World air cargo growth has rebounded slightly this year -- following a dramatic slowdown in growth last year -- and should continue to improve in the near term, Boeing said yesterday in its latest cargo forecast.
KLM yesterday unveiled plans to launch nonstop flights from Amsterdam to Lima with the start of next year's summer schedule. Starting March 25, KLM will operate a nonstop roundtrip service six times a week with Boeing 777-200ERs. The carrier currently operates daily flights to Lima with MD-11s with a stopover on Bonaire. The new nonstop flights will save more than 90 minutes in each direction, compared with the current service. The new circumstances also allow for increased weekly passenger capacity on this route.
Boeing yesterday confirmed the last part of a 150-plane 737 commitment that was announced by the Chinese government in November 2005. The aircraft were intended for eight Chinese carriers, and the order details had to be negotiated separately. The last airline was Hainan, which accounted for 15 of the aircraft. The first 50 orders were booked in December 2005 and 20 in January. Another 65 orders had been finalized by August. The other seven carriers are Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Shandong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xiamen. -AS
Mesaba management received a mix bag from the courts this week as the bankruptcy court approved its $24 million in debtor-in-possession financing and a District judge reversed the carrier's right to void contracts with its labor groups. That ruling hinders Mesaba from accessing the DIP funds, which are contingent on the carrier's reaching agreements with its labor groups. It also means Mesaba's cash crunch continues. Recently the company said it is losing about $1 million a week. At the end of July, its cash balances were a little more than $20 million.
The Transportation Security Admi-nistration has given the green light for passengers to sign up in advance for the national Registered Traveler (RT) program.
Star Alliance member Lufthansa will carry US Airways code on flights between Frankfurt and Amsterdam, beginning on Oct. 12. Also, Asiana will place United's code on flights from Seoul to Phuket and Kota Kinabalu, starting Dec. 19. United will carry Asiana's code on its Los Angeles-Philadelphia/-New Orleans flights and from Chicago to Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Orlando, Memphis and New York [OST-2002-13320, -2003-15946].
Northwest wants to deploy 76-seat planes through its Compass subsidiary in the first half of 2007 as the FAA reviews the airline's final operating plan. Compass got the tentative nod from the U.S. DOT this week, and although DOT said in its approval notice that the carrier would launch in October, Northwest noted that no launch date has been set for the carrier to debut flights from Washington Dulles Airport. Earlier this year, Northwest bought Independence Air's operating certificate for $2 million.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. is extending to Oct. 31 the comment period on Hawaiian's petition aimed at overturning American Samoa's attempt to ban the airline from serving Pago Pago (DAILY, Aug. 31). The governor of American Samoa requested the extension on the grounds that the issues presented by Hawaiian in its petition could not be adequately addressed within the 14-day comment period. Hawaiian did not object to the extension. Replies to comments in the case must be filed by Nov. 21 [OST-2006-25612]. -ARS
During a working visit to his home town of Medellin last week, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe lent his support to the long-standing project to integrate under one authority the city's two airports, Olaya Herrera and Jose Maria Cordoba International at Rionegro, an hour away.
Emirates SkyCargo this week launched a new information technology cargo management system that aims to offer more significantly more flexibility than many of the legacy systems used by cargo companies.
Southwest Florida International Airport contributed $3.6 billion to the region's economy in 2005, up 74% from $2 billion in 1999, according to a new economic impact study completed by Cincinnati-based consultancy Ricondo & Associates.
Eastern European LCC Wizz Air plans to launch three weekly flights between Sofia and Rome Ciampino after Bulgaria joins the European Union. Wizz plans to launch the service March 2, replacing the Sofia-Budapest flight.
Latvian carrier AirBaltic forged a code-sharing deal with Uzbekistan Airways on fights from Riga to Tashkent. AirBaltic plans to list its code on those flights, starting Oct. 29. Flights between Riga and Tashkent are offered on Monday and Friday, while the Tashkent-Riga leg is flown on Friday and Sunday.Latvian carrier AirBaltic forged a code-sharing deal with Uzbekistan Airways on fights from Riga to Tashkent. AirBaltic plans to list its code on those flights, starting Oct. 29.
Xiamen-based Taikoo Aircraft Engineering Co. (TAECO) is investing $67 million for the construction of its sixth hangar. Ground was broken on construction of the 50,000-square-meter facility, which is slated to be completed in October 2008 and operational a month later. The added capacity is needed as part of TAECO's long-term expansion plans for increased heavy maintenance and passenger-to-freighter conversion offering.
Canadian communities are missing out on lucrative international service links because of restrictive air serve regimes with some of the country's top trading partners and sources of tourists, according to a new position paper released by the Canadian Airports Council (CAC).
The Miami-Dade Aviation Dept. (MDAD) is hoping that training 35,000 employees, vendors and tenants will help with efforts to spot suspicious behavior at Miami Airport.
BAE head Mike Turner yesterday delivered another kick to the beleaguered Airbus A380 program, commenting that he would not be surprised to see further delays to A380 deliveries. Airbus is still completing a detailed review of the A380 production process. BAE wants to sell its share in Airbus to EADS, which is the majority owner. -AS
SkyEurope management believes consolidation among European low-cost carriers will occur, and believes its ability to access capital should place the carrier in an ideal position to act on that shift. CEO Christian Mandl told The DAILY earlier this week at a conference in London that the carrier "would be one of those consolidators." He noted that SkyEurope is the only LCC in the region that is publicly traded, giving the carrier an advantage in gaining funding.
Researchers at the University College London are working on using RFID tags to track passengers in airports to cut back on airline delays. The Optag study, started in February 2004, is funded at EUR2.2 million (US$2.7 million) by the European Union under its Framework-6 program, a EUR17.5 billion (US$22.2 billion) research and development effort to fund projects in all industries and across all market sectors.
