U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has begun processing applications for Global Entry, its new international registered traveler pilot program. CBP first announced the pilot in April, after delaying the original effort back in 2005 (DAILY, April 15). The program, which starts June 10, will be tested at JFK, Houston Intercontinental and Washington Dulles airports for six months.
The U.S. wants to abolish the nationality clause in bilateral agreements but will stop short of loosening U.S. ownership and control laws, the lead State Dep't. negotiator said in Brussels.
Air Wisconsin traffic rose 3.3% on 2.5% more capacity in April, the fourth consecutive month of growth for the airline since the start of the year. The airline, which flies 70 CRJ-200s as US Airways Express, generated 188.16 million revenue passenger miles and 257.82 million available seat miles in the month. The result was a modest 0.6 percentage point improvement in loads to 73%.
It looks like ExpressJet’s big increase in load factor on its self-branded flying in March did turn out to be largely, but not quite entirely, a one-month phenomenon.
A new set of Single European Sky directives should give fresh momentum to crucial but slow-moving efforts to form larger multinational airspace blocks, says Eurocontrol head David McMillan.
Spirit Aerosystems has won its first direct contract from Airbus and will build a new factory in Kinston, N.C., to fulfill it, engaging in a state-backed worker training program that is expected to add as many as 1,000 jobs. Wichita-based Spirit will design and build the Section 15 center fuselage composite frame section for the A350 XWB. At 65 feet long and 20 feet wide, the 9,000-lb. structure is larger than the composite nose section that Spirit makes for Boeing’s 787.
Brazil-based VRG (operating as Varig) and Panama’s Copa signed an interline agreement, effective immediately, that will let Copa passengers connect to VRG’s domestic destinations and let VRG passengers connect to Copa’s international destinations on one ticket, as well as check luggage through to final destinations. VRG maintains interline agreements with 23 carriers, including sister carrier GOL.
More than 78% of Delta pilots voted in favor of a revised collective bargaining contract that will give them higher pay, better benefits and a stake in the company in exchange for giving management the flexibility needed to complete its merger with Northwest Airlines.
Working with enginemaker Rolls-Royce, Boeing is trying to replicate flight conditions -- particularly fuel system performance -- for U.K. safety investigators probing the Jan. 17 crash of a British Airways Boeing 777-200, as engineers have come to suspect fuel-flow restrictions in the incident. An engine test cell at Rolls-Royce has been modified to try to replicate fuel-feed restrictions.
The Sacramento Board of Supervisors, in a preliminary move strongly opposed by many airlines, has unanimously voted to change the rate charged to its tenant airlines to help pay for a $1.27 billion terminal modernization program at Sacramento airport scheduled to begin later this summer.
Bolivia’s airline industry has returned to normalcy now that Boliviana de Aviacion (BoA) is about to launch flights, and Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB) has returned to the skies. AeroSur was the lone operator in the market during the past two weeks until LAB finally regained its full license. Aerolineas Sudamericanas (AS) suspended flights for 12 days as it submitted its lone jetliner to heavy maintenance in Lima, Peru, and announced it would take a second Boeing 737-200 in the next 40 days. State-owned BoA, meanwhile, is now completing paperwork.
Sao Paulo-based Webjet is still relatively new player in the market but is Brazil’s fifth-most important airline in the scale of sector regulator Anac. In April it registered an increase of 179.5% in passenger traffic over the same month last year, as compared with 13.7% for the sector as a whole. Staring in May, when it takes delivery of a fifth Boeing 737-300, new routes from Rio (Jobim) will be inaugurated to Recife, Cuiba and Campo Grande and daily frequencies increased from Rio to Brasilia and Porto Alegre.
The European Commission and a coalition of Western African countries have initialed a deal that would eliminate the nationality restrictions between those countries and European Union member states.
Airbus has once again been forced to delay deliveries of the A380, and now has to work out with customer airlines how to handle the new deliveries. The delivery delay is expected to average 2-3 months, says Airbus CEO Tom Enders. It also means that only 12 rather than 13 A380s will be given to customers this year – a Qantas aircraft slides into 2009 – and that deliveries next year will reach only 21 rather than 25 units. The plan going forward hasn’t been fully sorted out, but Enders expects 30-40 customer deliveries in 2010.
China has formally opened for business a national commercial aircraft manufacturer, which it says will offer no short-term challenge to Boeing or Airbus. Chinese aerospace executives are emphasizing the need for China to cooperate internationally in building civil aircraft, while one official of the highest level, Premier Wen Jiabao, is telling them that the business has to be run as a modern commercial enterprise, and not merely to pursue high technology.
Singapore Airlines’ parent company SIA Group is confident it will survive an expected downturn in air travel after reporting a 61.6% year-on-year rise in its fiscal 2008 operating income. The increased operating profit, which grew to S$2.13 billion (US$1.55 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, was produced on solid revenue gains in all of its units, notably Singapore Airlines, which recorded an 11% year-on-year rise in passenger unit revenue to S$0.121/km.
Brazilian manufacturer Embraer is opening its first final assembly plant in North America to help build its Phenom very light jets. The 149,500-sq. ft. factory, at Florida’s Melbourne Airport about 70 miles southeast of Orlando, should employ some 200 staff by 2011, handling final assembly, painting and delivery and customer services, said Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) at a press conference yesterday. Embraer will invest $51 million in the project, Crist added. Details on state or federal funding were not disclosed.
Neal Cohen, Northwest Airlines Executive VP-Strategy, International and CEO regional airlines, is leaving the carrier in June. Cohen, the former CFO, was instrumental in cutting costs at the airline during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
El Al has finalized an order for up to six Boeing 777 aircraft with a list value of $850 million. In an agreement unveiled May 12 the Israeli carrier has placed firm orders for four 777-200ERs and secured options for two more of the type. Under the deal El Al also has conversion rights for the larger 777-300ER. El Al currently operates an all-Boeing fleet including six 777-200ERs. All six twinjets are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 895 engines.
U.S. airlines will see a slight decline in passenger traffic this summer, as consumers feel the pinch from the cooling economy, the head of the Air Transport Association said yesterday in Washington.
Vought Aircraft Industries is shifting work shares among its 787 work force in North Charleston, S.C., to reflect Boeing’s slowed developmental and production aircraft rates. As part of an interim partial agreement with Boeing, Vought received $122 million in March as compensation for the slowdown.
London Heathrow airport’s Managing Director Mark Bullock will leave airport the operator, BAA said in a statement yesterday. Bullock’s resignation comes after BAA decided on a new management structure. He will be replaced by Mike Brown, the London Underground’s Chief Operating Officer. Bullock has been with BAA since 2004.
Austrian Airlines’ major shareholder OIAG said yesterday talks with investor Sheikh Mohammed bin Issa al-Jaber stalled and no more negotiations were planned. Austrian turned down a proposal by al-Jaber to buy an additional 10% stake in the airline for EUR50 million (US$77.28 million). The deal would come on top of a 20% stake that al-Jaber agreed to buy in principle for EUR150 million (US$231.83 million).
