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.
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.
