Hawaiian carrier Island Air plans to remove its single Bombardier 70-seat Bombardier Q400 from service in October and delay delivery of two other aircraft. CEO Robert Mauracher said the move is proactive as high fuel prices and the inter-island fare wars have changed the market. He had strong words for Mesa's Go, noting it was clear the airline's $19 fare "was a direct attempt to damage yield throughout the marketplace and a blatant effort to drive the airline out of business."
The Congressional Budget Office is using its own newly developed model to project aviation trust fund revenue after relying on FAA forecasts that critics say have been inaccurate in recent years. The latest CBO revenue forecast is similar to FAA's, although slightly lower, says CBO Acting Director Donald Marron.
Named Dereck Starks federal security director at Chicago Midway Airport and Mark Hatfield FSD for Newark Liberty Airport, where he has served as acting FSD since March 2006.
Allowing FAA to go to the bond market would be an effective way to finance expensive infrastructure modernization, a financing industry expert told Congress this week, but a government watchdog organization warns this approach would be more expensive than borrowing through the Treasury Dept.
Continental plans to increase its hub operations at Cleveland Airport, says President Jeff Smisek. "Cleveland is a good hub for us, but [the operation] has suffered from not being big enough." He adds that Continental "wants to grow it and intends to grow it."
IATA tomorrow plans to release a new five-year traffic forecast, but short-term trends are showing weakening growth in passenger demand although loads remain high.
Delta on Friday reported an $11 million net loss in August, which was much narrower than the $158 deficit in the same month last year. As of Aug. 31, 2006, Delta had $3.9 billion of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, of which $3 billion was unrestricted. The airline's non-fuel unit costs were 6.66 cents in August, down 7.6% from last year. Consolidated passenger unit revenue rose 12.85 to 10.64 cents.
Comair and its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, scheduled two additional days of negotiations at the end of last week for Saturday and yesterday as the carrier prepares to submit a bid to Delta for regional jet flying for the major airline; previously, negotiations were set to resume Oct. 3-6. Airline executives told Comair employees last week that today is the deadline to submit a bid covering up to 143 aircraft. Last week, management dropped its previous estimate of $17.3 million in concessions from pilots to $16.3 million. -LR
The Senate last week approved a bill that essentially codifies a compromise deal on the Wright Amendment dispute, although at press time Friday the House had still not voted on its own version of this bill. The Wright Amendment bill was expected to face more hurdles in the House than in the Senate. Leaders of the House Judiciary Committee preferred their own version of this bill over the version the House was voting on that was similar to the Senate-passed bill.
30 years ago Oct. 1, 1976 -- Suggestions by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) that carriers have been overcharging the public by $2B-$4B, and by Sen. Frank Moss (D-Utah) that carriers should operate with a 75% load factor have been described as "political crap" by American executive Randall Malin. 20 years ago
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plans to build a new site at its Nagoya plant in Komaki City to expand production capacity for engine components the company builds for the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 and the International Aero Engines V2500. MHI said the new facility would also be used to build parts for the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 powering the Boeing 787. The two-story, 120,000-square-foot-factory is set for completion in September 2007 and should be operational in January 2008. -LR
Verified Identity Pass CEO Steven Brill says to expect new airline and airport partner announcements for the Clear Registered Traveler program in two to three weeks. Now that TSA has blessed the Registered Traveler Interoperability Consortium specs and released its own specs, plus the Privacy Impact Assessment, and resolved the fee issue, "all of the remaining qualms that some folks had are gone."
Board elected Scott Kirby as president, effective Oct. 1, while the airline promoted Ed Bular to senior VP-flight operations/inflight, promoted Associate General Counsel and Managing Director-Legal Michael Minerva to VP-legal and named Elise Eberwein senior VP-people, communication and culture, to reflect her expanded duties for the human resources department.
Volvo Aero is forming a technological pact with Pratt & Whitney to demonstrate new engine technologies for the next-generation aircraft to replace Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 narrowbodies.
Union leaders of Comair's flight attendants tell members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that the $8.9 million in concessions management seeks from the group doesn't have a large impact in improving Comair's response to Delta's request for proposal covering up to 143 regional jets. The airline is scheduled to send its response to Delta today.
Alaska Airlines is recruiting more Spanish speakers as it makes an aggressive push with more Mexican service. By 2011, there will be more Spanish speakers in California than non-Spanish speakers, says Gregg Saretsky, executive VP-marketing. The carrier will launch a Spanish web site and have Spanish available on its airport kiosks by yearend.
The Asia/Pacific region this year accounts for $7.2 billion, or 18.5%, of all worldwide maintenance, repair and overhaul markets, reports David Marcontell, CFO of TeamSAI. By 2016, he predicts this to grow to $14.8 billion, or 24.4% of the total worldwide MRO market. Asia/Pacific represents 15% of the current worldwide commercial airline fleet, with 23% of those aircraft based in China, he says.
Increasing FAA's budget by $1 billion a year to pay for a next-generation ATM system would be difficult under today's budget rules -- even if aviation trust fund revenues grew enough to cover the extra spending, says House aviation subcommittee Chair John Mica (R-Fla.). Trust fund revenues are spent under discretionary spending rules and are subject to discretionary spending limits.
Promoted Christophe Didier from regional sales manager-South America to director-sales and affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean and named Farehk "Frank" Jahangir director-sales and affairs for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Named Larry Coughlin managing director-India Operations for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Mike Devers VP-India Operations for Integrated Defense Systems, Anil Shrikhande as VP-Boeing International and president-Boeing India and John Tracy as senior VP-engineering, operations and technology.
