Venezuela's state-owned Conviasa code shares four times a week with Spanish carrier Air Europa on its Airbus A340 service between Caracas and Madrid. Immediate connections are available at both ends to domestic and regional destinations. Conviasa in June will add one weekly long-haul frequency from Madrid to Porlamar on Venezuela's Margarita Island, which is becoming a popular resort destination with European vacationers.
Virgin Atlantic Airways yesterday started its first London Heathrow-Dubai service. The airline plans to offer the flight four times weekly initially, but will upgrade service to a daily roundtrip on June 1. An Airbus A340-600 will be used for the trip.
The Airbus A380 on Sunday passed a crucial evacuation test, one of the major hurdles ahead of the expected certification this year. All 873 people on board MSN 007 managed to evacuate the aircraft within 80 seconds, 10 seconds faster than required by authorities. The test was completed with relatively few injuries: One person suffered a broken leg, while 32 others reported friction burns from sliding down the emergency slides.
Aeromexico won from the U.S. Transportation Dept. an exemption that will enable it to launch service between Mexico City and Philadelphia later this year. The carrier will use its Boeing 737-700s to launch the new service on or about Sept. 1. The nonstop flights will be operated four times per week [OST-2006-23775]. No other carrier currently serves the route. -ARS
India's Kingfisher Airlines has already grabbed 7.6% of the country's domestic market share only 10 months after its launch, and the carrier is moving aggressively to expand internationally and is looking to acquire more long-haul aircraft, The DAILY has learned.
Delta won a nod from lenders handling its $1.9 billion debtor-in-possession financing to amend the deal, with changes including a reduction in Delta's interest rate on the three loans comprising the facility. The carrier said the rate cut should result in annual savings of $30 million. Delta also gets a rate cut in its post-bankruptcy financing from American Express Travel Related Services Company. Company CFO Ed Bastian said Delta would have more flexibility in its fuel hedging program as a result of restructuring the loans.
The City of Chicago has rejected bids for paving a new runway at O'Hare International Air- port, but says that the project will still be competed on schedule in late 2008. The city's Dept. of Procurement Services says it rejected contract bids for O'Hare's new runway because they exceeded the engineer's estimate for the project. Bids are now delayed until the first quarter 2007.
US Airways board member Hans Mirka last week decided to retire from his position. He was up for re-election to a three-year term but decided not to stand for another term. Mirka originally joined the US Airways board in 2003, before the merger with America West. He also served as a member of the board's finance committee. The company has not announced a replacement for Mirka. He will stay on the board until the annual meeting on May 17.
American last week forecast strong unit revenue growth for the first quarter, largely in line with analyst estimates. The carrier said consolidated unit revenue for the quarter is likely to be up 9.9%-10.9%, with mainline unit revenue growing 9.2%-10.2%. The airline expects to end the quarter with more than $4.5 billion in cash, including about $500 million in restricted cash and short-term investments.
US Airways plans a major capacity boost between Boston and Buffalo -- adding 200 more seats on weekdays in the market -- ahead of JetBlue's debut on the route in June.
World Airways pilots last week ratified by a wide margin a new contract deal negotiated between the Teamsters union and the airline. The vote was 242-132 in favor of accepting the new three-year agreement. A tentative deal was reached Feb. 5.
Orlando International Airport has begun a $152 million project to move its large baggage-screening machines away from passenger ticket counters. The goal is to free up space that was taken over in the months after 9/11.
CAE garnered more business from JetBlue through a C$17 million five-year deal to maintain the carrier's training equipment. CAE agreed to perform maintenance on four Airbus A320 and two Embraer 190 flight simulators, six flight training devices it has sold to the carrier and two evacuation trainers at JetBlue's training center in Orlando.
Virgin Blue tapped Travelocity subsidiary Zuji Travel Partners Network to manage its "Blue Holidays" bookings online for air travel on the carrier and its sister airlines Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue. The airline is revamping its Blue Holidays vacation package product through a relaunched website offering customers new online booking tools.
European Union Transport Minister Jacques Barrot wants the European Commission to negotiate with Russia on the gradual end of Siberian overflight charges paid by EU carriers, the end of which the EU Council of Ministers considers "a prerequisite for Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization."
AVIATION WEEK Conferences & Exhibitions 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) APRIL 5-6 -- U.S. Defense Budgets and Programs Conference, Arlington, Va. APRIL 25-26 -- MRO Military Conference, Phoenix APRIL 25-26 -- MRO USA Conference & Exhibition 2006, Phoenix MAY 17-18 -- MRO Military Europe, Berlin SEPT. 19-21 -- MRO Asia, Xiamen, China
The National Transportation Safety Board wants FAA to stringently enforce inspections of certain Airbus A300 series aircraft to ensure those planes aren't flying with rudders that could be weakened by hydraulic fluid contamination. Deeming its recommendation as "urgent," NTSB said quick action on its suggestion by authorities would "go a long way to prevent a catastrophic failure of the rudder."
Houston Hobby Airport will implement a $3 passenger facility charge in October at the behest of Southwest Airlines, its largest tenant. "It's very unusual for an airport not to have PFCs these days. We see it as another mechanism to fund capital improvements at Hobby that will benefit Southwest," said Randy Gillespie, a property manager for the airline. Capital improvement projects planned for the airport include new perimeter fencing, a new 9,400-space parking garage and adding CAT II/III capability on Runway 4L-22R. -BW
Airbus North America will need more than 450 engineers at its Wichita, Kan., and Mobile, Ala., facilities by the end of 2007, says VP-Engineering Bill Greer. Airbus already has 200 employees at its engineering facility in Wichita, and the Mobile facility -- scheduled to open in January -- will need 150 engineers, Greer says.
IATA is considering legal action against Aeroports de Paris if the group's proposal to increase airport charges 5% per year for the next five years is ratified by the government, reports CEO Giovanni Bisignani. "We will not give up," he said. "We have no patience for inefficiency among our monopoly suppliers."
London Heathrow's fuel supply may not return to normal for another year, reports IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani. "We are not pleased," he told reporters in New York. "As soon as we get more fuel capacity, we can make additional changes" to the fuel rationing system that many airlines claim is still discriminatory. He said it will take some time to install new pipeline to increase capacity, but in the meantime, demand will rise March 31, when many airlines add summer flights.
Elected to its board of directors: President-Elect Paul Nielsen, Carnegie Mellon University; VP-Elect-Education Merri Sanchez, NASA Johnson Space Center; VP-Elect-Public Policy Philip Hattis, Draper Laboratory; Director-Technical Aerospace Sciences Group David Riley, Boeing; Director-Technical Structures Design and Test David Jensen, Brigham Young University; Director-at-Large-David Dolling, University of Texas at Austin; Director-International Susan Ying, Boeing; Director-Region 3 John Blanton, GE Aircraft Engines, and Director-Region 6 Bruce Wilson, Boeing.
