Lima-based startup Wayraperu hopes soon to start international service after yesterday launching service to six domestic cities with three Fokker 100s. Wayra's initial equity investment is shared by Peru's Fonda de Inversions Sustentables, headed by Peruvian entrepreneur Peter Koechlin, and Brazil's Sinergy Aerospace, owned by German Efromovich.
GOL launched a perpetual bond offering through its finance subsidiary as a financing tool for its Boeing 737 planes to complement financial support the airline is receiving from the U.S. Exim Bank. GOL and its other subsidiary, GOL Transportes Aereos S.A., are guaranteeing the notes, which are senior unsecured debt with no fixed final maturity date. The notes will be callable after five years and are exempt from registration under the U.S. Securities Act.
ASA plans to upgrade its Atlanta-Toronto Delta Connection service to 70-seat CRJ700 aircraft in June [OST-2006-24220]. The carrier needs an exemption from the U.S. Transportation Dept. for the upgrade because flights using 70-seat aircraft do not qualify as small aircraft operations.
Express giant DHL last week dealt a blow to U.S. cargo carrier ABX by cutting back some valuable line-haul and hub services that ABX was contracted to operate, and DHL also introduced more incentive clauses to its ABX agreements. The changes mean DHL will take over responsibility for the truck line-haul network that ABX has been managing. DHL will also no longer require ABX to operate its Allentown hub, after DHL opens a new facility at Allentown in the second quarter. Allentown is the largest of DHL's 18 regional hubs.
Airbus on March 26 plans to hold the first simulated evacuation of a packed A380, which, if successful, will move the aircraft one step closer to certification. The scheduled test on Sunday, to be jointly monitored by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. FAA, is expected to prove that 871 passengers and crewmembers can safely exit the double-deck mega-transport in no more than 90 seconds, using only half of the 16 doors and in complete darkness. The demonstration is required in preparation for the A380-800's certification in the fourth quarter.
The U.S. next month plans to send a delegation to Beijing for the first of possibly several rounds of bilateral talks with China in the hope of eventually negotiating an open-skies deal.
Malaysia Airlines on April 1 will discontinue flights to Manchester, Vienna, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Xian and Padang as part of its business turnaround plan (DAILY, March 3).
Following a move by fellow Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Comair wants approval from the U.S. Transportation Dept. to fly 70-seat CRJ-700s from Atlanta and Cincinnati to Toronto, starting in June. ASA recently asked DOT for an exemption to fly larger jets from Atlanta to Toronto (DAILY, March 20). "Comair and Delta are eager to commence marketing and sales activities with respect to the Atlanta-Toronto and Cincinnati-Toronto flights," the regional airline said. -LR
Portland Airport, Ore., is running a test of its "Common Use" project with Lufthansa and Mexicana. The program allows airlines to lease gate or ticket counter space by the hour and test the effectiveness of routes. The system is operating at 15 ticket counters and three gates. The airport plans to add a gate in the international terminal and a curbside check-in position "within the next several weeks," says Steve Johnson, a spokesman for the airport.
JetBlue announced more management shuffles in its IT, finance and supply chain management after elevating executives in its people, legal and government affairs departments.
LM WIN FBI CONTRACT: Lockheed Martin, which has aggressively been expanding its information technology work, recently nabbed the FBI's $305 million, six-year Sentinel contract. Much like the Defense Department, the FBI intends to link its disparate information systems into an integrated one that could be accessed by analysts and agents around the world. Team members include Accenture, Anteon, CACI, and Computer Sciences Corp. among others.
Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, commander of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), described the command and control challenges associated with ballistic missile defense during a speech in Washington March 20.
Top executives at multinational European missile maker MBDA say a proposal by EADS to take a controlling interest in the company might make good business sense. But they also caution that such a deal could be a political minefield because it would centralize control of the company under Franco-German interests.
L-3 Communications announced March 20 that it is working with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Air and Marine unit to return the Homeland Security Department agency's P-3 aircraft to flight. The CBP P-3 fleet was grounded recently after a crack was discovered in a wing corner-fitting by L-3 personnel performing heavy maintenance on one aircraft, the company said. After further inspections found similar cracks on additional aircraft, CBP grounded its fleet until all aircraft could be fully inspected and repaired.
The two-man crew of the International Space Station took a brief excursion in their Soyuz TMA vehicle early yesterday, donning Russian launch and entry suits to shift the spacecraft that delivered them to the orbital outpost last October from the nadir port on the Zarya module to the aft port on the Zvezda Service Module. The move clears the way for the next station crew to arrive on March 31.
LAUNCH DELAY: Space Exploration Technologies is delaying the Falcon 1 launch attempt at the Kwajalein Atoll this week for at least two days. Controllers ran the rocket through a static firing late last week and want to check some of the results before they proceed. The launch period is March 20-25, but at the moment it won't launch until at least March 22 to allow for the static firing review.
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) visited Swales Aerospace in Beltsville, Md., on March 20 to highlight $39 million recently appropriated for "operationally responsive" satellite research. Hoyer helped earmark funds for so-called "operationally responsive satellites" (ORS) - also known as tactical satellites (tacsats) - which are envisioned for launching small payloads into low earth orbit inexpensively and within hours or days of the requirement to proceed.
