Traffic statistics in Asia continue to grow, with international passenger numbers climbing 6.4% in January for members of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. Capacity was up 3.4% to 63 million available seat kilometers. Load factors increased 2.1 percentage points to 75.5%. All major flag carriers of Asian and Australasian countries are AAPA members. -LR
B/E Aerospace nabbed additional business from Korean Air, placing the total value of all deals inked with the carrier at $55 million. The latest agreement covers B/E's MiniPod lie-flat business-class seats and food and beverage equipment for Korean's Airbus A380s and new Boeing 777s, as well as retrofit of those products on its existing 777s.
Two of southeastern Europe's fast-growing airlines are preparing for the entry of Rumania and Bulgaria into the European Union, which could take place as soon as next year. Private Greek carrier Aegean Airlines will launch daily frequencies to Sofia, Bulgaria, on March 27. The airline said it was also planning services to Bucharest pending approval by the relevant civil aviation authorities.
Aloha lost its bid to win an exemption from rules governing wheelchair stowage on the aircraft when the U.S. Dept. of Transportation rejected its claims that the requirement posed an "undue burden" and would fundamentally alter operations.
Qatar Airways will code share with Lufthansa to hold out service to the U.S. Starting March 26, Qatar would put its code on Lufthansa's flights from Frankfurt and Munich to New York Kennedy, New York Newark and Washington Dulles airports. Its code would also appear on Lufthansa's Frankfurt-Houston flights. Qatar flies daily to Frankfurt and five times weekly to Munich from Doha.
Venezuela expects 11 million people will travel in the country or abroad during Carnival despite nagging financial problems, high prices and the breakdown on the Caracas/Maiquetia Expressway. Air travel is expected to follow last year's levels domestically but drop about 25% internationally.
Worldwide international traffic grew 6.2% in January, but freight growth of 5.3% was the larger story as cargo traffic is starting to show some promise after a weak improvement last year.
Frontier will boost capacity on its flights between Denver and Tucson in August, replacing 70-seat CRJs with Airbus A318s and A319s on Sunday flights between the two destinations. The airline's capacity between the cities will rise about 10% from what it offers currently, data from Seabury Airline Planning Group's APGDat web site show. Frontier is swapping CRJ-700s flown by partner Horizon Airlines with Airbus narrowbodies on two daily roundtrip flights. Horizon will continue to operate -700s on Frontier's two daily flights Monday through Saturday.
New Saudi Arabian low-fare carrier Sama picked InteliSys as the supplier for its reservation system. The InetiSys "amelia" product is delivered via the internet from data centers. Sama plans to make its debut this summer.
The European Commission is considering letting air travelers enter the European Union with a maximum EUR500 of duty-free goods, up from the current threshold of EUR175. The new rules are scheduled to take effect in January 2007 pending approval by the EU Council of Ministers and Parliament. The U.K, however, has already warned that it would plead for a higher allowance of EUR1,500.
Garuda's foreign creditor, the European Credit Agency (ECA), will consider restructuring the airline's debts only if the Indonesian government guarantees that the carrier will not default in payment and will not go bankrupt.
WestJet's pilots approved a new three-year contract negotiated between the non-union WestJet Pilots Association and the airline's flight operations leadership.
The SkyTeam alliance recently became the latest group to start evaluating alternate ways to distribute its channels as a means to cut costs for its members. SkyTeam recently heard presentations from new distribution providers at a meeting in Prague. The airlines are also reviewing ways to cut "unproductive booking expense" through the existing distribution systems. SkyTeam member airlines spend about $1.2 billion on distribution costs annually and estimate that up to 15% of external distribution cost is generated from "unproductive booking" procedures.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. will reallocate two within-perimter slots for Washington National Airport that Spirit returned to DOT after discontinuing its service to Myrtle Beach. Interested airlines must propose service to small or non-hub airports within the 1,250-mile perimeter at DCA [OST-200-7182]. Separately, Spirit named Scott Allard as chief information officer. Allard's most recent position was head of technology at Travelworm.
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts is joining the Registered Traveler bandwagon. The 215-hotel chain is teaming with Verified Identified Pass Inc., operator of the nation's only Registered Traveler voluntary passenger screening program at Orlando Airport. Hyatt plans to extend a complimentary membership in VIP's Clear voluntary credentialing service to its Gold Passport Diamond tier members. The hotel chain also plans to make Clear membership available to other Hyatt guests through promotional offers later this year.
Ryanair founder Tony Ryan is reportedly working with Mexican bus company IAMSA to launch a low-fare carrier in Mexico this year. According to Irish press reports, RyanMex will take a 49% stake in the carrier, AeroBus, with IAMSA being the majority shareholder. It's the latest in slew of airlines attempting to capture market share in Mexico's emerging LCC segment, including Vuela, Volaris, Click Mexicana, and an unnamed airline partly back by Brazil's GOL. -LR
Speculation is growing about a second potential player in a hostile takeover of U.K. airport operator BAA, even after British aviation regulators warned that any potential purchaser will have to honor BAA's substantial infrastructure investment commitments.
Air France and its subsidiaries Brit Air, City Jet and Regional late next month will carry the code of SkyTeam partner Delta on flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Birmingham, England, Verona, Italy and Eindhoven, The Netherlands [OST-2000-6939].
Delta executives and schedule planners yesterday were sent scrambling to fix a major schedule distribution error that showed the airline was going to slash 20% of its available seats at New York LaGuardia, starting in May.
