BMI British Midland has moved the majority of its international sales representation to Discover the World Marketing. BMI's sales and marketing responsibilities in China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Israel and Sri Lanka were transferred last month to Discover, which now represents the airline in 42 of the 78 offices in its global network.
NetJets Inc. appointed Kevin Russell executive VP-sales and marketing and Steve Zacks VP-marketing. Russell, who has worked at NetJets for nine years, will oversee the NetJets fractional aircraft ownership program. He was most recently senior VP-marketing and international sales and previously worked as VP-marketing and new business development at Gulfstream. Zacks was previously VP-strategic marketing for NetJets and worked on the company's recent rebranding efforts.
Ecuatoriana's marketing alliance with LanChile, signed in November 2000, was terminated July 1 to comply with Ecuador's civil aviation authority's stated objective to compete more aggressively in the global market, Jose Luis Bruzzone, president of Ecuatoriana Airlines, said last week. On that date, Ecuadorian stopped all operations and geared its efforts to: restructure the airline financially and renew operations on more solid bases. After paying off creditors, management will take up questions of operations, routes and fleet.
Travelocity.com and StudentUniverse, the largest online provider of dedicated student and faculty travel, signed a partnership to launch Student Center. StudentUniverse will enable Travelocity "to broaden its appeal to one of the fastest-growing, and often overlooked, niche markets" -- the 15 million North American students who spend approximately $15 billion annually on travel. Under the deal, StudentUniverse will enjoy reciprocal sales and marketing benefits through Travelocity.
Air New Zealand has signed an order for 15 A320 aircraft and 20 options at a cost of US$400 million, becoming the 110th customer for the aircraft. This is also the first Airbus order placed by ANZ, traditionally a Boeing operator.
Delta plans to launch Atlanta's first nonstop service to Palm Springs, Calif., on Dec. 1. Delta will operate one daily flight from Dec. 1 through April 30, 2003, with a Boeing 737-800. The new Atlanta flight complements Delta Connection's current twice-daily nonstop service between Palm Springs and Salt Lake City hub, as well as six daily code-share regional flights between Palm Springs and Los Angeles.
Air Canada last week created a separate company for its Technical Services Division to facilitate its transition as a separate profit center for the corporation. Air Canada took the action to increase the focus on "certain ancillary profitable operations of the corporation," said Calin Rovinescu, executive VP-corporate development and strategy. "With this objective in mind, we are currently developing the business model to allow for a transfer of assets planned by the end of 2002.
American Trans Air plans to launch daily, nonstop service between Chicago Midway and San Jose, Calif. Beginning Oct. 1, the carrier will offer two daily flights, and tickets are available immediately.
United yesterday made some minor schedule changes that affect the number of daily departures from its hubs. The last major schedule change occurred June 8, and the next one will not happen until early September, but most large carrier make changes in the interim. Effective yesterday, total daily departures will increase from 429 to 430 at Chicago O'Hare and from 272 to 273 at Denver, according to an internal message. Departures will decrease from 181 to 180 in San Francisco and from 79 to 78 at Washington Dulles.
JetBlue's June load factor jumped 4.8 percentage points to 85.7% from the same month last year despite a doubling of capacity. Traffic rose 110.4%, outpacing an ASM increase of 98.5%. The airline's total departures in June increased 53.5% to 3,409. JetBlue's load factor for the first six months was up 2.5 points to 82.6%.
Four major international airports in Australia are seeking hefty increases in fees. Adelaide wants 130%, Perth 70%, Brisbane 50% and Melbourne 40%. Last May, Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (KSIA) was granted a 97% increase. The airports were prompted to seek an increase after the Australian government gave them the green light to recover their costs in full from their aeronautical services. In giving the go-ahead, the government said the airports' fees in the past have been subsidized from other sources of income.
United Flight Safety VP Hank Krakowski met yesterday with U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta as the carrier pressed for a decision on its cockpit stun gun program. Legally only Mineta can settle the issue of non-lethal weapons for pilots, and United has spent nearly $1 million for taser weapons and training in anticipation of winning Mineta's approval.
Bankrupt aircraft manufacturer Fairchild Dornier expects a preliminary decision by Alenia Aeronautica on whether or not to go ahead with the 728/928 program acquisition late next week, according to an internal memo obtained by The DAILY.
NASA scientists are evaluating the performance of a new enhanced radar system designed to more accurately predict turbulence. The data were gathered during eight weeks of test flights onboard a 757 research aircraft. The radar carried aboard the 757 Airborne Research Integrated Experiments System (ARIES) aircraft was designed to detect turbulent conditions by measuring the motions of the moisture in the air. The system represents an upgrade to existing predictive Doppler wind shear systems, according to NASA.
United is aggressively moving ahead with several onboard safety initiatives, including a plan to become the first U.S. carrier to prototype a new reinforced cockpit door. The carrier yesterday installed a prototype door on one of our Boeing 737-300s, and on Thursday, United will put a prototype on a 747, Joe Burns, director-flight operations technology, said in a message to employees. "Both doors are being certified by the FAA, based on tests at Boeing in Seattle," he said.
Some lawmakers are calling for the Transportation Security Administration to enhance security at airport ticket counters in the wake of the shooting incident at Los Angeles Airport on the weekend. The TSA, however, says it will make no changes to its existing plans for security personnel in terminal areas.
The European Commission said last week that it cleared a partnership between Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines (AUA) after the two airlines agreed to make room for competitors on routes between Germany and Austria. As a "remedy" to EC objections, both carriers undertook to make available up to a maximum of 40% of their slots on any city-pair to any newcomer wishing to operate the route in question, but failing to find the necessary airport capacity through the normal slot allocation procedure.
The collision warning system on the Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev TU-154 jet involved in last week's midair collision over Germany instructed the plane to pull up to avoid a fast-closing DHL 757 at the same altitude, but the crew heeded a nearly simultaneous ATC instruction to descend, putting the planes back on a collision course, investigators said yesterday.
DOT last week named federal security directors for airports in Pensacola, Fla.; Wilmington, N.C.; Portland, Maine; Islip, N.Y., and Charlotte. The most recent appointments bring the total number of FSDs announced to 47. Charlotte's FSD will be Manolito Garabato, who retired from the U.S. Army this year after over 20 years in uniform. His last assignment was as chief of the Security, Antiterrorism, Force Protection and Law Enforcement Division of the Army Operations, Readiness and Mobilization Directorate.
China Xinjiang Airlines last week took delivery of a new Boeing 757-200, which joined its existing fleet of eight 757s and six 737s. China Xinjiang's 757-200 will carry 201 passengers in a two-class configuration. The delivery completes an order for three new 757-200s placed in 2000. Based in the city of Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China Xinjiang Airlines operates 136 flights each week on 76 routes, eight of which are international.
United recently deployed its EasyCheck-in kiosks at Washington Dulles and Seattle. Washington received 30 of the self-service units and Seattle received 10, joining other stations in Aspen, Colo.; Chicago O'Hare; Los Angeles; New York Kennedy; Salt Lake City, San Diego, and San Francisco. Boston and Newark will be added later this year, the carrier said. "More than 3 million people have used the units since their inception, and we will continue to roll them out this year and in 2003," said Pete McDonald, senior VP-airport operations, in a message to employees.
