FAA and the U.S. Dept. of Defense have donated two surplus aircraft fire and rescue trucks to Mazar-i-Sharif Airport in Northern Afghanistan; the trucks came from Baltimore/Washington Airport. An assessment by FAA inspectors found that the trucks were needed to bring the airport into compliance with ICAO safety standards, said Jim White, the agency's deputy director of airport safety and standards. "Afghanistan is very eager to resume commercial flights. They either had no fire trucks or the equipment they had at the airfield was unsuitable," he said.
Air Canada will begin flying two daily nonstop flights between Sacramento Airport and Vancouver Airport on June 15; the new service ends several years of effort in Sacramento to add a second international carrier. And under the deal, Air Canada is eligible for $150,000 in incentives, said spokeswoman Cheryl Marcell. "One-half can be used in marketing the new route and one-half is to offset landing fees after they have been on the route for a minimum of six months," she said.
Indonesian airlines are being put on notice that their air operating certificates are at risk unless they move to improve their safety and maintenance standards. A government-appointed National Team for the Evaluation of Transportation Safety and Security (NTETSS) recommended that Indonesian authorities revamp the local aviation industry and shut down airlines that ignore safety and maintenance requirements.
Virgin America's response to the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s tentative rejection of its application to launch service curried some favor with the agency, but DOT is taking the carrier up on its offer to remove CEO Fred Reid, which it set as one of many stipulations to win final approval to launch flights in the U.S.
Reversing its position from a year ago, Southwest's board will recommend at the company's annual meeting May 16 that shareholders eliminate supermajority voting on proposals for a merger, sale of the company or purchase of another company, a common corporate defense against takeovers. At the same time, the board opposes a shareholder proposal to reform voting further.
China's aviation industry could be expanding by up to 10 percentage points above current growth rates if central controls were eased, according to a new report from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).
The U.S. Transportation Dept's Inspector General yesterday found that FAA's verbal guidance on tower staffing was "misinterpreted and inconsistently applied" at small towers before a crash at Lexington, Ky., last year brought the issue into the spotlight. Because the guidance was verbal, staffing on midnight shifts at towers with combined approach control and tower "was not uniformly compliant." The IG also found that two other combined facilities only had one controller on the midnight shift on the date of the Lexington crash.
FAA has selected Naverus Inc. as the first Required Navigation Performance approval consultant to help airlines qualify to fly RNP procedures in the U.S. The agency said earlier this year it would allow third parties to become involved as it tries to accelerate the transition from ground-based to satellite-based navigation.
Iberia will increase capacity between Madrid and New York by 68% next week and for the summer schedule, the airline said yesterday. The Spanish carrier will up frequencies from 10 to 14 weekly and will also upgrade the route to mostly Airbus A340-600 service from the current A340-300 operation.
Delta will reward both management and non-contract employees with stock options and cash incentives upon emergence from bankruptcy through two separate comprehensive compensation programs. One is for its 39,000 non-contract employees around the world, and the other is for 1,200 managers, who will receive $240 million in shares. Delta took this unusual step of rewarding the non-contract employees, which is not a step United took last year when it came under fire from its employees over executive pay.
Australia's Macquarie Airports has completed its acquisition of 15.1% additional interest in Sydney Airport. The company exercised an option to buy BAA parent Ferrovial's 20.9% stake in Sydney, previously announced on Feb. 27 (DAILY, Feb. 28). Sydney parent Southern Cross Airports Corp. Holdings Ltd. directors Meredith Hellicar and Luis Sanchez Salmeron resigned from the board as a result of the purchase. -BW
In its first oral statement to the World Trade Organization on the Boeing-Airbus case, the U.S. yesterday reinforced its belief that Airbus has benefited from $15 billion in illegal launch aid from European Union member states.
American expects its first-quarter revenue growth to slow significantly in the first quarter, but the airline is still likely to reverse the loss it recorded for the same period last year.
Lufthansa Cargo yesterday reported higher revenue but lower operating profits for its Fiscal 2006, the result of high fuel prices and settling price-fixing lawsuits. The company said it expects "significantly higher" earnings this year but emphasized its longer-term need for a relaxation of the prospective ban on night flying at its Frankfurt hub.
Air China's net profit increased 11.7% to RMB2.7 billion (US$348.9 million) in 2006, and the airline expects more growth this year, based on the strength of the economy and the opportunity presented by the 2008 Olympics. Airline executives attributed the profit increase to the easing of oil prices during the second half of the year. However, operating costs still increased 22.5% to RMB42.4 billion. Fuel comprised 37% of total operating costs, up three points from last year. Operating revenue rose 17.4% to RMB44.9 billion.
British Airways is launching four new routes from its London Gatwick base. The airline will introduce services to Trinidad and Tobago, Dresden, Germany, Newquay in the U.K. and Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the end of March. The three-times-weekly Trinidad and Tobago service is the first new long-haul route from Gatwick in six years, BA said.
The Belgian Ministry of the Economy pledged to provide EUR150 million (US$199 million) in refundable state support for Belgian companies involved in the development of the Airbus A350 XWB program. Airbus subcontractors in Belgium include Sonaca, Sabca, Asco and Eurair. In 2000, the Belgian government put up EUR195 million for the A380 program. -MT
The rates and charges dispute between 29 airlines and Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) will go before an administrative law judge next week under U.S. Dept. of Transportation orders issued Friday and yesterday; the department intends to produce a final decision on the issues by June 15.
Long lines formed outside of the sales office of some airlines in Antofagasta and Santiago as consumers sought to take advantage of low-fare promotional tickets and other discounts before the March 18 deadline.
Ratings service Standard & Poor's regarded B/E Aerospace's plans to offer 9 million shares in public offering as a positive development to strengthen the company's capital structure.
The thousands of storm-related flight cancellations caused a significant drop in systemwide aircraft operations over the weekend, FAA reports. Friday -- usually one of the busiest days of the week -- saw operations down 10% nationwide, compared with last year. Traffic was down by more than 50% at many Northeast airports, with Philadelphia down almost 70% and Boston 56%. The large number of cancellations kept delays down to 664 on Friday and 380 on Saturday, although delays climbed to 1,148 on Sunday as traffic volume returned. -AS
