Northwest's new subsidiary Compass plans to have a staff of 300 by yearend as the carrier readies to debut its new 76-seat Embraer 175s from its parent company's three hubs. Compass won FAA certification late last week and plans to start flights with a 50-seat Bombardier CRJ-200 in May. The first -175 is slated to arrive in June.
Air Canada continued to improve its mainline load factor in March, growing by 2.4 points to an impressive 83.8%. Mainline traffic was up 5%, but the carrier held capacity growth to 2%. Canadian domestic traffic increased 5% on a 0.5% capacity cut, with loads rising 4.4 points to 84.4%. U.S. cross-border traffic rose 1.3% and capacity was up 1.1%. Transatlantic traffic increased 6.6% on a 2.3% capacity climb, and transpacific traffic gained 5%, compared to capacity growth of just 0.1%. Latin American traffic increased 7.8% on a 10.5% capacity hike.
The budget for Aeronautics, long the poor stepchild at NASA, would be increased by $187.4 million under NASA'S new Fiscal 2007 operating plan, bringing its share of the $16.3 billion agency budget to $890.4 million.
Named the members of its newly constituted board, effective with the carrier's emergence from Chapter 11: Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein; Daniel Carp, chairman; Richard Anderson; John Brinzo; Eugene Davis; Richard Geoltz; David Goode; Victor Lund; Walter Massey; Paula Rosput Reynolds; and Kenneth Woodrow.
Southwest's available seat miles grew faster than revenue passenger miles year over year in March, causing its load factor to dip 2.2 percentage points from 75.5% to 73.3%. RPMs grew 4.3% to 6 million miles up from 5.8 million, while ASMs jumped 7.5% to 8.2 million from 7.7 million a year ago. Year to date, Southwest's load factor has dropped 1.2 points to 68% from 69.2%.
Bratislava, Slovakia-based low-fare airline SkyEurope does not plan to issue new shares in the short-term, CEO Christian Mandl said. The statement comes days after the shareholders rejected a proposal to allow management to issue 19.5 million new shares, up from 14 million. SkyEurope continues to post considerable losses but plans to build a large base at Vienna airport, close to its original Bratislava base.
Estonia's flag carrier Estonian Airlines opted for 30-seat Saab 340 turboprops to replace its 50-seat Fokkers. The carrier finalized a deal with Saab Aircraft Leasing for two of the aircraft for deliveries in May and September. The airline said it is looking at 23 new regional routes.
Spanish National Tribunal judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska summoned former Air Madrid President and major shareholder Jose Luis Carrillo and three senior managers to appear at an April 13 hearing to answer to fraud charges connected with the low-cost carrier's suspension last December. The suspension left thousands of passengers stranded and wreaked havoc at Madrid Barajas and several major airports in Latin America (DAILY, Dec. 18).
U.S. and Japanese aviation negotiators reached no resolution during three days of talks in Washington to liberalize air services between the two countries. Negotiations kicked off April 3 and were scheduled to end yesterday, but were continuing at press time.
KLM, Kenya Airways and Martinair selected Madrid-based GDS Amadeus to provide global sales support through its Altea reservations program. Amadeus said the program will enable airlines to distribute synchronized flight information, fares and passenger details across all sales channels. Altea is based on a community platform, meaning many carriers share the same system, which simplifies the exchange of passenger information. This is particularly cost-efficient when alliance partners are being integrated into a system.
Boeing achieved a staggering 59 new aircraft orders for the week through April 3, boosting its total for the year by more than 50%. The weekly total includes a follow-on order by Japan Airlines for five 787s that was announced Tuesday (DAILY, April 4), with the remainder of the 59 attributed to unidentified customers. Three are for business jet versions of the 737, 24 for standard 737s, nine for 777s and 18 for 787s.
American labor groups are turning up the volume on their protests against executive bonuses, in preparation for the upcoming bonus announcements. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants yesterday sent analysts a study claiming American employee concessions total $6.4 billion since 2003. Flight attendants contribute $340 million of the $1.6 billion annual concessions, the union said.
To the relief of the international aviation industry, U.K. Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander has promised to retain the Gatwick Express high-speed train service between London's Victoria Station and Gatwick International Airport. Alexander pledged that the train service will continue to run at its current frequency of every 15 minutes. In addition, extra trains will run beyond London Victoria and Brighton, on the Southeast coast, a U.K. Dept. for Transport statement says.
China will probably speed up the snail's pace liberalization of air services to the U.S. in a few years, as the improved financial health of its airlines raises confidence that they can cope with the competition, says Michael Whitaker, the United Airlines VP responsible for international and regulatory affairs.
U.S. and Indian officials are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding to set up an Aviation Cooperation Program on April 23 in New Delhi, a U.S. official told The DAILY. The two countries committed to establishing an ACP last year (DAILY, Dec. 12, 2006) but set no firm date for signing the final MOU. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency's upcoming U.S.-India Aviation Partnership Summit is expected to kick off on April 23 with a signing ceremony for the MOU, Carl Kress, USTDA regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, said.
Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, facing pressure on all sides, is asking the government to pay its debts to the airline to free up cash to reimburse grounded passengers. Close to 4,000 passengers in Bolivia and abroad were stranded as result of Bolivian transport regulator Abdon Porcell's decision to require LAB to prove it has the operational and financial capability to operate each flight before it can operate the service (DAILY, April 3).
The European Commission should begin publishing league "Name and Shame" tables to encourage airlines to avoid baggage problems, says a new report from the U.K.'s Air Transport Users Council (AUC).
American cut its capacity 2.9% in March, but still managed to increase its mainline load factor by holding its traffic loss to 1.4%. Compared to March 2005, consolidated loads were up 1.3 points to 82.4%. Domestic mainline traffic dropped 2.5% on a 3.4% capacity decline, resulting in load factor rising by 0.9 points to 84.2%. International traffic was up 0.8%, and capacity dropped 1.8%. International load factor rose 1.9 points to 79.1%.
Strong order intake for the Embraer 170/190 regional jet family means the Brazilian aircraft maker has sold all production slots this year and most for next year, too. Only about 15% of the production slots available for 2008 are not yet committed to firm deliveries, according to incoming Embraer CEO Frederico Currado; however, even those aircraft have customer options against them.
After further talks on a new passenger name record (PNR) data transfer deal, both the U.S. and the European Union said they have made progress toward a new agreement, although no new agreement was struck. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday met with Franco Frattini, EU VP of justice and security, in Berlin to discuss PNR and the visa waiver program.
The nod from regulatory authorities in Brazil earlier this week for GOL to buy Varig was tempered by less than favorable March traffic statistics that triggered Wall Street concern. Analysts at Raymond James estimated GOL's average fares in March fell 25% year over year, while JP Morgan analysts pegged the decline at 24%. The carrier's available seat kilometers grew 59%, outpacing the 42.9% revenue passenger kilometer growth, which led to a seven-percentage-point drop in load factor to 61.8%.
