Changing New York Kennedy's designation to a Level 3 airport in an attempt to coordinate capacity freezes is only a possible short-term solution that carries its own challenges, American reasons and believes it is much more desirable to develop ways to increase available capacity in the New York area. FAA recently required that airlines serving the airport submit summer schedules further in advance, and also pointed out its work on a capacity and demand assessment that could elevate JFK's designation to Level 3 (DAILY, Sept. 21).
Egypt Air will join the Star Alliance, after the alliance's board agreed to accept a membership application. The airline could join the group before the end of 2008, but no firm date was set. Star "has a unique leadership position in Africa," CEO Jaan Albrecht believes, as the biggest and second-biggest airline on the continent (SAA and Egypt Air) will soon be Star members.
US Airways has added PayPal as a payment method for online ticket purchases at usairways.com. Travis Christ, VP-sales and marketing, says the move is one more way the airline is rebuilding its Web site. PayPal was requested by many of its customers. PayPal allows the user to choose payment options from credit cards to bank accounts to their own PayPal account balances. There are no added fees with the service. [email protected]
Despite the pushback of formally launching Q400 service with its Lynx subsidiary, Frontier's CEO says bookings and yields in the three markets where the aircraft will eventually fly are hitting the carrier's targets.
Hawaiian Airlines has appointed Charles Nardello senior VP-operations, replacing Norm Davies, who retired in July. Nardello joined the airline in February 2004 as VP-maintenance and engineering. He has 30 years of aviation experience, including 22 years with the U.S. Air Force in both active and reserve duty.
The Transportation Security Administration is not yet conducting security inspections of aircraft repair stations based overseas, despite a congressional requirement to do so, the agency's chief conceded yesterday.
Delta will continue its expansion into Mexico on Jan. 14, when it intends to launch flights to Queretaro from Atlanta pending government approval. Queretaro would be Delta's 19th Mexican destination, making Mexico the country with the most cities served by the carrier, said Christophe Didier, VP-sales and public affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean. Delta offers more than 400 weekly flights to 53 stops in Latin America and the Caribbean. [email protected]
Northwest SVP International Marketing and Sales Laura Liu tells attendees at the Boyd Group Aviation Forecast conference that Air France, KLM, Delta and Northwest hope the U.S. government makes a decision on their antitrust immunity application in the first or second quarter of 2008, noting, "It is critical to our strategy for the Atlantic." She also says the carriers have done "everything we can" to assure authorities that the antitrust immunity wouldn't affect other markets.
American says its new Moscow service, announced yesterday, marks the first flight by a U.S. carrier between Chicago and Moscow, and it claims to be just the second U.S. carrier to fly nonstop to Moscow from any U.S. airport. The new flights are scheduled to begin June 2, 2008. This is also the first time American has launched a flight to Russia. According to American, Russia is the third-fastest growing tourist market after China and India. Russian visitors to the U.S. increased 15.6% in 2006, American says.
Eurocontrol and Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities plan to develop joint safety training programs, under a new agreement signed this week. The MOU outlines several training areas where the two groups will "cooperate and exchange information," including quality control and management, customer satisfaction measurement and analysis, mutual hosting of courses and workshops, exchange of information on e-examinations, and the establishment of a combined biannual aviation safety seminar.
Spirit Airlines' strategy of using Fort Lauderdale as a foundation to grow its Caribbean network hasn't gone unnoticed by American, the dominant carrier at Miami. At the beginning of the year, Spirit executives said the airline's international capacity could rise 50% in 2007 (DAILY, Jan. 24), and at that time the airline placed an order for 30 additional Airbus A319s after ordering 35 Airbus narrowbodies in 2004.
Delta officials revealed their plans for a potential Comair sale and the benefits of consolidation yesterday when reporting an all-time company record of $5.2 billion in third quarter revenues.
American reports that its passenger numbers at Miami Airport have increased every month this year, even after substantial growth in 2005 and 2006. September, in particular, was strong, the airline said. Capacity was up 5%, while enplanements rose 14.4%. For full-year 2006, enplanements were up 6.5%.
Boeing is shaking up its 787 management team, replacing longtime Program Manager Mike Bair with Pat Shanahan, a VP from the company's defense unit with previous experience in commercial airplanes. The move comes six days after the company announced a six- to seven-month slip in first delivery of the 200- to 300-seat long-haul Dreamliner, to November or December 2008.
The parent of the low-cost Brazilian airline GOL and VRG Linhas Aereas has concluded a committed aircraft pre-delivery payment loan facility for US$310 million for all 21 of the Boeing 737-800 next generation aircraft on order by GOL.
Sydney Airport has broken ground on a A$500 million (US$441.6 million) expansion of its International Terminal. Projects under the expansion include adding 7,300 square meters to the airport's departure level for centralized processing, retail and food/beverage outlets and waiting areas; a new baggage system; and upgraded loading bridges and taxiways.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. says it will hold an airline scheduling conference for New York Kennedy Airport Oct. 23-24, in an effort to cap peak-time flights at the airport. The announcement has been expected for the past few weeks, after DOT Secretary Mary Peters committed on Sept. 27 to holding the scheduling conference. Also, FAA signaled its intentions earlier in September by calling for airlines to submit next summer's schedules to the agency by Oct. 11.
Live tests of two airborne anti-missile systems are scheduled Oct. 22 at the Army's White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Both BAE System's prototype and Northrop Grumman's Guardian Directional Infrared CounterMeasures systems will defend in simulated conditions against Man Portable Air Defense Systems shoulder-launched missile attacks.
Pinnacle Airlines Corp. is entering a second of two short-term pre-delivery payment financing structures with Canada's Export Development Bank for up to $38.5 million to finance pre-delivery payments for Bombardier aircraft. The company has received $29.5 million as an advance, and the remaining $9 million will be drawn for future pre-delivery payments.
Named Comair President Don Bornhorst senior VP-Delta Connection, effective Oct. 15. Former Delta executive John Selvaggio will succeed Bornhorst at Comair.
Uzbekistan Airways tapped GE to supply its GEnx engine to power two Boeing 787-8s in an order valued at US$70 million. GE has sold more than 1,000 of the powerplants to 33 customers.
