The recent spate emergency landings, near collisions and other mishaps at the three airports serving La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz in Colombia, has led airliners and analysts to assail the obsolete and unwieldy co-existence of concessionaire SABSA for those three airports and government regulator AASANA for the remaining 34 airports in Bolivia and to call for streamlining the system.
Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways plans to place an order for up to 100 aircraft this year to ensure long-term growth capacity. Etihad CEO James Hogan said in an interview that he is talking to both Airbus and Boeing about orders for between 50 and 100 aircraft. The airline is likely to buy additional Airbus A380s of which it has four on firm order, Hogan said. The airline currently operates 37 aircraft and plans to grow the fleet to 53 by the end of 2011.
Avianca registered record sales of US$142 billion for a 31% increase in 2007 from 2006, with operating profit close to US$200 million and net profit of US$100 million. The airline, controlled by Brazil’s Synergy Aerospace, also carried 12.9% more passengers in 2007 than in 2006 and saw its domestic market share grow to 58% and international share to 45% for an 18.2% increase in passengers.
Boeing intends to reach 50% design release on its 747-8 freighter “during the early part of the year,” with 90% design release to be achieved by midyear. Production is slated to begin in late 2008. Boeing says this year is a big one for its freighter programs — it also plans to deliver its first 767-300 converted freighter, and will complete assembly, flight test and certification of its 777 freighter, with first delivery in the fourth quarter.
Macquarie Airports (MAp) reported a whopping 84.2% increase in earnings in 2007 to A$1.1 billion (US$1 billion). It was a busy year for the airports operator, as it made several financial moves on its facilities. In February, MAp acquired an additional 1.2% interest in Sydney Airport following the acquisition of Global Infrastructure (Sydney Holdings) Pty Ltd. and exercised its option to buy Ferrovial’s 20.9% interest in Sydney, bringing its stake to 72.1%.
The Italian regional administrative court of Lazio rejected Air One’s appeal against the exclusive talks with Air France-KLM for the privatization of Alitalia (DAILY, Feb. 5). Carlo Toto, head of Air One and Air France’s rival bidder for Alitalia, said he would take the case to a higher jurisdiction, the Italian State Council. Doubt was cast about the exclusive negotiations with Air France-KLM, which are set to last until March 14, when the Italian government collapsed last month.
Copa Airlines would follow partner Continental out of SkyTeam if the U.S. carrier did partner with Star member United per industry speculation, said Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa and AeroRepublica parent Copa Holdings.
Embraer has seen a lot of action for its 190 program this week, with 10 orders from Jetscape and the revelation that Virgin Blue was the anonymous customer for another four.
JetBlue yesterday followed up its recent West Coast expansion by significantly boosting its flights out of Austin, a market the carrier says has been performing very strongly. The airline revealed plans for three new routes from Austin, to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and San Francisco. An Austin-Long Beach flight was announced last week as part of the West Coast expansion (DAILY, Feb. 13). All the flights are set to begin May 1.
Hamilton Sundstrand announced Feb. 20 it has signed a spare parts purchase agreement with Evergreen Aviation Technologies. The deal means Hamilton Sundstrand will be an exclusive spare parts provider for Evergreen’s component repair shops.
FAA and South Korea’s civil aviation safety regulator signed a bilateral aviation safety agreement in Singapore on Feb. 19, according to an FAA employee memo. FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell and South Korea’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority Assistant Minister Chung Sang-ho signed the accord at the Singapore Air Show.
Korean Air is investing EUR1 million (US$1.5 million) in a new project at the Louvre museum in Paris, and the airline intends to follow this with more cultural initiatives around the globe. Korean is co-sponsoring a new multimedia guide for the Louvre, which translates commentary into seven different languages — including Korean for the first time. The airline says this is the first step in its strategy to “create new cultural partnerships in different countries.” CEO Y. H.
All six U.S. network carriers added staff to their employee rolls in December 2007, the first time since June 2001 that every network carrier reported year-over-year gains in the same month, reported the U.S. Transportation Dept.’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
More aggressive fuel conservation strategies are thought to be responsible for a systemwide drop in fuel consumption, the Air Transport Association says. Fuel consumption dropped by 0.1% in 2007 despite continuing high passenger and freight traffic. Airlines paid a record $41.2 billion in fuel last year, at an average cost of $2.10 per gallon.
Virgin America is jumping into the supposed two-carrier contest between United and Delta for the remaining designation to fly the Los Angeles-San Jose del Cabo route, in what would be the carrier’s first foray into the international arena. The carrier would use its Airbus A320s to operate daily service in the market. The aircraft are configured for 141 seats in coach and eight in first class.
European network airlines’ bottom lines may not benefit from reduced fuel prices, as carriers would come under pressure to reduce their fuel surcharges, too, JP Morgan’s airline analyst Chris Avery argues.
The Transportation Security Administration is studying ways to make the screening process easier for passengers while continuing to increase security. The agency recently unveiled a self-select security lane pilot at Salt Lake City International Airport. Under the effort, checkpoint lines at the airport are divided into three categories: green for families and special assistance, blue for casual travelers and black for expert travelers.
