AirAsia is strengthening its Johor Bahru hub by adding four new routes and more frequencies to additional destinations, starting Feb. 6. The carrier plans to offer four weekly flights to Ipoh and Tawau, and three weekly flights to Kota Bharu and Sandakan. AirAsia also is adding flights to Kuching, Kota Kinbalu and Penang.
Japan Airlines recently announced plans to hike domestic Japan fares in the summer to help offset high fuel prices. JAL last week filed a fare increase application with the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation to raise prices from April 1 to Sept. 30. During the period, JAL's domestic "normal" fares will increase between 3% and 11.3% per one-way sector. The amount of the increase will depend on the length of the sectors flown. "JAL expects high fuel prices to continue into the future," the carrier said.
EasyJet plans to add 14 new routes to its network from March through May, going head-to-head with some flag carriers, most notably Alitalia. The low-fare airline is competing directly with Alitalia in three of its new markets -- Milan-Palermo, Milan-Naples and Lisbon-Milan. Portugalia and TAP Air Portugal also are set to fly the Lisbon-Milan route when easyJet starts daily flights April 21. EasyJet will compete directly with Air France between Lisbon and Paris with daily flights beginning March 1.
Argentina's supreme court this week overturned a lower court ruling that prevented private airport concessionaires Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 (AA200) from collecting the entire amount of the $18-per-person airport departure tax levied on international passengers.
Kathryn Higgins was sworn in as the newest member of the National Transportation Safety Board this week. She has held several positions in the U.S. government, including deputy secretary of the Dept. of Labor from July 1997 to May 1999, and as assistant to President Clinton from 1995 to 1997.
Hainan Airlines won approval from the General Administration Civil Aviation of China to acquire a controlling 70% stake in CR Airways for HK$350 million (US$45 million). Hainan earlier planned to acquire only 60% of the Hong Kong-based regional carrier (DAILY, Nov. 29, 2005) but proceeded to acquire an additional 10%. As part of the deal to be sealed at the end of February CR Airways will swap the shares of Xinhua Airlines, which is 60%-owned by Hainan.
FAA hopes the second day of 2006 is not an omen for the rest of the year after bad weather caused one of the agency's worst-ever delay days. There were more than 3,300 delays Monday, mainly because of low ceilings, high traffic volume and thunderstorms in the Chicago region. General aviation traffic to South Florida and the Colorado ski destinations also contributed to delays. There were 1,355 delays Friday, but only 335 Saturday and 510 Sunday.
The fate of Independence Air's aircraft now rests with the bankruptcy court as the airline prepares to shut down after its 18-month stint as a low-fare airline based at Washington Dulles Airport. Airline parent FLYi filed an emergency motion with the court to reject its remaining aircraft leases and abandon its owned aircraft. After months of paring down its fleet, Independence flies 12 Airbus A319s and 23 CRJs. All the Airbus planes and 23 CRJs are leased. Independence owns seven CRJs.
United this year plans to focus on improving its systemwide operation, including tightening turn times to boost utilization and spending $400 million to refurbish aircraft interiors and upgrade computer systems.
Lockheed Martin yesterday said it has finished developing the software for FAA's crucial en-route ATC upgrade, and can now begin testing the software to make sure that it meets the agency's requirements.
Raytheon announced during the Christmas holiday period that it has hired one of the FAA's best-known air traffic control officials, who is also the man the agency entrusted with the high-profile planning effort for the next-generation ATC system.
JetBlue's stock price yesterday sank more than 6% to about $14.43 per share after Merrill Lynch lowered its rating on the stock to "neutral" from "buy." Recent financial and operating results "suggest that the company may be experiencing growing pains, and therefore, we think a premium valuation is no longer justified," said analyst Michael Linenberg. His previous 12-month stock price target was $16.67.
The U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) slammed British Airways in a recent report over a 2003 incident, highlighting sloppy oversight and flawed maintenance and demanding changes to work practices. The AAIB concluded the incident "had been caused by maintenance errors..." and that "the events were the result of a combination of errors on the part of the individuals involved and systemic issues that had greatly increased the probability of such errors being committed."
Hungary-based low fare carrier Wizz Air carried 1.8 million passengers in 2005, a 233% increase from the previous year. The airline plans to grow capacity by 50% in the summer of 2006. Wizz Air plans to carry 3 million passengers this year and wants to be the largest carrier in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of passengers in two years.
Airbus bookended the New Year's weekend with two new orders for its A350 aircraft, but the manufacturer was still well short of its stated goal of 200 A350 orders by the end of 2005. Yesterday, Airbus announced three firm orders and three options for A350-800s from Italian carrier Eurofly. Four days earlier, Bangkok Airways committed to buy six A350s. Airbus said the Eurofly order takes A350 orders and commitments to 172 aircraft from 13 customers.
AAR surpassed its own sales growth estimates for the first fiscal quarter of 2006, raising profits 64% to $7.9 million from $4.8 million a year ago. CEO David Storch said the 24% year-over-year increase in sales to $218 million was beyond the 12%-15% sales boost the company predicted for the quarter.
