Taiwan government last week approved the resignations of 10 board members who served on a foundation that oversees China Airlines, the Associated Press reported. The resignations come a week after the crash of a CAL 747 in the Taiwan Strait. Those who resigned include Chairman Y.L. Lee and President Philip Wei. Corporate leaders in Taiwan traditionally resign after a major failure, officials said.
Southwest today plans to launch, in selected cities, its new automated boarding pass system that was developed due to the new airport security procedures. Last week, the carrier tested the system at Houston Intercontinental and Midland/Odessa, Texas, airports.
Delta Shuttle plans to extend its "20 Minutes or 20,000 Miles" check-in-to-gate guarantee and triple-miles bonus, until June 30. Since the promotion was launched April 17, the carrier has had to pay out the 20,000 frequent flyer points only on four occasions, a spokeswoman said. "We will continue to guarantee that planes are faster than trains," said Maureen Brady, managing director of Delta Shuttle and Delta Express.
America West elected Scott Bowers VP-revenue management, Kenneth Feldman VP-marketing and Randy Richards VP-cargo. CAE appointed Gary Scott group president-civil simulation and training and Don Campbell group VP-military simulation and training. National Commission To Ensure Consumer Information And Choice In The Airline Industry appointed Richard Fahy executive director. Superior Air Parts appointed Craig Bevington VP-sales and marketing new engine programs.
Air Canada last week finalized a deal with Airbus to defer the delivery of three Airbus A340-600s and related capital expenditures by 17 months to summer 2004. The airline originally planned to take delivery of the planes in spring 2003 and did not specify why it decided to postpone the deliveries. Air Canada will take delivery of two A340-500s in November and December 2002, as scheduled. Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities last week certified the -600, clearing the way for the world's longest airliner to enter service in July with Virgin Atlantic.
China Eastern Airlines (CEA) recorded a profit of 541.71 million yuan (US$69.45 million) for the year ended Dec. 31, 2001. The profit, however, was aided by a 306.4 million yuan tax credit and 96 million yuan in retirement benefit obligation write-back. A CEA official in Shanghai told The DAILY that the airline's revenue for last year was affected by a drop in demand for international travel after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The official said increased insurance premiums also contributed to a lower profit.
Delta Connection carrier SkyWest plans to resume seasonal service between West Yellowstone, Mont., and Salt Lake City, beginning June 1. SkyWest will operate two daily roundtrip flights with 30-passenger Embraer Brasilia turboprops. A third roundtrip will begin June 26. SkyWest has operated the service for the past 15 years.
Adm. James Loy, who retired yesterday as commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, has been appointed chief operating officer of the Transportation Security Administration, a just-created post for the agency. Loy's title will be deputy under secretary for transportation security and COO, a position parallel to that of Stephen McHale, who has the same title, and will report directly to TSA Head John Magaw. DOT Secretary Norman Mineta announced the appointment at the Coast Guard change of command ceremony yesterday.
United flight attendants yesterday were awarded $48 million by an arbitration panel in an annual pay adjustment. The total represents a pay raise of about 7.5%, according to the Association of Flight Attendants. The flight attendants' contract requires wages to be adjusted annually to reflect the average flight attendant costs of the airline's competitors. AFA has said it will not take part in concession talks requested by United, as flight attendants do not have the industry-leading contract that other employee groups have. (DAILY, May 30). -AS
Qantas is in talks again with Air New Zealand to acquire a stake. No details were available as to what equity Qantas would acquire as officials from both carriers declined to be drawn into elaborating. ANZ officials were willing to confirm only that Qantas had expressed a desire to acquire a stake and that negotiations were in progress.
Continental yesterday confirmed that it raised its published domestic leisure fares by $20 per roundtrip ticket. At press time, it was not clear how many other U.S. majors would match the increase. -SL
Swiss yesterday took delivery of its 25th Embraer 145, completing an order placed by the former Crossair. The most recent delivery is also the 600th ERJ 145 to be produced by Embraer. The aircraft was flown in stages from San José dos Campos in Brazil to Basel. Refueling stopovers were made in Natal, Brazil, Sal, in the Cape Verde Islands and Casablanca. Crossair took delivery of its first ERJ 145 in March 2000.
Gilles Ouiment was recently named chairman of Pratt & Whitney Canada and Alain Bellemare was named president. Bellemare was appointed executive VP of the company in 2001.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is seeking a two-year contract extension from FAA that would significantly increase controller staffing levels, while leaving the remainder of the agreement untouched, but the window for such an extension is closing fast. If no extension is agreed to by FAA by the end of the year at the latest, then negotiations for a new contract must begin, NATCA President John Carr told The DAILY. Either way, Carr said more controllers are needed to address a staffing shortage that will get worse in coming years.
Irish carrier Aer Lingus has grounded all flights for Friday and Saturday in what could be a life-threatening strike by the Impact pilots union. An estimated 100,000 passengers are affected. Aer Lingus will not take bookings until Wednesday. Management and pilots are in dispute over parts of a restructuring plan that includes changes to work rules. "There is deep fear...that the result of all of this will be the complete collapse of Aer Lingus," a union official for ground staff said.
A top Airbus executive believes the airline traffic demand will bounce back quickly, climbing in lockstep with the projected uptick in world gross domestic product (GDP) growth. "It is impossible to have GDP growth without growth in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs)," Airbus Executive VP Customer Affairs John Leahy told reporters in Toulouse yesterday.
Korean Air's new column-free maintenance hangar at the Incheon International Airport in Seoul, currently being built at a cost of US$72 million, will be operational in the second week of next month. The 17,431-square-meter facility will handle line and base maintenance for Korean and its 20-plus customer airlines that operate into Incheon. The two-and-one-half-bay facility will be able to accommodate two Boeing 747s and one narrowbody aircraft at any one time, taking the number of bays at the airline's three maintenance facilities in Korea to nine.
Japan Airlines on Sunday plans to launch new three weekly flights between Tokyo and Amoy (Xiamen), China, increasing the number of Chinese cities served by JAL to seven. JAL now offers flights to China from six cities in Japan including Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Kagoshima and Okinawa. Destinations in JAL's China network are Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Qingdao, Dalian, Tianjin and now Amoy.
Correction: World Airways' stock continued to trade on Nasdaq's SmallCap market, even though it was not in compliance with the market's minimum bid price requirement. A DAILY brief implied the stock had been delisted (DAILY, May 30). The stock has now met Nasdaq's minimum requirement.
Malaysia Airlines posted a loss of M$835.6 million (US$225.8 million) for the year ended March 31, an increase of 100.2% from the previous year. The deficit was the airline's sixth consecutive loss. The carrier attributed the loss to the disrupted operating environment following Sept. 11. Turnover declined 5.1% to M$8.5 billion. Passenger loads on international flights dropped 10.2% and 9.4% on domestic flights.
Airbus said it has placed 25 of 32 A330s that hit the market when Air Afrique, Canada 3000, Sabena and Swissair failed. All the planes went to new A330 customers, including Eurofly (two), VG (three), Birdy/SN (three), Swiss Air Lines (13) and Volare (four).
Delta next month plans to expand its code-share relationship with its SkyTeam partners Air France and Alitalia by starting code-share service from the U.S. to India via Paris and Milan. Delta plans to add its code to Air France flights from Paris to Delhi, starting June 17, and on Alitalia flights from Milan to Mumbai, beginning July 1. As part of the same cooperation, Air France on June 27 will begin code sharing on Delta's Boeing 767 service from Paris to Mumbai, subject to government approval. -SL
Analysts and pilots were quick to express opposition to the Mexican government's statement that it would start divesting itself of holding company Cintra and its major assets, AeroMexico and Mexicana, in June (DAILY, May 24). Suggesting that the sale should be postponed to 2003 or even 2004, Mexican analyst Simon Garcia Rubio is quoted in the daily Reforma, "The sale would be very difficult this year.
