The advocate general of the European Union Court of Justice said the court should dismiss an appeal by British Airways seeking to reverse an antitrust ruling against its travel agent reward system. "Since none of BA's grounds of appeal have any prospect of success, I conclude that its appeal should be dismissed in its entirety," wrote Advocate General Julianne Kokott as a conclusion of her 26-page opinion. The court confirms the advocate general's opinion in roughly four out of five cases.
Air New Zealand says it will go ahead with an earlier plan to outsource its widebody heavy maintenance after its engineers failed to ratify a deal that would have kept the work in New Zealand.
Airbus President and CEO Gustav Humbert expects a minimum of 350-400 orders this year, after the manufacturer collected more than 1,000 orders in 2005. It would be "highly unlikely" that the record year could be repeated in the next year, Humbert said; however, he predicted that the record backlog of more than 2,100 aircraft could grow further this year -- meaning that Airbus will sell more aircraft than it builds in the period. The backlog means five years of production at high rates, he told The DAILY on the sidelines of the Singapore air show.
EasyJet is the latest carrier to declare fuel prices are hurting its bottom line, even though unit costs continue to fall. Fellow low-fare carrier Ryanair recently notched a 59% price hike in fuel during its fiscal third quarter despite shrinking its non-fuel unit costs by 6% (DAILY, Feb. 7).
Airbus and Indian Airlines this week formalized a contract for 43 A320 aircraft, completing a deal approved by the airline last year. The order comprises 20 A319s, four A320s and 19 A321s, all powered by CFM International CFM56-5 engines.
The volume of air traffic in German airspace grew 5.4% to 2.87 million flights in 2005, giving Germany "the highest air traffic level [in Europe], both in terms of percentage and in absolute terms," boasted DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung, the German air navigation services.
Delta and Continental threw their support behind American's request that the U.S. Transportation Dept. get more information from the nine Star Alliance carriers seeking transatlantic antitrust immunity (DAILY, Feb. 9).
Delta yesterday won approval from the bankruptcy court to reinstate a severance program for its officers and directors as a way to stop the increasing rate of executives leaving the airline.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. this week issued the final decision to eliminate the rule that prohibits any airline that owns, controls or operates a computer reservations system from denying access to airlines that code share on a flight.
Heico plans to make inroads into China through a new deal with the China Aviation Import and Export Group Corp.. The Joint Cooperation Agreement covers the promotion of Heico Aerospace-approved FAA aircraft and engine replacement parts. State-owned CASGC is a service provider for aviation supplies that imports and exports aviation products in China and offers maintenance, component repair and overhaul, consignment stores, manufacturing and training. Leasing is also part of CASGC's services.
Japan Transocean Air gave Lufthansa Technik more business this week at the Singapore air show after crafting a component support deal with the MRO company. The five-year deal covers 23 Boeing 737-400s. Lufthansa Technik plans to repair components and offer more than 200 pre-selected line replaceable units for both JTA and parent company Japan Air Lines. Provisions will be housed at the airline's Okinawa hub.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. may terminate the subsidies it gives RegionsAir for Essential Air Service flying between Jackson, Tenn., and St. Louis on the grounds that the subsidy exceeded the required $200-per-passenger cap. If DOT were to move ahead its tentative order, Regions Air could suspend the flights it operates as an American Connection carrier as soon as April 1.
Comair has asked the bankruptcy court to reject its collective bargaining agreement with flight attendants, arguing that concession deals it reached with other unions are contingent on getting cost savings from all union employees. Parent airline Delta filed for bankruptcy in September, and since then Comair has been trying to garner $70 million in cost reductions. The carrier reached concessionary deals from the Air Line Pilots Association representing the pilots and mechanics represented by the International Association of Machinists.
Volvo Aero strengthened its bond with GE after agreeing to build more components for the GEnx set to power the Boeing 787/747-8 and Airbus A350. The latest deal, worth about SEK6 billion over 30 years, covers components in the engine's fan module and high pressure turbine. Volvo Aero already agreed to build the low-pressure booster spool, the fan hub frame and the turbine rear frame.
Nav Canada said Monday that it will postpone a new charging system that was to have been introduced March 1. The Nav Canada board decided "more time is needed to consider the comments and suggestions made in submissions...from stakeholders." A decision on the proposed charging system -- and new implementation dates -- are now expected in April, Nav Canada said.
Privately owned Orient Thai Airlines is in talks with investors from Nepal and Bangladesh to set up a new joint venture airline in the Indian subcontinent. The venture was proposed separately by investors from the two countries. If the negotiations proceed, the Thai carrier would hold a 49% stake, and the successful investor from either Nepal or Bangladesh would hold the controlling 51% stake. One analyst in Bangkok said the new carrier is likely to be a boutique airline with a Bangladeshi investor due to the better potential in the Bangladesh market.
The U.S. airlines in January reported a 9.9% increase in mainline unit thanks to a strong improvement in domestic yields, according to the latest ATA data.
American wants to delay launch of its New York-San Jose del Cabo service until Dec. 15, and is applying to the U.S. Transportation Dept. for a temporary dormancy waiver. American is required to start service on the route within 90 days of the proposed Feb. 4 start date; however, the lag between the initial application -- Aug. 31, 2005 -- and the route award -- Dec. 12, 2005 -- prompted the airline to revise its launch date, necessitating the waiver [OST-2005-22331].
FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO) has succeeded in pruning costs and running more efficiently, but the lack of excess fat means this year's congressional budget cuts are causing major headaches for the organization, ATO officials said yesterday.
US Airways may hire as many as 400 reservations agents in the coming months to work at its Winston-Salem, Reno and Phoenix centers, due to a growing number of complaints about the service provided by its vendors in the Philippines, Mexico and El Salvador. The carrier said it will soon handle more complex inquiries and calls from premium frequent flyers in-house.
