Lineas Aereas de Entre Rios (LAER), the only carrier that operated commuter routes in Argentina's northern province of Entre Rios, facing a monthly deficit of almost $1 million, last week decided to suspend services and furlough 130 employees out of 170 for six months, according to DAILY affiliate AvNews Latin America & Caribbean. Earlier this year, state-owned and operated LAER replaced its two turboprops with a 64-seat Fokker aircraft worth $5 million, but the carrier continued to loose $800,000 a month as result of Argentina's economic crisis.
Varig, the largest airline in Brazil and Latin America, will cut costs by $200 million this year and is on its way to restructure its $900 million debt, said the carrier's president and CEO, aeronautical engineer Ozires Silva in an interview in Sunday's Jornal do Brasil marking his third anniversary at the helm. He blamed the origin of Varig's debt on the cruzado monetary devaluation plan in 1986 that "froze fares but not costs," and which the company has been carrying all these years with mounting interest on financing obtained at that time in order to survive.
DOT's Sept. 11 security fee of $2.50 paid by passengers -- capped at $10 per roundtrip -- may double to $5 per segment if House appropriators are successful in adding such a provision in supplemental spending legislation for the Transportation Security Administration, according to the Air Transport Association. The move could happen as early as this week.
Iberia over the weekend resumed its regular flights between Madrid and Barcelona and Mexico City and Cancun, suspended for the first three days in May due to the threat of a strike by the carrier's 45 employees in Mexico seeking increased salaries and benefits. They postponed the strike when Mexico's labor arbitration board last week set July 9 as new deadline for the parties to re-negotiate their contract. Passengers were not inconvenienced by the three-day suspension because Iberia rebooked them on other airlines. -LZ
Aeroports de Paris (ADP) will participate in the bidding tender for the Mexico City's new alternate international airport, which the government has decided to build in Texcoco. ADP also may participate in the new facility's master plan to be opened later this year, and perhaps also for subsequent phases of the project, according to Jean Marc Defleur, ADP representative in Mexico. He said Texcoco "will be one of the world's 10 most important airports and handle more than 100 million passengers a year."
Startup U.S. charter carrier Tourjets Airline Corp. last week decided to drop its plan to go public. The company last June filed a prospectus describing its intent to offer shares to raise money for MD-80s and finance its launch. In a filing last week, Tourjets said it "would not be in the company's best interest to proceed at this time" due "to general market conditions." The Miami-based carrier was incorporated in April 2000 as successor to Dove One, Inc. Tourjets' founders, Serge Feller and J. W.
A bill to expand Chicago O'Hare awaiting Senate approval is holding up similar legislation offered by House Transportation aviation subcommittee's William Lipinski (D-Ill.). The Senate bill, which he said could face trouble getting passed, has amendments that don't jibe with Lipinski's, but the two sides expect to resolve differences.
British no frills-carrier EasyJet is in exclusive negotiations to acquire its rival Go Fly. The airline confirmed Friday that talks between the two companies, as well as Go's owner, 3i Group, were "at an advanced stage." The move could be the first and, in the short to medium term, possibly the only big step toward consolidation of the European low-fare airline sector. EasyJet and Go combined would be the biggest European no-frills carrier with bases at London Luton, Stansted, Gatwick, East Midlands and Bristol.
Eleven U.S. airlines will use some $3.3 million in FAA grant money in a pilot program to test cabin video surveillance and other security enhancements that, if found effective, may become mandatory.
Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) will introduce a bill this week that mirrors legislation being introduced in the House by Transportation Committee Chair Don Young (R-Alaska) and aviation subcommittee Chair John Mica (R-Fla.) that would arm pilots in the cockpit on a voluntary basis. Smith said last week that the bill is still being drafted and that it's possible he could conference his version with the Young-Mica bill.
DOT Secretary Norman Mineta said for the first time that the agency will set privacy protocols for passengers whose bags are screened for explosives. These include separate areas where bags can be opened privately. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is concerned that privacy issues will drive away passengers, especially at small airports.
Back Aviation's April jet aircraft availability report listed 940 planes on the market, down 10 from March and lower for the third straight month following six consecutive months of increases. April 2002's total is still well above the year-ago level of 700, however.
John Magaw, DOT under secretary for transportation security, is not against a trusted traveler program. "I see possibilities" in the concept, he said last week, stating that while the "technology is there" to create such a program, he worries whether "we can build enough in there to circumvent a sleeper cell."
Federal judge Luis Maria Marquez, overseeing the lawsuit by the Argentine Association of Travel Agents against American, British Airways and United, ruled for the plaintiff last week and demanded that the carriers pay a 9% commission on each ticket sold through an agency instead of 6%, as decided unilaterally by the carriers in 1999.
Air BP named David Brinson VP-sales and business development. Air Force Magazine appointed Robert Dudney editor-in-chief, succeeding John Correll, who retired after almost 20 years of service. BAE Systems promoted Pat McMahon to general manager. Boeing Commercial Aviation Services VP and General Manager Brad Cvetovich was named the recipient of the Air Transport Association's Nuts and Bolts Award for 2002. GE Engine Services named Daniel Heintzelman VP and general manager.
USA 3000 began the first new carrier to begin service at Chicago O'Hare since Sept. 11, with daily nonstops to several Mexican and Caribbean points. The carrier is owned by Apple Vacations, which will offer service to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, as well as St. Lucia, Aruba, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. It operates similar services from Philadelphia and Newark.
Boeing Air Traffic Management last week an-nounced its second contract in a week, a $750,000 deal to participate in a four-phase NASA project designed to help create airspace capacity enhancements in the next 20 years. The deal is for work on the first phase of the Virtual Airspace Modeling and Simulation [VAMS] project, but it does not guarantee participation in future phases. VAMS is expected to take five years.
Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber addresses the International Aviation Club at its May 21 luncheon meeting at the Capital Hilton, Washington, D.C. A printable registration form is available at http://www.iacwashington.org, under "Events."
MAY 7 -- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management, 2nd Annual NY/NJ Regional Aviation Symposium, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, 212-998-7545, panynj.com/aviation/symposium MAY 7 -- National Transportation Safety Board, Bar Association, Roundtable Discussion, NTSB Auditorium, National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, 301-972-7700, fax 301-972-7727
Aircraft support personnel based at Bangor, Maine, Airport will receive technical training on a variety of aircraft from Lufthansa Technik subsidiary Lufthansa Technical Training. Courses will be conducted for the Boeing 757 and 767 and Airbus A320 and A330. Bangor is a key technical stop and alternate airport for transatlantic flights and is the closest U.S. port of entry to Europe. It has FAA and JAA repair station certificates.
Some 70% of the 6,000 striking Bombardier production workers who voted elected to accept the latest contract proposal Friday, paving the way for work to restart at three Montreal-area plants over the weekend.
Northwest plans to add new service and resume seasonal nonstop flights from Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul to Alaskan destination. The airline's summer schedule to Anchorage and Fairbanks will be offered June 7 through Sept. 2. Northwest's summer service will include a total of eight daily flights from its hubs to Alaska. New this year, Northwest will add a second seasonal daily nonstop on the Detroit-Anchorage route, complementing the seasonal nonstop service it offers every year. The flight will be operated with a Boeing 757.
KLM "is prudent in adding back capacity" this summer, the Dutch airline said last week. In April, Passenger traffic fell 11% and capacity 12%, which increased the load factor 0.6 percentage points to 80.8%. Traffic on European routes grew 5%, matching the capacity increase and resulting in a stable load factor. Traffic on Africa routes rose 11%, outpacing a capacity increase of 10%. Traffic on India routes jumped 16% on a capacity decline of 1%.
