As Singapore Airlines brings in the first Airbus A380 passenger flight to London Heathrow today, British Airways is making preparations to begin its own A380 service at Heathrow. BA will already have a lot of experience with the aircraft by the time its first A380s arrive in 2012. The U.K. carrier won the contract to provide maintenance for SIA’s A380s at Heathrow, with the work to be carried out by BA’s Customer Engineering Group.
ExpressJet, in a bid to acknowledge some of its unhappy investors, yesterday added another seat to its eight-strong board of directors for an executive from Hayman Advisors, an investment group and shareholder who has been highly critical of the branded flying operation. Hayman Advisors President Andy Jent was named to the new vacancy on the board as part of an agreement that avoids a proxy contest in the upcoming board of directors election. A Class II director, Jent’s term would expire at the 2009 stockholders meeting.
All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines may each face a 24-hour strike on March 19 but say no international flights will be affected. Japan Airlines says four of its unions are unhappy with negotiations over a variety of issues, including basic salaries. All Nippon says four unions covering its airlines are dissatisfied with talks with management held this spring. If the strikes go ahead, Japan Airlines says 16 out of 624 domestic flights maybe affected, while All Nippon says 164 out of 914 domestic flights may be canceled or delayed.
Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania are the latest countries to sign a visa waiver agreement, putting their citizens on track for a program that allows visa-free travel to the U.S.
American and its pilots union began their National Mediation Board-facilitated talks by reaching agreement on another contract clause, although the most controversial aspects remain unresolved.
ABX announced two new senior appointments that the company says is partly in response to its recent expansion. Peter Fox was named Chief Commercial Officer of ABX Holdings. Fox was president and CEO of Cargo Holdings International, a company bought by ABX in December. He founded Cargo Holdings in 1999 as the parent of several other companies, including Capital Cargo International Airlines.
Airbus does not bear any legal liability for the crash of an A320 on Mont Sainte-Odile, near the German-French boarder in 1992, ruled a French court of appeals last week in Colmar. The court cleared Bernard Ziegler, Airbus’ former senior VP-engineering, who was the most influential figure in developing the cockpit design and fly-by-wire control system for the A320 and other Airbus aircraft. “We have fought 15 years for this,” said Ziegler after the ruling. “There is no perfect machine,” he added, “but this aircraft was excellent”.
FAA believes more airlines this summer will begin using a new continuous descent approach (CDA) procedure available on one of the approaches to Los Angeles Airport. The CDA was introduced on the RIIVR One approach on Dec. 20, and FAA plans to roll out two more CDAs at LAX this year.
Brisbane and Adelaide tied for first place with a “good” rating in a new report released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). But Canberra placed at the bottom of ACCC’s list, with a satisfactory rating.
February 2008 provided Mexican airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Sur a leap year bonus — all-around improved traffic. Total traffic for February 2008 was up 20% from the same month last year, while domestic and international traffic were up 28.5% and 15.7%, respectively. Excluding Feb. 29 from the year-over-year comparison would have resulted in decreased improvement in all areas: Total traffic would have increased by only 15.4%, domestic traffic by only 23.3% and international traffic by 11.5%.
Air traffic handled by Nav Canada increased by an average of 6.5% in January. For the fiscal year to the end of January, traffic was up 5.6% as measured in weighted charging units. Nav Canada’s fiscal year runs through Aug. 31.
U.S. airline traffic and international visitation broke annual records last year, recently released figures from the U.S. Transportation and Commerce departments show. Given concerns about an economic downturn, however, 2007 could also be the last time growth in those areas sync up, at least in the short term. Some expect that traffic will fall in response to tighter spending at home, while the decline of the U.S. dollar continues to be an attractive incentive for Europeans looking to get the most for their euro when traveling abroad.
ASTAR pilots have ratified a deal with the carrier that amends and extends their contract for four years. ASTAR says the deal provides better wages, benefits and job security for pilots, and also positions the carrier for growth.
Airport screeners now have machines by U.K.-based ThruVision that use terahertz rays (t-rays) to search for concealed objects. The technology used in ThruVision’s T400 system is completely passive, said spokesman Greg Finn. “We create a terahertz image of the scene from naturally occurring radiation,” he explained. “A common imaging solution we provide is to place a real-time terahertz image alongside a normal CCTV image.”
Global airport credit quality is expected to remain stable or decline slightly in 2008, reflecting changing world economic conditions, according to a new report from debt watcher Fitch Ratings.
Increased capacity, air traffic control and a stretched infrastructure might have a negative impact on aviation, delegates pointed out at the Annual Indian Airfinance Conference held in New Delhi. “Consolidation in the aviation sector has so far not brought meaningful benefits on balance sheets,” said Center of Asia Pacific Aviation CEO Kapil Kaul. Air India-Indian Airlines, Jet Airways-Air Sahara and Air Deccan-Kingfisher Airlines were three mergers that took place last year.
German regional carrier Cirrus Airlines is relaunching its business model and wants to become a carrier focused on high-yield business traffic. The company is relocating from its current base in Saarbruecken to Munich. Cirrus plans to operate a fleet of 22 Dornier 328s by the end of 2008 and will phase out six de Havilland Dash 8s. The scheduled operation will be complemented by an ad hoc executive charter business operating three Embraer 170s. Two of the aircraft are currently operating under wet-lease for Lufthansa.
When Alitalia’s board of directors meet on March 15 it will be discussing more than the takeover offer submitted this week by Air France-KLM. Also on the agenda will be Alitalia’s short-term financial needs and potential need for a loan from the Italian government.
Western states may get more direct access to Washington National Airport under a bill to relax the 1,250-mile perimeter rule introduced by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), with co-sponsors Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Embraer last week said it set a new company record with 169 deliveries in 2007, and it expects to beat this total in 2008 with 195-200 deliveries, not including Phenom jets. The fourth quarter was particularly strong for Embraer, with the 61 deliveries of all types representing a 65% improvement. Revenues for the quarter increased 77% to $1.9 billion. Operating profit doubled, and net profit increased to $200.9 million, compared with $124.4 million in the same quarter in 2006.
