British Airways is expecting to carry almost 2 million passengers over the two-week Easter school holiday, which would be a 2.5% increase from the same period last year. This weekend -- extended by bank holidays -- will see the highest Easter traffic, with 645,000 passengers predicted. The peaks will be today and Easter Monday, when BA forecasts it will fly more than 107,000 passengers each day.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. this week formally invited all U.S. carriers holding certificates to operate international service to apply for a blanket open-skies certificate. The certificate would give U.S. carriers indefinite authority to serve all existing U.S. open-skies partners and prospective blanket authority to serve future open-skies partners -- like European Union member states -- once such agreements are implemented.
Full-serice Indonesian domestic airline Lorena Air will start operations on May 30. The carrier will be based at the Hatta-Soekarno International Airport in Jakarta and initially will offer flights to Manado in North Sulawesi, Balikpapan (East Kalimantan), Padang (West Sumatra), Palembang (South Sumatra) and Bali with three leased Boeing 737-400s. Lorena Air President and Director Eka Sari Lorena Soerbakti said the carrier will lease three more 737-400s later in the year to expand its network.
U.S. regional airline traffic growth slowed substantially in 2006, and with most of the majors trudging through restructuring having solidified the bulk of there regional opportunities, competition among regionals is likely to intensify.
FAA's new oceanic ATC system will save airlines about 6.5 million pounds of fuel -- or about $8 million a year -- on oceanic flights from the U.S. to the Caribbean and South America, says system manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The Advanced Technologies and Oceanic Procedures system is allowing FAA to approve up to 90% more requests for altitude changes.
U.K.-based Zoom Airlines this week was given the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s okay to begin U.K. pre-sales and marketing for its planned London Gatwick-New York services. DOT is requiring Zoom to limit its marketing and sales to the U.K. and to ensure that no sales are made in the U.S. The carrier sought the pendente lite authority as a precaution -- U.K. rules allow it to begin marketing and sales while its application for U.S. authority is pending, but DOT rules are not as clear, the airline said (DAILY, March 9). -ARS
Aeroflot wants another airline to join its bid for Alitalia, and the carrier said it will decide on the future partner within the next two weeks. Aeroflot itself joined a bid by Unicredit's investment banking arm (DAILY, April 3).
Continental, Delta, Northwest and US Airways will qualify as "new entrants" with slot-allocation priority at London Heathrow Airport when the U.S.-European Union aviation agreement takes effect next March, but this by itself will do them little good in gaining practical access to the airport, according to Heathrow's slot coordinator.
Aeromexico on July 1 will launch new service from Mexico City to Minneapolis and Seattle, as well as new service to the West Coast city from Guadalajara, pending U.S. regulatory approval. The airline plans to offer daily nonstop service in each market with its Boeing 737-700s [OST-2007- 27781]. -ARS
The aviation director of New Mexico's Transportation Dept. and other local officials are letting the U.S. Transportation Dept. know that they prefer Albuquerque over Denver and Phoenix as Essential Air Service hubs for Clovis and Silver City. "The elimination of Albuquerque in the route structure is not acceptable," NMDOT Aviation Director Thomas Baca told DOT in a letter also asking if it would be possible to "revoke this current award and return to the current route structure for both communities?"
A House Transportation Committee staff report urges FAA to establish a strategy to identify and prevent pilot falsification of debilitating medical conditions. Committee Chairman Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) requested the investigation based on concerns about the effect of medically unfit pilots on air safety -- and FAA's failure to act on recommendations put forth in a January 2005 Inspector General report.
The new airline lease at San Jose Airport no longer includes curfew language originally proposed by officials. Back in October 2003, the airport had airlines sign a supplemental lease agreement under a 30-year deal to abide by a noise-based curfew that allowed it to issue citations to operators who flew between 11:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., said spokesman Rich Dressler. "We charged $2,500 per occurrence, but allowed for certain exemptions for events beyond operators' control, like weather, mechanical problems, air traffic control or security delays," he said.
Airframer ATR delivered six new aircraft during the first quarter -- five ATR 72-500s and one ATR 42-500. Finncomm and CCM took delivery of two -500s each, while Kingfisher accepted one -500. PIA took delivery of an ATR 42-500. ATR plans to deliver 44 planes this year.
BMI and nine of its Star Alliance partners are seeking immunity from antitrust laws for operations between the U.S. and the U.K. once the prospective U.S.-European Union aviation agreement takes effect. The agreement establishes an open-skies regime between the U.S. and the U.K., a prime criterion for granting immunity. The pact is to be signed April 30 at a U.S.-EU summit in Washington, and its effective date is March 30, 2008.
Continental yesterday estimated that March storms in the Northeast reduced its revenue by about $10 million, although the storms also helped boost unit revenue by curtailing capacity. Consolidated unit revenue was up 4.5%-5.5% in March, comfortably ahead of most Wall St. predictions. Mainline unit revenue increased by 6.5%-7.5%. Continental believes the storms were responsible for about one percentage point of this increase, as cancellations reduced available seat miles.
The U.K. Dept. for Transport is throwing its support behind the European Union's fight against climate change by commissioning a study on aviation's role in the EU's proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS).
Great Lakes last week retained some of its Essential Air Service markets in New Mexico but also faced the possibility of losing one in neighboring Arizona.
Boeing yesterday pushed its 787 order total past the 500 mark, with Japan Airlines (JAL) confirming earlier hints that it would increase its 787 orders. JAL will take another five 787-8s, adding to its initial order of 30 placed in December 2004. JAL executives recently told The DAILY at a Oneworld event in Tokyo that the carrier was planning to place more 787 orders (DAILY, March 2).
Delta and Air France cannot proceed with plans to code share from Paris to Bilbao and Vigo in Spain, the U.S. Transportation Dept. declared, as the points are not included in the U.S.-Spain bilateral. The U.S.-Spain bilateral limits code sharing to Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca. DOT noted the first-phase EU-U.S. open-skies agreement, when enacted, would remove some of the barriers needed for the code share. Until then, however, "the department is not prepared to approve the proposed services" [OST-2000-6939].
Pinnacle missed a March 31 deadline to reach a deal with its pilots, which could result in Northwest removing 15 of 17 CRJ-200s that were added to Pinnacle's fleet during the first quarter. The stipulation for Pinnacle to reach a pilot deal was part of a new air services agreement the carrier reached with Northwest in December.
South African Airways pushed the South African Civil Aviation Authority to clarify the reason behind delays in approving Delta's Boeing 767 fleet for flights to Johannesburg, after the U.S. carrier opposed the African carrier's application to renew its exemptions for U.S. service (DAILY, March 15).
Sun Country plans to add two new Boeing 737-800s in July and August configured with two classes. The carrier was bought by Petters Group last October, and plans to stick to its conservative growth plan through the increase of frequencies from its Minneapolis base to New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Fort Myers and Washington.
