Pinnacle carried 835,086 passengers on the flights its operated as Northwest Airlink in November, up 10.4% from the same month last year. Passenger traffic increased 7.4% on 2.2% more capacity, resulting in a 3.7 percentage-point increase in load factor to 78.3%. Traffic for the year to date, meanwhile, is also up — the airline flew some 4.3 billion revenue passenger miles, up 8.3%, on 7.3% more seat offer. Load factor for the January-November period stood at 77.1%, up 0.8 percentage points from the same period in 2006.
Emirates’ vacation department plans to put together tour packages for Americans wanting to visit Dubai, said Chairman and CEO Sheikh Ahmed Bid Saeed Al-Maktoum. “Dubai is a very cosmopolitan city, and we want to see more people come here,” he adds . Delta is looking to spend $50 million-$100 million at New York Kennedy Airport in the next two years on the facility’s customer-facing areas, says President and CFO Ed Bastian. The carrier’s JFK facility plan details will be announced “sometime in 2008,” he adds.
The Commercial Aviation Safety Teamappointed Continental’s Senior Director-Safety and Regulatory Compliance Don Gunther as its incoming Industry co-chair. Gunther succeeds Hank Krakowski, who recently became chief operating officer of FAA’s Air Traffic Organization. Continental Airlinesnamed John Slater managing director-Latin America, effective Jan. 1. L-3 Communicationsappointed Karen Tripp VP-corporate communications. JetBirdtapped Carsten Dettmar to become head of finance, effective Feb. 1.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. is backing away from congestion pricing for New York airports, and sources say DOT is instead looking at slot auctions as well as extending flight caps to all three New York region airports. DOT officials last week told industry representatives it will not carry out its threat to introduce congestion pricing to alleviate New York delays (DAILY, Dec. 7). But the White House still wants to bring in some sort of market mechanism for New York, and DOT has indicated some type of slot auction system could be proposed.
UAL Corp.’s board of directors approved a special distribution of $2.15 per share to holders of UAL common stock on Jan. 9, which will be paid out on Jan. 23.
JetBlue, US Airways and Continental are joining Spirit and Delta in proceedings that will see the award of 21 new opportunities to serve the U.S.-Colombia market. Spirit is the only carrier to have applied for all 21 frequencies. It also indicated its interest in seven other frequencies that could be revoked from American (DAILY, Nov. 30)
Travel Industry Association of America President and CEO Roger Dow was named Association Executive of the Year by Association Trends, a weekly publication for association professionals. Dow was recognized for his role in making the travel industry’s voice heard on Capitol Hill through the creation of the Discover America Partnership, as well as for other actions. Dow said, “I’m humbled by the honor, and feel it’s as much a recognition of how the leaders of our industry have come together to give us a bigger voice in Washington.”
American is asking the U.S. Transportation Dept. to reconsider an order that indicates it will weigh reawarding seven of American’s U.S.-Colombia frequencies in proceedings to hand out recently won rights (DAILY, Nov. 30), saying the action is “arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion, and should be vacated forthwith.”
Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB) employees last week gained additional time to fight the creditors push for bankruptcy after a civil judge elected to send the case to a higher bench. Civil judge Basilio Cruz last week dismissed the workers’ appeal against his ruling in favor of bankruptcy (DAILY, Dec. 6) but also reported transfer of the appeal for confirmation to the higher Superior Court of Justice, a procedure that might take up to three months due to a jam-packed calendar.
Alitalia confirmed that its board will examine three non-binding offers to acquire the Italian state’s shareholding in its capital. Next to Air France-KLM and AP Holding, the consortium set up by Air One founder Carlo Toto, the board also accepted to review the proposal tabled by Antonio Baldassarre (DAILY, Dec. 7). Last month, the consortium set up by the former chairman of the Italian constitutional court was rejected for failing to produce sufficient information to Alitalia’s privatization adviser, Citigroup.
A large aircraft part has dropped on to a runway at Jakarta’s main airport but, with the Indonesian government taking a stern view of airline safety standards, no airline is admitting that it has lost such a piece. Local media quote an official as saying the part, described as a three-meter ring-exhaust engine cap, comes from a McDonnell Douglas MD-90 operated by Batavia Air, Lion Air or Mandala Airlines — although only Lion lists MD-90s as part of its fleet.
To the surprise of nobody, American and the Allied Pilots Association appear to be miles apart on the issue of scope as contract negotiations grind on.
Spanish low-fare carrier Vueling plans to formulate a new strategic plan early next year. The company has already decided to shift its focus on expansion to profitability, and also wants to increasingly target business passengers. Drafting the strategic plans will have to wait until new CEO Lars Nygaard (DAILY, Nov. 20) is in place. That’s due to happen no later than early January.
Delta’s pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association met Dec. 5-6 with lawyers and investment bankers to form a union strategy for the possibility of industry consolidation.
The future of an empty 150,000-square-foot airport hangar at Tampa International Airport is up in the air after a deal with Alabama-based Pemco World Air Services fell through.
El Al has announced a major move to boost its short-haul fleet, at the same time as it signs a new code share with American that will strengthen its long-haul network. El Al’s board of directors recently approved the purchase of four new Boeing 737-800s to use on short-haul routes. The first will enter service by the end of 2008 and the remainder will follow in 2009, the airline said.
The European Commission last week adopted Slovakia’s proposed National Allocation Plan for CO2 in the emissions trading scheme. Slovakia’s proposed NAP would give it 32.6 million CO2 allowances in the 2008-2012 ETS trading period. This is 1.7 million allowances more than in the current trading period, the EC said. The cap for the EU overall in the next trading period is 6.8% — 140 million allowances — lower than in the current trading period, the EC said.
European airline executives are looking forward with keen interest to a Dec. 20 meeting of European environmental ministers, to see if the industry can get some support to change the European Parliaments proposed rules for inclusion of air transport in Brussels’s emission trading scheme. Airline officials are unhappy with the way Parliament changed the provisions for airline inclusion, arguing it made the ETS far more challenging to deal with.
The shortage of aircraft and crews at Aerolineas Argentinas (AR) that for the past few weeks has resulted in frequent domestic flight cancellations and delays (DAILY, Nov. 11, 13) caused Argentina’s national pilots union to warn that new delays are possible as the high summer travel season in the Southern Hemisphere begins this month.
The decision is final — the U.S. Transportation Dept. will not overturn its Sept. 10 decision denying confidential treatment of T-100 data for ExpressJet’s branded flying.
