Singaporean budget carriers Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia have each won the right to operate a single daily service between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur from February as part of an agreement between the city-state and Malaysia to liberalize the market. Malaysia has said its local budget carrier, AirAsia, will get rights to two daily flights. The route, one of the busiest in Asia, has been run as a joint monopoly by Malaysian Air System and Singapore Airlines with 13 daily services.
The Airlines Reporting Corporation has rolled out ARC Itinerary Detail-Global Data, a new tool it says will help airlines save money on marketing analysis by consolidating information.
British Airways load factor climbed slightly in November, helped by a healthy pickup in premium traffic. Capacity rose 1.6% for the month, with traffic increasing 2.4%. Premium traffic grew 5% versus a 1.9% gain in non-premium traffic. Load factor was up 0.6 points to 73.1%. Cargo volume rose 5.5%.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ingrid Lee at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) DEC 10-13 — National Agricultural Aviation Association, Annual Conference and Expo, Reno, Nev., 202-546-5722 DEC. 13 — Wings Club Luncheon featuring Fred Smith, Chairman & CEO, Fedex Corporation, Yale Club, New York, 212-867-1770, e-mail: [email protected]
The Superjet 100’s SaM146 turbofan has begun flight trials. The engine being developed by the PowerJet joint venture of NPO Saturn and Snecma has been integrated on an IL-76LL owned by Russia’s Gromov Flight Research Institute (or LII Gromov) and took to the air Dec. 6. The first flight took place at the Zukhovsky test center outside Moscow. The engine was handed over several months ago, but integration issues between the powerplant built to western standards and the Il-76 proved more difficult than expected, program officials have indicated.
The Transportation Security Administration will be reviewing a demonstration this week of a video game developed in house to train airport screeners. The game will help transportation security officers with object recognition.
A new weekly 747 flight being added by Cathay at Dallas/Fort Worth will mark the first time in the airport’s history that it will see 50 weekly widebody cargo flights. DFW now has 39 weekly freighter flights to Asia, nine to Europe and two to Mexico. The airport has experienced 22% annual growth in Asian flights since 2002.
Alaska Airlines saw a healthy 2.7-point jump in load factor for November, but the year-to-date load factor was essentially flat. Traffic for the month rose 7.6% on a 4.5% capacity gain, lifting passenger load factor to 76.7%. Traffic for the first 11 months of the year rose 3.3%, just under the capacity increase of 3.9%. Load factor for this period was 76.3%, compared with 76.7% a year earlier.
The final obstacle to closing Berlin Tempelhof Airport has been overcome after the Federal Administrative Court of Germany ruled that the facility could close, as planned, on Oct. 31, 2008. Germany’s Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg originally approved closing Tempelhof on Feb. 12, but four business aviation companies appealed the ruling. The businesses did not want to relocate to Tegel Airport, which is handling Berlin flights until the new Berlin-Brandenberg International Airport, scheduled to open by 2012, is finished.
Air passenger complaints — particularly over issues with baggage, flight cancellations and delays -- rose in 2006, according to a report prepared by the European Consumer Centre Network. The report, released yesterday, found that air passenger complaints tracked by the ECC in the 27 EU member states were up 96% over 2005. EU rules on delays, cancellations and denied boarding first came into force in 2005. “The report confirms our own analysis of the situation,” said Jacques Barrot, EC VP for transport. -
The airline industry greeted news that the Liberman-Warner Climate Security Act moved out of committee and before the full Senate with dismay. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this week voted to move S.2191, “America’s Climate Security Act,” out of committee in an 11-8 vote. Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) introduced the legislation Oct. 18. S.2191 proposes a national cap-and-trade system to reduce the U.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions. The bill has emissions from transportation in its sights.
Cathay Pacific yesterday revealed an order for eight Airbus A330-300 aircraft. The new A330s will be powered by Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines, and are scheduled for delivery before the end of 2012. The order will bring Cathay’s total A330-300 fleet to 56 aircraft. The airline has an existing fleet of 45 -300s, and three leased aircraft are due to be delivered in 2008. Cathay said the new aircraft will help bolster its regional and medium-haul routes. They will be deployed with both Cathay and Dragonair.
The European Union and Ukraine launched talks this week in Kiev aimed at creating a ‘Common Aviation Area’ that would extend the bulk of the EU’s aviation legislation to Ukraine and lift market restrictions. “Ukraine has an important aviation industry and is a country with a high potential for tourism,” said the European Commission. Passenger traffic between the EU and Ukraine grew 21% to 2.1 million in 2006.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. appears to be backing away from its threat to introduce congestion pricing at New York airports, industry sources tell The DAILY. Apparently DOT officials told the latest meeting of a special aviation rulemaking committee (ARC) that the department will not recommend congestion pricing as an option to reduce congestion at the airports.
Interior ministers from the 27 European Union states voted yesterday to admit nine more countries into the Schengen visa-free travel zone. At a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union, the ministers adopted a pending resolution to extend the Schengen area. The Council had decided on Nov. 8 that the nine countries had fulfilled all requirements for Schengen area membership.
The Transportation Research Board (TRB), a unit of the National Academies, is requesting proposals for ways to help airport operators measure their facilities’ effect of local air quality. The request for proposals, issued by TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), seeks guidance on tools and techniques airports can use for measuring their emissions’ contributions to ambient air quality.
United yesterday revealed plans to boost its network out of Washington Dulles airport, adding nine new Northeast routes. Three routes – to Bradford, Pa., Jamestown, N.Y. and Parkersburg, W.V. – will begin Jan. 7. Flights to Clarksburg, W.Va. and Morgantown, W.Va. are scheduled to begin Jan. 21, while Altoona, Pa. and Johnstown, Pa. will begin Feb. 4. Beckley, W.Va. and Shenandoah, Va. routes will start Feb. 18. United Express will offer service through its regional partner Colgan Air with Saab SF-340s with 34 seats.
Cathay has added an eighth weekly cargo flight to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, its first roundtrip exclusively between Hong Kong and DFW. Cathay had already added three weekly flights at DFW in July and August. The carrier’s existing seven flights all operate from Hong Kong to DFW to Atlanta and back to Hong Kong. The new flight will use a Boeing 747.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has cut the debt portion of its A$1.5 billion bid to buy a 40% stake in Auckland International Airport Ltd. to make the deal more appealing. CPPIB’s original offer was for A$3.65 (US$3.18) per share, but there were concerns about the amount of debt that would be created under the sale. It moved the record date for its proposed offer to shareholders to Dec. 7.
Venezuela’s Santa Barbara Airlines on Dec. 29 will increase weekly long-haul frequencies between Caracas and Madrid from four to six, as well as add one on the Caracas-Tenerife route, boosting seat offer by 46% to a total 152,744 a year. Boeing 767-300 aircraft configured for 24 passengers in business class and 225 in economy are used on the routes.
U.S. sales of commercial aircraft will overtake military aircraft revenues next year for the first time since 2002, according to estimates issued yesterday by the Aerospace Industries Assn.
Air Canada saw its load factor dip by 0.9 points in November, although the Jazz unit reported a slight gain. Consolidated traffic rose 2.7% on a capacity gain of 3.9%, resulting in a load factor of 75.7%. Domestic traffic increased 3.5%, compared with a 3.9% capacity climb. Mainline traffic grew 2.1%, with capacity up 3.6%, with loads dropping 1.1 points to 76.1%. Jazz traffic was up 7.8% on 7% more capacity. Load factor gained 0.5 points to 72.2%.
