China Southern yesterday officially became the 11th full member of the SkyTeam alliance. The airline has been working toward full membership since inking an MOU in 2004 (DAILY, Aug. 26, 2004), signing code-share deals and implementing frequent flyer mileage and lounge reciprocity agreements with other alliance members. The carrier's addition could not come at a better time -- the 2008 Olympic Games are right around the corner (DAILY, Sept. 28).
Military airspace off the East Coast for the first time will be available for commercial traffic for a five- day bloc during the busy Thanksgiving travel period, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said yesterday in Washington. The availability of military airspace is one of two "holiday gifts to the nation" that Peters announced at a White House briefing. The other is a package of proposed rules aimed at beefing up passenger rights and protections.
Worldspan believes it is still possible to reach an agreement with South African Airways (SAA) over distribution fees and terms, and that a notice by SAA warning it will terminate participation in the GDS was premature.
The 17-member Association for Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) is in discussions with Chinese carriers and the Civil Aviation Administration of China to increase its membership base. The AAPA permanent secretariat is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. a The presence of Taiwan's China Air and EVA Airways as AAPA members is not expected to be problematic as the association, while it is conscious of the sensitive issue, is a non-political trade organization, AAPA Director General Andrew Herdman told The DAILY.
China Eastern Airlines aims to double its business and first-class loads on long-haul flights to 70%-80% within a year under the guidance of its new major shareholder, Singapore Airlines. If it can do that, overall profits shouldn't be a problem for the struggling carrier, says board Secretary Luo Zhuping. Singapore Airlines and its own major shareholder, Temasek Holdings, have completed an agreed purchase of 24% of China Eastern's stock.
GOL subsidiary VRG -- previously Varig -- signed an interlining deal with Delta. The agreement becomes effective this month and allows passengers to buy tickets all destinations served by both carriers. GOL Airlines has entered interline agreements this year with Delta, Continental and Aerolineas Argentinas. VRG participates in IATA's Multilateral Interline Traffic Agreement, which allows members to develop interline agreements with other members. [email protected]
US Airways and Asiana are eyeing Dec. 8 as the launch date to implement a code-share plan that the carriers inked in late October. The agreement will see US Air carrying the OZ code on flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago to Charlotte, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Pittsburgh. Asiana, meanwhile, would carry the US Air code on flights between Seoul and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York and New Delhi.
Emirates Airline opened a US$353 million engineering center on the north side of Dubai Airport that includes eight hangars, one of which accommodates aircraft painting. The hangars, each measuring 361 by 345 feet, are big enough for the Airbus A380, of which Emirates has 58 on firm order. Emirates will perform light and heavy maintenance for its fleet, as well as third-party customers, at the new engineering center, which sits on 136 acres. Emirates said its engineering center is about the same size as Airbus' A380 assembly facilities in Toulouse.
Aeromexico and Mexicana both won approval from the U.S. Transportation Dept. to operate flights to San Antonio (DAILY, Nov. 13). Mexicana will serve the Texas city from Monterrey and Aeromexico from Guadalajara. Aeromexico also won an exemption to operate between Acapulco and Chicago and Mexicana got the nod for Puerto Vallarta-Los Angeles services. [DOT-OST-2007-0038; DOT-OST-2007-0039; DOT-OST-2007-0040]. [email protected]
Qantas has ordered 68 Airbus A320s and A321s and 31 Boeing 737-800s, signaling that its future growth will rely heavily on budget unit Jetstar and its Asian franchisees. The airline group, Australia's largest, has secured early delivery positions, despite the extremely tight market. The first aircraft from the two orders, an A321, will be delivered in February, with the others arriving in the following six years. Options and purchase rights on 40 A320s and A321s and 49 737-800s cover delivery slots as far out as 2017.
South African Airways has notified Worldspan of its intent to drop out of the GDS on Dec. 1 because it cannot reach an acceptable contract to fulfill its cost-cutting goals. However, it left the window open by telling travel agents that the situation could change. It will continue to post full content in Amadeus, Sabre and Galileo.
Egyptian startup carrier Nile Air is talking to lessors about taking a few Airbus A321s to help it launch its service. The carrier yesterday agreed to buy nine A321s, with the hope of finalizing the terms in the coming weeks. However, the first of those aircraft will not arrive until late 2012, so a bridge is needed. The goal is to get the first aircraft in hand through lease accords about April or May 2008, says founder Nasser Al-Tayyar.
Passengers want to fly into new York Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, so it serves no purpose to restrict access or artificially drive up prices, according to a letter from members of the New York and New Jersey congressional delegations to U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.
The European Commission is giving Web-based airline ticket retailers a four-month deadline to bring their Web sites in line with European Union legislation covering misleading advertising or face legal action that could shut them down. More than half of 400 airline-ticket selling Web sites surveyed in 16 European countries fail to comply with the EU's legislation on misleading advertising or unfair terms in consumer contracts, the EC found.
Total sales for tickets processed by the Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) in October rose 8.9% to $7.1 billion, and are up 3.4% for the year to date for a total of $69.5 billion. Domestic fares accounted for $3.4 billion of the total for October, and international fares $2.8 billion. For the first 10 months of the year, international fares were up 9.1% to $27.9 billion, and domestic fares were down 2.2% to $32.4 billion. Credit card sales rose 9.9% during October, totaling $6.3 billion. Cash sales totaled $813 million. [email protected]
Austrian Airlines will continue to grow to markets that can be reached within six hours from Central Europe, and says the Middle East and Eastern Europe will play a large role in those plans.
Skybus had finalized financing deals for all aircraft scheduled for delivery through the first half of 2010 after reaching a deal with Bank of China subsidiary BOC Aviation for 13 Airbus A319s.
Aer Lingus is holding meetings with its ground staff at all Irish airports to warn workers that they will be suspended if they engage in next week's revolving strike organized by Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union. "Aer Lingus will not tolerate action that will discommode its customers and sees no legitimate reason why services will not operate next week," said the carrier. Strikers will be suspended for "unauthorized absence from duty," airline CEO Dermot Mannion wrote in a letter to the personnel.
