Europe's airlines have to give U.S. authorities passenger data for all transatlantic flights beginning March 5, under a deal between European Union and U.S. representatives reached last week in Brussels. The transitional agreement is supposed to support the war against terrorism but proved difficult to hammer out because of the EU's stringent legislation on data protection. The agreement stipulates the EU-provided data will be protected under the terms of U.S. legislation.
Three new airlines joined GlobalPass, the joint frequent flyer program formerly known as LatinPass. Spirit Airlines will become a member on March 1, and Argentina's Southern Winds Airlines membership becomes effective April 1. Ecuador's Icaro Airlines will become a member soon, though no date was specified. -LZ
Midwest Express takes delivery Friday in Long Beach, Calif., of the first of 25 new Boeing 717s. Delivery of N902ME coincides with the March 1 switch to the carrier's new names -- Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect. The new livery drops the 'ME' on the tail, in favor of a new brown and white design with a smaller single 'M.'
Delta plans to boost regional jet service from two major New York airports in April with a total of 14 new Delta Connection roundtrip flights to Atlanta and nine other cities. RJ service from New York LaGuardia to Manchester, N.H. and Lexington, Ky., will begin April 6 and LGA-Knoxville, Tenn., flights April 12.
User-preferred routing for flights across the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia will save airlines about two minutes per flight, says Qantas General Manager-Regulatory and Industry Affairs Murray Warfield. Slated for debut in Australian domestic airspace early next year, the program will save about five minutes for flights between the West and East coasts. User-preferred routing cuts 25 minutes on average from flights between the U.S. western seaboard and Australia.
Middle East Airlines last week took delivery of the first of six Airbus A321s scheduled for delivery this year. The Beirut-based carrier will operate its new A321 fleet on non-stop routes to the Gulf and Europe, as well as within the Middle East region. The A321s are in a two-class configuration with 31 seats in business class and 118 in economy with personal television screens for everyone.
AirLifeLine elected William Ayer chairman, succeeding Jon Wurtzburger, who was elected chairman emeritus. Boeing named James Coon director-legislative affairs, Commercial Airplanes, for its Washington, D.C., operations. LanChile named Pablo Montesinos VP-North/Central America and Asia, succeeding Robert Bianchi, who was promoted to senior VP-marketing and sales, North American and Asia. UPS Asia Pacific named Ken Torok to succeed President Charles Adams, who will retire in April. URS Corp. named Archie Lind VP-aviation.
To list an event, fax information to Donna Thomas at 202-383-2438. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) FEB. 24-27 -- Alaska Air Carriers Association, 37th Annual Conference & Tradeshow, Sheraton Anchorage Hotel, Anchorage, Alaska, 907-277-0071, fax 907-277-0072 FEB. 26-28 -- RTCA Symposium, "Modernizing Air Traffic management in Today's Environment -- Why, How and When," Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner, Vienna, Va, www.rtca.org or 202-833-9339
Alaska Air will likely add one new city this year, CEO Bill Ayer told employees in an internal newsletter. "We have a short list of possibilities and more evaluation needs to be done," he says.
China Aviation Development Foundation (CADF), which holds 71% equity in Taiwan's national flag carrier China Airlines (CAL), plans to shed a 20%-30% stake by the end of June.
The European Commission will launch the second stage of its aircraft wake vortex research effort in March, but an Airbus executive says regulatory as well as scientific obstacles must be overcome to reduce the separation standards required by wake vortex effects.
US Airways said last week it failed to make debt payments totaling about $19.7 million on five Airbus A330 widebodies. The carrier is working with creditors and hopes to reach an agreement during the 10-day cure period allowed for the payments. An Airbus spokesman said the announcement would have "no significant financial impact on Airbus," and it was simply a readjustment of the timing of the payments.
Finnair will start operating daily direct services to Shanghai beginning September 2003 with Boeing MD-11 trijet aircraft. The Finnish airline already operates five weekly services to Beijing, with a sixth flight to be added the beginning of June.
Three of Continental's top officers last week each bought 5,000 shares of ExpressJet Holdings, operator of Continental Express flights. CEO Gordon Bethune, President Larry Kellner and Executive VP-Corporate Jeff Smisek all bought the purchased the stock at the market prices $8.50 per share, according to filings at SEC. Each executive, therefore, paid about $42,500 for the ExpressJet stock. The shares have a 52-week range of $7.15-$17.40. -SL
The code-sharing alliance between British Airways and SN Brussels Airways will get the European Commission's green light "in the next weeks," said EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti in an interview with Belgian daily La Libre Belgique.
U.S. DOT Secretary Norman Mineta is "strong and vibrant," and "we'll see him back quickly," FAA Administrator Marion Blakey told the Aero Club of Washington last week. Mineta is recovering from a staph infection following back surgery last November (DAILY, Feb. 4).
United's new April schedule, loaded into its reservations system last week, includes changes to both its domestic and international networks. Most of the changes take effect April 6 and include the suspension of daily service between Los Angeles and Vancouver due to "poor financial performance." On its transatlantic system, United will add a seasonal fourth daily flight between Washington Dulles and London Heathrow.
Delta's AirElite business jet subsidiary was flooded with calls last week expressing interest in its new Fleet Membership Program that links the ability to buy flight hours on corporate jets with mainline Delta frequent flyer benefits.
Hawaiian Airlines machinists union, represented by the International Association of Machinists (IAM), last week ratified the airline's restructuring "Plan B" tentative agreement.
Negotiators from the U.S. and Philippines on Friday concluded two-day talks in Washington without a deal but plan to meet again. According to a DOT spokesman, the two sides discussed open skies for all-cargo services. The countries also talked about "enhancements to passenger services," including same-country and third-country code sharing. "The two sides will review each other's positions and will set a date for further talks at a mutually agreeable time," DOT said. -SL
German low-fare startup BerlinJet stopped flying as issues appear to have emerged around payments for wet-lease services by MD Airlines. The grounding is the second within months for BerlinJet in an embarrassing saga to get the airline off the ground.
Virgin Atlantic, trying to encourage customers to book travel despite a looming war in Iraq, implemented a temporary new policy giving passengers more flexibility to change and cancel reservations. The policy covers passengers holding existing reservations or new customers booking tickets for travel between the U.S. and the U.K., and for travel between the U.K. and Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. Passengers can cancel their bookings and rebook at a later date, without having to pay a cancellation charge or change fee.
