Lufthansa Technik has chosen Hyderabad over Bangalore as the site for a greenfield MRO facility to serve the rapidly growing commercial aviation market in India. After weeks of speculation, LHT said Friday tit would place the new facility at Shamshabad, Andra Padesh, the site of the planned Rajiv Gandhi Hyderabad Airport. The facility is expected to begin operations in late 2008.
It will be at least 18 months before the Transportation Security Administration considers issuing federal biometric ID cards to airport workers. TSA Chief Kip Hawley tells the Senate Commerce Committee it will be 18-24 months before the agency completes testing and distributing the Transport Worker Identification Credential to some 750,000 port and maritime workers around the U.S. TWIC cards, valid for five years, will cost users $137.25. TSA has spent nearly $100 million since 2001 developing and testing the machine-readable cards.
Allegiant Air management says that "we have not declared or paid dividends on our equity since our inception." Adding, "We do not intend to pay any dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future." Allegiant's management notes, "We currently intend our future earnings, if any, to finance further expansion and continued growth of our business."
Mesa is in talks to use a military base that's half the distance between Beijing and the city's main airport as the company firms up plans to launch its joint venture with Shenzhen Airlines in September.
TAP Portugal has increased its financial stake in Brazilian VEM Maintenance & Engineering. The EUR24 million increase is supposed to support VEM's restructuring plan, which is targeted at bringing the company to breakeven next year. The deal comes as TAP bought Geocapital's shares in Reaching Force, which owns 90% of VEM.
Republic on Thursday won exemptions to offer service from Kansas City and Denver to Cancun. The airline will launch seasonal Embraer 170 flights on Dec. 1 as part of its code-share, fee-for-service arrangement with Frontier (DAILY, March 30).
Houston Intercontinental Airport has become the launch facility under the Model Port program, a joint initiative between the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security and the U.S. State Dept. The effort, unveiled last December and operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has created products and processes to make foreign visitors coming to the U.S. feel more welcome but still maintain security processes.
N3 Engine Overhaul Services -- the joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Rolls-Royce based in Arnstadt, Thuringia -- won the nod from the European Aviation Safety Agency to maintain Trent 500 engines. The company expects to win approval for other Trent family members -- the 700/800/900 -- this summer. N3's facilities should have the capacity to handle up 200 large engines per year.
Beleaguered workers at Lloyd Aereo Boliviano used a legal technicality to force a court in Cochabamba to delay until May 21 the foreclosure of real estate assets and chattels originally scheduled for April 9 (DAILY, April 6).
Hawaiian and Harmony Airways this week formally ended their code share (DAILY, June 22, 2006) with notification to the U.S. Transportation Dept. The Canadian carrier planned to stop all scheduled service by April 9 (DAILY, March 28).
Iberia's says it still reviewing the overture from TPG Capital, but so far has not taken any steps to give the venture capitalist group access to internal company information. The airline, in reporting first-quarter traffic figures, also says the board of directors will decide soon how to proceed. Iberia management is trying to assess, first, who TPG may be partnering with in any potential deal.
Avianca wants to substitute Tampa for Salt Lake City as one of the authorized U.S. points it serves under a code share with Delta. The Colombian carrier is currently renewing its code-share authority. Delta and Avianca have been code-share partners since 2003.
BAA's seven U.K. airports processed 11.9 million passengers in March, up 3.7% year over year. March growth was fueled by long-haul traffic, which was up 10%, including a healthy 14% hike in flights to and from India. European traffic rose 4.7%, while North Atlantic numbers were up slightly, to 2.2%. European charter, domestic and Irish Republic traffic fell 0.3%, 0.4% and 2.8%, respectively.
An air traffic controller strike on April 12 was expected to cause the cancellation of between 35% and 50% of the operations scheduled at Paris Orly Airport, as well as some 15% to 20% of flights serving Roissy Charles de Gaulle, said France's Direction Generale de l'Aviation Civile.
Aires Aruba is poised to take off in the second half of this year as a new competitor in the Caribbean market. The company, an affiliate of Colombia's Aires Airlines, is now working on fleet renewal and expects to take delivery soon of 11 new Dash 300s and 200s, to be increased by two before yearend. Aires Aruba will operate from Aruba to Colombia, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela and Cuba.
Schiphol Group has signed an agreement of cooperation with Guangzhou Baiyun International; Airport. Under the deal, Schiphol Group will help develop commercial, non-aviation activities, including retail and food and beverage at Guangzhou. The airport is the third-largest in China, handling 26.6 million passengers ad 650,000 tons of cargo in 2006.
Continental has contributed another $30 million in cash to its defined benefit pension plans. The new contribution brings the carrier's year-to-date contributions to $136 million, which exceeds the minimum funding requirement. Continental expects to contribute $320 million to its pension plans before the yearend, exceeding its minimum funding requirement of $185 million. -JLM
Mesa and the City of Alamogordo, N.M., resolved a contract dispute that had prompted the community to threaten to bar Air Midwest from landing any aircraft at Alamogordo-White Sands Regional Airport.
Travel agents are decreasing their reliance on the global distribution systems and are using the Web more to book travel, according to a new study by the American Society of Travel Agents. In its Technology and Web Usage Report, ASTA found that more than 91% of the agents surveyed reported booking directly on travel suppliers' Web sites, rather than through a GDS. The top products booked were tour packages and airline tickets.
Triton Distribution Systems, a Sausalito, Calif.-based Internet travel distribution service provider, is two months away from completing Phase II of its Red Dragon Express program -- a unique portal that will process domestic travel within China. Through a partnership with the International Airlines Travel Agent network, Triton will give travel agents access to Chinese airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines, tour operators and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing that have until now been inaccessible.
Airlines willing to start new services to regional airports in Italy's Puglia region are eligible for public funding, as the European Commission allowed the Italian authorities to hand out a total of EUR63 million (US$85 million) over three years. The EC said the aid abides by the guidelines that were issued in the aftermath of the Ryanair-Charleroi (Belgium) airport case: It will be available to all operators for a maximum period of three years and is limited to 40% of the eligible costs -- i.e. startup costs and route-specific marketing aid. -MT
Great Lakes this week was selected by the U.S. Transportation Dept. to operate Essential Air Service at Decatur, Ill., for a two-year term until May 31, 2009, taking another EAS market from troubled carrier RegionsAir.
