. “This is simply a change in technology, made possible since our transition to Sabre, which translates into focusing on selling on an interline and not on a code-share basis,” it says.
Brazilian startup Azul Linhas Aéreas in March continued to gain traction in the domestic market, increasing its share of revenue passenger kilometers 2.5 percentage points to 7.7% on more than 80% growth in capacity year-on-year.
India’s second busiest airport, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, will be closed for five hr. on two days—April 23 and April 30—for construction work on the cross-runway intersection area.
U.S. airlines are starting to see demand return on their Japanese routes, although a revival to normal levels is still months away. United Continental Holdings, for instance, still reports a decline in both local and connecting traffic in Japan, although most of the connecting traffic is simply overflying the disaster-struck country, although forward bookings in June are returning to pre-earthquake levels.
US Airways currently has no plans to retrofit its Airbus narrowbody fleet with the European manufacturer’s blended winglet when it becomes available in late 2012. While noting that this policy could change, the carrier says Airbus’ sharklets require “an extensive retrofit” involving the replacement of the entire wing box and spar. US Airways is scheduled to take delivery of 12 more A321s this year.
The US Airways antitrust lawsuit against Sabre repeatedly alleges a broader conspiracy that includes all three of the major GDS providers, even though it does not identify them as defendants. “Sabre, Travelport, and Amadeus have entered into a reciprocal agreement, contract, combination, or conspiracy, the purpose and result of which is to entrench the dominance of each GDS and to impede competition on the merits,” the airline says in the lawsuit it filed April 21 with the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Aviation Daily, April 22).
Three U.S. carriers have so far filed applications for the latest round of frequency allocations to Brazil, with American Airlines and Delta Air Lines looking for access to the 14 passenger services and Amerijet part of the all-cargo allocations for 2011.
American Association of Airport Executives appointed Natalie Johnston as director of regulatory affairs and Janet Skelly as manager of regulatory affairs, special projects and communications.
United Continental Holdings now expects the first of 50 Boeing 787s on order to be delivered in the first half of 2012, and to receive a total of six 787s next year. United, however, has yet to commit to the launch of a nonstop service between its hub at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Auckland Airport in New Zealand, which was intended to be the first 787 route for the carrier.
In 2007, when the Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. dollar, Canadian aerospace and defense (A&D) companies were broadsided; with the majority of their products sold in U.S. currency, but their employees paid in Canadian dollars, the industry suddenly became less competitive. The loonie, as Canada’s currency is known, has soared again this year, reaching parity with the greenback in March, and it is climbing even higher. But Canada’s export-dependent A&D companies have greeted the change with a shrug. This time around, they’re prepared.
The FAA has tweaked its rules for handling White House VIP flights following an embarrassing separation loss incident involving an aircraft carrying First Lady Michelle Obama. The agency says that from now on, air traffic control supervisors will oversee flights carrying the first lady or vice president in the Washington D.C. area, and at other destinations where possible. A similar requirement is already in place for flights carrying the president.
While a 28.4% year-on-year rise in fuel costs depressed United Continental Holding’s first quarter operating profit 41.4% to $34 million, the company remains confident another quarter of double digit revenue growth will sustain the recently merged airline. United also sees promise in its cost-cutting initiatives, which it says would have limited unit cost growth in the quarter to 1.5% if special items, profit sharing and fuel prices were neutral.
