Northwest is pressing for a June launch of its new subsidiary, Compass, and plans to hand either Bombardier or Embraer a new aircraft order to supply 76-seat planes for the airline in April. The carrier outlined the plans for Compass, formerly dubbed Newco, in a filing with the U.S. Transportation Dept. after buying FLYi's operating certificate for $2 million.
Mexicana unveiled plans to cut its annual costs by 20%, or $150 million, to stay competitive with the burgeoning low-cost carriers in the country and it if it can lower labor costs, the carrier will grow its Click operation by 50% this year.
FAA yesterday issued an order extending the Chicago O'Hare flight caps for another seven months, rejecting calls from the City of Chicago to raise the flight cap level. The latest order extends the flight caps through Oct. 28. This is the third time the caps have been extended since they were imposed in August 2004. The caps, which primarily affect United and American, were introduced to help alleviate delays resulting from over-scheduling.
Airbus plans to boost its A320 family production to 32 planes per month, confirms Chief Operating Officer John Leahy. The company is "studying" taking production as high as 34 aircraft per month in 2007 or 2008 due to the large backlog, he said in Orlando at the ISTAT conference. A rate of 34 planes, however, would likely be the peak, as it would be nearly impossible to go higher.
Airbus within the next six months needs to make a significant and potentially expensive decision on whether to go ahead with the latest design of the A350 or make a major product shift, according to one of the industry's most influential aircraft lessors.
Air Jamaica plans to boost its fleet utilization by four hours per day as part of a larger strategy to transform Jamaica into an alternative hub linking the U.S. and Europe to the Caribbean and Latin America.
Qantas at its engineering maintenance facility in Avalon, Victoria, will convert four Boeing 737-300s to freighters and will wet-lease the aircraft to Australian Air Express. The converted freighters will replace Australian Air Express' fleet of four aging 727-200Fs. AAE is jointly owned by Qantas and Australian Post.
Boeing has committed to building a second stretched version of its 787 aircraft -- to be called the 787-10 -- which some airlines have been lobbying for, although timing and configuration details are still being worked out, 787 program head Mike Bair said yesterday. It is "not a matter of if, but when" Boeing begins building the -10s, Bair said. Entry into service could be as early as the last quarter of 2012, a target that "seems to suit the customers we are talking to...and fits nicely into our development program," Bair said.
Mexican carrier Aeromar in April will expand its Maya Route Network from Mexico City to Villahermosa, Merida and Cancun. In June, the carrier will add the roundtrip circuit Villahermosa/Tuxtla Gutierrez/ Oaxaca/Huatulco and return. CEO Ami Lindenberg said Aeromar is now in fifth place in the Mexican domestic airline sector with more than 120 daily takeoffs and landings. The carrier operates a fleet of 15 ATR 42-500s and 42-320s. -LZ
At the behest of management at troubled carrier Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, Bolivia's constitutional court last week issued an injunction against transportation regulator Wilson Villarroel and inspector Angel Zaballa that in practice would suspend their involvement in the LAB intervention (DAILY, Feb. 28). The injunction would also force the men to appear in court to explain their actions.
SR Technics made inroads into the Middle Eastern MRO market last week, winning new business from Gulf Air and agreeing to establish a maintenance joint venture with the carrier, based in Oman.
Jet Airways and Air Sahara late last week decided to take three more months to iron out details of the previously announced acquisition deal and give the government time to evaluate the agreement.
An official at the General Administration Civil Aviation of China (GACAC) maintains that the British Airport Authority (BAA) is considering investing in a few of China's medium-size airports. The officials said GACAC identified 14 Chinese airports in provincial capitals for consideration and evaluation by BAA. The official declined to name the airports and could not say when BAA will carry out a feasibility study of the 14 facilities.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. last week selected several carriers to operate Essential Air Service, as current agreements approach their expiration dates.
Comair's flight attendants voted in favor of a strike authorization late last week, just ahead of the start of court proceedings yesterday to void their current collective bargaining agreement. Comair has argued it needs about $9.8 million in concessions from flight attendants to reach the overall $70 million target for cost savings to aid parent company Delta in its Chapter 11 restructuring.
