Pinnacle's cost per available seat mile through September has fallen 21% since 2002 from 16.5 cents to 13 cents, executives report. The airline is responding to a request for proposal from Northwest for planes with no more than 76 seats.
United's 10.3-cent yields on flights from Washington Dulles to San Francisco during the second quarter were more than double Independence Air's 4.6-cent yield, data from the US Transportation Dept. show. Independence started two daily flights between Dulles and San Francisco May 1 and ended the service Dec. 1. United has several daily flights between the two destinations.
United parent UAL last week received about 55 objections to its reorganization plan, including one that questions an incentive plan that would give a 15% stake in the company to top management, but executives don't believe the objections will delay its bankruptcy exit past February.
Spirit Airlines has looked at some of Independence Air's assets that are currently on the auction block, but would only be interested in the 12 Airbus A319s. "They operate the same aircraft and engine type [IAE V2500s] we do," says CEO Ben Baldanza. "But I wouldn't say we're really excited." He tells The DAILY that he is not interested in the Washington Dulles assets.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) joined the governors of Alabama and Arkansas in calling on the public to boycott trips to Aruba. The three officials are taking aim at the government and their handling of the investigation of missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. Delta executives were not amused by Perdue's announcement, as the airline has eight flights per week from Atlanta to Aruba and one from New York Kennedy.
Boeing last week selected PPG Industries to provide the electrochromic windows for the 787, which Boeing says will be the first dimmable windows in a commercial passenger aircraft. The windows will not require plastic shades, because passengers will be able to control the opacity of the windows from their seats. Boeing has also highlighted the size of the 787 windows, which it claims will the largest in the industry.
Mesaba founder Gordon Newstrom, 93, died last week after a battle with leukemia. He started Mesaba Aviation in 1944 and sold it in 1970 to the Halverson family. The carrier started scheduled service in 1973 and is now owned by MAIR Holdings.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ron Brown at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing in PDF format.) JAN. 7-8, 2006 -- 2006 Midwest Aviation Conference & Trade Show, Busch Student Center, St. Louis University, 636-532-5638, fax 636-532-0656, www.macts.org JAN. 8-12 -- American Association of Airport Executives Aviation Issues Conference, Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, Kona, Hawaii, 703-824-0504, www.airportnet.org
AVIATION WEEK Conferences & Exhibitions You can now register online for Aviation Week events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or contact Lydia Janow, 212-904-3225 or 800-240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada only) APR. 5-6 -- U.S. Defense Budgets and Programs Conference, Arlington, Va. APR. 25-26 -- MRO Military Conference, Phoenix APR. 25-26 -- MRO USA Conference & Exhibition 2006, Phoenix MAY 17-18 -- MRO Military Europe, Berlin SEPT. 19-21 -- MRO Asia, Xiamen, China
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport this week plans to open its third parallel runway, which local officials believe will position the airport to attract new air service to replace cutbacks by major tenants Delta and DHL.
US Airways will code share on Caribbean Sun Airlines' San Juan-St. Eustatius-St. Kitts & Nevis flights, pending regulatory approval. The carrier asked the U.S. Dept. of Transportation for an exemption for flights between the U.S. and St. Eustatius, Netherlands Antilles, and beyond so that it can implement the code share [OST-2005-23349].
Airlines using a given European Union airport would equally share the cost of handling disabled passengers, irrespective of how many reduced-mobility passengers each airline carries individually, as part of a new rule vetted by the European Parliament on Dec. 15. The new rule would take effect in 2008. "The present environment results in a wide disparity of service for travelers of reduced mobility who face possible discriminatory treatment by certain carriers and disjointed services from others," said Airports Council International-Europe.
DHL plans to create three disaster response teams around the world as part of its new partnership with two United Nations organizations. The first will be set up in Singapore in the spring of 2006, and the other, yet-to-be-named stations will cover Africa/Middle East and Latin America. These teams will help manage logistics operations at airports close to major disaster sites.
Troubled Argentine carrier Southern Winds recently did not pay its employees, a move that led workers to demonstrate and caused many to wonder if plans to rescue the carrier would pan out. The airline for the past several months operated one aircraft while still managing to pay salaries to 900 employees at the cost of $1 million a month. Frustrated employees held demonstrations in the area around Buenos Aires Aeroparque Airport after the latest disappointment.
Singapore Airlines next year plans to launch three weekly flights to Moscow, starting March 1, as part of a plan to expand its European network. The flights will go from Singapore to Dubai and on to Moscow, leaving Singapore every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening and arriving at Moscow Domodedovo the next morning. The carrier will use a three-class Boeing 777-200 on the route. Once Moscow is added, SIA will fly 74 times a week to 10 cities in Europe, and the number of destinations in the route network will increase to 62 in 34 countries.
Spirit Airlines' falling load factors in recent months are not a concern to airline CEO Ben Baldanza, who decided to shift the carrier's focus to boosting yields and revenue rather than concentrating solely on filling planes with low fares.
USA 3000, US Airways and Delta all won exemptions to fly to Cancun from the Baltimore/Washington area, thanks to the amendment in the U.S.-Mexico bilateral that separated the two cities to create two gateways. Competition will swell on the Washington-Cancun route, as the U.S. Dept. of Transportation approved both USA 3000 and Delta to serve the Mexican city from Washington Dulles. United already serves the route [OST-2002-13527, OST-2005-22620].
With Air Midwest's subsidized flights to Charlotte slated to end May 30, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation is seeking proposals for carriers interested in providing ssential air service to Athens, Ga. The Mesa subsidiary received $392,108 annually to provide 12 weekly nonstop flights to Charlotte with Beech 1900D aircraft. Interested carriers would be expected to launch the service on June 1, offering 12 to 14 roundtrips a week from Athens to Charlotte on aircraft with at least 12 seats [OST-2002-11348].
