The AFL-CIO set a course of action yesterday to look into airline mergers following a meeting of national AFL-CIO aviation union leaders. Saying the American labor movement is deeply concerned about possible mergers, various unions are working to protect employee rights.
AirTran yesterday kicked off a new round of expansion at Baltimore-Washington airport — with more to follow today — and the airline also expects to see growth opportunities emerge at constrained airports due to network carrier mergers. The airline announced it will introduce daily service between BWI and Los Angeles, beginning in May, and it will also resume seasonal service to Seattle and Dallas/Fort Worth. Additional Baltimore service due to be revealed today is expected to include a destination not previously served by AirTran.
Spain’s Marsans/Air Comet group denied claims by Argentina’s pilots union that the company was giving up on its affiliate, Aerolineas Argentinas (AR). Jorge Perez-Tamayo, leader of Argentina’s pilots union, said the airline had no future, was in deep financial trouble, defaulted on payments to creditors and needed a major injection of money from its parent company, which Marsans is not supplying, EFE News Agency reported.
Venezuela’s Santa Barbara Airlines last week signed an alliance with another Venezuelan carrier, Aserca, to increase capacity on Caracas-Spain long-hauls. The alliance calls for support from Aserca to improve passenger access and add new connections and destinations in Venezuela to achieve shared growth in the future. Santa Barbara started flying to Spain in 2002.
Jordan’s Royal Falcon Air Services will begin operating charter flights to the U.S. on April 15 pending regulatory approval. The company would use an Airbus A310-300 to fly a weekly service between Baltimore/Washington Airport and Amman, with a stopover in Shannon, Ireland.
Oneworld alliance partners Finnair and Cathay Pacific on March 1 will start code-sharing flights. The agreement will cover flights between Hong Kong and Bangkok, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Cathay will get access to Finnair flights connecting Helsinki with Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London.
Hourly caps at New York Kennedy Airport are not a preferred measure, but they are a short-term remedy necessary to prevent a repeat of last summer, said D.J. Gribbin, general counsel for the U.S. Transportation Dept. at Aviation Week’s ATC Demand Management Forum Feb. 13.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has promised lawmakers more releases of data this year from the National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) pilot survey, although the agency has no plans to resume it (DAILY, Oct. 23, 2007). “We think that all of the goals of NAOMS with regard to aviation safety are being accomplished in coordination with the FAA in ongoing programs,” Griffin told the House Science & Technology Committee Feb. 13.
Continental’s pilot union reached what its claims is a ground-breaking deal with Copa Airlines that would give Continental pilots preferential hiring rights at Copa. Under the deal, furloughed or retired Continental pilots who are under 65 would get priority when Copa hires foreign pilots. It was negotiated by the Air Line Pilots Association’s Continental unit, Copa and the Copa pilots union known as SIPAC. According to ALPA, the agreement is “unique in the airline industry and the first of its kind for ALPA.”
The European Commission is moving closer to requiring biometric passports for entry into the European Union, even as it objects to U.S. efforts to engage individual member states on separate border and security issues. The U.S. Homeland Security Dept. last week sent several EU member states memoranda of understanding that addressed such issues as the Visa Waiver Program and air marshals on flights to those countries originating in the U.S. A DHS spokesman confirmed that the MOUs were sent to countries not currently covered by the VWP.
Airbus yesterday secured 11 more orders for its A350 program, including a second sale for the VIP jet version. Synergy Aerospace — owner of Latin American carriers Avianca, SAM, Oceanair and VIP — signed a memorandum of understanding for 10 A350-800s with options for 10 more. These carriers already have 47 A320 family aircraft and 10 A330-200s on order. Synergy has also reached an agreement with Rolls-Royce to use Trent XWB engines for the A350s in a deal that would be worth US$880 million at list prices.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. has launched comparative selection proceedings for the available Los Angeles-San Jose del Cabo designation. Three airlines can be designated for the route — American, Alaska and Frontier each holds authority, but the latter plans to cease service on the route April 13, so one designation will become available [DOT-OST-2008-0056]. United already submitted an application to start service on the route on April 14. Delta, meanwhile, opposed the application and signaled its intent to submit a proposal for service (DAILY, Jan. 31).
Colombia’s international passenger traffic grew 13% from 2006 to 2007 while domestic traffic rose 8% year over year, statistics from Colombia’s civil aviation department show. Aerocivil CEO Fernando Sanclemente said the growth is the direct result of diversification of the market with new international and domestic carriers, frequencies and destinations. The bilateral agreement with the U.S. went up 21 frequencies for each country and now includes Washington, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, as well as additional cities in Colombia.
Witnesses testifying yesterday at a House aviation subcommittee hearing on runway safety stressed that although FAA has made great strides in addressing the issue, runway incursions continue to climb. The most serious incursions, Categories A and B, actually declined from 69 incidents in Fiscal Year 1999 to 24 in FY2007, U.S. Transportation Dept. Inspector General Calvin Scovel said in written testimony. But in the first three months of this fiscal year, serious incursions have occurred at a rate that could reach the highest level in six years, he wrote.
American’s pilots union is proposing a schedule of contract negotiations that would bring the two sides to mediation by the beginning of April. The protocol recommended by the Allied Pilots Association calls for four consecutive weeks of negotiations beginning March 3. If no agreement is reached, the National Mediation Board would take over the talks. And if there is still no deal after 120 days, the parties would request binding arbitration from NMB.
Caribbean Airlines is planning to launch flights between Trinidad & Tobago and Fort Lauderdale as soon as it receives the nod from the U.S. Transportation Dept. Flights between Trinidad & Tobago and Fort Lauderdale would launch on March 9. The airline would operate the route four times weekly with a Boeing 737-800.
Harrell Associates Harrell 100 Family of Airfare Benchmarking Reports Top Carriers, Top Routes ROUTES FREQUENCY CONTENT FORMAT 300 WEEKLY 30,000 MONTHLY EXCEL DATA ELEMENTS DATA CUSTOM REPORTS CURRENT AND ANY COMBINATION OF DATA COMPARABLE YEAR-AGO FOR MORE INFORMATION: [email protected] or call 212-358-1709 Toll Free 877-871-2086, www.HarrellAssociates.com
The cost to build an all-new airport in Doha, Qatar, has escalated from US$5 billion to US$9 billion, the Qatari government says, due to several external factors that are not hampering construction. The airport, scheduled to begin operations in 2010, is facing higher costs partially due to inflation but also because three stages of construction have been consolidated into one. The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation says higher labor and building material costs in the Middle East are driving expenses.
The European Commission and the Ministry of Transport of Israel agreed on the text of a so-called horizontal air transport agreement, which removes illegal nationality clauses from existing bilateral air accords between European Union member states and Israel. The accord was “a key step forward in view of a comprehensive aviation agreement to be negotiated between Israel and the EU,” said the EC after a round of talks in Jerusalem this month.
Airports operator BAA has added biometric technology to control access to its international lounge in London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 1. In the past, domestic and international passengers had been segregated for border control purposes, said a spokesman. “The introduction of biometrics technology means that all passengers can enjoy the same facilities,” he said.
