Dublin Airport is one step closer to building the new Terminal 2 with Finegal County Council giving its final approval for construction on the IEP395 million (US$500.2 million) facility. The final hurdle is handling any potential appeals before the Irish Planning Appeals Board, said airport spokesman Paul O'Kane. "Now that we have achieved planning permission, third parties may decide to appeal that permission. The Dublin Airport Authority also has the right to appeal the decision if it so chooses," he explained.
Alcoa Inc. recently won FAA certification for its Boeing 757-200ASF freighter conversion program. This aircraft "provides longer range and a larger payload than the 727, while delivering superior operating economics based around a simple design that retains more of the 757's original structure," said Gary Batey, president of Alcoa-SIE Cargo Conversion. "The vast majority of the additional capacity necessary to fulfill that demand will come from converted aircraft, like the 757-200ASF as opposed to newly manufactured freighters."
The Wichita Airport Authority is scaling back on the design of a new terminal at Mid-Continent Airport after deciding the original $184 million price tag was too high. The Wichita City Council approved spending $12.6 million to plan and design a new terminal at Mid-Continent Airport back in July (DAILY, July 26).
Boeing yesterday revealed lessor CIT as the customer for five 787s that were previously listed as unidentified orders, and also added 20 unidentified 737 orders to its backlog. The CIT aircraft will be delivered beginning in 2012. CIT is the third major leasing company to publicly announce a 787 order, joining ILFC and Low Cost Aircraft Leasing. Boeing still has 34 unidentified orders for the 787 listed on its web site after the CIT orders were removed from this category.
Midwest Air Group yesterday swung to a modest $1.7 million third quarter profit, compared with a $27 million loss last year, thanks to higher fares and revenue through the summer, which helped offset high fuel costs.
US Airways yesterday unveiled plans to invest more money and hire another 250 staff to rid its Philadelphia hub of costly operational problems in order to move forward with a multi-year international expansion plan at the airport.
Republic Airways Holdings (RAH) has offered Delta some concessions on its existing contract structure as the Atlanta-based major carrier wades through bids for its regional flying. Delta is asking carriers to bid on existing and incremental flying covering about 143 RJs, and should issue a decision next month. Comair has warned it is bidding rates that put it at a cost disadvantage after failing to win concessionary deals with its pilots.
Learjet workers have begun returning to work after approving a revised contract offer by parent company Bombardier. About 1,100 unionized production and assembly workers in Wichita, Kan., had walked off the job Oct. 2 after rejecting an offer for a 10% pay raise over three years. The Learjet workers demanded more money to make up for a three-year wage freeze they agreed to in 2003.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. increased to $854,452 the amount of subsidy that Air Midwest receives per year to operate essential air service at Hagerstown, Md. Air Midwest planned to drop its subsidized service between Hagerstown and Pittsburgh as of Sept. 21 because fuel costs were "running $166,000 more annually than what was forecast in our bid," as well as lower traffic surrounding Independence Air's operations at Washington Dulles Airport (DAILY, June 30). Per the August 2005 award, the carrier was taking in some $649,929 in subsidy per year.
AVIATION WEEK this week launched MRO Prospector, a Web-based suite of data and tools for business development, benchmarking and forecasting in the commercial aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul industry. Built through a partnership with TeamSAI and Ascend, MRO Prospector contains exclusive, up-to-date MRO industry data and tools that let users forecast maintenance business by aircraft, engine and operator, track fleet changes and establish benchmarks for work on aircraft, engines and components, worldwide. Inside North America, call 866-857-0148.
Regional Airline Association Chairman and Horizon Air CEO Jeff Pinneo is stressing policy makers need to focus on equitable funding in FAA reauthorization, telling attendees yesterday at the Aero Club of Washington, that commercial airlines "pay for a significantly larger portion of the air traffic control services than they actually consume," adding, "In return for this overpayment, airlines face avoidable delays wasting fuel, crew time and other resources in the process due to an outdated ATC system."
Finnair yesterday reported that the recent two-day strike by its cabin staff cost the carrier EUR7 million, and it may lose another EUR3 million because of a short-term drop in bookings.
Ryanair bought 10 flight simulators from CAE in a deal worth more than $80 million. The carrier plans to take delivery of the Boeing 737-800 simulators, which it plans to use for pilot recurrent training, in 2008.
Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch all have upgraded airport bonds issued by Chicago O'Hare Airport. The upgrade was done despite the airport disclosing that costs for Phase One of the O'Hare Modernization Program (OMP) have rise by $400 million caused by a longer-than-anticipated FAA review, permit delays, increased land acquisition costs and litigation.
Transport Canada has released a document outlining the country's new international air transportation policy. Minister of Transport Lawrence Cannon is asking for stakeholder views on the document, which calls for a modernized approach to international air transportation, including Canada's bilateral air transportation negotiations. "Our stakeholders include Canadian airports, airlines, tourism associations, the provinces and labor unions," said Transport Canada spokeswoman Lucie Vignola.
Aerolineas Argentinas last Sunday canceled "until further notice" flights to and from Ushuaia, Argentina's southernmost city, alleging the airport's VOR and ILS radar systems for takeoffs and landings are not functioning and pose serious safety risks.
As airports struggle to find ways to pay for inline explosives detection and trace systems, TSA has distributed $100 million in other transaction agreements (OTAs) to fund parts of inline modification projects but has not released any new funds since 2004. TSA has signed 12 OTAs with 10 airports for their inline screening system projects, said spokeswoman Amy Kudwa. Among those receiving grants were: Chicago O'Hare, $37.5 million and $21.9 million; Dallas/Fort Worth, $17.5 million; and Seattle-Tacoma Airport, $2.2 million and $6.6 million.
Delays in securing approvals from Mexican aviation authorities prompted Delta to push back to Feb. 10 the effective date on which SkyWest will assume Connection operations on the Salt Lake City-Mazatlan route for Shuttle America and on SLC-San Jose del Cabo for ASA. The DAILY in error reported that Delta was launching new service in the markets (DAILY, Oct. 25).
Lufthansa yesterday reported EUR15 billion in revenue for the first nine months of the year, up nearly 13% from the same period last year and operating profit jumped 47% to EUR691 million.
Aerosur has leased the largest aircraft to ever operate regularly in Bolivia to serve its international routes: a Boeing 747 configured for 24 in first class, 48 in business and 428 in economy. The jumbo jet will be used for immediate and more frequent service between Bolivia and Madrid, Spain, a route on which demand greatly exceeds capacity. For this reason, AeroSur says it can cut airfares to $700, the lowest in the market, despite paying monthly leasing fees of $1.5 million to $2 million. -LZ
