Air France said the "only noticeable disruptions" to its operations on Monday were "caused by the snowstorm on the U.S. East Coast," minimizing the consequences of a four-day strike staged by three pilot unions until today.
The inaugural flight of Hooters Air is set for March 6. Hooters Air One, with the "Hootie" owl on its tail, will leave Atlanta for Myrtle Beach, S.C, at 3:20 p.m. The airline's Boeing 737 will feature 112 midsize leather seats. Service from Newark, N.J., is scheduled to start March 20. -LR
Lufthansa is freezing new hiring and plans to ground 10 more aircraft in the next few weeks in the wake of deteriorating yields and a further business travel slowdown. It's a huge blow to the carrier, which said late last year it would create several thousand new jobs this year thanks to planned capacity increases. "In spite of slightly higher passenger numbers, revenues are below last year's level," said Chairman and CEO Juergen Weber, adding that record-high crude oil prices demanded urgent new measures.
The U.S. and Philippines rescheduled their planned air liberalization talks for today and tomorrow in Washington. The meetings were originally scheduled for Monday and Tuesday but were postponed due to the snowstorm that buried the city (DAILY, Feb. 6). The two countries will discuss open skies for cargo. Talks were scheduled last fall but delayed for lack of funds.
Qantas this spring plans to introduce a 1% surcharge on credit card transactions because merchant fees are a "significant and increasing cost" to the airline. "This nominal, 1% surcharge will recover less than half the cost of credit card merchant fees charged to Qantas each year," said John Borghetti, executive general manager-sales and marketing. "We simply cannot continue to absorb the increasingly broad range of charges imposed on our business at a time when domestic air fares are at historical lows."
Canada's Minister of Finance John Manley plans to cut the country's Air Travelers Security Charge by 40% as part of the 2003 budget. Starting March 1, the flat charge implemented after Sept. 11, 2001, will drop from $12 each way for domestic flights to $7. The $24 surcharge on roundtrip international flights will not change as part of the new budget. The cut comes after the industry and passengers complained the tax was hurting domestic traffic recovery. -SL
Regional Aviation Partners plans to lobby Congress to eliminate a huge cut to the Essential Air Service program in the Administration's fiscal 2004 budget. President Bush's budget slashes EAS funding from $115 million to $50 million a year and eliminates the Small Community Air Service Development pilot program.
Continental plans to start two daily nonstop regional jet flights this spring between Cleveland and Ottawa, effective May 2. The new Continental Express service is in addition to the mainline carrier's existing three daily nonstops from Ottawa to Newark.
The U.S. government won the right to take a nearly 12% stake in Frontier Airlines in exchange for its $63 million backing of the $70 million stabilization loan package Frontier closed last week.
Dear Readers: The state of emergency declared during the weekend's record East Coast snowstorm prevented The DAILY from publishing Tuesday, Feb. 19. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. -Jim Mathews, Editor-In-Chief
Air France plans to hire some 1,000 Air Lib employees in the fiscal year ending March 2004, the French flag carrier said yesterday. A French commercial court ordered the liquidation of Air Lib earlier this week, slashing the jobs of its 3,200 employees (see story, Page 5). Air France said the hiring would depend on its recruitment policy, jobs made available by departing employees and the evolution of business.
Germania, the latest addition to the increasingly crowded German low fare airline market, bought 17 ex-US Airways Fokker 100s to be based at several airports across Germany and deployed on European routes.
Arrow Air last week reached a deal to acquire all the assets of Air Global International and absorb key management staff from its competitor, less than a year after the two cargo airlines launched an alliance partnership. Arrow is the fourth-largest U.S. cargo airline, and the leading cargo services carrier between the U.S., the Caribbean and South and Central America. AGI holds a "commanding" market share in Latin America's "deep South," including Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador, said Arrow CEO Richard Haberly.
U.K.'s National Air Traffic Services said it is looking to its new partnership with Nav Canada to modernize its strategically important oceanic air traffic control system, and is trying to establish similar ATC partnerships in Europe.
Flyeco, a French low-cost carrier, is planning to launch operations mid-June with a fleet of five Boeing 737-300 aircraft. The company said Beauvais Airport, north of Paris and already served by Ryanair, would be at the heart of its network. Like Ryanair, Flyeco is considering serving Belgium's Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA).
The planned takeover of DBA by Europe's low-fare market leader easyJet looks increasingly unlikely, after talks with pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) collapsed late Tuesday.
Asiana Airlines this week officially becomes the newest member of the Star Alliance and will boost the group's network to and from mainland China. This summer, the Star timetable will list Asiana's services to 18 destinations in China with almost 600 flights and a total capacity of more than 160,000 seats per week, excluding Hong Kong flights.
Marion Blakey makes her first address today to the Aero Club of Washington as FAA administrator, and is expected to look ahead to challenges facing the agency in 2003.
FAA, at its annual forecasting conference next month, expects to tell industry the agency now doesn't predict traffic returning to 2000 levels until 2006. Last year's forecast called for recovery by 2004, and Deputy Associate Administrator for Air Traffic Services Steven Brown yesterday at the Jane's Maastricht ATC conference said data show traffic is coming back more slowly than anticipated.
Northwest Airlink affiliate Pinnacle Airlines plans to start nonstop service between Detroit and Bangor, Maine, beginning June 6. The twice-daily Detroit-Bangor service will be operated with 50-seat Canadair Regional Jets. To meet additional weekend demand, Pinnacle will add a third frequency on Saturdays throughout the summer. -SL
AirNet Systems appointed Larry Glasscock senior VP-express services. America Trans Air named Vicki Higgins director-marketing development. Goodrich Corp. appointed Tom Mepham president-Cargo Systems division. Flight Options named John Nahill CEO, replacing Kenn Ricci, who will continue as an adviser to Flight Options management. Hanjin Group, which includes Korean Airlines, named carrier Chairman Cho Yang-Ho chairman of the group.
