The Transportation Dept.'s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reports that U.S. airlines carried 57.1 million scheduled domestic and international passengers in January, a 2.8% increase from January 2006, and the fourth consecutive monthly increase in traffic from the same month of the previous year.
Three new markets joined ExpressJet's independent network earlier this week, pushing the carrier toward offering flights from 13 airports by monthend. Albuquerque, Oklahoma City and Tulsa are the latest markets. By the beginning of May, ExpressJet will be flying to Kansas, LA Ontario, Omaha, Spokane, Sacramento, Tucson, New Orleans, Colorado Springs, Corpus Christi and Jacksonville (DAILY, April 4).
Chinese Civil Aviation Minister Yang Yuanyuan believes the time is ripe for the development of China's general aviation industry to accelerate. There is enormous growth potential for GA, but so far this growth has been stunted by issues such as airspace restrictions. Chinese aviation officials are "actively co-ordinating with the relevant authorities" to address this problem, Yang says.
Scandinavian Airlines has begun allowing passengers to check in for their flights using their mobile phone -- and will even send you a reminder 22 hours before your flight. SAS wanted to do this to make passengers ready for travel as soon as possible, before arriving at the airport, said Johan Bygdén, product manager of new technology for the carrier. "It saves time for our passengers and as a side effect, it will reduce queues at our self-service kiosks, which are heavily used," he said. "It allows our passenger flows to be more efficient."
The race to succeed Lydia Kennard as the next executive director of Los Angeles World Airports has been narrowed to three candidates -- Thella Bowens, president and CEO of the San Diego Airport Authority; Gina Marie Lindsay, former airport director for the Port of Seattle; and Susan Kurland, a former associate administrator for FAA. A final selection is expected within the next few months.
Etihad Airways of the United Arab Emirates will begin nonstop flights to Milan, Italy, from Abu Dhabi on Sept. 2, operating three times per week with A330-200s configured for 10 seats in first class, 26 in business and 164 in economy. The new flights will be the airline's first link with the Italian market. It also has launched international service this year to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Sydney. It will soon launch service to Dublin, and will also inaugurate flights to Kochi (Cochin) and Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), India. -JLM
FAA has installed advanced surface movement and guidance systems at eight U.S. airports and plans to complete four more this year as similar systems proliferate at airports in Europe and Asia.
China's civil aviation head last week stressed the need to emulate the U.S. in the areas of airline deregulation and training, and he also gave encouraging signals about the prospects for an open-skies agreement between the U.S. and China.
Brussels Airport fire fighters staged a wildcat strike on April 13 that brought traffic to a complete standstill from 6 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. local time. One of the declared motivations for the strike was a conflict on overtime pay. The airport was expecting up to 25,000 passengers, on Friday -- a peak time for Easter holiday travel in Belgium. Services were rerouted to airports in neighboring countries and Brussels Airlines said it would seek compensation from Brussels International Airport Company for its losses. -MT
The eight largest U.S. airlines will reveal their first-quarter earnings this week, starting with AMR Corp. on Wednesday, and will squeeze out a small profit as a whole, Merrill Lynch predicts. Analysts say the profit will total about $78 million, making it the first profitable first quarter in seven years. This will be some feat, given that Gulf Coast jet fuel prices have risen 19.6% since the start of 2007.
Initial investigations involving a Garuda Boeing 737-400 that last month overshot the runway at Adi Sutjipto Airport in Yogyakarta and burst into flames shortly after ramming the facility's fencing (DAILY, March 8) revealed the wrong model black box was installed in the aircraft. The aircraft's glide angle and engine data were not recorded because of the wrong model black box, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Commission chairman Tatang Kurniadi told The DAILY.
Political pressure is mounting on airlines to curb environmental impact. At a global meeting of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Assn. in Dubrovnik, Mervyn Granshaw, called on pilots "to act now to take a stand against the waves of misinformation fed to the media and the public by the environmental lobby." Granshaw, chairman of the British Air Line Pilots Assn., said if groups like his fail to counter misinformation, "we risk losing our industry."
By Sandy Murdock The aviation industry is embroiled in a rampaging debate about the assessment of "user fees" on aircraft that use the air traffic control system. The merits of various costing systems and the added fare-collecting bureaucracy have been the subject of many of these discussions.
Today three bidders in the race to buy at least 39.9% of Alitalia (DAILY, April 3) must make a nonbinding preliminary offer, including their business plan for the ailing airline. Italian Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi said last week that the future acquirer of the government's stake in Alitalia "will have to put EUR1.5 billion on the table for the acquisition and foresee at least the same amount to make [the company] work," he said.
JetBlue Airways, in an effort to streamline its reporting structure, appointed Jim Hnat as corporate secretary and executive VP-corporate affairs, promoting him from his current position as general counsel. Hnat will retain the responsibilities of general counsel and will now lead the airline's corporate affairs division, which includes corporate communications, government affairs, internal audit and compliance, people and legal.
You can now register online for AVIATION WEEK events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or contact Lydia Janow, 212-904-3225 or 800-240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada only) APRIL 17-18 -- MRO Military 2007 Conference & Exhibition, Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Ga. APRIL 18-19 -- MRO 2007 Conference & Exhibition, Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Ga. OCT. 17-18 -- MRO Asia 2007 Conference & Exhibition, Shanghai, China NOV. 7-8 -- MRO Europe 2007 Conference & Exhibition, Fiera Milano Congressi, Milan, Italy
Baltimore-Washington Airport has become one of the first airports to use TSA screeners to check passengers' boarding passes and identification at security checkpoints. TSA's FY2008 $6.4 billion budget request includes $60 million for 1,329 new, specially trained TSA screening officers to examine boarding documents, previously done by airline contractors.
ANA's board voted Friday to conclude the planned sale of 14 hotel subsidiaries for about $2.37 billion. The sale, part of ANA's 2006-09 "midterm corporate strategy," will be to Shiroyama Properties, a Tokyo company formed by a fund operated by Morgan Stanley.
China's airport industry has made great progress in recent years and posted strong growth, but that growth is expected to slow in the country's 11th five-year plan period, says a new report. Many positive reform measures, such as localized management on airport, encouraging foreign capitals to construct airports, opening up of air freedom rights and the reform of investment system have created great momentum for China airport industry, according to "China Airport Industry Report, 2006-2010," written by Ireland's Research and Markets.
UPS says its planned hub expansion at Shanghai will let it boost capacity by upsizing the aircraft it flies to the airport. For example, the carrier plans to replace MD-11s on some Shanghai routes with Boeing 747-400s it has on order. The first of the -400s will arrive at Shanghai in December, UPS Asia/Pacific President Ken Torok says.
AirTran CEO Joe Leonard tells Midwest's board, "Your chairman's public comments about AirTran's 'desperate' need to rid itself of these [Boeing 737] aircraft makes no sense. "Even if true, and it is not, the aircraft are in high demand and were acquired at prices that are now well below market, generating millions of dollars of profit if AirTran were to...sell them."
30 Years Ago April 19, 1977 -- Council on Wage and Price Stability says there could be more aircraft noise abatement at lower cost if airports imposed "noise charges" against airlines and told FAA and EPA airports should be encouraged to adopt such charges. 20 Years Ago
