Despite a first quarter loss of RM321 million (US$89.1 million), Malaysian Airlines is confident that it is on course to return to profitability next year.
By Steve Lott The U.S. airline industry is grasping at any optimistic news that comes along, most recently the report that domestic yields in March and April reached the highest point in more than five years, but there's some major battle that many have overlooked or chosen to ignore -- the economy.
Lawmakers early in June are expected to debate whether to proceed with a legislative proposal that would delay the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s attempts to ease airline foreign ownership rules.
American's flight attendants' union is calling for the airline to stop claiming that the union is participating American's Performance Leadership Initiative (PLI). The PLI is an effort designed to identify cost savings and inefficiencies at the airline, but the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said it withdrew from PLI in January in protest against a controversial management bonus plan.
Ecuador's domestic and regional have rapidly expanded into northern neighbor Colombia in recent months, a trend that appears likely to continue. State-owned TAME, which launched the Quito-Tulcan-Cali route in 1993 as part of border flights provided in bilateral agreements, has carried 500,000 passengers on 9,000 flights since that time. But after putting 76-passenger Embraer regional jets into service, it has already carried 2,000 passengers in the past two weeks alone.
Frontier is regaining revenue momentum in markets where it competes directly with Southwest from Denver after experiencing double-digit revenue declines on those routes for the March quarter. Southwest started competing directly this year on five routes -- Chicago Midway, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Baltimore and Salt Lake City. Frontier CEO Jeff Potter told analysts last week that in hindsight, Frontier "didn't adapt as quickly as we would have liked" to Southwest's launch of service from Denver.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey says the agency is testing a new airspace flow program in the East and Midwest that will regulate traffic in en route airspace during thunderstorms, which should reduce the reliance on ground delay programs. "With this new approach, we don't completely shut down the airspace or the airport; we carefully limit traffic through it," Blakey says. FAA believes this program could save airlines more than $1 billion in 10 years.
The joint low-cost carrier venture between Mexico's ALMA (Aerolineas Mesoamericanas) and Brazil's GOL will take off in June. Based in Guadalajara, ALMA will operate eight Bombardier CRJ200s on a route network initially serving Puebla, Los Mochis and Tijuana. Expansion plans call for more cities and a fleet of 34 aircraft in five years.
Code sharing between Mexicana and Qantas through the transit points of Los Angeles and San Francisco can begin as planned on June 1, as the U.S. Dept. of Transportation gave the carriers the necessary authority (DAILY, April 28). The authority will allow the airlines to carry their respective Mexico-Australia traffic [OST-2006-24583].
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The Air Line Pilots Association says it is "encouraged" by commitments from Transportation Security Administration head Kip Hawley to move more quickly on a biometric identification card for pilots.
Ecuador this week returned to Category 1 in FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment Program, after 12 years in Cat 2. Analysts in Quito said the promotion reflects substantial improvement in the country's civil aviation infrastructure made in the past few years.
British Airways will "very quickly" be able to move some flights from London Gatwick to Heathrow if the transatlantic market is further liberalized and restrictions removed from Heathrow, BA CEO Willie Walsh says. BA would also probably "increase its slot portfolio" at Heathrow, says Walsh. "Slots are hard to get, but you can get them." Overall, the landscape at Heathrow probably won't change too much under a new open-skies deal, Walsh believes.
Independent aircraft parts manufacturer Heico last week announced plans to acquire Arger Enterprises Inc., a 29-year-old company that designs and distributes FAA-approved aircraft and engine parts for commercial airliners.
