Shuttle America last week won authority to operate flights between the U.S. and the Bahamas, authority it will use to launch Saturday-only United Express service between Washington Dulles Airport and Nassau on June 10 (DAILY, March 20). The exemption award noted that Shuttle America said it would also use the authority to operate code share flights in the market with large aircraft for other major U.S. carriers [OST-2006-24218]. -ARS
An impressive 88.1% increase in fourth-quarter net profit helped drive Embraer's 2005 profit to a record $445.7 million, and the manufacturer also highlighted its strong cash position and order book.
Venezuelan carriers are poised to invest heavily in the U.S.-Venezuela market, hoping to capitalize on the change that will likely come as a result of Venezuela's upgrade in the FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment Program (DAILY, March 27).
FAA on Friday carried out its threat to file an unfair labor practices complaint against the Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS) union, alleging that the union failed to conduct "good faith bargaining" during recent contract talks.
Air Canada yesterday signed a 10-year lease for one new Boeing 777-300ER from ILFC to accelerate its widebody fleet renewal program and return one of its Airbus A340s two years earlier than planned.
TAP Portugal posted a EUR9.9 million loss (US$12 million) for the 2005 financial year despite significantly higher revenues. The airline attributed the loss to the soaring fuel prices that resulted in its spending EUR93 million more on kerosene than expected. Revenues grew 9.9% to EUR1.4 billion (US$1.7 billion), and TAP's fuel expenses were EUR287 million (US$348 million). The airline carried 6.4 million passengers, up 5.5% from 2004. TAP joined the Star Alliance last year. -JF
Northwest won exemptions from the U.S. Transportation Dept. for code sharing with SkyTeam partner Continental on CO's Houston-Queretaro, Mexico, flights and for Cincinnati-San Jose del Cabo and the Atlanta-Cozumel/-Merida/-Puerto Vallarta code share with Delta [OST-2006-23979].
Cathay Pacific plans to boost its cargo service with two new weekly freighter flights from Hong Kong to India. The new service will operate every Tuesday and Friday, starting June 2 with a Boeing 747-200F. It will depart Hong Kong at 11:40 a.m. and arrive in Mumbai at 3 p.m. local time the same day before continuing to Chennai later that afternoon and heading back to Hong Kong at 7:50 p.m., arriving in the early hours of the following morning in time for connections to the U.S.
Most U.S. airlines over the weekend matched the modest fare increase in non-low-cost carrier markets, and it appeared airlines embraced the move to stop absorbing airport passenger facility charges, but other attempted fare hikes did not win support.
The escrow account into which Aerolineas Argentinas pays penalties to compensate for the disparities in fees charged to U.S. carriers (DAILY, Aug. 31, 2005) now stands at $3,163,891.49. The airline last deposited $22,540.16 into the account for the week ended March 26, the 114th deposit into the account since January 2004 [OST-2003-15092].
Gulf Air plans to add nearly 70 new frequencies from its Muscat hub this summer to several new and existing destinations in its network, including Paris. When all the new services are added, Gulf Air will have 195 flights per week from Muscat, a 55% increase from its current schedule of 126 flights per week. The carrier will operate seven flights a week to Jakarta and Kathmandu, six to Amman, four to Paris, two to Islamabad and Dammam, and one to Sana'a. It also added one nonstop flight four days per week to Kuala Lumpur.
Luxair will cut 200 jobs or 10% of its work force, freeze wages from 2007 to 2009 and slash unprofitable destinations from its network in an attempt to break even by the end of 2008, the 36.5% state-owned flag carrier announced yesterday in Luxembourg. The airline said it posted a EUR12 million loss (US$14.6 million) in 2005, and "if no concrete measures are taken, projected results by the financial year 2008 would amount to a loss of over EUR21 million."
Korean Air and Kenya Airways will launch three weekly code-share flights on the Seoul Incheon-Bangkok-Nairobi route on April 20. Korean Air will operate the Incheon-Bangkok route, while Kenya Airways will fly the Bangkok-Nairobi sector. The flight will operate on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Nairobi will be Korean Air's second African destination. The other is Cairo, which is served nonstop three times weekly. -WD
Qantas Engineering yesterday opened its new A$55 million (US$39.4 million) material and logistics distribution center in Mascot, near Sydney. The 17,500-square-meter facility houses components required to service and maintain Qantas' mainline fleet. The highlight of the facility is a high-rise Miniload Automated Storage and Retrieval System comprising four stacker cranes that travel at speeds of 24 meters (or 26 yards) per second to retrieve 260,000 components from storage trays in more than 30,000 locations within the facility.
FAA is delaying by six months the introduction of a rule that extends the scope of its drug- and alcohol-testing program, but the delay has not eased the repair station industry's concerns about the rule. The agency had already established a compliance date of April 10 for the new drug testing rule, which was issued in January. Yesterday, however, FAA said the compliance date will be pushed back to Oct. 10. The new rule is intended to make sure that all repair and maintenance sub-contractors are included in the program, FAA said.
Worldwide passenger traffic jumped 6.8% in February and freight traffic increased 5.4%, according to IATA, supporting the association's optimistic view that the industry is recovering.
JetBlue for the third consecutive year took the top spot in the annual Airline Quality Rating (AQR) study, as the airline's poor on-time arrival rate in 2005 was more than offset by nearly perfect scores in other categories, beating AirTran and Southwest.
Airbus plans to pick one of four possible places for its final assembly line in China by the end of April, according to a senior Airbus executive. "We can't complete a lot of the feasibility study until we know where it is going to be," Airbus China President Laurence Barron said in an interview. The manufacturer is looking at Shanghai, Zhuhai, Xian and Tianjin as possible locations for an Airbus A320 series final assembly line. Following the feasibility study, Airbus plans to make a final decision on the project in the summer. -JF
About 45 aircraft in the US Airways mainline fleet are now sporting the new livery, which represents about 12% of the total mainline fleet. Specific to its 56 Boeing 737-300s and 40 737-400s, 11 former America West 737s will be painted in 2006, with the remaining 16 slated for 2007. For the former US Airways 737-300s, all 29 are scheduled for painting in 2007. The 737-400s will take on the new livery between 2007 and 2009, with the vast majority of these planned for painting in 2008.
Canada has exceeded ICAO requirements by screening all checked baggage onboard international flights and on most domestic commercial passenger flights. Lawrence Cannon, Canada's Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, made the announcement during a keynote address at the Canadian Aviation Security Conference in Ottawa.
