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Labor unions have been advised that a looming recession and rising fuel costs could tip the scales in favor of management at the bargaining table this year, and managements will want to drag out negotiations on new contracts as long as possible.
Despite soaring oil prices, Mexican low-cost carrier VivaAerobus this week said it will not add a fuel surcharge to its published fares, as other airlines are doing. VivaAerobus spokesman Juan Carlos Zuazau told Terra Mexico that VivaAerobus is now operating at the highest load factors in the country, which, together with its operational efficiency, high utilization of fleet and other assets, plus strict control over costs, enables it to avoid passing on additional charges to passengers.
Saudi Arabian Airlines and Sabre have signed four separate deals to upgrade the airline’s technology related to a three-year IT transition program that is a part of Saudia’s IT Master Plan.
Allegiant’s scheduled traffic in December jumped 57.5% year over year on 56.5% more capacity, resulting in a 0.5-percentage-point increase in load factor to 78.9%. For all of 2007, revenue passenger miles were up 42.5% to 2.8 million, available seat miles rose 38.4% to 3.4 million and load factor grew 2.4 points to 83.1%. Allegiant carried some 3 million passengers in the year, up 55.5% from 2006, and 337,289 passengers in December. Fuel price in December was 38.8% higher than in the previous December, as Allegiant paid $2.90 a gallon for fuel.
Travelport GDS, operator of the Galileo and Worldspan GDSs, will consolidate its operations by establishing a new headquarters and primary data center in Atlanta while keeping its Rosemont, Ill., Parsippany, N.J., and Denver facilities. Travelport late last year bought Worldspan, which is based in Atlanta and owns a large complex there, and is integrating that company with Galileo, based in Parsippany.
Worldwide passenger traffic rose 5.6% to 230.3 million year over year in November, according to statistics from Airports Council International. Growth in November was fueled by a 9% hike in international traffic to 102.6 million passengers. The African region posted a large boost in international travelers, rising 21.5% to 4.1 million in November.
Southwest Airlines intends to eliminate 57 roundtrip flights that are not performing up to snuff and move those aircraft to 40 other roundtrip markets, with Denver getting the lion’s share.
The U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority has created a new online reporting system for birdstrikes. Previously, aerodromes, aircraft operators and private pilots filed birdstrike reports by completing CAA’s CA1282 Birdstrike Occurrence Form, which was faxed or posted. The online reporting form is available at http://www.caa.co.uk/birdstrikereporting.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) hosted several other unions yesterday on the first day of a three-day bargaining summit in Washington aimed at increasing their bargaining power.
Finnair saw a big jump in passenger and scheduled service last year, but in the last quarter faced a decline in unit revenue. In reporting 2007 traffic results, the carrier says that a change in the mix of long- and short-haul traffic drove unit revenue down 3% in the past year. For the year, Finnair passenger volume topped 8.6 million, a 5.3% year-on-year increase, with revenue passenger kilometer growth (16.2%) outstripping available seat kilometer increases (15.8%). Load factor for the year was up slightly, 0.2 percentage points, to 75.5%.
Consolidation of China’s second- and third-largest airlines has become increasingly probable after minority shareholders in China Eastern rejected a proposal for Singapore Airlines and a Singaporean state investment fund to buy into the struggling carrier. The shareholder vote, itself a landmark in Chinese corporate history, has opened the way for the parent of second-ranked carrier Air China to go ahead with its proposed bid for 24%-30% of China Eastern.
EasyJet recorded a drop of 2.2 points in its monthly load factor in December as the airline filled 78.9% of its seats. The latest figures caused an initial 8.4% drop in its share price, the sharpest decline in almost two years. EasyJet introduced extra charges on checked baggage recently, and Chris Avery, a JP Morgan airline analyst, believes that may have deterred some demand. Passenger numbers for the month were up 9.9.%.
Carriers operating out of London Stansted Airport are asking the U.K. Dept. for Transport (DFT) to abolish the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and create a new regulatory body. DFT tapped Joseph Pilling in October to conduct an independent review of CAA based on a recommendation from the House of Commons Transport Committee. The review is studying the structure, scope and organization of the CAA to ensure that the U.K.’s arrangements for aviation regulation and policy making are able to meet current and future challenges.
Rolls-Royce has won a US$300 million deal to power Thai Airways’ fleet of eight Airbus A330-300s with its Trent 700 engine. The deal also includes a 10-year TotalCare service agreement. Thai Airways was the launch customer for the Trent 800 powering its 20 Boeing 777 -200s and -300s. It also uses the Trent 500 on its 10 A340 -500s and -600s.
Three potential bidders are emerging for the Airbus interiors plant in Laupheim, Germany. German financial daily Handelsblatt reports Zodiac, Diehl Aerospace and Kafer are still in the race for the fourth German Airbus site to be sold. Airbus declined to comment. Late last year, Airbus opted to sell its facilities in Varel, Nordenham and Augsburg to OHB Technology, a Bremen-based space specialist. OHB expects to close the transaction before the end of the first quarter.
The French “solidarity tax” on airline tickets — implemented by former French President Jacques Chirac to fund development aid (DAILY, March 2, 2006) — is generating less revenue than expected.
Despite growing fears of mounting financial pressure on airlines, Air France-KLM says it has been able to increase unit revenue, excluding currency effects. The two carriers note that a strike at Paris Orly Airport affected Air France traffic growth in December, but that the two airlines still managed a 3.1% increase. Load factor fell slightly to 78.6%, or 0.8 percentage points; load factors for traffic in all regions, with available seat kilometers up everywhere except on Caribbean routes, where ASKs were flat.
Ryanair’s dispute with Aer Lingus will get a legal hearing next month. Ryanair holds 29.4% in Aer Lingus and is complaining that its shareholder rights are being ignored by Aer Lingus management. Meanwhile, Aer Lingus has been pressing Brussels to force Ryanair to unload its stake.
FAA is requiring assurances from Boeing that passengers on the 787-8 won’t be able to tamper with the new jet’s electronic systems. In a Federal Register notice, FAA notes the 787-8’s “novel or unusual” digital systems architecture — aimed at giving passengers inflight Internet access — provides “new kinds of passenger connectivity to previously isolated data networks’’ — and that could lead to security “vulnerabilities” due to unauthorized access, the FA said.
Iridium officials say that a recent ICAO stamp of approval for use of the company’s satellite communications system in flight safety situations may help spur more airlines to install Iridium avionics.
