The Metropolitan Airports Commission is one of several bidders on a Ford Motor Co. hydroelectric plant that will help power Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Airport Director Steve Wareham declined to say what the MAC bid was, but in an earlier interview with The DAILY, he indicated that when the plant came up for bid in 1999, the price was about $30 million (DAILY, Jan. 30). A decision will be announced in mid-April, he added.
Employee ramp-up at AAR's Indianapolis facility is taking longer than expected, which will trigger a slip in the company's goal of having 10 maintenance lines at that location in April. The April target was previously outlined in capacity plans for Indianapolis by AAR executives (DAILY, Dec. 21, 2006), who said Indianapolis would offer six hangars and six lines of maintenance in January, upping that number to seven hangars and eight lines in February.
The U.K. suggested that it would not block the draft European Union/ U.S. open-skies accord, but the British delegation at the European Union Council of Transport Ministers meeting today in Brussels is likely to seek last-minute improvements. On the eve of the meeting, Italian sources also cast doubt on its outcome, indicating the Italian government was not yet certain to endorse the draft accord because liberalization may put too much competitive pressure on ailing flag carrier Alitalia.
The first quarter of 2007 is the worst, operationally, since America West and US Airways merged, President Scott Kirby of the new US Airways, said yesterday, and not the least of the problems came from something the carrier should have done better -- merging the legacy reservations systems.
American -- one of the most vocal critics of Virgin America -- told DOT yesterday it has no plans to submit objections to the agency's show cause order issued earlier this week approving Virgin America's plans to launch service in the US if certain conditions are met. One of American's most recent arguments was Virgin Group would be the only source of funding for a $46 million cash deficit that would arise at Virgin America's second closing (DAILY, Feb. 20).
Vought Aircraft Industries says it is on track to make its first production shipment for the 787 program sometime this month. The shipment will include two fuselage sections - Aft Section 47, measuring 19 feet in diameter and 23 feet long, and Section 48, which is 14 feet in diameter and 15 feet long. These two combined represent 23% of the entire fuselage section.
United and Delta both will gain more options for service to Spain next month, thanks to code sharing with European partners. Star Alliance partners United and Swiss will code share on Swiss flights from Zurich to Barcelona and Madrid. The carriers plan to implement the code share after April 15 [OST-2005-22464]. Delta's code, meanwhile, will appear on flights operated by SkyTeam ally Alitalia between Milan and Rome to Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga and Valencia. That code share will launch late next month, as well [OST-2001-10417].
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport is hoping that a passenger leakage study they have commissioned will provide compelling evidence to attract a low-cost carrier to the Delta hub.
Honeywell is readying a new element of its customer support package dubbed intelligent call routing after pilot testing the system with corporate customers during the last half of 2006. Strengthening Honeywell Aerospace's customer service and support was a main goal of CEO Robert Gillette when he took the helm in January 2005. The customer report team now reports directly to him.
House aviation leaders yesterday all but closed the door on the administration's proposal to overhaul the aviation funding system, and the lawmakers found support in comments from the most important government watchdog agencies.
Southwest's CEO believes the airline cannot rely on fare increases to sustain revenue growth in the future, which has led the carrier to consider the best opportunities in capturing ancillary revenues. Analysts have recently predicted that Southwest was on the verge of looking for methods to strengthen revenue outside ticket sales (DAILY, March 19).
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is reaching out to other nations to develop a more harmonized security regime, the agency's No. 2 official says. TSA is working with an ICAO study group on refining the security rules for carrying liquids, aerosols and gels into airline passenger cabins, and a secure "tamper-evident bag" that will allow passengers to bring duty free purchases directly on board aircraft. TSA Deputy Administrator Robert Jamison said the agency hopes to have that change in place by the summer travel season.
Huntsville International Airport has moved one step closer to offering a traveler program by choosing the Fast Lane Option (FLO) Alliance to develop its effort.
LAN Airlines of Chile has ordered 15 A320s, a confirmation of options that were announced in October 2005. LAN and its affiliates now operate 34 Airbus aircraft.
Germany's Hochtief Airport has boosted its stake in Sydney Airport by 2.7 percentage points to 8.13%, effective March 20. The move follows Australia's Macquarie Airports exercising an option to buy an additional 15.1% interest in Sydney Airport from BAA parent Ferrovial (DAILY, March 20).
U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 0.5% fewer full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) in January, compared with January 2006, according to the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
Alex Battaglia has joined JetBlue as VP JetBlue JFK Airport, effective April 2. JetBlue was able to lure him away after 24 years at Delta, most recently as director of New York Kennedy operations. JetBlue will move into Terminal 5 in late 2008 at JFK. That terminal will support up to 250 daily flights from 26 gates for the hometown airline.
United estimates one-time revenue gains of $25 million in the first quarter and $170 million in full-year 2007 from a frequent-flyer program change by which miles expire after 18 months instead of 36. But the carrier will lose far more from a shift to more conservative accounting, in which a portion of revenue from tickets and direct sales of frequent-flyer miles is booked only after the miles are used. These changes will depress first-quarter revenue by about $130 million, United believes.
Lufthansa is studying the Airbus A350-900 and Boeing 787-9 as new long-haul aircraft to be integrated into its growing fleet, company sources told The DAILY on the sidelines of the Lufthansa/Airbus A380 route-proving flight from Frankfurt to New York. The airline is less interested in the smaller A350-800 and 787-8 versions, sources said. The A350-900 and 787-9 are required to reach the U.S. West Coast, Hong Kong and Singapore from Frankfurt with a full payload, the sources said.
Las Vegas McCarran Airport's growing O&D passenger base, strong financial margins, airline market share diversity and experienced management have led debt-watcher Fitch to give high ratings to several bond series.
Caribbean Star and LIAT are on track to finalize their purchase agreement on March 31, and sign the loan and financial accord at the end of April. Executives and shareholders met in Antigua yesterday to finalize merger details. The loan and financial agreement --- in which the Stanford Financial Group will lend the LIAT shareholder governments $55 million -- still needs the signatures of the parliaments of Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, LIAT's owners. Allen Stanford is the sole shareholder of Caribbean Star.
