30 Years Ago April 24, 1978 – The dissident TWA stockholder and former employee attempting to gain a seat on the board filed on his own with CAB for new TWA routes to Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Mexico as well as for routes connecting Kansas City, Helsinki, Peking, Shanghai and Moscow. 20 Years Ago
Rising fuel prices are forcing Delta Air Lines to close nine Crown Room Clubs in what it calls secondary cities by the end of April. It will also convert BusinessElite lounges at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson and New York Kennedy airports into Crown Room Clubs.
A team of JetBlue’s founding executives is today expected to unveil a new Phenom VLJ charter operation. Initial services are planned for early next year from bases in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The load factor for ExpressJet’s branded flying jumped by more than 14 percentage points in March to 72.5%, but a lot of that increase might be attributable to having Easter and Spring Break in the same month this year. An ExpressJet spokeswoman said the airline did benefit from that, but declined to speculate on how the load factor would hold up this month. She did say, however, that the airlines also believe consumer awareness of the brand is improving, now that flying under the ExpressJet name has been in place for about 12 months.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daly named Richard Rodriguez as his new commissioner for the city’s Department of Aviation April 17, one day after Nuria Fernandez submitted her resignation. Fernandez was originally appointed in March 2006. According to press reports, Daley was unhappy with Fernandez for not making a deal with O’Hare’s biggest tenants – United and American – to help fund the O’Hare Modernization Program (DAILY, Jan. 16, 2007). The funds were needed to cover a shortfall for the $2.8 billion phase one of the project, which has grown to $3.2 billion.
Spirit Airlines expects aircraft utilization of 13-14 hours per day this year, compared with 11.5 hours in 2007, says Barry Biffle, senior VP and chief marketing officer. The airline, which has average load factors of 83%-85%, expects to at least double in size in the next five years, Biffle says.
American and FAA have two weeks to provide to the U.S. Transportation Dept. a report on what caused the aircraft groundings earlier this month and how they could have been prevented, Secretary Mary Peters said April 18 in Washington. Peters noted that this report will "go a long way in explaining why so many aircraft had to be grounded." She added "their answers should help us avoid similar disruptions as FAA completes its comprehensive audit."
Frontier Airlines Holdings, Inc. tapped Jim Young to become VP-distribution, sales and marketing and former Mesa VP-Planning Tom Bacon to become VP-planning and revenue management. Both appointments become effective May 1.
Scarcely a month after the the U.S.-European Union open-skies agreement took effect, the two sides are already talking about how to expand the scope of the treaty to include third-party countries, the lead U.S. negotiator told The DAILY. Norway and Iceland, which are not EU member states, could be part of the agreement as soon as the end of this year, said said John Byerly, deputy assistant secretary of state for transportation affairs. The two countries sent observers to the first Joint Committee meetings in Washington last week (DAILY, April 15).
Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris recently expanded its network to span all of Mexico as it launched operations from Tapachula, in the extreme South on the border with Guatemala, to Tijuana, in the North on the U.S. border, with nonstop and one-stop flights to Toluca.
If United and Continental merged, the combination would account for 8% of world airline capacity, according to data compiled by Oliver Wyman. This would eclipse the combined 7.1% share for the Delta-Northwest merger. United and Continental are currently the fourth- and fifth-largest world airlines by capacity, behind American, Air France/KLM and Delta. Northwest is the eighth largest.
Hong Kong plans to transfer slot coordination responsibility from a local coordinator to the Civil Aviation Department (CAD), a move that’s drawing sharp criticism from IATA, which argues that slot coordinators should be independent.
Transportation Security Administration named David Wray federal security director for McGhee Tyson, Chattanooga Metropolitan, and Tri-Cities Regional airports in Tennessee.
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) SEPT. 23 — Green Aviation, Madrid, Spain SEPT. 24-25 — MRO Europe, Madrid Spain OCT. 15-16 — MRO Asia, Singapore NOV. 18-19 — Aerospace & Defense Finance, New York, N.Y.
US Airways has chosen ITA Software’s ReShop program to help it reprice and reissue tickets. The system automates ticket reissue, which is often a complex part of the reservations process because it involves last-minute itinerary changes, as well as refunds and exchanges. ReShop will cut airline costs by simplifying changes by reservation agents, as well as through self-service channels. The program simultaneously shops for a new itinerary while calculating changes to the partly flown or completely unflown itinerary.
The airline industry “is changing to a more a la carte model, where customers who want extra services, like a better seat assignment, will have the choice to purchase these things,” US Airways President Scott Kirby tells carrier employees. Pressured by high fuel prices, the airline will begin charging most customers an extra $5 to $30 to reserve aisle and window seats in the first few rows of coach. Northwest customers have paid for some preferred coach seats since 2006, and United executives are talking about adding more a la carte options this year and next.
Latest airline reports show that international passenger load factors in the Asia/Pacific region are coming under increasing pressure, says the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation. While the slowing U.S. economy is affecting the market, underlying demand in the region could also be softening, CAPA notes. Airlines will have to fight to maintain yield strength, which will be harder with rising fuel costs and increasing capacity in the region.
China is now banning lighters and matches from domestic flights in an effort to step up aviation security. Liquids were banned last month after media reported an attempt to start a gasoline fire on an aircraft.
Although many issues in the U.S.-European Union Open Skies agreement still need to be addressed, Mark Dierikx, the Dutch director general for civil aviation, believes the pact could be a model for the EU to create other aviation areas. “This will serve as a template for other agreements,” Dierikx says, referring to liberalizing market access to markets such as India, China, Japan, and Korea. But Dierikx also warned the Dutch Airneth aviation policy group that progress can’t be expected “overnight.”
