Eos Airlines has signed a partnership with US Helicopter to offer its passengers a connecting service between Manhattan and New York Kennedy Airport. Effective immediately, its customers may take advantage of complimentary transfers from Downtown Manhattan Heliport in the Wall Street area, or East 34th Street Heliport. Security screening will be conducted at the heliport, and luggage will be checked on to the airline. The helicopter ride takes about eight minutes. At JFK, passengers will be escorted to either the lounge or directly to their flight.
Brazilian regulators’ proposal to raise aircraft parking fees at Sao Paulo could cost international carriers as much as $90 million annually, IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani wrote Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a recent letter obtained by The DAILY. In order to solve congestion issues at Sao Paulo’s international airport, regulators are proposing raising the fees charged to park aircraft during the day. Most international flights arrive at the airport in the morning and leave in the evening, a schedule driven by passenger demand, IATA says.
Chile’s November passenger traffic was up a record 16.2% to 823,183 passengers, Chile’s Civil Aviation Board (JAT) announced last week. Domestic traffic for the first time surpassed international by 413,140 passengers. JAT credits this to 77,300 “new air travelers” in Chile, as well as to the new structure of highly competitive domestic fares. JAT also reported that international traffic for the year-to-date at the end of November was up 17.2% to 4,485,690 passengers. -
Emirates is giving up management control of SriLankan Airlines and has not ruled out selling its stake in the carrier. Emirates President Tim Clark said that the SriLankan government wanted greater day-to-day control over the running of the airline. “We just felt that was not compatible with what we wanted to do and it was best that we agreed amicably to let the agreement lapse and give them a chance to take back control of the company,” Clark said in an interview.
Commuter Aerodiana on Jan. 10 will link its home base in Chachapoyas in Amazonas Province in Northeast Peru with major regional destinations Chiclayo (Lambayeque), Jaen (Cajamarca) and Bagua Chica and Bagua Grande (Amazonas), using a current fleet of Cessna Caravans for 15 and 25 passengers. Aerodiana will follow the low-cost carrier business model.
Revenue passenger miles (RPMs) at Great Lakes jumped 22.2% from December 2006 to December 2007. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 21.5% to 25 million, resulting in a 0.3 percentage point increase in loads to 47.2%. The airline carried 45,197 passengers in the month, up 21.7% from December 2006. Revenue per available seat mile improved 2.8% to 30 cents, Great Lakes reported.
Mesa traffic fell 15.95% on 12.56% less capacity in December 2007, resulting in a 2.8-point decline in load factor to 69.82%. Revenue passenger miles in the month stood at 484,861, while available seat miles stood at 694,401. The company carried some 1.13 million passengers in the month, down 15.5% from 1.33 million in December 2006. Traffic for the year 2007 was down 1.32% on 1.91% less capacity from 2006. Mesa carried some 16 million passengers in 2007, up 4.58% from 2006, and loads improved half a percentage point to 75.73%.
American Eagle’s systemwide traffic fell 6.7% from December 2006 to December 2007 on 5.6% less capacity. Load factor dropped 0.8 points to 69.4%. For the full year 2007, traffic was down 1% on 0.7% less capacity. Load factor fell 0.2 points to 73.4%. American Eagle and Executive together carried 1.6 million passengers in December, down 6.5% year-over-year. Full-year numbers were down as well as the airlines carried only 18.52 million passengers in 2007, down 1.3% from the previous year.
Continental’s on-time performance dropped from 77.9% in November to 66.4% in December, as winter weather affected the carrier’s operations in the Northeast and Midwest, the airline reported last week.
Boeing is delaying by “a couple of weeks” the delivery of its second 787 flight test aircraft so suppliers can improve the “conditions of assembly” of their large deliverables, a company official said. In early December 787 GM Pat Shanahan said the second aircraft was due later that month. The newest delay is based on a desire to rid the system of as much “travel work” as possible, meaning supplier partners complete more of their assemblies before shipping them to Everett, Wash.
Of the batch of startups to take off recently, Colombian low-cost carrier EasyFly appears to be an instant success in the market. Founder Alfonso Avila said “operating to medium-sized destinations – some not linked before by air – we are filling profitable niches from Bogota to Yopal, Manizales, Neiva, Armenia, Pasto, Ibague, Valledupar, Arauca, Popayan, Cartago, Villavicencio and Barrancabemeja, at fares 23% lower than on equivalent stretches in other carriers.”
AirTran Airways Chairman Joe Leonard will give up that position after the May 21 annual board meeting in Charleston, S.C. Leonard turns 65 this summer, and already handed over the CEO reins in November to Robert Fornaro. Leonard, who lives in Minnesota, has said he intends to take on a new career, possibly with a private equity firm. His initial remarks about giving up the chairman’s seat in May were printed last week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Air Transport Association Friday last week announced that Douglas Steenland, Northwest Airlines president and CEO, has been elected to serve a two-year term as the chairman of the association’s board of directors. Steenland’s tenure follows American Airlines chief Gerard Arpey’s stint in the position. ATA President James May yesterday thanked Arpey for his service, adding, “We look forward to Doug’s leadership in continuing to advance the public’s interest in a robust, dynamically structured aviation system.”
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport has maintained its position as the world’s busiest airport, according to preliminary statistics released by FAA. The airport went from 976,447 operations in 2006 to 994,466 in 2007, up 1.8%. Rounding out the top three are Chicago O’Hare, from 958,643 in 2006 to 935,000, down 2.4%; and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, 702,722 in 2006 to 686,711, down 2.3%.
FAA paid almost $4.7 million in bonuses between October 2005 and September 2007, according to data obtained by the controllers union. FAA paid former COO Russell Chew a cash bonus in February last year that topped $44,000, according to data the National Air Traffic Controllers Union obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The data, which list all cash bonuses over $5,000, show that other senior managers also received five-figure bonuses.
Steve Wallach issued a call to arms to all United pilots last week as he took over as Master Executive Council chairman of the carrier’s Air Line Pilots Association unit. Vowing to begin the fight to “take back what was stolen from pilots,” Wallach issued personal attacks against UAL Chairman Glenn Tilton and other executives, and asked for unity among pilots to prepare for the inevitable – United’s merger with another carrier.
The Dept. of Homeland Security has formally signed a $29 million contract with BAE Systems and partner American Airlines to test an infrared missile defense system on scheduled passenger flights, but a leading industry groups thinks it’s a bad idea. As previously reported (DAILY, Dec. 11), the contract, announced Friday, Jan. 4, calls for installing BAE’s JetEye infrared laser jamming device on up to three of American’s aircraft making scheduled flights across the U.S. The contract runs through April 2009.
Continental saw its unit revenue increase 5.5%-6.5% in December, but a leading analyst believes the first signs of demand weakness are evident in the airline’s latest report.
The Air Transport Association predicts an industry-wide profit of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion this year, possibly the first time the U.S. airline industry has reported three consecutive profitable years in eight years. The industry will be profitable despite rising fuel and non-fuel expenses and a softening economy, ATA chief economist John Heimlich noted in the 2008 Economic Outlook. Passenger and cargo revenue strength will continue to sustain the industry this year, the report said.
Texas Aviation Services named founder and long-time CEO Carl “Woody” Woodard chairman emeritus. Woodard formally retired on Dec. 31 but will remain with the company in a consulting role.
Turkish Airlines plans to launch a low-fare subsidiary this year. The company said in a regulatory filing last Friday that the new entity will be based on a Boeing 737-400 operation. The as-yet-unnamed carrier will be based in the country’s capital, Ankara. Turkish Airlines plans to launch 10 new routes this year, mainly to European destinations to position itself against a growing number of low-fare carriers that enter the Turkish market.
Mesa last week named Jorn Bates as its new chief operating officer, one of several senior management changes Mesa announced simultaneously. Bates joined Mesa Air Group in January 2007, serving as VP-East Coast operations and then president of Freedom Air. He previously worked at Delta for 15 years in various management roles. Joe Serratelli is also coming to Mesa from Delta. He will be COO for Freedom, after more than 25 years at Delta. Serratelli and Bates will both report to Mesa Air Group COO Michael Lotz.
