Raising the safety bar for all airlines operating in Latin America and fighting individual governments over unilateral taxes and airport parking fees are the top priorities for Latin American carriers this year.
Spain’s Indra last week won a contract from Colombia’s airline and airport regulator Aerocivil to upgrade air traffic control facilities with its Aircon 2100 system at airports in Villavicencio and Cali. The contract is worth US$2.94 million. Aircon 2100 has the added advantage of being widely used at airports throughout Latin America, including major sites in Colombia as Bogota, Medellin and Leticia, which covers the Amazon region.
Qantas is boosting its Hawaii service due to strong demand on this route, the carrier said this week. The airline’s Sydney-Honolulu flights will be increased from three to four per week, beginning April 5. The Qantas group will then have a total of nine flights between the two cities, with five operated by Jetstar.
Fiji-based Air Pacific is the customer for three anonymous 787-9 orders placed last year, Boeing revealed. The deal follows a 2006 order for five 787s, and Air Pacific also has purchase rights for three more. The combined orders represent the largest transaction ever undertaken by a Fijian company, according to Boeing. The 787s will be powered by General Electric GEnX engines. The 787s will allow expansion within Asia and around the Pacific Rim.
As the Air Force decision on a major fuel tanker contract nears, Airbus is stressing that it will only build a final assembly line for commercial aircraft at its Mobile, Ala., facility if its tanker is selected. Airbus yesterday confirmed that it will build an assembly line for A330 Freighters in Mobile if the Northrop Grumman-led team wins the Air Force contract. The tankers and A330s would both be built at a dramatically expanded Mobile facility. However, Airbus said it would not make sense to build the A330s without the tanker deal.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has blasted the Transportation Security Administration for its handling of information submitted to its Traveler Redress Web site. Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued a report blaming security breaches on the site to TSA’s poor acquisition practices, conflicts of interest, and inadequate oversight. And a TSA spokesman said that the committee’s concerns were addressed “many months ago.”
Aer Lingus plans to expand its network from Belfast next month, with routes to Rome, Budapest, Malaga and Faro to come on top of the four destinations already being serviced from Northern Ireland. This week, Aer Lingus added London Heathrow to the Belfast International Airport network. The Belfast strategy, announced last year, has been contentious because Ryanair, which owns 29.4% of Aer Lingus, tried to block it. Aer Lingus will fly to Heathrow three times daily.
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Gulf Air ordered 16 Boeing 787s and took options for eight more, the airline said on the weekend. The carrier said it is contemplating further orders from Boeing and Airbus.
Mesa Air Group blamed a $62 million loss in the fourth quarter on an $86.9 million pre-tax judgment against the company involving a lawsuit filed by Hawaiian Airlines, along with cutting Delta turboprop flying out of JFK Airport and costs to launch Chinese regional Kunpeng Airlines and shut down the Air Midwest unit. The carrier lost $81.6 million for the year, compared with $33.9 million a year ago.
Europe set a new annual record for flights with a 5.3% increase in 2007, and further growth of more than 4% is expected for this year, Eurocontrol said yesterday.
Eurocontrol predicts that low-cost carriers will for the first time account more than 20% of all flights in Europe this year. Low-cost flights grew 25% in 2007 and, together with business aviation, account for almost all the net growth in European flights last year (see story Page 3).
The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers Friday struck a civil aviation security deal, and the new text will go before the full Parliament in March. The deal affirms an earlier compromise that the costs of aviation security will be shared among the member state governments, airports and airlines. The compromise agreement was reached late last month (DAILY, Dec. 20, 2007).
An increase in aircraft accidents last year means the airline insurance industry also will suffer a loss, according to a new report by AON U.K. The total losses for 2007 are estimated at about $1.7 billion with lead hull and liability premiums merely at $1.51 billion. That also means that last year saw the third-highest value of losses since 1996, excluding the losses linked with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. By comparison, the 2006 price tag associated with losses only amounted to $1.29 billion.
Delta has taken on two more Boeing 757s, bringing its fleet total to 15 aircraft. The aircraft, which came from American Airlines’ fleet, will be used on international routes and will go into service this summer.
Flight trials using a blend of biofuel and kerosene are set to begin next month, when Virgin Atlantic flies one of its boeing 747-400s from London Heathrow to Amsterdam Schiphol. The flight is part of a broader biofuel research effort by partners Boeing, Virgin Atlantic, General Electric and others last year. Ground trials with the biofuel have already been performed by GE. The results are promising, says a Virgin Atlantic representative.
The airline industry is petitioning government representatives in both Washington and Brazil to object a proposal to raise aircraft parking fees at Sao Paulo’s international airport (GRU) by as much as 5200%. IATA last week met with government representatives in Washington and in Brazil to protest the proposed hike in aircraft parking fees at GRU before the Brazilian aviation regulator ANAC’s Jan. 14 deadline for public comment.
Hawaiian loads fell 2.1 percentage points to 82.1% in December, as traffic failed to keep pace with demand in the month. The airline logged 637 million revenue passenger miles, up 2.2% from December 2006, and while 775.9 million available seat miles, 4.8% more than in the same month in 2006. Results for full-year 2007 were a bit better — RPMs were up 16% on 14.7% more capacity. Load factor edged up 1 point to 87.4%.
The Seabury Group has added 10 new staff members and promoted five others. The new hires come from both the aviation industry and management consulting. Seabury hired Karaca Kestelli as VP. He has experience in turnaround projects and most recently was engagement manager at McKinsey & Company. Jesko Neuenburg was hired as senior associate; he formerly was a consultant with Bain & Company.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. believes it has found one market-based mechanism to reduce congestion at the nation’s busiest airports — it is proposing changes to FAA’s on airport rates and charges that would move away from solely levying landing fees based on aircraft weight and give airports the flexibility to vary charges based on the time of day and volume of traffic.
