Spanish airports authority Aeropuertos Espanoles y Navegacion Aerea has so far received 17,259 complaints from passengers affected by last month's strike at Barcelona El Prat Airport.
Spanair this week reported a record number of passengers on the Barcelona-Madrid route in June as the carrier grew its market share to more than 32% on the route. The carrier flew 135,285 passengers between the cities during the month, 14% more than in the same month last year. The traffic increase outpaced the 12% capacity growth, which boosted load factor 2.2 points to 75.1%. The highest load factor figures, in general, were registered on Fridays, at 81.6%.
Comair pilots expect the carrier's management to make another proposal related to concessions they agreed to in January at their next meeting. The two sides met last week to talk about altering that deal. The airline's executives are having to sit down again with pilots and mechanics, who agreed to concessions, as they struggle to win needed reductions from flight attendants.
National Air Services of Saudi Arabia pushed its plans to launch a low-cost carrier a step forward after submitting its application for a license with the General Authority of Civil Aviation. Originally, NAS has said it wanted to unveil the carrier this summer (DAILY, Nov. 30, 2005). NAS already has Part 121 certification from Saudi authorities, plus Part 125 repair station certification and EASA Part 145 approval.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. is preparing to make a stronger push to win congressional support for its proposal to ease restrictions on airline foreign ownership, while U.S. and European officials have confirmed their desire to complete an open-skies deal despite the latest postponement of the foreign ownership rule.
Copa Airlines' growing yields and pricing power in recent months has given the carrier's executives confidence to continue adding frequencies and expanding the network for the near future.
British Airways plans to fly a full schedule of flights from London Heathrow Airport on Friday, after more than a week of severe schedule disruptions caused by new airport security requirements. Yesterday, the airline canceled three long-haul and 32 short-haul flights at Heathrow, and today it expected to operate all long-haul flights and all but 19 short-haul flights. No cancellations are expected Friday, although the experience of the past week shows this could be an ambitious goal. Gatwick was expected to return to a full schedule today.
JAL, effective Oct. 29, will stop carrying American's code on its flights from Osaka (Japan) to Bangkok (Thailand), Hanoi (Vietnam), Seoul (Korea) and nine Japanese cites. The code shares will stop with the discontinuation of American's Dallas/Fort Worth-Osaka service on the same date (DAILY, Aug. 9). American also carried the JL code on its Dallas-Osaka service [OST-1999-4994]. -ARS
Cargo carrier Gemini yesterday announced it has emerged from bankruptcy, with lender Bayside Capital now owning a majority stake in the carrier. Gemini's reorganization plan was approved by the bankruptcy court July 20, allowing the company to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in just four months. "Through the bankruptcy process, Gemini was able to eliminate approximately $50 million of debt and realign its balance sheet, greatly improving the company's competitive position," said CEO Sam Woodward.
Icelandair this winter plans to suspend service from Reykjavik to Baltimore/Washington and Minneapolis for about three months due to an expected drop in loads and yields.
Airports say they will need more Transportation Security Administration transportation security officers (TSOs) if Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff moves forward with a plan to use screeners to check passenger identification at the beginning of security checkpoints.
Qantas yesterday formed a wholly owned subsidiary to operate a new domestic air freight business called Express Freighters Australia. The new unit is expected to start operations in October and CEO Geoff Dixon said Express Freighters would wet lease Boeing 737-300 freighters to Australian Air Express under a 12-year contract. "Express Freighters Australia will not only provide increased revenue, but also new employment for pilots and additional work volumes for Qantas engineers," Dixon said.
With flight operations at London Heathrow Airport continuing to crawl back toward normal levels, airlines are starting to make noises about seeking compensation for the hundreds of flight cancellations and delays that have occurred in the wake of last week's bomb scare.
Goodrich won landing gear maintenance business from Asiana Airlines through a five-year deal to service the gear with the airline's Boeing 737s/767s/747s/ 777s. The OEM estimates posting about $4 million revenue from the deal.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. told the European Commission that DOT will not be finalizing its controversial foreign ownership rule before the next meeting of the European Council of Ministers, which will almost certainly delay the signing of a U.S.-European Union open-skies agreement.
Last week's terrorist alert in the U.K. prompted Finland, which currently chairs the European Union, to convene a ministerial meeting today in London to address aviation security, which could increase co-operation between EU member states on counter-terrorism issues.
U.S. government agencies have agreed to improve manifest- and baggage-screening requirements introduced after last week's bomb scare, and the changes have dramatically reduced the hours of delay that were caused by the new requirements, the Air Transport Association says.
