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.
A third runway needs to be built at London Heathrow Airport because the capacity is badly needed and it has been demonstrated that stringent environmental limits can be met, according to BAA in a report to the U.K. Dept. for Transport.
Virgin Atlantic’s selection of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 for its Boeing 787-9s adds the 23th customer for the powerplant to the order book. Virgin has committed to taking 15 engine sets for the twin-widebody, as well as four spare turbofans. Options and purchase agreements included in the contract could extend the Trent 1000 commitment to 43 787s. The deal is valued at about US$2.6 billion.
American and its pilots union are preparing for their first sessions with a National Mediation Board facilitator next week, and they plan to start off with less-controversial administrative clauses.
American is scrutinizing the flight data recorders from a Boeing 777-200ER to determine what caused the aircraft’s left Trent 800 engine to “hang up” on approach to Los Angeles Airport on Feb. 28. As of March 3, it is the American pilots union’s understanding that the event differs from the Jan. 17 landing accident at London Heathrow involving a British Airways 777-200ER, also powered by a Trent 800, says Karl Schricker. He is Allied Pilots Association communications committee chairman.
IATA is planning to launch a pilot carbon offsetting program with the participation of six airlines by the end of this year, says CEO Giovanni Bisignani. The goal is to “develop a standard scheme for airlines and their passengers to participate in voluntarily,” he says.
The allegedly anti-labor record of presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is being attacked by the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, the group said following its annual winter meeting held over the weekend.
Germany’s air accident investigation body BFU has launched an in-depth analysis into why a Lufthansa Airbus A320 came close to a serious crash while landing at Hamburg Airport on Saturday.
