The cost of Panama City's new airport has risen since FAA gave its approval for the final plan in September (DAILY, Sept. 20). The culprit is a hike in construction materials and labor, said Randy Curtis, executive director of Panama City Bay County Airport.
TAM yesterday unveiled plans to start a third daily flight to Paris, beginning Jan. 12 from Rio de Janeiro Galeao Airport. TAM got the third flight to Paris thanks to the liberalized bilateral agreement reached last month between the Brazilian and French governments. "The operation of this flight aims to fulfill increasing demand for the international route, providing passengers a greater degree of comfort when traveling nonstop between Rio de Janeiro and Paris," the airline said.
Ryanair management is claiming that roughly three months after the foiled U.K. terrorist attacks Stansted is the lone U.K. airport of the 18 the airline serves that is still experiencing significant security delays. Carrier CEO Michael O'Leary told analysts earlier this week the airport never mans all 14 security points at Stansted. He reasoned the 700 trained security employees at Stansted could be broken down to 50 at each point. Ryanair's CEO said there were high no-show ratios among Stansted's security personnel and strong absenteeism.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas and Polar, predicted this week that it will achieve pre-tax profit growth in the fourth quarter, its first quarterly improvement this year. Atlas forecasts a fourth-quarter pre-tax profit of more than $60 million in the fourth quarter, up from $45 million last year. CEO William Flynn said the result is the achievement of a major goal for 2006 -- "sustainable levels of profitability."
FAA this week named new deputy administrators for three U.S. regions. For the Northwest Mountain region, Administrator Marion Blakey named Kalene Yanamura. Yanamura is currently the assistant manager of FAA's Transport Airplane Directorate in Renton, Wash. The Southern deputy regional administrator position goes to Pearlis Johnson, currently manager of Africa Staff, Africa, Europe and Middle East Office in the Office of International Aviation. Johnson served as manager of strategic information communications and evaluations for Flight Standards from 1991 to 1994.
Delta yesterday swung to a $52 million third quarter profit thanks to higher revenues, which offset fuel costs and the affect from the August terrorism scare.
Boeing subsidiary Alteon recently signed deals with China Eastern and Xiamen Airlines to participate in the beta test of its Multi-Crew Pilot License (MPL) Program, and it expects to add two other Indian carriers before its starts training the first 12 cadets next year.
Wichita Mid-Continent Airport is one step closer to developing a three-part incentive program to attract new airlines or service, new cities by existing airlines or new frequencies for current destinations.
Boeing yesterday promoted Doug Kight to VP-human resources at Commercial Airplanes, replacing long-serving executive Jerry Calhoun, who plans to retire after 36 years with the company. Kight, who will start his new job in December, will oversee human resources services for Boeing's 55,000 employees and handle relations with the company's two major unions that account for 40,000 employees.
The major general aviation lobby group believes it will get a much more sympathetic hearing from the Democrat-controlled Congress regarding the user fee debate. "The shift in power in the House changes the picture for us on the user-fee fight...but it doesn't mean we've won the battle," Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association President Phil Boyer told members. "On the specific issue of aviation funding and user fees, we're well positioned with the people newly in power who will, at the very least, listen to us," said Boyer.
Volga-Dnepr Group's scheduled and charter operations carried a record 95,000 metric tons of freight in the first nine months of the year, which makes the carrier Russia's largest all-cargo airline, executives said.
AeroMobile yesterday unveiled Emirates as the launch customer for its inflight mobile phone service, which is on track to launch next year on a Boeing 777.
Volvo Aero plans to close its engine overhaul site in Bromma next year after weathering several years of substantial losses, the company said. Estimated costs to close the site are SEK250 million (US$34 million). The Bromma site specializes in overhaul of Pratt & Whitney JT8D and JT9D engines. Demand for the powerplants has fallen sharply. Introduction of PW4000 overhauls was "more difficult than expected," Volvo Aero said, and volumes haven't reached required levels. Bromma's 457 employees will have priority for any vacancies in Volvo Aero Sweden.
AAR unveiled its second deal this week, after agreeing to provide supply chain services for Chautauqua Airlines through its Allen Asset Management Division. The three-year deal includes asset planning and repair, and the maintenance of rotable expendable inventories for 24 CRJ-200 aircraft that parent company Republic Airways Holdings is sourcing from the used market. Chautauqua plans to start flying those aircraft for Continental in January.
Chinese cargo carrier Yangtze River Express got the nod from the U.S. Transportation Dept. to serve Anchorage as part of its Shanghai-Los Angeles service (DAILY, Sept. 14). The airline will use aircraft and crews wet-leased from Air Atlanta Icelandic for the services.
ExpressJet believes viable opportunities in point-to-point flying exist for some of the 69 planes that start exiting its Continental network in December, and the airline says the infrastructure is almost intact to launch those operations by the second quarter next year.
Air Atlanta Icelandic took delivery of a Boeing 747-400SF converted freighter (TF-AMI). The aircraft arrived at Luxembourg after undergoing conversion with IAI in Tel Aviv for the past 12 months. The plane was originally owned by Singapore Airlines. The aircraft is temporarily leased out to Cargolux, which dispatched the first flight Nov. 5 from Luxembourg to Huntsville, Ala., returning this week. The aircraft will then operate for Cargolux worldwide. -SL
