Even if the ownership and control rules were relaxed, Air France-KLM would have no interest in investing in a U.S. carrier, Leo van Wijk, the airline’s vice chairman and chairman of the SkyTeam alliance, said yesterday in Washington. Instead, Air France-KLM sees more promise in such relationships as the joint-venture agreement it has with Northwest, van Wijk said. He further noted that Air France-KLM is also not interested in setting up a low-cost carrier or other airline in the U.S.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad is still negotiating with Boeing and Airbus for widebodies and narrowbodies, but it will not be making an announcement at the upcoming Singapore Air Show. CEO James Hogan says the board will likely take until mid-year to decide, and any order will be for at least 50 aircraft to cover Etihad’s needs until 2020. U.S. expansion beyond the New York Kennedy gateway will be announced in 2009 and could be to Chicago, Washington or Atlanta.
American is adding another Mexico route to its network, launching a daily nonstop flight between Dallas/Fort Worth and Tampico. The flights will be operated by American Eagle, using 44-seat Embraer ERJ-140s, and begins April 7. The new route means American will serve 15 cities in Mexico from DFW, including eight operated by Eagle. DFW notes this will be its 40th international destination and the seventh added during the past 12 months.
AirTran’s introduction of six new flights from Milwaukee reflects the airport’s growing importance in the airline’s network as both a connecting hub and a catchment for local traffic, a senior executive says.
Travel delays remain a problem for business travelers and more than 80% feel that airlines should provide them a sliding scale refund if flights are late, according to a new survey from New Jersey-based corporate travel management company Directravel. Directravel surveyed 356 respondents and asked 12 questions about their feelings on flight delays. The survey found that 83% of respondents felt that a delay of up to 30 minutes was acceptable, while 45% were upset by and 46% felt that delays of over one hour were completely unacceptable.
A Ryanair advertisement showing Nicolas Sarkozy and girlfriend Carla Bruni is “unacceptable,” said a spokesman for the French president, and the French executive is “considering all possible legal steps” in reaction to the ad. Bruni is depicted in the newspaper advertisement as saying, “With Ryanair, all my family can come to my wedding.”
Moscow Domodedovo Airport has been given the green light by the Russian government’s ministry of education to open an airport aviation security training center. The approval allows Domodedovo to open a center that can train up to 300 specialists a month. “The matter is that Russian companies are experiencing troubles in finding good staff. So we decided to prepare qualified managers for our airport ourselves,” said spokeswoman Yulia Pronina.
BAA is being criticized by British Airways, BMI and Virgin Atlantic over an attempt to raise airline fees at London Heathrow and a request to postpone improved customer service quality targets at Heathrow for another two years.
The two largest manufacturers of cockpit avionics in the U.S. told Wall Street analysts in separate conference calls last week that the possible slowdown in the 787 program will have little if any financial effect on them in 2008. Boeing’s third announced delay in the 787 program this month puts first flight at least nine months behind schedule and means first delivery is as much as a year off the original mark.
Updating air traffic management with the NextGen and SESAR systems will yield a 12% reduction in carbon emissions and fuel efficiency, and these gains will be amplified by more effective management of congestion and delays at airports, the Aerospace Industries Association’s head of environment told The DAILY.
New Zealand’s Christchurch International Airport (CIAL) says it has become the first in the Southern Hemisphere to win carbon neutral certification. The airport worked with New Zealand-based Landcare Research to measure, managing, reducing and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions arising from its operational business activities under the carboNZero program. The program offers optional mitigation strategies by providing high-quality verified offsets.
Dozens of U.S. and foreign carriers filed a court action yesterday seeking to reclaim from the Transportation Security Administration millions of dollars in retroactive airport security fees. The carriers, including American, Southwest, Aloha, Hawaiian, Mesa, United, US Airways, Delta, Northwest, Continental and Air New Zealand, are appealing a May 31, 2007, decision by TSA requiring them to pay a total of about $98 million a year, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2005, for the screening of airline passengers and their baggage at U.S. airports.
Airbus has signed up U.S. Investment fund MatlinPatterson Global Advisers for six A330-200F freighters. The freighters will be used by two of the investment firms’ units, Brazil-based Varig Logistica and U.S.-based Global Aero Logistics, Airbus says, noting that both are first-time customers for the European aircraft maker. It’s the first deal for the cargo aircraft this year. The backlog for the aircraft launched just over a year ago now stands at 72 aircraft. First deliveries are planned in late 2009.
Opponents to the sale of Alitalia to Air France-KLM are trying to put the brakes on the deal, following the collapse of the Italian government last week (DAILY, Jan. 28). Umberto Bossi, leader of the right wing Northern League party, says the current exclusive talks with Air France should be interrupted because the power vacuum creates legal uncertainty. “The majority shareholder is the (Italian) Treasury,” explained Bossi. “But if we don’t have a new treasury minister, how do we do it? This is not a simple day-to-day administrative issue,” he said.
Delta will boost its New York-Cape Town, South Africa, service this summer with additional frequencies requested from the U.S. Transportation Dept. to upgrade the service from three-times-weekly service to daily flights, starting on or about June 3. The airline would use its Boeing 767-300s on the route, which operates via Dakar, Senegal.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has won an election to represent the 47 flight attendants at New York-based regional airline CommutAir, which operates as Continental Connection. The IAM won by a vote of 28 to one in a National Mediation Board tally. The IAM had organized for less than three months before the election was held. The IAM said the group should nearly double in size as soon as a large group of new hires emerges from training.
The looming threat of recession may not have much of an effect on airline profits or demand for air travel, an industry consultant says. The world’s airlines should deliver between $7 billion and $10 billion in profits, said Olivier Houri, president of Unisys Global Transportation. This is up from the $5.7 billion in profits last year, and higher than IATA’s 2008 forecast of $5 billion in profits, he said.
VRG Linheas Aereas (Varig) last week launched daily nonstop Boeing 767 service between Sao Paul and Mexico City, its first flight into North America since its 2006 downsizing.
Smaller Israeli airlines may be able to expand their international routes under a policy change being considered by the Israeli government, and the government is also moving to take on more of the security cost currently borne by airlines. The government currently allows no other Israeli carrier except El Al to compete on many international routes. It is now proposing to open many of these routes to competition from Israeli airlines, such as Israir and Arkia.
