SR Technics opened a component overhaul center at Madrid Barajas Airport. The MRO said the facility would specialize in wheel and brake repairs, with planned capacity of 500 wheels per month.
Spanish flag-carrier Iberia is planning to reopen its landing gear shop as a commercial joint venture in early 2008 -- but just who with is yet to be announced. The new shop will provide dedicated landing gear support for Airbus A320, A340 and possibly, MD80 gears, if the market demands it, according to Cesar Hernandez, general manager-business development & strategy, Iberia Maintenance, while other gear types not operated by Iberia also will be included, depending on market expectations.
Mediation courts set up at five Brazilian airports will handle simple disputes, such as cancellations, delays, overbooking and other consumer issues that can be resolved immediately, while more complex cases will be referred to higher courts. The airport consumer courts will operate on a trial basis through Jan. 3. The DAILY incorrectly described the courts' functions (DAILY, Oct. 9).
IATA applauds a new deal that sees Korea's Incheon Airport lowering its landing charges, but the group is still concerned about passenger taxes in Korea.
Shares of Spanish low-fare airline Vueling rose by up to 25% yesterday, following speculation about a possible hostile takeover. Vueling's stock dropped 60% this year, and the airline was forced to issue two profit warnings within two months. Gaining market access should be no reason for a takeover, as plenty of capacity is available at both main Spanish airports in Barcelona and Madrid. [email protected]
Denver Airport plans to build a two megawatt solar energy system in an effort to reduce its carbon emissions. The airport's program will be installed by WorldWater & Solar Technologies, and the energy generated will be owned and operated by MMA Renewable Ventures. DIA is environmentally friendly, said spokesman Chuck Cannon.
Potential buyers for Aeromexico at auction later this year continue to jockey for position, submitting higher proposals in the wake of Grupo Mexicana's $200 million offer for the airline (DAILY, Oct. 5).
Air France-KLM capacity growth of 5.9% outpaced traffic growth of 5.3% in September, leading to a decline in load factor of 0.5 percentage points to 82.3%. The decline was most pronounced on the Americas routes, where capacity grew 12.3% but traffic was up only 9.2%. Load factor remained a strong 84.9% on these routes, although it was still down 2.4 percentage points. On the cargo front, Air France-KLM is seeing continued albeit gradual improvement in unit revenue, with traffic up 4.4% on a 3% boost in capacity.
US Airways says the influx of low cost carriers at Pittsburgh has driven down average fares on routes that were once some of the carrier's most profitable from the airport. Last week US Airways detailed plans to scale back operations from Pittsburgh -- cutting daily regional flights from 77 to 46 and mainline flights from 31 to 22 per day (DAILY, Oct. 4). The decision triggered numerous questions from employees that management tried to answer in a recent update.
Frontier's continued revenue improvement is drawing praise from Wall Street as the carrier has posted increases in unit revenues for the past two months. For September, Frontier's revenue per available seat mile (RASM) increased 8.7% year-over-year to 7.63 cents, analysts at JP Morgan said in a recent report. This followed August's 9.3% "surprise" rise in unit revenue. The analysts noted that for the preceding 10 months Frontier's unit revenues were down by about 1.5% on average.
Sabre Holdings has renegotiated its information technology services contract with EDS and extended it through 2014 in a deal EDS says is worth $630 million in new revenue.
Saudi Arabia reportedly intends to build five new airports worth about $5 billion over the next few years in the eastern, western, northern and southern regions of the country.
Air Berlin carried 21% more passengers in September, the airline said yesterday. The increase comes as the carrier reduced average fares by 3.1%, and the traffic boost helped spark a 2.4 point improvement in its load factor. Air Berlin shares rose by more than 6% when the traffic figures were revealed yesterday. The stock is down 19% this year based on the airline's poor financial performance.
The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) finds that Americans are more likely to select an airline, rental car firm or hotel that is environmentally friendly, but they are not willing to pay much more for its services.
SriLankan Airlines is launching four flights a week to Coimbatore in South India from Oct. 29, making this the carrier's 11th destination in India. Coimbatore provides an ideal gateway for travellers from East Kerala to fly to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Far East, the airline said. "SriLankan Airlines has positioned Colombo as the gateway to India, and we are continuously increasing our services there," SriLankan CEO Peter Hill said.
Embraer delivered a total of 47 aircraft during the third quarter, a 56% rise over the same period in 2006. The airframer's E190 had the bulk of deliveries with 20, followed by the E175 with nine. Embraer delivered 108 aircraft year-to-date through September. Embraer's total firm order backlog for the ERJ-145 and EJets products is 477.
Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) on Oct. 8 inaugurated provisional and emergency judicial courts at five key airports that will act as mediators in situations concerning flight cancellations and delays, overbooking and other relatively simple and immediate disputes. More complex issues will be handled by trial courts, which will operate on a trial basis from now to Jan. 3. Airports now included in the network are Congonhas and Cumbica (Sao Paulo), Jobim and Santos Dumot (Rio) and Juscelino Kubitschek (Brasilia).
U.K. low-cost carrier Flybe blasted environmental activists who staged protests yesterday at Manchester airport, which the airline labeled as "selfish" behavior. "Contrast the actions of seven with the 30,000 who will travel with Flybe in and out of Manchester airport this week and its plain where public support rests," COO Mike Rutter said. Rutter also pointed out Flybe's GBP2 billion ($4.1 billion) investment in its environmentally friendly aircraft -- Bombardier Q400s and Embraer E-195s -- that help reduce emissions.
The head of BBJ and VIP model sales for Boeing says his unit probably could sell 10 more 787 VIP aircraft right away if they were available before 2010. At a list price of $150 million to $160 million, this represents $1.5 billion in orders that can't be booked. Charles Colburn, Boeing's marketing director for the BBJ, says the next available delivery position is in the second half of 2016 and Boeing's production rate in the years after that are two VIP versions of the 787 per year.
The wide area augmentation system (WAAS) that India is developing -- known as GPS and Geo-Augmented Navigation, or Gagan -- is moving toward its final operational phase, to be completed by 2010. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) have concluded the technology demonstrator system (TDS) phase of Gagan.
