German air traffic control provider DFS no longer believes it can be privatized before 2010. DFS CEO Dieter Kaden said at a news conference yesterday that the step may no longer be possible ahead of Germany’s general elections in 2009. Privatization of DFS should have been completed this year at the latest, but was deferred because of constitutional concerns — Federal President Horst Köhler refused to sign the privatization bill, demanding the constitution would have to be changed to allow private firms to take over state tasks.
Sharjah-based budget Air Arabia on March 31 will add its 11th destination in India and 39th globally to its network when it launches four weekly flights to New Delhi. The service will grow into a daily offering in May. Air Arabia runs the largest destination network in India of any Middle East-based carrier.
Turkish Airlines will be the first GE Aviation customer to recycle scrap high-pressure turbine blades to reclaim the rhenium they contain. Rhenium is a costly element of the nickel superalloy in the HPTs. The work will be done at the airline’s Turkish Technic subsidiary, an ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard Certificate holder.
Italian right-wing leader Silvio Berlusconi believes Alitalia should stay in Italian hands and hinted that the next government should bail out the unprofitable Italian flag carrier.
The Chinese authorities are insisting that the market will determine control of China Eastern Airlines, offering the massively indebted Shanghai carrier little hope of official help as it struggles to avoid the clutches of larger rival Air China.
American plans to launch a new international route between Fort Lauderdale and Kingston, Jamaica, starting June 1 with Boeing 737-800s in a two-class configuration. The new flight, still subject to government approval, would complement AA Jamaica service from Miami, New York Kennedy and Dallas/Fort Worth.
House Republican leadership yesterday called on New Jersey Democratic Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez to lift their hold on FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell’s nomination.
Former airline executive Dave Pelter launched a new online fare searching site yesterday that helps airlines with an increasingly difficult task — differentiating themselves from the competition.
Demand for medium-sized freighters may mean Boeing’s 767 production line in Everett, Wash., isn’t likely to fade away soon despite the company’s loss of the KC-45 U.S. Air Force tanker contract to Northrop/EADS. “We haven’t made a decision yet to rescind the offerability of our current models,” says a Boeing official. “All the planes we’re making now are still offerable.” The company still offers the 767-300ER/400ER/300F, although with just 38 total orders, the 767-400ER was not a big seller.
SkyWest yesterday tapped three of its long-time employees to move to director-level positions. Casey Madsen, who has been with the company since 2004, was appointed director-employee relations, while Christopher Brown director-flight operations and Robin Wall was named director-training. Wall has been with SkyWest for 26 years, most recently as manager-CRJ flight standards. Brown joined the airline in 2004 as a pilot and most recently was manager-operations.
ICAO reiterated its stance that emissions trading may be a viable way to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint, but only if any system is arrived at by consensus, the president of the U.N body said in Montreal at the first meeting of the Group on International Aviation and Climate Change (GIACC).
The freight business of Asiana Airlines will develop further as a result of an equity link with the country’s largest logistics company, Korea Express. Asiana’s parent, Kumho Asiana Group, is leading a group of companies that has contracted to buy 60% of Korea Express. When the consortium was chosen as preferred bidder last month, Kumho Asiana said that Korea Express and Asiana would jointly offer air express services and that the combined logistics business would enter foreign markets.
Component maker Ametek will open a 1,700 square meter (18,000 sq. ft.) maintenance facility in Singapore by the end of this month to cut turnaround times for Asian customers. The facility’s initial work will include maintenance and repair of pneumatic and hydraulic parts.
March 26-28, 2008 at The Phoenician Resort in Phoenix, Arizona With focus on open skies and international flying, both U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Deputy Director-General Ryuhei Maeda, Civil Aviation Bureau Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Japan are confirmed participants this year. To register, visit phxskyharbor.com or call 602-683-2634. PHX PHOENIX SKY HARBOR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Aircraft maker Avic 1 and China Eastern have gained approval to start a regional airline this year, thanks to a cabinet-ordered exception to the ban on considering new applications before 2010. The carrier, Xingfu Airlines, will fly Avic 1 aircraft, beginning with MA60 turboprops and later introducing ARJ21 regional jets. The eventual fleet is planned as 50 of each type.
A disabled aircraft had to be towed off a runway at Boston Airport Sunday, causing 31 flight delays. Aside from the runway blockage at Boston, flight delays were relatively low on the weekend, a welcome change from February when the average daily delay count was about 1,600. There were 978 delays Sunday, and just 518 Saturday, caused mainly by wind. Friday saw snowy weather in many parts of the Northeast and 1,276 flight delays.
State passenger bills of rights governed by federal, not state, law, the U.S. Transportation Dept. said yesterday in a clarification that could have repercussions on an upcoming court case in New York and in other cases around the country. This clarification comes just days before a New York court is due to hear an appeal on the December decision striking down an airline industry challenge to that state’s passenger bill of rights legislation (DAILY, Dec. 19, 2007).. The appeal is to be heard on Wednesday.
Thai Airways International will develop a passenger-to-freighter conversion business at its maintenance facility at Bangkok’s old Don Muang Airport under a plan that has gained preliminary approval from Transport Minister Santi Prompat.
Airport operations and behavior have changed rapidly across the world under the influence of low-cost carrier development, with the most dramatic effect being on secondary airports near large cities, according to a new report from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. These airports were often previously often unused, or greatly underutilized and had life breathed into them by the arrival of one or more LCCs, said the report, entitled “Low Cost Airports & Terminals.”
US Airways, anticipating negative growth in the domestic market, is launching an effort to close the international capacity gap between it and its rivals in a plan dubbed Project Global Reach.
Competition from a high-speed rail line has forced three Taiwanese airlines to suspend four domestic routes. Mandarin Airlines has given up flights between Taichung and Taitun, UNI Air has stopped services between Taipei and Kaohsiung, and bankrupt Far Eastern Air Transport has dropped its flights between Taipei and Tainan and between Hualien and Kaohsiung.
