MAIR Holdings is planning to divest itself of its lone airline subsidiary, Big Sky because attempts to develop the airline’s operations on the East Coast and in Montana proved unsuccessful.
Air Canada and Corsairfly of France have signed a deal that includes code sharing between Canada and France, as well as enhanced marketing in France of Air Canada. The marketing will be done by the Nouvelle Frontieres Group, owner of France’s largest travel agency network. Nouvelle will now promote Air Canada as a preferred carrier to those agents.
Vietnam Airlines has confirmed its plans to fly the Airbus A350XWB twin-widebody, having turned its purchasing commitment into a firm order. The 10 aircraft will be in the -900 configuration. In parallel, Vietnam Aircraft Leasing Co. has firmed up its purchase of a further 10 airbus A321s.
Jet Airways has shifted its regional headquarters from New York to San Francisco to plan for competition it expects to face from growing giant Kingfisher Airlines when it flies direct from Bangalore to San Francisco in August 2008. Jet Airways announced it will launch a flight from Delhi to the West Coast in February 2008, six months ahead of Kingfisher Airlines, and Jet Airways official told The DAILY the airline is “only preparing its flight operations schedule by moving office.”
Cebu Pacific’s decision to add to its ATR 72-500 order book has pushed the Franco-Italian turboprop maker over the top to achieve a new firm-commitment-record for a single year. The Dec. 21 announcement by Cebu Pacific means ATR now has booked 92 orders — some yet to be announced — topping its 90 aircraft record set in 2005. The four ATR 72-500s being bought represent half of the options Cebu took when it signed for six firm turboprops early in 2007. The carrier also took four more options in December.
The Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), a cooperative government/industry initiative co-chaired by FAA’s deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, will take a more proactive risk assessment role and continue to expand safety efforts internationally. The organization recently launched a new Web site — www.CAST-safety.org — geared toward the international aviation community, media, government agencies and the general public in an effort to spread information about ways the industry is making commercial air travel safer.
The Chinese government has approved the startup of freighter airline Uni-top, which intends to operate with two Boeing 747-300s and a 747-400 from its base in Wuhan. Cargo airlines are exempt from a ban on applications for new airlines before 2010 issued by China’s Civil Aviation Administration.
After butting heads recently, the Airlines Reporting Corp. is appeasing travel agents by delaying a portion of administrative fee increases planned for January until July. ARC, which has added more than 20 airlines in the past year for a total of 168, including 17 that do not even operate to the U.S., says this shows the importance of tapping into the U.S. travel agency distribution system. ARC VP Mike Premo says the organization has been telling airlines that the “agency channel is a more attractive way to distribute their products.”
By postponing Robert Sturgell’s confirmation as FAA administrator, Senate Democrats “put politics over aviation safety,” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), Ranking Member of the House Transportation panel. The Senate Commerce Committee postponed Sturgell’s confirmation hearing on Dec. 19 without setting a new date (DAILY, Dec. 20, 2007). A spokeswoman then said the hearing will be rescheduled “as early as possible” in the new year. Sturgell has been acting administrator since Marion Blakey stepped down last September.
Systemwide passenger traffic for the LAN Airlines increased by 15.5% in November from the same month in 2006, with capacity up by 13.7% from last year. Overall load factor increased by 1.2 percentage points to 78.1%.
A company that plans to become Vietnam’s first private airline — VietJetAir — says it will launch in late 2008 or early 2009. It plans to operate both domestic and international service just as national carrier Vietnam Airlines reorganizes its subsidiary Vietnam Air Service Co. into a low-cost carrier.
Mesa traffic fell from November 2006 to November 2007, as strong storms in the earlier part of the month dampened the carrier’s performance. Revenue passenger miles fell 4.51% year over year on 4.57% less capacity. Load factor remained flat, increasing only .05 percentage points to 73.3%. The company carried some 1.25 million passengers in the month, down 5.5% from the same month in 2006.
Four years into Wide Area Augmentation System operation, FAA is publishing some WAAS approach procedures at large airports in hopes of persuading airlines to use the system.
The European Commission has sent major airfreight operators a so-called “statement of objections” in which it outlines their suspected cartel. The EC said the document was sent to “a number of companies concerning their alleged participation in a cartel in the provision of airfreight services, in violation of European Union rules on restrictive business practices.”
The Air Line Pilots Association has sent the arbitrated seniority list of the merged US Airways and America West pilots to US Airways management to allow contract negotiations to proceed. The former US Airways group of pilots has been fighting against the list, which was arranged by a netural arbitrator. Management has acknowledged that it has received the list, which will not implement it until the company and ALPA have negotiated the terms of a new, single pilot agreement.
Alitalia’se board of directors unanimously voted in favour of selecting Air France-KLM as a preferred bidder for the privatization of the troubled Italian flag carrier.
Air France has started its in-flight mobile phone use trials with partner Mobile OnAir on a specially fitted Airbus A318. The first commercial flight took place Dec. 17 between Paris and Warsaw, but the aircraft will be put on different routes to gauge customer acceptance; passengers will not know until boarding if they are on the specially fitted aircraft. The six-month user trials will be accompanied by extensive data gathering by Air France staff, including asking the up to 123 passengers to fill out a 20 question survey on their experience.
Amadeus was chosen as the world’s leading Internet booking engine technology provider, the leading CRS/GDS system, and the world’s leading travel technology provider during the 2007 World Travel Awards ceremony on Dec. 12. Manon Han, VP of the World Travel Awards, said, “Amadeus is once again recognized for providing differentiated solutions that benefit travel providers and travelers alike.”
Frontier Airlines looked at a whole package of considerations — including tax incentives — when it chose to build a $25 million, 100,000-square-foot hangar in Colorado Springs after a year of studying the issue. The carrier sent out a request for proposal for the hangar to eight airports in Colorado, said spokesman Joe Hodas. “This has been an ongoing process. We originally started looking at places outside Colorado,” he recalled. “But we regrouped back in May and focused on state airports.”
The number of safety checks carried out on foreign aircraft in the U.K. will more than double in 2008, from 250 to 600, and rise to 1,000 inspections a year in 2009, according to the Dept. for Transport.
