Sabre Airlines Solutions tries to define and quantify a new category of airline in a study that is sure to stimulate even more debate about the evolution of the low-cost carrier business model. The low-cost carrier sector has been struggling for a couple of years to come up with a name, if one is needed, for LCCs that offer more amenities or complex business models than classic LCCs. Virgin Blue has tried “new world carrier,” and Vueling “next generation.” Some have tried “value plus,” and Sabre Airlines Solutions itself has used “value focused.”
The U.S. Transportation Dept. has issued a final rule that explains how it will apply the U.S. law’s airline access rights for disabled travelers to foreign carriers, apparently ending more than three years of contentious debate over the issue. The new rules will apply to a foreign carrier’s flights to and from the U.S., beginning a year from now.
A new provision in the Amtrak Reauthorization bill the House will consider this week would push for a high-speed rail link between Washington, D.C., and New York City, and Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), Transportation Committee ranking member, said the link would go a long way toward alleviating congestion in the New York air space.
Lufthansa Technik has entered the turboprop equipment and components market with the launch of a support program for Bombardier’s Q400. The new program was unveiled Tuesday with the launch of a contract to support Croatia Airlines’ fleet of Q400s. Under the new contract, which will eventually cover six aircraft, Lufthansa Technik will service the Q400s at Croatia Airlines’ Zagreb base and conduct repairs at its base in Hamburg, Germany. Financial details are not being disclosed.
Financially struggling all-business-class airline Silverjet has formalized the outside financial investment that emerged last week to help to keep the carrier solvent, securing an initial package of GBP12.7 million and paving the way for another GBP38 million in long-term investment later.
Austrian Airlines pledged to stick to its current strategy ahead of today’s shareholder meeting in an effort to calm a situation that got out of control.
Chile’s passenger traffic figures broke all historical records in the first quarter of this year with a total of more than 2.7 million domestic and international passengers, with the latter accounting for an increase of 53.1% from the same quarter last year, reports Chile’s Civil Aviation Board (JAT). Domestic traffic broke the million-passenger barrier with 1.2 million and accounted for 32% of overall traffic; international traffic accounted for 53.1%.
Boeing has delivered the first two 737-900ERs to be based in Europe just weeks after gaining EASA certification for the extended-range narrowbody. Two -900ERs are now in the possession of Spanish carrier Futura International Airways, which has leased the plane from GE Commercial Aviation Services. Futura, which will base the aircraft in Palma de Mallorca, has not disclosed either the first flight or schedule details for its new aircraft.
Negotiations for the second stage of the U.S./European Union open-skies agreement would be an “excellent opportunity” to discuss aviation’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, says FAA official Dan Elwell at a hearing of the House aviation subcommittee. However, EU Ambassador John Bruton is skeptical and tells The DAILY the EU has so far “not been very satisfied” with U.S. attitudes toward airline ownership and control and the environment. During the hearing, Bruton and Rep.
JetBlue founder David Neeleman unveiled the name for his new Brazilian low-cost airline yesterday, and it’s a familiar one: Azul, which means “blue” in Portuguese. The selection came out of a naming contest that led to more than 157,000 entries from about 108,000 people, but it wasn’t completely democratic. “Samba” actually received more votes than “Azul,” which was the runner-up, but the company team created to make the final decision liked “Azul” more, the airline said.
Brazilian government and airline leaders are taking action to minimize repercussions on their operations and bottom line results from spiraling fuel prices, the sub-prime crisis and the threat of recession in the U.S.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), in cooperation with the International Finance Corp.(IFC), awarded two grants worth a total of $820,180 to Air Jamaica to prompt more foreign investment in the carrier, and point it in the direction of privatization by March 2009. The government of Jamaica set the March target and called on the IFC for help.
Congress will have to pass another short-term extension for FAA now that Senate efforts to pass a reauthorization bill have failed for a second time, say congressional aides. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused Republicans of obstructionism after a vote to limit debate on a version of the legislation was defeated yesterday 49-42. Reid needed to get 60 votes to head off a potential filibuster.
Alaska Airlines kept its load factor for April stable at 76.9%, matching a 3.4% traffic growth with the same capacity increase. For the year through the end of April, traffic rose 9.2% on a 6% capacity hike, resulting in load factor growing 2.2 points to 75%. Meanwhile, Horizon saw traffic decrease 6.9% in April, with capacity dropping 3.8% and load factor falling 2.3 points to 69.2%.
After weeks of speculation about a new equity lineup at Aerolineas Argentinas (AR) (DAILY, May 5), on Monday the process became real as Spanish controlling group Marsans agreed in principle to a proposal from the Argentine government for “Argentinizing” the airline.
Environmental policies that aim to manage demand for air travel — rather than addressing the root causes of aircraft emissions — are likely to fail, a new study from IATA shows.
Airlines, air navigation service providers, airports, the military and other users of the ATC system in Europe are endorsing the Single European Sky ATM Research master plan at a meeting in Rome today, a senior Eurocontrol official says.
United yesterday requested U.S. government approval to launch nonstop services to Dubai and Moscow from its Washington Dulles hub. The services, if approved, will begin on Oct. 26. An airline spokeswoman confirms that the Dubai service will be operated with Boeing 777 aircraft once allocated to a planned San Francisco-Guangzhou nonstop that was postponed earlier this year due to the rising cost of fuel, while the Moscow route will be served by Boeing 767s made available by a seasonal adjustment in the carrier’s fleet.
Delta posted a 2.5% hike year over year in system traffic in April, driven by a 2.7% gain in capacity. Traffic growth was fueled by the carrier’s continued emphasis on international flying, which rose 16.5%. Delta announced record growth across the board in April in its international, Atlantic and Pacific flying, which was up 9.8%, 16% and 111.5%, respectively year over year.
Airbus CEO Thomas Enders no longer rules out a delay in A380 deliveries. “I cannot answer that here and today,” he said in an interview with German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung. The schedule is currently being re-evaluated, by there are no results available yet, he said. “We have underestimated complexity in development and production,” Enders admitted nevertheless.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Issa al-Jaber no longer wants to invest EUR150 million in money-losing Austrian Airlines. Al-Jaber lawyers told the company in a letter over the weekend that he no longer feels obliged to participate in a planned capital increase. He criticized Austrian CEO Alfred Oetsch for having given him misleasing information about the airline’s true financial situation.
