Engine lessor Willis Lease Finance added two carriers -- China Eastern Airlines and Shangdong Airlines -- to its Chinese engine-sharing pool, bringing the group's membership to seven.
LOT Polish Airlines will start from scratch in its search for a new CEO. The airline's supervisory board said in a statement that it will renew its efforts to fill the position, having failed to find a replacement for Marek Grabarek. Grabarek was forced out late last year (DAILY, Dec. 21) after a new government took over in November.
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport's strong international cargo growth will get a further boost next month from new Air France all-cargo service to Paris, and two new China Cargo frequencies starting in June.
Malaysia Airlines is taking a hard look at its operating structure after posting dismal third quarter financial results (DAILY, March 1) and is considering route changes and aircraft returns in a bid to get back on track. "We will surely fail unless we radically change the way we run our business," said MAS Managing Director Jala Idris. "The airline's poor pricing, rising cost structure, a fleet that does not suit the airline's operations, weak operational performance and social obligations all contribute to the carrier's dismal performance," Idris said.
Airline pension relief will get passed through Congress, vows Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who is fed up with the two-month delay in naming a conference committee to write a final pension overhaul bill. "The airline provisions need to get done because if any more airlines tank, the economy will tank right along with them," he says. If the committee isn't finalized soon, Grassley will pull airline relief out of the pension bill and add it to the tax reconciliation bill.
The ICAO Council yesterday elected Mexico's Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez as its new president, beginning Aug. 1, succeeding Assad Kotaite. The other candidate was Philippe Rochat of Switzerland. Rochat served on the ICAO Council from 1985 to 1989 and was secretary general of the organization from 1991 to 1997. Gonzalez has been Mexico's ICAO representative since January 1998.
Midwest yesterday decided to resume a frequent flyer partnership with rival Northwest after a three-year break. Midwest had partnered with Northwest for many years but ended the link in May 2003 (DAILY, Feb. 21, 2003). Midwest then started partnering with American, but the partnership was not reciprocal. Midwest frequent flyers could redeem miles on American, but American flyers could not redeem points on Midwest, so Midwest was losing out on potential revenue.
Delta executives late this week finally confirmed plans to cut more than 20% of the carrier's capacity from New York to Florida this summer after several days of chaos and confusion over a schedule filing error that frustrated financial analysts.
Airport executives responsible for organizing the Southeast Airports Disaster Operations Group (SEADOG) will hold an informational session in conjunction with the March 5-7 Southeast Chapter AAAE/AAAE Finance and Administration Conference in Jacksonville, Fla. The SEADOG session will take place the afternoon of March 7, immediately following the conclusion of the conference. Both events will be at the Omni Jacksonville Hotel. Admission to the SEADOG session is free. -SL
The U.S. Transportation Dept., moving forward with efforts to make air travel easier for disabled passengers, issued a notice of proposed rulemaking aimed at providing additional accommodations for travelers who are deaf, blind or hard of hearing.
Maxjet plans to delay the launch of its Washington Dulles service by several weeks because changes to its newest Boeing 767 are taking longer than expected. The carrier was planning to start flights from Washington to London Stansted on March 15 but has decided to wait until April 3 to start flying the route. However, demand is looking stronger than expected, and the airline will start the service with five weekly frequencies instead of four as previously announced. Service will operate Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
Frontier's network is spreading north to Calgary, its first Canadian destination, but the carrier will have familiar company on its flights from Denver from rival United. Rumblings about Frontier's flights to Canada have been swirling for quite some time, and the airline won authority last month to launch service across the border (DAILY, Jan. 26).
EasyJet is finalizing details of a trial "speedy boarding" program targeted to customers willing to pay extra to be the first passengers to board the carrier's planes. The carrier wants to iron out online check-in being introduced throughout March and April, a carrier spokeswoman said, and then focus on offering trial priority boarding for about GBP5. CEO Andrew Harrison was quoted in U.K. press reports indicating EasyJet would begin the trial on its Luton-Edinburgh route. -LR
By Edmund Pinto Runway overrun accidents that have caused deaths and injuries and destroyed aircraft are happening with alarming frequency in the U. S. and Canada, a trend that has yet to result in sustained calls from the media and regulators for urgent remedies at airports that fail to meet FAA standards for Runway Safety Areas (RSAs).
German carrier dba tapped SR Technics to maintain Honeywell auxiliary power units on the airline's 15 Boeing 737-300s. The term of the exclusive contract is three years, and SR Technics plans to perform work on the APUs at its Dublin service center. The MRO recently invested GBP3 million in upgrading the APU center and test cell at the Dublin site. SR Technics also manages components for dba's fleet. -LR
EasyJet's expansion is spilling outside the European Union to Africa, Croatia and Turkey, markets where its exposure to direct competition is limited. The carrier's daily flight from London Gatwick to Marrakech starts July 4, while four weekly flights to Rijeka from London Luton are slated to begin June 30. EasyJet's daily Luton-Istanbul service starts June 29. The airline also listed four weekly outbound flights from Basel to Istanbul, scheduled to start May 29.
Macao Airport handled 4.25 million passengers and 227,232 tons of cargo last year, up 14.44% and 6.31%, respectively, from the previous year. Passenger traffic from Taiwan accounted for 56.47% of traffic, while 31.29% of traffic came from Mainland China. The airport, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is targeting 15% growth in passenger traffic and 9% in cargo handling this year.
