Los Angeles will be third U.S. gateway for Emirates, which is expected to launch daily flights to the city from Dubai on Sept. 1. The carrier inaugurated flights to Houston in December with a Boeing 777-200LR and will use the same type of aircraft for the LAX flights, which will become the longest in its network at 15 hours 55 minutes westbound and 16 hours 35 mins. eastbound. Emirates, expected to make the LAX announcement today, will become the only Gulf carrier flying to the U.S. West Coast.
Southwest’s internal investigation of its maintenance procedures prompted the airline to make a snap decision to withdraw 38 Boeing 737s from its active fleet yesterday for what it described as precautionary inspections.
The Senate Commerce Committee’s aviation subcommittee is taking a look at challenges facing air carriers in a hearing today. The panel, chaired by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), will focus on both the current financial state and long-term economic outlook of domestic air carriers and their work force. The panel intends to zero in on high fuel prices, growing competition, severe congestion and delay problems.
US Airways and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement covering all maintenance employees.
FAA will be looking to significantly expand a new Pacific-focused air traffic management initiative to other nations in the region from 2009, agency officials say.
Air France-KLM continues to see little indication economic turmoil is harming its financial health. The airline reports a strong increase in yields in February, even as load factors fell 3.4 percentage points to 75.5% Overall, Air France-KLM saw a year-on-year traffic increase of 3.7%, aided by the additional leap-year travel day, but hurt by air traffic control strikes at Paris Orly Airport. Airline management says premium traffic remains “dynamic,” and also reports in its February operational update that cargo rose in traffic and load factor.
Southwest said yesterday it will suspend three workers in connection with aircraft inspection lapses that last week prompted FAA to propose a $10.2 million fine against the airline. The workers are being placed on administrative leave and are “cooperating with the [internal] investigation” into the circumstances surrounding the tardy inspections of Boeing 737s. Previous Southwest responses to the growing controversy had stressed that safety was never compromised.
Air France-KLM will present its formal bid for Alitalia to the management of the Italian carrier on Thursday, March 14. The Air France-KLM board of directors approved the offer yesterday. The offer is contingent on numerous factors, in particular commitment from labor groups to make a success of the takeover. Air France-KLM management reiterated that the deal would strengthen the Alitalia brand name.
U.S. airlines may have received a five-year reprieve from scrambling to find enough pilots because of the recent lifting of the Age 60 mandatory retirement rule, but the pilot shortage will soon catch up. The shortage may be more acute and imminent at the regional airline and instructor level, but it will creep up — and quickly — to major airlines, which need to start planning now and considering new programs, such as paying for training, to bring more pilots into the pool, panelists said at yesterday’s FAA Forecast Conference.
If Airbus loses its World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute with Boeing over launch subsidies for commercial aircraft development, its parent, EADS, can’t pass on any fines or penalties to the Northrop Grumman/EADS Air Force tanker contract, the Pentagon’s top procurement official says.
Giving private investors access to equity shares in state-owned airport regulator Infraero does not mean privatization of current long-term concessions but rather access to stakes in the company through the Sao Paulo stock market (Bovespa), said presidential Chief of Staff Dilma Rouseff.
Eclipse Aviation is on target to deliver one Eclipse 500 very light jet per day by the end of March, and two per day by the fourth quarter; it has delivered 37 so far this year. The U.S. is by far the largest market, with only 22% of bookings being outside the U.S. However, the company says Western and Eastern Europe are hot, and it sees India, Australia and China as growth markets. By 2010, half of its customers will be international, predicts Matt Brown, director of brand management at Eclipse.
Mexico’s airports in February continued to report traffic improvement thanks to stronger domestic traffic, while international traffic recovery seems to be skipping the country’s interior.
The U.K.’s Home Office wants to start issuing identity cards to airport workers as part of an effort to eventually provide cards for all U.K. citizens.
Korean Air and Uzbekistan Airways recently signed a letter of intent (LOI) that, among others, would see the carriers working together to get the Central Asian carrier into the SkyTeam alliance as an associate member.
Pemco World Air Services initially will focus its move into the Boeing 767 passenger-to-freighter conversion market on the Boeing 767-300, but it does not rule out converting -200s as well, Kevin Casey, president of Pemco’s Conversions Division, said yesterday. Casey also said there is a conversion market for both the 767-300 standard-range and extended-range versions. Pemco announced Monday that it is offering Boeing 767 conversions and that it has acquired Wagner Aeronautical, Inc., a California-based conversion engineering firm, as part its strategy.
The European Commission said it raided “a number” of international airlines yesterday “on suspicion that the carriers may have operated an illegal cartel on long-haul passenger flights.”
High fuel costs will likely drive down British Airways operating margins in the next fiscal year, although the company is building its assumptions on more conservative fuel price estimates than IATA’s. The outlook for the 2008/09 year is “more difficult than in previous years,” says BA CFOKeith Williams. The underlying assumption is “a sharp slowdown in the U.S. and the U.K.” with a more moderate slowdown in Asia and Europe. BA already has seen some weakness in non-premium traffic and expects more of that to materialize.
U.S. travel seems to be on the up and up — some 23.9 million overseas travelers visited the U.S., up 10% from the 21.7 million arrivals logged in 2006, according to Commerce Dept. figures cited by the Travel Industry Association. TIA says overseas travel to the U.S. is down some 2 million visitors from 2000 to 2007 and suggests the dip is a result of the U.S. not keeping pace with post-Sept. 11 worldwide travel trends.
Polar Air Cargo won a weekly U.S.-Hong Kong fifth-freedom all-cargo frequency that will enable the carrier to operate between Hong Kong and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates [DOT-OST-2008-0083]. The cargo carrier currently flies six weekly services between Los Angeles and Hong Kong — four of the flights stopover at Seoul Incheon.
