The European Court of Justice yesterday ruled that the U.K. and Ireland may not participate in establishing standards for biometrics and security features in Schengen-area passports. The two countries are not part of the 15-member Schengen visa-free area, and so the Court ruled that the U.K. and Ireland may not participate in Schengen rulemaking. The U.K. informed the Council of the European Union that it was to take part in establishing rules and standards for biometrics in passports.
After much opposition from the American Society of Travel Agents to rising fees, the Airlines Reporting Corp. has decided to split the collection of the fixed-fee portion of its new annual administrative fees. ARC will collect $150 in January and the balance in July. Other annual and quarterly fees remain as approved by the ARC board on Dec. 6. ARC says it will publish the final collection schedule in the first week of January.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters today is expected to announce proposals to ease the New York airspace congestion issue. At the same event, Peters plans to outline steps the department, airlines and airports are taking to prevent excessive delays during the upcoming holiday travel period. Peters will be speaking at the FAA command center.
International passenger traffic in Venezuela has grown so far this year by 15% from 2006 to an estimated total 1,820,000 passengers, the Venezuelan Airline Association (ALAV) reported. ALAV President Humberto Figueras also noted that, contrary to previous years, load factors in 2007 have not been seasonal and instead have sustained high levels all year. However, he admitted that industry-wide bottlenecks still pose problems at Carnival, Easter Week, Christmas and New Year’s.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents 720,000 members, is throwing its weight behind Hillary Clinton for President, saying she has the most “seniority” of any candidate. The IAM sent members to Council Bluffs and Cedar Rapids over the weekend to rally, providing caucus training to members to ensure they vote in the Iowa caucus in January.
The Air Transport Association has called on a federal judge to dismiss a New York statute that seeks to create a state passenger bill of rights. ATA argues that federal law takes precedence. The New York statute is pre-empted by the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, ATA says. The association said it has requested a summary judgment hearing on the issue. The law, if unchallenged, will go into effect on Jan. 1. “Commercial aviation is best regulated by one source — the federal government — and not 50 individual states,” ATA said in a statement.
Zoom Airlines is adding flights from London Gatwick to San Diego, Calif., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The Fort Lauderdale connection will start in May, with two flights per week on Thursday and Sunday, with San Diego to follow in June on Monday and Friday.
Asia will soon overtake both Europe and North America as the world’s largest aviation market, and moves to liberalize Asian skies are picking up speed.
Amadeus has signed a deal with Virgin Blue to provide the airline with more of its technology products as the carrier expands its service, and to supply technology to yet-to-be-launched carrier V Australia.
Congress and the Bush Administration are on their way to fund the federal government — outside of the regular Pentagon budget — for fiscal 2008 after a fragile deal apparently won blessings from the White House and enough lawmakers from both parties Dec. 18. President Bush would sign the “omnibus” spending bill if it contains $70 billion in supplemental spending for the combat operations in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan and elsewhere with “no strings attached,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.
A strong market position, high proportion of origin and destination traffic and a manageable capital expenditure program have caused debt watcher Standard & Poor’s to affirm its ‘BBB-/A-3’ long- and short-term corporate credit ratings on Italy’s Aeroporti di Roma SpA (AdR).
New Jersey’s two U.S. senators, worried that FAA plans to end airport congestion at New York’s airports will cause additional problems for Newark Liberty Airport, have introduced legislation that would force the agency to take a regional approach to the problem.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has filed a lawsuit in U.S. district Court in Minneapolis against Champion Air for allegedly violating the federal statute that governs contract negotiations.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) intends to launch a new joint-venture express delivery company April 1 to operate within Asia with logistics companies Nippon Express and Kintetsu World Express. The companies all signed a memorandum of understanding to create the company to offer business to business express delivery services. The new company, which has not yet been named, will be 34% owned by ANA, and the other two will take a 28% stake. The remaining shares will be bought by other freight forwarding companies.
Avianca last week increased weekly nonstop frequencies on the Cali-Madrid route, adding two more flights for a four-times-weekly offering. Service is operated with 178-seat Boeing 767s configured for 20 in business and 158 in economy, and depart from Cali on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with returns on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.
JetBlue Airways and Cape Air have expanded their cose-sharing service from Boston Logan to include service to Rutland, Vt., giving them scheduled flights to the Killington ski area. Cape Air is operating the flights from Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport to Boston where they can connect to 15 JetBlue destinations. JetBlue also operates its own daily nonstops to Burlington, Vt., from New York’s Kennedy. It will launch flights from Burlington to Orlando on Jan. 10.
The new year will bring new faces to the board of Jazz Air, the airline revealed late last week. ACE Aviation Holdings Senior VP-Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer Sydney John was appointed to the board, while current members Bernard Attali, Pierre Marc Johnson and David Richardson will leave the board on Jan. 1. Robert Brown and Marvin Yontef will leave the board of trustees on the same day.
U.S. airlines are on track to carry a record number of passengers this year if gains from 2006 continue for the rest of the year, the U.S. Transportation Dept.’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said last week as it released traffic data for September 2007.
For the first time since 2004, when regional airlines started submitting quarterly financial data to DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, network airlines’ unit revenues exceeded those of the regionals in the third quarter of 2007. The network carriers’ revenue increased 0.8 cents per available seat mile to 14.9 cents in the quarter, compared with the third quarter of 2006, while the regionals’ dropped 0.3 cents per ASM, to 14.7 cents. As usual, network airlines’ unit costs were lower than the regionals’, 13.6 cents per ASM compared with 14 cents.
Domestic passenger traffic in Mexico will increase this year by 22% from 2006 for a total of some 26 million passengers, civil aviation department (DGAC) CEO Gilberto Lopez Meyer said at a news conference on the domestic airline sector for 2007.
Air Madrid still faces proceedings against it in Spain on two judicial fronts one year after suspending operations as an international low-cost carrier.
