Increased operations by U.S. and European carriers is a good thing for Colombians looking for travel options but could be a bad thing for Bogota’s Eldorado International Airport, one local paper said.
Horizon Air will launch its first flights to Mexico on Jan. 19, when it will begin weekly Los Angeles-Loreto, Mexico, service. The flights will be operated with Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft and will supplement existing service already offered by sister carrier Alaska, which flies four weekly flights on the route.
The SkyTeam alliance is expanding efforts to expand the availability of Common Use Self-Service kiosks at airline members’ busiest airports. The focus is on more kiosks at Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Schiphol and Newark Liberty airports. By the end of 2007, 25 more airports served by SkyTeam members will offer the kiosks.
USA Today has backed down from increasing the price of its newspaper from 75 cents to $1 an issue in airports. The officials from the newspaper met with staff from Airports Council International-North America about the price hike after receiving complaints from airport retailers. President Greg Principato and Brett McAllister, senior vice president of operations and CFO, argued that the price hike would hurt vendor efforts to maintain street pricing.
Premium traffic was up 3.8% in October, recent IATA data show, but future growth could be hampered by continuing economic uncertainty and high oil prices. Asia/Pacific premium traffic, however, is expected to grow strongly in the new year, fueled in large part by the booming China market.
After four and a half months of indecision, New Jersey-based Swiss Transatlantic Investment Corporation (STC) was back in Bolivia last week to invest US$80 million as provided in the joint-venture agreement signed last July (DAILY, July 31) to relaunch Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB). After hurried negotiations, STC by midweek had paid an initial installment of US$255,000 to start covering the first investment phase for US$6.4 million.
Air France-KLM and Air One both unveiled non-binding plans to inject capital into Alitalia and renew its fleet in their bid to acquire the Italian state’s 49.9% stake in the flag carrier. Alitalia’s board is scheduled to meet today to identify the preferred bidder; its decision would subsequently have to be confirmed by the Italian government.
American Airlines yesterday announced it is planning to recall or hire between 200 and 250 maintenance workers for the increased workload the carrier predicts for next year. The recall and hiring will begin this month and continue through 2008, the carrier said.
Recovery in U.S. airline credit fundamentals will slow as carriers plan for another year of very high jet fuel prices and weaker air travel demand growth in 2008, according to debt watcher Fitch Ratings.
The regulatory minimum distance between seats on commercial aircraft needs to be increased from 26 inches to at least 28.2 inches, according to a new U.K. House of Lords Science and Technology Committee report. The Civil Aviation Authority made a similar recommendation in its own research and the committee’s report called upon it to implement the change. The report also calls on the U.K. government to eliminate its GPB80 (US$161.97) premium economy tax — the same that is charged for first-class flights — for long-haul flights.
Total sales processed through the Airlines Reporting Corp. rose 5.98% in November to $6.04 billion. For the year to date, sales are up 3.6% to $75.5 billion. The rise in international fares and international demand continues to drive sales up, with total international fares up 11% in November to $2.5 billion, and up 9.2% for the year to $30.4 billion. Domestic fares were up 1.2% in November to $2.8 billion, and for the year are down 1.9% to $35.2 billion.
Congress this week is tackling an omnibus spending bill for Fiscal Year 2008 covering programs under the Depts. of Transportation and Homeland Security, along with FAA and the Transportation Security Administration.
Pinnacle last week reached an initial contract with the Transport Workers Union, which represents the airline’s dispatchers, and 88% of Pinnacle dispatchers voted in favor of the contract. Pinnacle, meanwhile, is still in talks with the Air Line Pilots Association about a deal with the airline’s pilots (DAILY, Dec. 6). Pilots and management have been in negotiations for pay raises and other work benefits for three years, and discussions are being monitored by the National Mediation Board.
Management of the SAS Group is delaying until at least February a decision on what to do with its Ground Services, Technical Services, and Sprit units. A decision on how to proceed with the three operations was due yesterday, but management said that because of deep disagreements with labor nothing will be done until a subsequent board meeting planned on Feb. 5. The goal is to provide more time to look at alternatives, SAS says.
In one of the first projects of the U.S.-India Aviation Cooperation Program (ACP), U.S. industry and government experts will be going to India in early February to study the air traffic management chokepoints in that country, The DAILY has learned. A team of U.S. experts on air traffic management are making a “diagnostic visit,” said Henry Steingass, U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) regional director for south and southeast Asia. This is the first project to be funded and progress since the ACP was signed earlier this year, he said.
A federal bankruptcy judge in Hawaii last Friday rejected Mesa Air Group’s motion for retrial in the Hawaiian lawsuit. Go Airlines parent Mesa filed the motion last month after the court ordered it to pay $80 million in damages to Hawaiian, saying it had “important information” that was not previously available to the court (DAILY, Nov. 12).
DC Aviation will provide its executive jet services for Lufthansa until the airline has built up its own fleet of corporate jets in early 2008. The decision came after NetJets discontinued its Lufthansa Private Jets flights last week. Lufthansa had to look for alternative operators at short notice to be able to operate prebooked flights.
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To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ingrid Lee at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) JAN. 6-10, 2008 — American Association of Airport Executives, 22nd Annual Aviation Issues Conference, Kona, Hawaii, 703-824-0500, e-mail: ww.aaae.org/product/allmeetings.html
At the same confirmation hearing, the Senate Commerce Committee will debate the nomination of Simon Charles Gros to U.S. Transportation Dept. assistant secretary for governmental affairs. Gros has held a variety of posts at DOT, including deputy assistant secretary for governmental affairs and deputy chief of staff.
Lufthansa’s decision to take a 19% stake in JetBlue and its plans to seek network benefits with the U.S. low-fare carrier will not harm relations with north American Star Alliance partners, insists airline CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber. The deal is “98% complementary to our current partners,” Mayrhuber insisted Friday in presenting the deal to a German audience. JetBlue only has 2% overlap with the routes offered by United, US Airways, and Air Canada, he says, adding that “we can grow a lot before we encounter a problem” with the alliance.
