A new regional airline to be based in India will launch in October under a joint venture that includes Emirates Trading Agency-Associated Construction. The Arab Air Carriers Organization says ETA-Ascon reportedly will establish a base in Chennai or Bangalore and fly to southern India. It currently is in negotiations with ATR, Embraer and Bombardier for regional jets.
DHL Express USA said yesterday it would cut 600 positions from its work force as part of a broader strategy to lower its administrative costs. A company spokesman said the work force reduction did not reflect any sort of slowdown in the express delivery business. The cuts are to be made to management, administrative and back-office employees. DHL Express does not operate its own aircraft in the U.S. but contracts out with other companies such as ABX and Astar.
Air France-KLM Vice Chairman Leo van Wijk brought up SkyTeam’s pending application for antitrust immunity at a Jan. 29 meeting with U.S. Transportation Dept. Secretary Mary Peters, who disclosed the meeting in a notice filed last week in the SkyTeam docket.
A new industry-government committee is being created in the U.S. to consider how a single weather forecasting model can be integrated into all levels of the aviation system. The standing committee is being established by the Joint Planning and Development Office, the multi-agency group tasked with overseeing the move to the next-generation ATM system. The committee is expected to begin work on an integration roadmap by late March or early April, and will have its first plan published within a year, according to JPDO officials.
Geneva-based SITA will upgrade Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) check-in systems at 13 major Indian airports with the latest version of the technology, AirportConnect Open in partnership with the Airports Authority of India. The upgrade is needed to handle an expected 37% increase in annual traffic at the 13 airports: Ahmedabad, Goa, Trichi, Calicut, Trivandrum, Combatore, Amritsar, Varanasi, Srinagar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Dabok and Lucknow.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for an end to Air France-KLM’s monopoly on flights between mainland France and the South American territory of French Guiana.
Fritz Schur is expected to be elected as the new non-executive chairman of SAS Group. Schur will succeed Egil Myklebust, who announced his resignation in 2006. Schur’s election is planned for the annual assembly in April. The 56-year-old Schur is also chairman of Post Danmark, among others.
Lufthansa will base three more Airbus A321s at its Munich hub and plans to add 180 weekly frequencies. The airline will introduce three daily flights to Klagenfurt, Austria, a daily roundtrip to Bilbao, Spain, and a daily service to Cluj in Romania. The expansion will take Lufthansa’s Munich based European fleet to 102 aircraft.
Mexico’s Interjet has given up the purchase of regional carrier Aviacsa because no agreement could be reached on a price, Interjet CEO Jose Luis Garza reported. Garza last week admitted to Reforma that he has been interested in Aviacsa since last year and added the parties had met to hammer out a deal but could not reach a final agreement. He said, “Unfortunately, we cannot envision at this time an alliance or merger with another airline.”
Several cities in Florida and Western Europe are the top destinations sought by Americans for air travel this summer, according to a survey of travel agents.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark admits it is “inevitable” that new security measures will be introduced in that country, following a review into an attempted hijacking last week. The government is waiting for reports from the relevant agencies and is expected to issue new security recommendations as early as next week. Currently, passenger screening is not required for flights on commuter aircraft. Clark admitted it would be expensive to screen passengers at all regional airports, and she said any extra cost would probably be borne by passengers.
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The war of words between Transport Superintendent Wilson Villarroel and Lloyd Aereo Boliviano toned down last week as the former specifically requested information on “sustainable” financial backing for a minimum of US$7 million to cover the airline’s immediate costs and liabilities. The information so far has not been provided by LAB, and Villaroel continues to block reissue of its full commercial license.
IATA has unveiled a new baggage management system designed to help airlines cut their number of mishandled bags. The Baggage Improvement Program (BIP), approved by the IATA board in December, was designed to address all of the causes of mishandling and unite the industry in taking action, said IATA spokesman Steve Lott. “This is a major challenge for the industry, with the system and processes being overloaded as baggage volumes increase,” he noted.
JetBlue yesterday revealed a major West Coast expansion with 16 new flights, including the introduction of Los Angeles Airport service, which the airline believes could lead to a link with another international carrier.
Munich Airport saw passenger numbers increase by 10.4% in 2007, making it one of the fastest-growing airports in Europe. Thirty-four million passengers used the facility last year, 3.2 million more than in 2006. Airport operator FMG reported revenues of EUR793 million (US$1.2 billion) and EUR45 million (US$65.6 million) after-tax profit.
The Transportation Security Administration has added North Carolina’s Craven Regional Airport to its list of seven facilities taking part in its employee screening pilot announced last week. The pilot originally included New York Stewart Airport, but officials declined to participate (DAILY, Feb. 6).
Lufthansa’s passenger traffic was up 7% in January based mainly on stronger demand for flights to the U.S. and Asia. The airline’s load factor improved by 0.9 percentage points to 76.9% as capacity grew more slowly than demand.
The Chile-based LAN group of airlines reported systemwide passenger traffic growth of 15% internationally in January. Domestic traffic was up 28.4%. The company posted an 11.6% gain in long-haul capacity to North America, Europe, the South Pacific and the Caribbean, while regional traffic increased by affiliated carriers in Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.
The first phase of the U.S.-European Union open-skies agreement could radically rework the transatlantic aviation market, provided enough ground can be covered in subsequent negotiations to satisfy the U.K. government, a consultant says.
