A major reshuffle of the Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) board is expected when Chairman Basir Ismail, a long-time associate of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, steps down in October after 11 years. Several directors with executive powers also expressed their desire to step down, citing increased frustration that MAHB is bogged down by red tape and interference from certain political quarters, hindering its plans and potential.
FAA completed the last steps ahead of its sweeping redesign of the terminal airspace between Baltimore and Richmond, and the agency expects that the changes to flight paths around the three major Washington-area airports will save airlines millions of dollars a year.
Laszlo Sandor was named Malev's chairman and CEO, replacing Geza Fehervary, interim chief since last March when the government fired management in the wake of a corruption scandal, the privatization agency APV reported. Sandor, 46, until recently was the head of Hungarian utility Budapest Waterworks. He asked for some time to examine Malev's situation before outlining his plans for the airline.
Air France is planning to resume its services to Algeria beginning June 28, CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta said last week in an interview with Algeria's national press agency APS. The French flag carrier stopped serving Algeria in December 1994 after an Islamic terrorist group hijacked one of its aircraft in Algiers and killed three passengers. France's special forces successfully stormed the aircraft at Marseille Airport and killed the hijackers, who intended to use the airplane to destroy the Eiffel Tower in Paris, according to unconfirmed reports.
British Airways posted a deep GBP200 million (US$327 million) pre-tax loss for its fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, nearly double the amount lost last year, but the carrier tried to focus much of the attention yesterday on its 135 million pound full fiscal year pre-tax profit.
SkyWest yesterday officially inked its new code-share agreement with Continental as it spreads its network of turboprops to Houston. The DAILY first reported the deal several weeks ago after the regional carrier notified DOT of its intention to start service from Houston to Victoria, Texas, once ExpressJet abandons the route May 31 (DAILY, May 2). SkyWest yesterday would say only that the cities it plans to serve would be unveiled by Continental later.
With more than a year to go until its newly selected Pratt & Whitney engines are delivered, Eclipse restarted flight-testing on the Eclipse 500 with interim Teledyne engines last week in Albuquerque, N.M., nearly nine months after the small aircraft's only previous flight on Aug. 26, 2002.
A Senate Commerce Committee hearing today on executive salaries and benefits promises a hard look at airline executives appearing to protect their salaries and pensions while laying off thousands of employees and demanding wage concessions from others. Congress approved a second aid package for the airline industry in April under the President's war supplemental, but it capped executive salaries and bonuses for airlines seeking government relief.
Embraer's 190-195 looks attractive for US Airways' mainline operations as some of the airline's older narrowbodies exit the fleet during the next five to 10 years, said CEO David Siegel. Speaking at the Regional Airline Association (RAA) conference yesterday in Phoenix, Ariz., Siegel noted more than 100 US Airways Boeing 737-300/400 aircraft would be nearing the end of their useful life. One big advantage of adding the larger Embraer RJs to the mainline fleet would be moving MidAtlantic Airways' mainline pilots up without a heavy training burden.
Greece's air traffic controllers yesterday joined a 24-hour strike by Greek civil servants in a nation-wide civil servant wage conflict, forcing airlines to cancel all operations or to reduce them to a minimum. Flag carrier Olympic Airways will operate one frequency on each of its domestic and international routes, while private airline Aegean Airlines canceled all European services and kept one frequency on each domestic route.
Hawaiian Airlines said operations will continue without change following a federal bankruptcy judge's ruling that an independent trustee be appointed to run the carrier.
The Indonesian government is restructuring the two aging state-owned companies that manage 23 local airports as a first step toward privatizing the companies this year to spur airport profitability. Angkasa Pura I (API) manages 13 facilities in central and eastern Indonesia, while Angkasa Pura II (APII) manages 10 in the western region. According to API President and Director Gatot Pudjo Martono, only three of the 23 airports -- Denpasar in Bali, Surabaya in Jawa Timur and Makasar in Sulawesi -- are profitable. API manages all three airports.
The maintenance history of the Air Midwest Beech 1900D that crashed Jan. 8 in Charlotte, N.C., will be a major focus of NTSB's continuing investigation as the board convenes a two-day public hearing this week to gather additional information about maintenance performed on the aircraft prior to the fatal flight. Flight 5481 took off from Runway 18R in Charlotte, climbed to 300 feet, banked left and crashed after clipping the corner of a US Airways maintenance hangar (DAILY, Jan. 9).
The European Commission (EC) received additional complaints against Ryanair's agreements with airports, a Commission source confirmed last week. The EC is currently investigating alleged state aid granted to secure Ryanair's establishment in Charleroi, Belgium (DAILY, Jan. 29). In Southwest France, airport company Tarbes said it lodged complaints with the French and European competition authorities against support that the neighboring airport of Pau gave to attract Ryanair.
As talks continue on increasing Washington National slots Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee chair Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is making it clear he doesn't think DCA should be slot-controlled. "He always thought slots were ridiculous," a spokeswoman told The DAILY, noting Lott calls DCA "the people's airport" and FAA should determine slots. The House takes up the slot issue during Flight-100 markup tomorrow.
Spanair, which recently joined the Star Alliance, requested government authority to operate non-scheduled charters between Spain and Peru. According to the bilateral agreement between the two countries, Iberia already operates scheduled services, and paperwork is under way for LanPeru or AeroContinente to fly regularly from Lima to Madrid.
Thai Airways International posted an 8.3 billion baht (US$198.5 million) profit for the first six months ended March 31, a 43.7% increase from the same period last year. Thai President Kanok Abhiradee attributed the results to a larger network with increased frequencies, which contributed to a 10.3% jump in traffic. Kanok said the outlook for the rest of the year remains unpredictable, as long as the SARS pneumonia is not contained in China and Taiwan.
Finnair is reducing its weekly frequencies to Beijing from three to one, starting May 22, as demand dropped because of the SARS pneumonia outbreak. The service was already cut back less than a month ago from five to three weekly flights. "Frequencies will be increased as the SARS situation improves and demand begins to grow again. Plans to start operations to Shanghai in September are still going ahead," said Finnair VP-Network Strategies and Management Petteri Kostermaa. -MT
Japan Airlines and Japan Air System recorded a net profit of 11.6 billion yen (US$94.39 million) for the year ended March 31, an increase of 45% over the forecast made on March 11.
U.S. domestic travel transactions recorded by Rosenbluth International are up 10%-15% over levels seen at the start of the war in Iraq. Rosenbluth says international travel bookings are also recovering, making up 8.7% of total transactions, up from 7.4% in April. At this time last year, international travel was about 11% of all transactions.
Commercial airline pilots can now apply online to become TSA-designated Federal Flight Deck Officers, and the next training class is expected to start in mid-July.
British Airways on Friday canceled all flights to Kenya after the U.K. Foreign Office warned against all travel to the country unless absolutely necessary and the Transportation Ministry stopped air services. The move follows a security alert for Kenya as members of the al Qaeda terrorist network are believed to be operating in the region.
