Vietnam’s Pacific Airlines will expand into international routes late this year in direct competition with AirAsia and Tiger Airways as part of its long-expected integration into the Qantas group’s Jetstar franchise. The Vietnamese carrier’s fleet will grow by 2014 from the current four Boeing 737-400s to as many as 30 Airbus A320s, the first of which will arrive in August. The aircraft will be fitted with 180 seats and will presumably come from the 68 A320-family aircraft that Qantas ordered last year to support growth of the Jetstar brand.
Japan Airlines agreed to plead guilty and pay a $110 million fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix rates for international cargo shipments, the U.S. Justice Dept. said yesterday. The agreement makes JAL the fourth airline, after British Airways, Korean Air and Qantas last year, to plead guilty in the ongoing investigation by the DOJ and FBI into price fixing on international passenger and cargo services. Investigations also are continuing in other countries.
Salt Lake City Airport has become the latest to add a Clear registered traveler lane. The airport plans to open the lane before the beginning of the busy summer travel season. Salt Lake is also one of six airports participating in a self-select security lane pilot program.
US Airways will begin giving customers the option to pay $5 to $30 more for aisle and window seats in the first several rows of coach on most flights, starting May 7, while giving its Dividend Miles Preferred members free access to those seats, the airline said yesterday. The amount of the extra charge will vary depending on destination and length of the flight.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to buy and deploy an additional 580 advanced technology X-ray machines for airport security checkpoints, the agency’s chief told Congress this week. TSA Administrator Kip Hawley, testifying before a House Homeland Security subcommittee, said the agency, which has already deployed 250 of the multi-view X-ray machines, will buy an additional 580 machines for a total of 830 machines.
NTSB reports that while there were no fatalities in scheduled Part 121 airlines or Part 135 commuter operators in 2007, fatality numbers were up in the on-demand sector. There were 43 deaths involving on-demand operators, up from 16 in 2006. General aviation accident numbers rose from 1,518 in 2006 to 1,631 in 2007, but fatality numbers dropped 30% to 491 — the lowest fatality total in this category in more than 40 years.
Italy’s incoming prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has already softened his initial opinion that Alitalia should stay in Italian hands (DAILY, April 16). “There is also another possibility, which would be to get back to the original solution and to the creation of a large international group with equal rights for the three airline companies (Air France, KLM and Alitalia),” he said yesterday in Rome. “If we went in that direction, [Alitalia] would remain an Italian company. It would be an important alliance and tourists would still come to Italy,” he added.
The future of inflight entertainment comes down to desire versus reality, concluded a panel of industry and airline IFE specialists yesterday at AVIATION WEEK’S MRO 2008 conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. this week launched proceedings to award additional U.S.-China operating authority for all-cargo services. Up for grabs is the newly available designation to operate in the market and fifteen all-cargo frequencies to serve China Zone 1 (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou) or Zone 2 (Fujian, Guangdong, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Tianjin and Zhejiang). Incumbent carriers FedEx, Northwest, Polar and UPS are eligible to seek the frequencies, which, like the designation, will become effective on March 29, 2009.
United on April 14 won authority to launch new service between Los Angeles and San Jose del Cabo, beating out Delta and Virgin America for the coveted designation held by Frontier.
Air France-KLM may still invest in the combined airline made up of Delta and Northwest, but only at a later date, industry sources told The DAILY. In a surprise announcement, Air France-KLM said on Tuesday that it will not take an equity stake in the new company because it was not necessary. It would have only considered doing so to facilitate the merger and keep any of the two airlines from leaving the SkyTeam alliance.
In a deal that could be the forerunner for code-sharing deals involving low-cost and traditional carriers, OpenSkies — the new British Airways subsidiary — will use a “hybrid” version of an Internet-based internal reservations system not only for direct bookings but also for GDS bookings via a British Airways code-share. OpenSkies — which will offer transatlantic service from outside the U.K. on 757s configured for 82 seats in three classes — is not a low-cost carrier. But the model has implications for LCCs.
American yesterday revealed another cut to its 2008 capacity estimate and a hiring freeze for some positions as it grapples with a worsening economic outlook, but the carrier also said it will accelerate deliveries of new narrowbody aircraft next year.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. yesterday announced two slot-auction options at new York LaGuardia Airport despite the airline industry's sharp objection to the plan. In a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking published yesterday, DOT said it intended to move forward with slot auctions at LaGuardia.
USA 3000 is planning to grow its Chicago-Cancun operation beyond charter service and is looking to use the market designation held by ATA to begin offering scheduled service this summer.
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines may fly again despite the suspension of flights and appointment of a liquidator last week. The liquidator, accounting firm KPMG, says it has been talking to a “comfortable number of really serious players,” local media report. Although Oasis ceased flying on April 9, the liquidator has retained its employees, evidently judging that the chance of finding a buyer is good enough to justify running up further debt at a business that is no longer earning revenue.
Europe’s two largest low-fare airlines are threatening to withhold higher charges from BAA because of a dispute over escalating airport charges. Ryanair has asked BAA to justify rising charges — which have been approved by the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority; if not, it plans to challenge the increases in court. If it does so, it will withhold the payments from BAA, instead placing them in an escrow account pending the outcome of the case.
Airline outsourcing of maintenance, repair and overhaul is shifting to low-cost labor regions as airlines seek deeper cost reductions, and the U.S. may become one of those regions. A weak dollar and high fuel costs are likely to advance that idea at least some carriers, according to a study of 130 airline and MRO executives by consultancy Oliver Wyman presented at AVIATION WEEK’s MRO 2008 conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
United is asking the U.S. Transportation Dept. to push back the start date of its planned San Francisco-Guangzhou, China, services by one year to June 30, 2009. Operating losses stemmed from launching the flights in the current climate would be “far more substantial” than initially envisioned, while a delayed start would enable United to launch the service “when anticipated economic conditions improve,” United said.
Air China, China’s second-largest airline, aims to carry 40.06 million passengers this year, 15% more than in 2007. The figure, high by the standards of most airlines, is only in line with recent growth rates in Chinese commercial aviation. Shenzhen Airlines, a second-tier carrier, aims to have 100 aircraft in its fleet by the end of the year, three times as many as at the end of 2005 and implying an annual fleet growth rate of 44%. Air China is forecasting a load factor of 69.1% for 2008.
