Airbus is preparing to flight-test winglets for its A320 family to determine whether it will offer winglets for its single-aisle range. Two different types of winglet will be flight-tested on Airbus's A320 development aircraft in March. One of the winglet sets will be made by Wichita, Kan., company Winglet Technology. JetBlue will provide one of the aircraft for the flight tests.
Aeromexico will become the first carrier to serve the Cleveland-Mexico City market, thanks to new exemption authority it won from the U.S. Transportation Dept (DAILY, Jan. 6). The airline planned to launch the twice-weekly service on April 1. Aeromexico also code shares on Delta's flights between the two cities that stopover in Atlanta [OST-2006-23510].
Operations are slowly returning to normal at Bolivia's Lloyd Aero Boliviano (DAILY, Feb. 13), but more of the company's woes could come to light with the appointment of an inspector tasked with examining the airline.
The LAN group of airlines reports that overall traffic rose 7.5% in January from the same month last year. International traffic, which accounts for 85% of the total, grew 9.3% on 9% more capacity, due to growth on routes to Europe, the South Pacific and between Latin American markets. International load factor and network load factor inched up by 0.2 percentage points to 77.8%. Domestic traffic numbers for Chile-based Lan, meanwhile, fell 2% in January. Load factor stood at 68.1%, due to schedule adjustments and increased competition.
Northwest plans to boost capacity from Indianapolis to several West Coast destinations only two weeks after AirTran said it would add flights to Indianapolis.
Delta yesterday won court approval of several concession deals the airline reached with aircraft creditors that will save the carrier $200 million annually.
Alfred Oetsch is expected to be named the new CEO of Austrian Airlines at the company's next board meeting on Feb. 27. Oetsch will succeed Vagn Soerensen, who is returning to his home country of Denmark at the end of the year. Oetsch, 52, is an Austrian Airlines Group supervisory board member and the CEO of Siemens Austria.
Boeing says it is preparing to sign a new air traffic management contract with FAA that will see the airframer undertake a six-year program demonstrating new procedures on transatlantic flights in coordination with European air traffic control organizations.
A bill was introduced in the House yesterday that would restrict FAA's ability to impose a contract on air traffic controllers if contract negotiations reach impasse. The bill, H.R. 4755, is a companion to similar legislation proposed recently in the Senate (DAILY, Jan. 27). The House bill was introduced by Rep. Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), and has more than a dozen co-sponsors from each party. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association supports the legislation.
Colombia-based Avianca will absorb its subsidiary SAM (Sociedad Aeronautica de Medellin) after years of operating as a separate entity only managed by Avianca. The change will represent less duplication of costs and additional income sources, but no current SAM employees will lose their jobs, says Avianca CEO Fabio Villegas.
TAM Brazil last week reported an $85 million net profit for 2005, 45.1% less than in 2004. Management attributed the drop to a 2004 change in the aircraft leasing system from commercial financing to straight operational that meant increased accounting results for $109 million. If such results had not been computed, net profit for 2005 would have been 73.5% higher.
Venezuela's Aeropostal on April 3 will start daily MD-80 service between Caracas and Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city. Aeropostal is also adding a second daily frequency to Miami from Porlamar on Venezuela's Margarita Island, and new service twice weekly between Caracas and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
The U.S. government can do "relatively little in the short term" to cut jet fuel prices, acknowledges Air Transport Association Chief Economist John Heimlich, but he tells a congressional hearing that "it should first do no harm." Congress last year increased the industry's fuel tax burden by a factor of three, either directly through higher taxes or indirectly by increasing payment requirements. He notes that ATC modernization could mitigate fuel expenses.
United recently launched the next phase of its operational efficiency program, which has a goal of turning the airline's aircraft in less than one hour to allow for the addition of more flights. In January, the airline adjusted areas like pushback and brake release to reduce taxi times. The changes cut the airline's average taxi time by more than one minute across the system in the first 10 days, which doesn't sound like much, but the executives said the reduction is worth tens of millions of dollars in savings over the long run.
Midwest Airlines in April plans to boost its capacity to three key business markets at the same time that it tweaks the schedule to several East Coast cities.
Charter airline Hamburg International placed an order for 14 Airbus A319s, Airbus said this week. The order also includes options for six additional aircraft. Hamburg International plans to replace its current fleet of 10 Boeing 737s and use the remainder of the A319s for growth. The order was signed in December 2005 but only announced yesterday. -JF
Sabre Travel Network this week acquired Trams, Inc., a provider of back-office products and marketing services for travel agencies. The deal will help Sabre serve "the end-to-end needs for a broad spectrum of travel agencies, including small and mid-sized leisure focused agencies." More than 11,000 agency locations currently use Trams' products.
The world's largest Boeing 737 operator -- Southwest Airlines -- took delivery of the 5,000th plane built earlier this week, bringing the airline's fleet to 447 planes. Southwest has launched three 737 models, the -300, -500 and the -700. The value of Boeing's current 737 Next Generation backlog is $73 billion.
The Miami-Dade Aviation Dept. recently named Lauren Stover as the new assistant aviation director, effective March 13. Stover will handle all communications responsibilities for the department and play a role in the management of airport security. She is returning to Miami-Dade County government after working three years at the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.
GE Security's Homeland Protection business is making a strategic investment of up to $16 million in biometric credentialing provider Verified Identity Pass Inc., GE said yesterday. VIP, founded by journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill, operates the nation's only Registered Traveler voluntary passenger screening program at Orlando International Airport, as part of a public-private pilot project with the Transportation Security Administration.
Florida West International Airways asked the U.S. Transportation Dept. to grant it a dormancy waiver for its exemptions to serve Guadalajara from Chicago and Houston, arguing it cannot begin the services until DOT decides on its deferred applications to serve Guadalajara and Mexico City from other U.S. cities.
Virgin America wants the U.S. Transportation Dept. to set a date for answers on its two-month-old application for an interstate scheduled air certificate, but new moves from Continental may further slow the process. Virgin America last week was in the position of having "no understanding of what is going to happen next," its patience "wearing thin" (DAILY, Feb. 7). Now, it's pushing the department to move the process forward, citing precedent and due process.
