As tomorrow's deadline for comments on the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s proposed congestion pricing proposal looms, airlines, airports, representatives of foreign governments and the industry as represented by IATA blasted the proposal. Airlines represented by IATA say the proposed changes to the Policy Regarding the Establishment of Airport Rates and Charges are "an unjustified attempt to circumvent long held policies in order to encourage airports to use 'market mechanisms' to manage airport congestion."
United canceled nearly a half of its Boeing 777 flights by yesterday afternoon as it scrambled to inspect all 52 aircraft in its 777 fleet. It is the fourth carrier in the past several days to briefly ground large proportions of their fleets to perform snap reinspections.
Air France is allowing cell phone calls on an Airbus A318 being used to trial inflight communications. It’s the second phase in a multi-month trial period with service provider OnAir. During the initial phase, passengers were limited to emails and mobile phone text messaging. The A318 is being rotated between routes to maximize customer exposure to the offering. After the flight, Air France surveys customers to gauge their reaction and the perceived nuisance the service offering represents.
Airports Council International (ACI) has created a new senior manager of airport safety and operations position in its Montreal office and hired Paul Van den Eynden to fill it. Van den Eynden comes to ACI from the Calgary Airport Authority, where he held several positions since 1991, eventually becoming director of safety management systems. Before that, he worked for Transport Canada at Montreal Airport as superintendent of safety and emergency planning.
Carriers are doing their job — they are 99% compliant with airworthiness directives, and FAA is doing its job overseeing compliance — but will get some home improvements, such were the initial findings of the agency’s compliance audit launched March 13. In Phase 1, the agency performed nearly 2,400 audits across 117 airlines, checking 10 ADs for each carrier for each aircraft type in the fleet, according to FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Nicholas Sabatini.
Colombia’s AeroRepublica, Panama’s Copa and Dutch flag carrier KLM have set up a three-party operational and marketing alliance aimed at giving Colombians new options for flying worldwide.
Excluding fuel, airline CEOs at the 17th annual Phoenix Sky Harbor International Aviation Symposium cited congestion, the federal government’s aviation policy and restrictions at Washington National and LaGuardia airports as their biggest challenges despite careful planning.
The US-VISIT program office has yet to fully define its relationships with other immigration and border management programs, putting the Dept. of Homeland Security at increased risk of introducing inefficiencies, according to a new report.
A new airline retailing platform will be unveiled by Amadeus today in Bangkok at its fourth global forum for airlines, Horizons 2008. The company is expected to announce to the 600 participants — 140 of whom represent airlines — a phased roll-out of the platform that will allow airlines to offer merchandising features to the travel agent’s desktop, including quick up-sale opportunities and fare packaging options that many airlines have been clamoring for.
China now has a budget airline terminal, even though it has no real budget airline industry. The country’s first such terminal has opened at Zhengzhou (“jeng-jo”) in north central China, serving Spring Airlines and reflecting the confidence of the Henan provincial authorities that major no-frills business is coming, even if it hasn’t arrived yet.
An FAA solicitation for auction software vendors is raising a storm of industry protest at the possibility of slot auctions at the country's busiest airports. A copy of the notice obtained by The DAILY shows FAA is soliciting vendors to provide a "turnkey service" that includes the development of auction software, the maintenance of a secure database and Web site to conduct online auctions, along with a Web site to keep track of and alert potential bidders to the availability of slots.
Airbus North America Customer Service has named Goodrich to perform repairs on proprietary parts and structural components at its Alabama Service Center overhaul and repair facility in Foley. The agreement covers all aircraft flown in the Americas, said the center’s general manager, Stuart Kay. Goodrich expects its work to concentrate on flight control surfaces, pneumatic ducting and access doors, such as landing gear doors.
Financial analysts believe that the disruptions at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 baggage system could eventually cost the airline more than GBP50 million (US$98.7 million). The airline expected to cancel 50 more T5 flights today and was struggling to move 20,000 bags to their owners. The airline hired FedEx to help deliver bags.
Edward Faggen is retiring from his position as VP and general counsel for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority today. Faggen’s aviation career spans almost 40 years. He started in FAA’s Airports Branch of the General Legal Services Division and then moved to the environmental law staff, spending 17 years at the agency.
Allex, a joint express parcel business of All Nippon Airways, Nippon Express and Kintetsu World Express will begin operating in summer with a service to Hong Kong and Shanghai, subject to approval from the Transport Ministry. The new business aims to expand its operations to cover the Asian region in the future.
Cutting capacity is the most effective strategy U.S. airlines can use to overcome huge swings in fuel prices and a worsening economy, a leading analyst said. “Capacity is the only thing big enough” to contend with the size of cost challenges facing the airlines, Lehman Brothers Senior Airline Analyst Gary Chase said last week at the Phoenix International Aviation Symposium. He rejected arguments that the U.S. airlines “can’t shrink their way to profitability,” noting that just such a strategy drove the recent upswing the industry has enjoyed.
Indonesian airlines will have to operate at least five aircraft from April, says Transport Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal. They will have to own at least two of them, he adds. The country is trying to raise the safety standards of the many airlines that have proliferated in its skies over the past few years. The Antara news agency reported the minister’s remarks.
Aviation partners need to find ways to optimize efficiency within the system and make the outputs more effective, warned James Cherry, chairman of Airports Council International.
French stock market regulators have determined there are enough signs of wrongdoing to pursue insider trading charges against a slew of unnamed EADS executives for suspicious sales in 2005 and 2006. The charges were made months ago, but since then the regulatory body, the AMF, has been more closely examining the issue. Now, those charges are being brought formally against 17 executives.
The city of Chicago has received responses from six international teams with extensive experience in airport operations to privatize Midway Airport under a 50-year lease.
Northwest and the V Australia long-haul subsidiary of Virgin Blue have agreed to feed traffic to each other with the new Australian carrier’s transpacific flights, which will begin on Dec. 15 with a service between Sydney and Los Angeles. V Australia is describing the arrangement as a ticketing partnership, in which a single ticket will take a passenger on connecting flights of the two airlines. The new airline will fit its forthcoming 777-300ER fleet with economy, premium economy and business- class cabins.
The U.S. Air Transport Association has asked the U.S. Dept. of Energy to tap into the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to alleviate recent price spikes in jet fuel. In a letter to DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman obtained by The DAILY, ATA President James May argued that the crack spread — the price differential between crude oil and refined products — for both home heating oil and jet fuel had risen sharply. Shortages for both heating oil and jet fuel loom, May wrote.
