A May 17 near collision on the runway of Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport spurred increased concern about faulty radars and other ATC systems in Argentina. In the incident, a Lan Chile aircraft was forced to abort takeoff to avoid collision with a Mexicana plane being towed by a tractor. "This was a close call attributable to human error, but it is impossible for our fellow workers to function under such heavy pressure," labor leader Cesar Salas said on behalf of Argentina's flight controllers union.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport won the top ranking in customer satisfaction for large airports in the J.D. Power 2007 North American Airport Satisfaction Index Study. Kansas City International Airport was tops in the medium-airport category, while Houston Hobby won in the small-airport category for the second year in a row.
Detroit Metropolitan Airport is partnering with Northwest to build a new, $29.6 million inline baggage screening system for the McNamara Terminal. The Wayne County Airport Authority advanced the cash to Northwest to manage the construction and installation of the system, said spokesman Michael Conway. "The money will be reimbursed from 85% Passenger Facility Charges and 15% rates and charges," he explained. The authority applied for Transportation Security Administration funding, but nothing happened, he added.
Oneworld partners American and Malev Hungarian Airlines last week won U.S. Transportation Dept. approval for their code-share plans, after an almost five-month wait. The code share will immediately cover Malev's flights from New York Kennedy, Frankfurt and Zurich to Budapest, as well as American's Zurich/Chicago-New York and New York/Chicago-Los Angeles services.
British Airways has not yet given up on its partner Iberia, saying recently that it is in talks with several potential investors to set up a consortium that could buy the Spanish oneworld member. The consortium would include one private equity firm and at least one or more Spanish partners. BA "ruled out an independent bid for the airline," it said in a statement.
British Airways is in a good position to take advantage of the changes that will come about under the new U.S.-European Union open-skies agreement, said Simon Cox, the carrier's director of airports and ATC, in remarks at a symposium hosted by Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. BA is pro-competition, said Cox. "We're certainly not against the open-skies deal. We wanted the deal to go further. We don't think it goes far enough to give benefits to the traveling public," he said.
Embraer believes opportunities could arise with customers for its larger E-jets if operators don't wait for a narrowbody replacement that wouldn't be available until 2013 or 2015. While studies continue for potential narrowbody replacements, no formal programs have been launched.
Massport has signed a deal with Continental Airlines for the carrier to move into the underused Terminal A at Boston Logan Airport, joining SkyTeam partner Delta. A new lease agreement hammered out between Massport and Delta, as part of its Chapter 11 filing, allowed the carrier to go from 22 to 14 gates last summer (DAILY, Dec. 20). The move freed up the space that Continental is now taking over.
AirTran will add one roundtrip flight to its Atlanta-Washington National offer on July 1, following award by the U.S. Transportation Dept. of two highly sought within-perimeter slots previously held by Spirit (DAILY, Jan. 11).
With their more manageable capital needs, higher relative levels of grant funding and greater support from state and local governments, small airports have attributes that can lead to solid investment grade ratings, according to a new report by credit watcher Moody's Investors Service.
Sales processed through the Airlines Reporting Corporation totaled $27.8 billion for the first four months of this year, up 5% from the same period last year. Of that amount, $24 billion was a credit card billing, up 7%. The number of total accredited travel agency locations has fallen steadily in recent years and was down to 20,492 at the end of April. However, the average weekly sales per agency location continues to rise and was up 9% to $77,868.
Alitalia has signed an agreement with Amadeus to adopt Amadeus Fares and Pricing Engine -- a system that manages the process of selling all fares and pricing -- and another system that reprices and reissues tickets, called Amadeus Ticket Changer.
The International Air Transport Association believes a new working group -- involving airlines, airport and FAA representatives -- will help cut delays and handle expected traffic growth at New York Kennedy Airport. The working group, which meets quarterly, has already resulted in a daily teleconference to discuss airport operations, new runway procedures, and a plan to streamline peak time departures and arrivals, said Peter Cerda, IATA's director of safety, operations and infrastructure for the Americas region.
Transport Canada this week recommended new aviation regulations aimed at increasing security on commercial flights. The proposed amendment covers actions by passengers that are deemed to "interfere with the safe operation of the aircraft and create an unintended hazard for the aircraft, crew and passengers," Transport Canada said. It is expected to strengthen the ability of airlines to refuse to board passengers "who may represent a threat."
TAM officials say they have signed a memorandum of understanding with Lufthansa as "a starting point for a possible close cooperation." The airlines say they will study different forms of cooperation in the next few months, but the first form will be code sharing on domestic and international routes. The other possibilities include optimizing flight schedules and sharing reciprocal frequent flyer programs, as well as sharing VIP airport lounges.
If there is any new aviation deal between the U.S. and China, it will likely be announced today after the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue talks. The SED meetings began yesterday, but yielded no announcement on a new agreement. However, negotiations on this issue did occur, industry sources tell The DAILY. An industry briefing was scheduled yesterday, but was postponed.
Venezuelan carrier Aeropostal will be forced to suspend flights to Bogota, Medellin, Havana, and Lima in June and July because its foreign exchange allotment is not enough to cover operations of its MD-80 fleet and related costs, plus excessive seat offer in South American markets. Renewal of services is contingent on improvement of foreign exchange availability. Aeropostal will now concentrate on its domestic routes and overseas flights to Miami and the Caribbean. -LZ
Sabre is shopping its AirFlite planning and scheduling suite of products to Chinese carriers ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing to help manage aviation resources when traffic spikes.
Chilean carrier Sky Airline is regrouping to challenge Marsans/Aerolineas Argentinas subsidiary Aero- lineas del Sur for the No. 3 slot in domestic market share. Sky owner Jurgen Paulmann announced new commercial and code- sharing agreements with Colombia's Avianca, followed by similar deals with Brazil's GOL and Bolivia's AeroSur. Initial international expansion will start in July to Mendoza and Cordoba in Argentina.
Brazil's BRA and OceanAir on June 18 will launch an integrated domestic network with the goal of carrying 5% of the huge Brazilian air transport market. The integrated and competitive affiliation would focus on medium-density markets with prime air connections. Their joint fleet of 27 aircraft would serve 49 Brazilian destinations in 14 new markets. Both companies will start joint marketing this month.
United has signed a memorandum of understanding to code share with TAM that will expand the destinations both carriers serve and their frequent flyer opportunities.
