JAL and Korean yesterday announced they are extending their code-share operations to cover flights from Tokyo and Osaka to Korea's Jeju Island. Korea currently operates daily nonstop flights on the Jeju routes. JAL will put its code on the Jeju flights from March 25, if government approval is granted. Jeju will be the third destination in South Korea offered by JAL. The island is a popular beach destination for Japanese tourists.
Germany's Fraport Group saw profits jump 41.7% to EUR228.9 million (US$299.4 million) in 2006, moving the airport operator to declare a dividend of EUR1.15 (US$1.50) per share, up 28% from 2005. Fraport's revenues rose 2.6% to EUR2.15 billion (US$2.8 billion). The group's home base of Frankfurt Airport hit a new record in 2006 for passenger traffic, up 1.1% from 2005 to 52.8 million travelers. Air freight at Frankfurt climbed 8.4%, rising above 2 million metric tons for the first time.
More than 40,000 customers -- including 32,000 at Orlando Airport -- have enrolled in Verified Identity Pass's Clear registered traveler program, according to CEO Steven Brill. The numbers are better than projected, said Brill. "We see the pace picking up every day with people enrolling," he said.
Air Canada Technical Services opted for an early termination of its five-year Delta maintenance contract signed in 2005. Last September, the parties amended the deal that limited ACTS to maintaining only Delta's Boeing 767s (DAILY, Sept. 22, 2006). Delta opted to send its 757s to Timco. Before that deal was reached, ACE Chairman Robert Milton said the company wasn't making any money on the Delta deal, warning the two sides might go their separate ways. ACTS said cutting the Delta work would eliminate 700 jobs of 1,000 at its Vancouver facility.
United saw its February load factor increase slightly to a new record for the month, with system capacity falling faster than traffic. Overall load factor was up 0.6 percentage points to 77.5%, as North American loads climbed 0.7 points to 78.9%. Latin America saw the largest increase of 4.8 points to 80.5%, and Pacific routes had the only decrease, down 0.1 points to 77.7%. Transatlantic loads rose 0.9 points to 70.1%.
ExpressJet struck a short-term deal with JetBlue, under which it would fly four of its jets coming offline at Continental for the larger carrier while some of JetBlue's Embraer 190s complete modifications. JetBlue opted to develop a special modification line for about 30 modifications for the Embraer 190s "in order to correct software issues" associated with being the launch customer of the type, the carrier said. A spokesman noted the scheduled maintenance would support the carrier's "return to profitability" program.
Passenger traffic worldwide rose 6.1% in January from the same month last year, while freight traffic saw more modest, 3% growth for the same period, IATA numbers show. The Middle East, which has seen double-digit growth in traffic for 41 of the past 43 months, led the world in passenger traffic growth with a 19.8% rise. African airlines posted 8.1% growth in demand. Traffic growth stabilized in North America at 6.6%, Europe, at 5.5%, and the Asia/Pacific region, at 5%. Demand in Latin America decreased 8.7%, the IATA numbers say.
Alaska Airlines saw a drop in February load factor, as a capacity increase was met by a slight traffic decline. Capacity rose 3.4%, compared with a 0.8% drop in traffic, resulting in load factor decreasing by 2.9 points to 73.6%. Load factor was down 2.7 points to 68.5% for the first two months of the year. Horizon Air's February traffic increased 3.5% on a 7.6% capacity gain, with load factor dropping 2.7 points to 68.8%. -AS
The Omani government is following through on a plan to boost its stake in Oman Air from 34% to 81%. The government proposed the increase at the carrier's extraordinary shareholders meeting last month (DAILY, Feb. 21). The Arab Air Carrier's Association notes the government's rising stake supports Oman Air's strategy to grow into long-haul markets. Currently, the carrier flies six Boeing 737s and four ATR-42 turboprops. Two additional 737-800s are joining the fleet this year -- one leased plane this month and a purchased aircraft in November.
TAM is set to start offering flights between Barreiras and Vitoria de Conquista on March 12 through an alliance with Brazilian carrier Passaredo. TAM said the new flights would operate from Brasilia, Salvador, and Ribeirao Preto, which would allow for connecting flights with its network.
RAK Airways, a new airline in the United Arab Emirates, will launch flights in May after postponing startup three times. The carrier's name was coined from the acronym for Ras Al Khaimah, the airport where it is based. RAK will initially operate two Boeing 757-200s leased from Spanish flag carrier Iberia on a network covering Mumbai, Kochi and Bangalore in India, and Teheran, Isfahan and Bandar Abbas in Iran.
Depending on whether and how quickly the U.S.-European Union open-skies agreement is finalized, Delta stands to save a few million dollars. When it bought United's New York-London route authority last October, Delta agreed to pay $13 million at once and $2 million per year in 2007-10. But if the U.S.-U.K. bilateral is changed at any time to permit more than two U.S. carriers between the U.S. and London Heathrow Airport -- as the new deal would do -- the $2 million payments would stop.
Santa Barbara Airlines, touting the strong economic partnership between the U.S. and Venezuela, plans to launch all-cargo flights to Miami on April 15.
The European Commission curtailed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flying into Europe, part of a recent flurry of movement within the European Union's black list of unsafe carriers. Airlines are put on the black list because of serious safety deficiencies. PIA is allowed to use only its six Boeing 777s for its European services, the EC said on Monday without disclosing further details of its decision.
Delta Air Lines is taking over all the customer service and baggage functions for Delta Connection Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) at its Atlanta hub, beginning June 1. The airline took over similar functions at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport from Connection carriers Chautauqua, Shuttle America and Freedom Airlines in Atlanta last year.
Continental logged increased load factors and unit revenues in February, gains that carry the potential for an improved operating profit in the first quarter of 2007. The carrier's February consolidated load factor, 77%, and mainline load factor, 77.1 %, each set a record for the month and were one percentage point higher than in February 2006. More important, Continental estimated that its consolidated passenger revenue per ASM was 1.5%-2.5% higher than a year earlier, and that mainline PRASM grew 3%-4%.
Delta, the Air Transport Association and Airports Council International-North America are some of the industry players looking to jump into the Los Angeles International airport fees dispute (DAILY, Feb. 21), all claiming the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s decision would extend beyond LAX and the 29 carriers involved to airports and airlines across the country.
US Airways has recovered from a glitch in merging its reservations systems over the weekend that caused check-in backlogs for as long as two hours. The airline was merging with the old America West reservations system. US Airways' self-service kiosks weren't talking to the new reservations system, said spokesman Philip Gee. "When we took them down to migrate the reservations system, they didn't come back up. We've isolated the problem but still haven't fixed it completely," he stated. "They are working off and on but aren't stable."
The Royal Jordanian Air Force established a second company, dubbed Royal Falcon, to handle the U.S. charters originally to be operated by Jordan International Air Cargo. JIAC filed for authority to operate two weekly Boeing 767 flights between Washington and Baghdad last August, but the application remains without an answer before the U.S. Transportation Dept, which asked for clarification about the air force's relationship to the carrier.
FAA is expected to notify more than 3,654 former controllers that they will be eligible to participate in a class action lawsuit against the agency. The controllers are among those fired by President Reagan after the 1981 controller strike and are represented by the Professional Air Traffic Controller Organization. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year authorized the suit to proceed as a class action.
American once again reported a slight seat reduction in February, with mainline capacity falling 3.2% and load factor gaining steadily. The capacity drop was accompanied by a 1.3% traffic decrease, leading to a load factor gain of 1.5 points to 76.5%. The largest capacity cut was -- as usual -- in domestic markets, which saw a 3.8% drop, compared with a 2.2% decrease in international capacity. Domestic traffic was down 2.6%, and international traffic was up by 1.2%.
British Airways says February traffic and load factor were down significantly, partly as a result of strikes that were canceled at the last minute. February traffic dropped 4.2% on a 0.9% capacity rise. Passenger load factor was down 3.7 points to 67.5%. Premium traffic was hit hardest, down 6.3% compared to a 3.8% decline in non-premium traffic.
Air Canada and Continental are arguing that U.S. regulators shouldn't approve Porter Airline's proposed service from Toronto City Centre Airport until they receive assurances that airlines other than Porter are allowed to serve the airport. Porter launched flights from the airport in October using 70-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprops. Last week, it asked for U.S. Transportation Dept. approval to launch flights from City Centre on April 7.
