EasyJet and Ryanair on Friday were forced by a regional administrative court to suspend their respective services to the Sardinia region, prompting outrage from airline executives.
Ryanair last week lodged a complaint with the European Commission against Air France, alleging that lower landing charges for domestic flights in France resulted in about EUR1 billion in "illegal state aid" to the French carrier "over the past number of years."
BAA last week reported that passenger traffic at its U.K. airports increased 7.8% to 12.4 million in April, with all markets except U.K. domestic routes showing strong growth. April benefited from a later Easter holiday than last year, but traffic was still up 3.2% for March and April combined. Total movements rose 1.3% in April, and cargo tonnage was down 4.2%, partly due to a drop in output over the holiday.
The U.S. Transportation Dept.'s Inspector General last week announced plans to audit FAA's flight service station privatization, and assess runway incursion initiatives at a handful of airports.
US Airways cargo revenue soared from $9 million in the first quarter of 2005 to $37 million this year, partly because the airline now handles European sales in-house. The carrier previously outsourced European sales to Star partner Lufthansa but it has seen a spike in transatlantic cargo sales after it started handling with internal staff.
American has achieved $221 million of the $500 million in savings it wants to achieve by the end of the year at its Tulsa maintenance base. The airline is also targeting $160 million in savings by the end of 2007 at its Kansas City maintenance base, and has so far achieved $16 million of that goal.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ingrid Lee at [email protected] MAY 17 -- Wings Club luncheon featuring Oliver Foot, president and executive director of ORBIS International, Yale Club, New York City, 212-867-1770, email: [email protected] MAY 17-20 -- ACI-NA Legal Issues Seminar and Committee Meeting, The Hilton Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska, 202-293-3024, email [email protected]
Fraport last week posted a slight increase in sales and profit in the first quarter of 2006, despite a slight slowdown in passenger numbers. Revenue rose 1.4% from 2005 to EUR487.4 million (US$626 million) in the quarter, while Fraport's profit rose 0.4% to EUR27.4 million (US$35.1 million). Fraport's operations in the first quarter were hampered by numerous weather-related flight cancellations, causing a 1.1% drop in passengers served to 11.2 million. Fraport's forecast for the entire 2006 fiscal year remains unchanged and passenger figures will grow by about 2%.
Big Sky last week was selected to provide essential air service at Pierre, S.D., over incumbent Great Lakes, in a decision the U.S. Transportation Dept. said boiled down to "strong community support on the one hand, versus subsidy requirements on the other." The two carriers proffered options for service that were nearly identical -- 12 nonstop roundtrips per week to Denver with 19-seat Beech 1900D turboprops. Big Sky, however, was seeking $379,616 in annual subsidy, while Great Lakes was asking for $576,891.
The European Union's Court of First Instance last week rejected a complaint by Galileo International Technology LLC, which argued that the homonymous EU satellite navigation project was encroaching upon the global travel distribution company's trademarks.
You can now register online for Aviation Week events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or contact Lydia Janow, 212-904-3225 or 800-240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada only) MAY 17-18 -- MRO Military Europe, Berlin SEPT. 19-21 -- MRO Asia, Xiamen, China OCT. 24-26 -- MRO Europe, Amsterdam NOV. 13-15 -- Aerospace & Defense Programs, Phoenix
JetBlue's Embraer 190s appear to be profitable for the carrier, says CFO John Owen, based on early results. The airline completed an analysis of the aircraft's performance in terms of revenue and costs for the month of March, and after normalizing the costs for the planned 11-hour daily utilization. "Our conclusion was we made money on the 190 in March," Owen says.
TSA's transition to letting local offices hire their own screeners is finished, the agency reports. TSA previously hired all screeners from its Washington office. About 155 airports are hiring locally since the program began in March. More than 1,500 new transportation security officers have already been hired, a 100% jump over pre-local-hiring numbers.
Aeromexico affiliate Aerolitoral will soon operate the La Paz-Los Angeles route in place of Aeromexico's mainline service, as Aeromexico believes "the market can be best served on an economic basis with small aircraft." The carrier won authority from the U.S. Transportation Dept. to operate the route and carry Aeromexico's code on the flights. Aerolitoral will operate the route twice weekly with regional jets with fewer than 60 seats. Aeromexico last month operated the route three times weekly with 121-seat Boeing 737s [OST-2006-24705]. -ARS
Appointed Tom Mepham, formerly president-customer services, as president-aircraft interior products division and tapped Paul Snyder, formerly VP-enterprise business development for the customer services division, to succeed Mepham as president of the division.
American Express last week formed a new "advisory services" unit within the company's Business Travel division that will consult for companies on travel policies, procurement and process.
Frontier executives are attempting to put the carrier's sagging unit revenues into perspective, citing United's capacity boost in Denver and Southwest's introductory fares in that market as triggers for its lackluster performance. Speaking at an investors conference last week, Frontier CFO Paul Tate said the carrier's revenue per available seat mile (RASM) had been "severely underperforming" year-over-year, noting February and March were particularly challenging, but April's statistics were showing improvement.
Lost baggage could be a thing of the past if BAA's test of tag and beacon technology is a success. BAA will begin testing the system this fall on select Virgin Atlantic flights from Heathrow to Dubai and Hong Kong, said spokeswoman Jo Bird. Baggage on selected flights will have a tag that is embedded with a small microchip.
NTSB has scheduled a two-day hearing, beginning June 20, on the runway overrun of a Southwest 737 at Chicago Midway Airport in December. The hearing is part of the "fact-finding" phase of the crash investigation,NTSB said. The board intends to "further develop" information on the measurement of runway friction and the methods used to relay runway friction estimates to pilots; runway safety areas at Midway and other airports with land use constraints; and 737 landing data "that take into account the use of thrust reversers."
