Mexican airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Sur (ASUR) is monitoring the effects of fuel on the country’s carriers, and CFO Adolfo Castro is particularly concerned about Aviacsa.
Aeromexico on May 29 will inaugurate its Mexico City-Shanghai route. The Boeing 777 service will be offered twice weekly and will stop over in Tijuana. Aeromexico recently started Mexico City-Tokyo flights that also stop over in Tijuana and are operated with the same equipment.
Continental executives now say they won’t consider a merger with another airline, less than two weeks after hinting strongly they were investigating such a link-up.
The Transportation Security Administration and Continental Airlines are expanding a pilot program that allows travelers to receive their boarding passes electronically on their cell phones or personal digital assistants. The electronic passes will be scanned by TSA security officers at the airport checkpoint, eliminating the need for a paper boarding pass, Reagan Washington National, Newark-Liberty and Boston Logan airports will join the program in coming weeks, the TSA says. The paperless boarding pass program started in Houston late last year (DAILY, Dec. 5).
Any supplemental spending bill or stimulus package passed by Congress should include increased funding for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), according to the industry’s two representative organizations.
Goldman Sachs analyst Christopher Cuomo is maintaining a cautious view of the airline industry despite the announcement of a proposed merger between Delta and Northwest, while debt watcher Fitch shifts Delta’s rating outlook from stable to negative.
Jose Maria Cordova International Airport (JMCA) serving Medellin, Colombia’s second-largest city, is getting ready to handle two of Latin America’s leading airlines, Chile-based LAN and Grupo TACA, headquartered in El Salvador.
Lufthansa will take majority ownership of its British affiliate BMI, according to a statement made by CFO Stephan Gemkow. “We are committed to exercising this option,” Gemkow said on Friday during a conference call with reporters. There are no ongoing discussions with BMI’s current majority owner, Michael Bishop, but Gemkow does not consider them to be necessary.
UPS noted the U.S. economy is slowing more quickly than it expected, although the company still managed to record first-quarter net profit growth. Total consolidated volume of 968 million packages was essentially unchanged from the same period a year ago. Net profit rose to $906 million, compared with $843 million a year earlier. Operating profit was $1.5 billion, up from $1.4 billion.
Northwest calculates that its DC-9s are 17% less fuel-efficient than its Airbus A319s, which have almost the same number of seats. Northwest plans to park 10 more DC-9s by the end of this year, leaving it with a fleet of 61 by yearend. The DC-9s burn about 6.93 gallons per seat per hour, versus 5.73 for the A319. According to Oliver Wyman analysis, United’s 737-500s burn 6.6 gallons per seat hour, compared to 5.39 gallons for its A320s. Delta’s MD-80s burn use 6.25 gallons versus 5.25 for its 737-800s.
FAA is exceeding its performance target for the most serious categories of controller errors for the fiscal year-to-date. Agency data show there have been 206 category A and B operational errors from Oct. 1 to April 24, compared with the performance limit of 179. The agency is still below its runway incursion performance limit, however.
The number of Customs and Border Protection agents at U.S. international airports will rise just in time for the busy summer travel season. The agents were included by Congress in the Dept. of Homeland Security’s FY2008 appropriation.
The U.S. Air Transport Association has a renewed commitment to furthering research in alternative aviation fuels. The guidelines spelled out in "Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels: The ATA Commitment" aim to promote the economic feasibility of alternative fuels while spurring potential suppliers to continue research in that field.
Almost half the membership revenues for the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) have gone away with the resignation of Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet, and Jazz from the organization, effective immediately. The 75-year-old association has more than 200 members that represent companies involved in air transportation.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is talking with Boeing about ways to partner to offer flight training in China. The college has been looking into relationships with several universities in China to offer both its academic program and its flight training. China has special needs because of pilot shortages and airspace restrictions, and Embry-Riddle is looking to partner with both companies and universities.
UPS intends to use the new authority it won from talks between the U.S. and Japan last year to start service to Nagoya. The international shipper would launch the flights on May 18. It would operate from Anchorage to Nagoya, and beyond Nagoya to Shanghai, with its MD-11 freighters.
Pinnacle generated some 405 million RPMs and 517.41 million ASMs in March 2008, up 4.7% and 1.8%, respectively, from March 2007. Load factor improved 2.2 percentage points to 78.3%. Colgan posted a 74.9% improvement in traffic and a 41.2% gain in capacity to 42.14 million RPMs and 74.83 million ASMs, respectively, in March. Load factor jumped 10.6 points to 56.3%.
ExpressJet Holdings rejected a SkyWest offer to acquire the carrier for $3.50 a share, the regional carrier disclosed Friday, but ExpressJet also said it plans to talk to SkyWest and “any other interested parties” about making a higher bid.
Mexico’s air transport officials and antitrust regulators are rethinking their policies on consolidation and mergers, said Transport Secretary Luis Tellez. Tellez told local press that regulators are beginning to see consolidation as a possible means to offset skyrocketing fuel prices and other critical problems. “While regulators cannot tell airline A to merge with Z, consolidation among carriers is growing worldwide and Mexico should not dismiss this trend as one of several options out of the present crisis,” he noted.
