United asked the U.S. Transportation Dept. to add Air Canada to its pending application to extend antitrust immunity to its bilateral agreements with LOT, TAP and Swiss (DAILY, Nov. 21) to cover Star Alliance activities.
British Airways' traffic grew 4.7% in December, more than offsetting the 2.6% rise in capacity. Load factor increased 1.5 percentage points to 74.2%. BA reported a 9.3% increase in premium traffic and a 4.1% jump in non-premium traffic. Cargo stayed virtually flat for the month. "Market conditions remain broadly unchanged, as significant promotional activity is required to deliver seat factors," the carrier said.
United and South African Airways can formally proceed to code share from Washington Dulles Airport (DAILY, Sept. 13, 2005), as the carriers finally won DOT approval for the arrangement. United will put SAA's code on flights from Washington to San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, while SAA will place United's code on its Dulles-Johannesburg flight, flights to Europe from both Johannesburg and Cape Town and flights from Johannesburg to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Kenya and Namibia. -ARS
Officials for the New Kitakyushu Airport (NKA) in Japan launched efforts to secure airline operators ahead of the airport's March 16 opening, meeting with carrier executives across North Asia, including several low-fare carriers that plan to launch domestic and international routes to southern Japan.
Northwest management yesterday launched an aggressive internal campaign to win over employees on its plan to form a new regional subsidiary that would fly more than 100 jets with 76-100 seats focused in the U.S. heartland.
Caribbean Aircraft Leasing plans to add one Bombardier Q300 50-seat plane to its orderbook after ordering three of the aircraft two months ago. The leasing company didn't specify which affiliate -- Antigua-based Caribbean Star Airlines or Caribbean Sun of Fort Lauderdale -- would fly the planes. Former Atlantic Southeast Airlines CEO Skip Barnette heads the carriers. -LR
Taca Peru's plans for 2006 revolve around getting greater yield from its routes; the carrier expects international traffic to Peru to grow 9% and domestic traffic 7%. Taca Peru President Daniel Ratti added, "Our fleet is 2 1/2 years old, or the youngest on this continent, and this should help us to increase frequencies to key destinations. Also to help is the fact that Peru estimates hosting in 2006 1.3 million foreign visitors or 100,000 more than this year."
Ryanair 82% load factor in December dropped slightly from the 83% it posted a year ago. Passenger numbers grew 29% to 2.8 million and reached 33 million for the full year, up from 26 million in 2004. The airline said 98% of its seats in December were booked through its web site.
Stewart International Airport, Newburgh, N.Y., plans to change its name to New York Hudson Valley International Airport, in an attempt to attract more scheduled service and relay the airport's proximity to New York City. The name change is expected in May and the terminal will be named after Archie Stewart, who donated the land.
Mexicana won exemptions from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to launch service from the Mexico City gateway of Toluca International Airport to San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, San Antonio, Las Vegas and Dallas/Fort Worth (DAILY, Dec. 9, 2005). Toluca and Mexico City were split into separate markets under the U.S.-Mexico bilateral amended last September. The city is located some 40 miles west of Mexico City. -ARS
Delta is applying for seven of eight available U.S.-Ecuador frequencies to launch daily nonstop service between Atlanta and Quito and Guayaquil on June 1. The carrier would use its Boeing 757-200s, configured for 22 seats in business class and 156 in economy, for the service [OST-2006-23526]. American offers daily service to Quito and Guayaquil from Miami, while Continental serves the cities from Newark and Houston.
Venezuelan flag carrier Conviasa will start service from Caracas to Spain in 2006 through a code sharing and ACMI operations with Air Europa. Conviasa will lease from Air Europa a double-aisle aircraft to operate three weekly transatlantic routes.
United's operation returned to normal yesterday after a major outage of the airline's Apollo computer reservations system caused hundreds of flight delays.
Air Canada yesterday expanded its simplified fare structure to several transatlantic routes for the first time and plans to add more international destinations in the near future. The simplified fares are available from Canada to London Heathrow and Manchester. The structure has four fare categories: Tourist, Leisure, Latitude Plus and Executive First.
CSA Czech Chairman and President Jaroslav Tvrdik plans to resign from the carrier after little more than two years in the post and will likely be replaced by Radomir Lasak, an executive with the government's power company.
Korean Air's November passenger traffic rose 6.8% compared to the same month the year before but the increased was outpaced by a 9.8% capacity increase. Load factor sank 1.9 percentage points due to the increased capacity. "Passenger traffic showed varying degrees of growth from route to route," said President Jong Hee Lee. Load factors for international routes fell 2.5 percentage points as the carrier added more capacity than the 6.1% traffic increase. Passenger traffic between Korea and the Americas was up 14.4%, and China was down 11.1%.
Singapore Airlines will operate 10 additional flights to Penang and five to Taipei to accommodate the expected increase in demand for seats during the Lunar New Year holidays, which start Jan. 28. The flights to Taipei will be offered between Jan. 21 and Feb. 6, and those to Penang between Jan. 24 and Feb. 7, representing an increase of 13% and 30% in capacity, respectively. An additional flight to Kuala Lumpur will operate on Jan. 26 and 27 if demand is there. All flights will use Boeing 777-200s. -WD
Southwest is rapidly expanding at Denver, adding new markets that continue to target United and Frontier as well as Delta in Salt Lake City. The carrier launched 13 daily flights on Tuesday from Denver to Chicago Midway, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Northwest this week asked for a six-month extension of the exclusivity period to file its reorganization with the bankruptcy court, warning that because of the complexity of the case, it can't guarantee a final plan by yearend.
