The Allied Pilots Association says one of its priorities is “fostering and strengthening” a coalition to oppose raising airline foreign ownership limits and cabotage in the U.S. Another priority in the government affairs realm is strengthening anti-fatigue and duty-time regulations.
The Transportation Security Administration signed a $25.2 million contract with Smiths Detection for more Advanced Threat Identification X-Ray (aTiX) systems to be installed at airports across the country. The contract will let TSA buy up to 500 aTiX machines from Smith, said spokesman Christopher White. “This contract is separate from another one we signed for 500 machines from RapidScan,” he added.
SR Technics and Japan Airlines Corp. signed a $25 million, 10-year Integrated Component Solutions agreement for the carrier’s fleet of 40 Boeing 737NGs. The deal will help SR Technics further develop its presence and profile in the dynamic Asian market. It is also JAL’s first comprehensive component services contract to an external provider. “We are delighted that JAL has elected to continue its long-standing partnership with SR Technics by concluding this ICS agreement,” said SR Technics Executive VP-Component Services Sam Gorman.
Silverjet is negotiating with two bidders that could give the grounded airline new life. Silverjet CEO Lawrence Hunt confirmed June 6 that the airline’s administrators have received two offers, either of which, if finalized, would get the all-business carrier back in the air. Hunt was hopeful but also guarded, given that the airline’s last financing deal fell through, which is what led to the suspension of its service May 30. “It either will happen or it won’t,” he said of the new offers. “But I’m not giving up as long as there are still options.”
Lufthansa expects to spend EUR400 million more on fuel this year than planned as late as in April. The airline’s fuel bill will total EUR5.7 billion (US$8.8 billion), based on current price levels. Despite the increase, Lufthansa leaves its target of meeting or exceeding last year’s operating results of EUR1.38 billion.
Italy’s Air One is delaying the launch of its U.S. flights by up to 13 days because of delays in the delivery of its new A330-200 business-class seats. The airline now plans to inaugurate its Milan-Chicago service on June 26 and its Boston-Milan nonstop the following day. The airline says its will now retrofit its A330 business-class on its newly acquired fleet after the launch of the U.S. flights.
United is offering up to 600 flight attendants a voluntary redundancy package as part of the carrier’s effort to trim its operations. The offer is in addition to the 1,400 to 1,600 staff cuts announced on June 4, which accounted for reductions in United’s management ranks and contractors, says a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.
Continental’s latest capacity cut means three of the six legacy carriers plan remarkably similar reductions in the fourth quarter, and the question now becomes how long the other majors will wait before following suit. American, United and now Continental have all announced reductions of 11%-12% in mainline domestic capacity for the fourth quarter. Northwest, Delta and US Airways are so far sticking with the smaller capacity reductions rolled out earlier this year.
Malaysia Airline System is reviewing whether to proceed with a planned purchase of long-haul aircraft this year and also is considering capacity adjustments because of high fuel costs. Managing Director Idris Jala says the carrier is already making tactical network adjustments, but that, for now, no routes have been terminated. The carrier said this week that it will review unprofitable routes and trim the budgets of all its divisions by 10%.
US Airways’ domestic capacity cuts helped the carrier post a 0.4-percentage-point gain in May load factor despite a 6.8% year-on-year dip in enplanements.
British Airways will spend $30 million to upgrade its Terminal 7 at New York Kennedy Airport despite current fuel-induced woes. BA has a strong investment in and commitment to New York City, said spokesman John Lampl. “We have a high volume of business coming out of JFK. And despite what happens and although we’re already oil-hedged for the rest of the year, we still have to invest in our product,” he explained.
Airlines in April made some progress in reducing delays, but not all carriers fared well; the month proved to be a tough one for American, data from The U.S. Transportation Dept.’s Air Travel Consumer Report show. U.S. airlines recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 77.7% in April. That’s up from the 75.7% rate logged the previous year and 71.6% recorded in March 2008.
Load factors across most of Delta’s system hit records in May. Systemwide, loads were up 82.9%, while domestic was 84.2%, Latin America 77.6% and regionals 80.8%, the carrier reported. Overall, traffic was up 4.2% in May, driven by a healthy 20.9% jump in international traffic and 17.4% in capacity. International load factors were up 2.3 points to 80.8% year over year. In contrast, domestic traffic during the month dropped 3.8% year over year, while capacity fell 6.5%.
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Boeing sold three 737-900ERs to Romanian low-cost carrier Blue Air and added another three 737-800s to Ryanair’s order book. These six aircraft are included in the latest update to Boeing’s online sales registry. Also, four more 737s joined the airframer’s “unidentified” customer listing. Ryanair’s latest purchase increases the Irish carrier’s total 737-800 firm order book to 311 units. The low-cost giant has taken delivery of 173 -800s since it placed its first order in 1998.
Emirates will take delivery of the first of its 58 Airbus A380s on July 28 and expects to receive five by April 2009, the carrier confirmed. The confirmation ends months of speculation on when the largest A380 customer would begin receiving its new fleet. Emirates initially expected to take its first Engine Alliance GP7200-powered A380 in spring 2007 before the program was beset by numerous manufacturing problems.
The European Commission is taking a wait-and-see approach to the U.S. Homeland Security Dept.'s online pre-screening proposal, after last year waxing more enthusiastic about the prospect of an electronic travel authorization program. Jacques Barrot, European transport commissioner, asked DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff for more details on the electronic system for travel authorization (ESTA). The EC will study the proposal and issue a report later this summer, a spokesman for the EC said.
Fifteen airlines polled by The DAILY say they will attend the upcoming Jumpstart air service marketing conference, but more to check the pulse of their airport partners than to take on new service.
ExpressJet thinks SkyWest’s April offer for the company is still too low, but is talking with Continental about a new capacity purchase agreement (CPA) — an action it hinted at taking in the aftermath of the failed bid. The company in April rejected SkyWest’s offer to acquire the carrier for $3.50 a share but said it was willing to talk to SkyWest and “any other interested parties” about making a higher bid (DAILY, April 28). SkyWest, as part of the offer, reached a deal with Continental for the ExpressJet flying that would take effect after the acquisition.
United’s pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, say they were in the dark about the company’s plan to cut 100 aircraft from the fleet to pare costs. The union will meet with senior management on Monday to learn more about furloughs. The ALPA unit says the April announcement to ground 30 Boeing 737s and cut the work force by 600 employees created “anxiety and stress” for pilots after nothing else was communicated.
International passenger traffic grew by a respectable 3% in April, down from 5.8% growth in March, but the trend could slope downward for the balance of the year because demand in the U.S., Europe and Asia shows signs of softening, the latest IATA data show.
