Tuesday, March 4, 2008 Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium Washington, DC AVIATION WEEK’S Laureate Awards were conceived 51 years ago to recognize the extraordinary achievements of individuals and teams in aerospace, aviation and defense. Today, this formal dinner and Awards ceremony is the industry’s premier event — attracting scores of industry pioneers and thought leaders from around the world. Reception with dinner to follow. Black Tie
Boeing says the “degree of completeness of sections” is much better on the latest 787 to enter the final assembly line at Everett, Wash. “We’ve received significantly less traveled work on this airplane,” Boeing says. This will be the second flight test aircraft, but the fourth off the production line – two other aircraft will be used for static and fatigue testing. Boeing now has 21 787s in various stages of production.
The return of some of Mesa Air Group’s aircraft may have hurt first-quarter net income, but Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said the move is best for the company’s long-term interests. Mesa recorded a $2.8 million after-tax loss for the quarter ended Dec. 31, which includes one-time costs associated with legal fees and the return of aircraft to lessors.
The U.S. and the European Union will kick off the first round of talks on the second stage of the open-skies agreement May 15-16 in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, which holds the EU presidency. John Byerly, deputy assistant secretary of state for transportation affairs, will lead the U.S. team, while Daniel Calleja, director of the air transport directorate of the European Commission, will lead Europe’s. The first stage of the open-skies agreement goes into effect at the end of March.
Operational headaches at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport and the incorporation of VRG results both contributed to a fourth-quarter loss for GOL. GOL’s consolidated net loss was BRL24.2 million ($13.6 million) for the quarter, although excluding VRG’s results would have turned this around to a BRL90.2 million profit. In addition to the VRG effect, regulatory restrictions at Congonhas “required network adjustments that reduced load factors and increased ground times,” GOL said.
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Aviation weather forecasting could be made much more effective simply by improving its distribution, says FAA’s Aviation Weather Office Director Ken Leonard. A lot more could be done with existing forecasts “that doesn’t get into people’s hands,” says Leonard.
Lloyd Aereo Boliviano and startup Aerolineas Sudamericanas are still working on paperwork to get clearance for their full operating licenses from Bolivia’s transport superintendent (ST), but a change in leadership at airline regulator DGAC could further delay the process. Javier Garcia last week resigned as head of DGAC. Minister of Public Works Oscar Coca immediately replaced him with retired Gen. Carlos Antelo-Lenz.
XL Airways France intends to start what will initially be charter service from Cardiff, Wales; Manchester, U.K., and Glasgow to Orlando Sanford Airport, starting May 1 with A330s. It will transport Europe-originating passengers. The airline is owned by XL Leisure Group of the U.K., and has flown under the names Star Europe and Star Airlines. It now flies from Paris to Mexico, the Maldives, Morocco, Tunisia, Dominican Republic and Croatia.
Airbus says its reduced transition training system will allow A320 family pilots to qualify to fly the A380 in just 13 working days. Reduced transition training — known as Cross Crew Qualification — has now been approved by EASA and FAA for pilots of all Airbus families. The latest approval, for transition from the A320 to the A380, was completed Feb. 7. The transition from A330/A340 families to the A380 will take 12 working days.
Air Jamaica has decided to stop serving St. Lucia from both New York and Jamaica because of market pressures. Paul Pennicook, senior VP of marketing and sales, said the decision was made because of corporate restructuring, which entails streamlining and route rationalization. He said dropping the Caribbean island from its route plan follows its strategy to become a leaner airline. American in November began offering three weekly flights from JFK to St. Lucia, and Delta also serves the island daily from Atlanta.
A U.S.-based law firm won a settlement potentially worth more than US$200 million from British Airways and Virgin in a class-action suit regarding collusion on fuel surcharges, and the law firm believes the deal breaks new ground for this type of suit. The settlement covers more than 8 million customers of the two carriers who bought tickets between Aug. 11 and March 23. It provides US$59 million for U.S. ticket buyers, and GBP73.5 million (US$144.2 million) for U.K. customers.
Brazilian holding company Synergy Aerospace, controlled by German Efromovich, last week signed an agreement with Airbus to buy 10 units of its future model A350-XWB. The order, which also includes options for 10 aircraft, supplements previous orders for 47 A320s and 10 A330-200s from Synergy affiliates Avianca and SAM in Colombia, Ocean Air in Brazil and VIP in Ecuador.
ATA Airlines reported a 7.1-percentage-point hike in load factor for January, lifting it to 77.8%. Capacity dropped 6.9%, while traffic gained 2.4%. Enplanements fell nearly 25%.
Correction: Canadian regional Jazz Air spent C$320.5 million (US$320 million) on fuel in 2007. The Feb. 11 issue of The DAILY misstated the amount paid for fuel.
Naviair, Denmark’s air navigation service provider, has chosen Nav Canada’s Extended Computer Display System (EXCDS) for the new tower at Copenhagen Airport.
Senators late Tuesday night cleared the way for the FAA to continue collecting excise taxes at least through June to pay for the Airport and Airways Trust Fund, authority that would have expired at the end of this month if the chamber had not acted. FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell had warned that without an extension, as many as 4,000 FAA employees could face furloughs. The widely expected Feb. 13 Senate action unanimously passed by voice vote a bill to extend FAA’s tax and funding authorities.
Colgan Air traffic jumped 8.1% on 0.2% less capacity in January, but the airline’s load factor dipped three points to 39.5% despite the capacity cut. The airline generated 19.5 million revenue passenger miles in the month and flew some 49.4 million available seat miles.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. has handed out the first fine of the new year, to Pacific Delight Tours, a New York-based company that the department claims violated the full-fare advertising rule by failing to include fuel surcharges in ads that appeared in The Washington Post, Travel and Leisure and other print publications. The company’s Web site did list the fee but did not include it in the base fare, per DOT regulations. Additionally, Pacific Delight also failed to adequately disclose other taxes and fees that could be listed separately, DOT said.
BMI has leased two Boeing 757-200s to expand its medium-haul capacity. The two aircraft will operate from London Heathrow and help boost service to Almaty, Kazakhstan — introducing nonstop service — and Freetown, Sierra Leone, with shorter flight times and increased frequencies. The airline will also use one of the aircraft on its route to Tel Aviv, which currently is served with an Airbus A320. The 757s will allow BMI to expand as it awaits delivery of A330s.
Pinnacle may be turning a corner in its three-year old negotiations with pilots, according to recent statements from Pinnacle Airlines Corp. President Philip Trenary. “ I would characterize the mood as positive, as positive as I’ve seen it in a long time. We’ll be back at the negotiation table Thursday and Friday and will continue to work toward getting a deal done for our pilots” (DAILY, Jan. 9).
