British Airways plans to stop its four-times-weekly service to Montego Bay/Jamaica in April. The airline will continue flying to Kingston, a service that was previously linked to the Montego Bay flight. The decision is part of BA's strategy to dramatically scale down its London-Gatwick based long-haul operation in an effort to make Europe's largest carrier profitable.
Honeywell this week signed an agreement with FAA to develop a new air transport aircraft radio with digital voice, a data rate of 31.5 kilobytes per second and the ability to share a radio frequency. These specifications are designed to meet FAA requirements for Very High Frequency Digital Link-Mode 3 avionics and to support the next-generation air/ground communication program.
Qantas last week said it would spend A$50 million (US$26 million) over the next year as part of its most extensive airport lounge development program. The first renovations will take place at the airline's domestic terminals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, according to Qantas Executive General Manager Sales and Marketing John Borghetti. He said the major project in the lounge program was the construction of a second Qantas Club lounge at Sydney Domestic Terminal, slated to start next month in addition to a redevelopment of the current Sydney lounge.
Air France surpassed analysts' expectations yesterday when it posted a net loss of EUR131 million (US$114.5 million) for the period from October to December 2001, compared with a profit of EUR32 million in the last three months of 2000. It also announced that its objective was a positive operational result for the year ending March 31. Air France said it benefited from a faster-than-expected recovery of traffic after the Sept. 11 attacks, while yield per seat kilometer had returned to the same level as the previous year.
Mesa is giving bonuses to employees whose pay was cut 10% over 90 days following Sept. 11. The bonuses are coming earlier than expected, the company said. Full-time employees not covered by collective bargaining took a 10% pay cut. Unionized pilots, flight attendants and some mechanics declined to participate.
American CEO Don Carty yesterday underwent reconstructive rotator cuff surgery on his right shoulder in Dallas. He is expected to be released from the hospital today, and recuperation is likely to take three weeks.
St. Louis Lambert Airport recently installed Cernium, Inc.'s ExitSentry video surveillance system in the passenger exit gateway that serves Concourses C and D. The FAA-approved system detects and alerts security guards when people try to enter secure terminal gate areas -- and bypass security checkpoints -- through the exit-only gates. Lambert has two other ExitSentry systems installed, and a Jan. 24 security breach at the C/D gateway convinced airport officials to speed up deployment of the system, Cernium said.
Delta Tech Ops more than doubled year-over-year revenues from third-party maintenance work, going from $55 million in 2000 to $105 million last year. Some 56% of last year's income came from long-term contracts, while the rest was drop-in work, Delta said. A quarter of all revenues came from Delta's ties with SkyTeam partners Air France and AeroMexico, in part through marketing each other's MRO capabilities in efforts to win business -- and share revenues -- for the group.
Lufthansa plans to launch nonstop service from Boston to Munich effective May 1. The flight will operate six days a week and is one of four between Munich and the U.S. in Lufthansa's summer timetable. Others include a new daily flight from New York Kennedy, starting March 1, the restoration of a daily flight from San Francisco starting March 31, and continuing Chicago-Munich daily service. The Boston-Munich flight will operate with an Airbus A340.
Tesna Holdings this week unveiled a frequent flyer program for the new Ansett, effective from the completion of the sale agreement with the Ansett administrators. The program has been named "Ansett Frequent Flyer" and has been developed following "extensive consideration and market research." The plan includes a one-time fee to join.
U.S. National Carriers Traffic January 2002 (000) January January % 2002 2001 Change Air Wisconsin Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 105,231 99,799 5.4 Available Seat Miles (000) 169,552 174,452 -2.8 Load Factor (%) 62.1 57.2
British Airways is likely to close its Washington government affairs office in the coming months as part of its cost-cutting plans, The DAILY has confirmed. Sources familiar with BA said that the carrier's future size and shape study calls for changing how BA is represented in Washington. While the decision is not final, it follows BA's frustration over the price demanded by DOT for U.S.-U.K. immunity with American.
DOT Inspector General has launched a review of air carriers' use of aircraft repair stations to determine if FAA is providing adequate oversight. The IG probe started shortly after French safety authorities recommended that FAA audit Continental's maintenance practices "both in the United States and at its foreign subcontractors." FAA has not said whether it is considering the request. The IG inspection will cover the entire U.S. industry and has four main objectives.
America West plans to resume daily nonstop roundtrip service on Feb. 27 between Las Vegas hub and Washington National. The flight will be the first time Las Vegas-DCA service has been offered since Sept. 11. America West first launched flights on the route in October 2000, after Congress passed the AIR-21 bill, which allowed airlines to operate beyond perimeter nonstop flights. Also on Feb. 27, the carrier previously announced it would start service from Las Vegas to Colorado Springs, Colo.
Routine communications be-tween pilots and controllers filled the airwaves around New York Kennedy Airport leading up to the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, transcripts made public yesterday revealed. The last words confirmed to be from AA 587 came at 9:15:42 local time Nov. 12, when the crew accepted a Kennedy TRACON controller's routing request to "turn direct Wavey" -- an instruction to follow an oft-used southbound route out of the area.
Virgin Atlantic will be the first airline to operate the Airbus A340-600. Virgin said yesterday that it would take delivery of the first of 10 aircraft in June. Industry observers earlier believed it was likely that Virgin would push deliveries back with the airline struggling to recover from the current downturn. Virgin will take delivery of four aircraft this year and phase in the remaining six until 2006.The A340-600 program has been in turmoil after one of the launch customers, Swissair, went out of business and several others were considering deferrals.
First Boeing 757-300 powered by Pratt&Whitney PW2040 engines took off yesterday from Renton, Wash. The date coincided with the first flight of the first 757 20 years ago, Boeing said. All of the newer -300s until now were powered by Rolls-Royce engines. The test aircraft will go to Northwest following certification in May. Boeing said a higher-thrust Pratt 2043 also would be certified.
A Fokker jet belonging to domestic Aires Airlines with 37 passengers and five crew was highjacked Tuesday morning by four terrorists alleged to be from FARC, Colombia's largest leftist insurgent group. The plane has just taken off from Neiva bound for Bogota when the hijackers used short weapons to force the pilots to land on a highway near the village of Hobo, where about 70 guerrillas were waiting. According to eyewitnesses, crewmembers and all passengers were freed, except two or three, who were taken hostage.
Delta plans to add its code to a second daily flight El Al will start on the New York Kennedy-Tel Aviv route. The additional code-share will begin May 1. Delta currently code-shares with El Al on its daily flights to JFK and Newark. Following Sept. 11, Delta suspended its own Tel Aviv service and announced in January that the service would not be reinstated. The new El Al flight arrives at JFK during the afternoon, providing more connections out of New York than the morning arrival, a spokesman said.
London City Airport has partnered with www.avantgo.com to give customers access to airport information. Airport General Manager-Sales Bernard Lavelle said the airport caters to a 70% business traveler population that is "continuously moving towards automating their business process." Customers with hand-held computers can access the airport's on-line channel free of charge, which allows download of information such as flight times and schedules and general passenger information.
Airbus UK's Broughton, North Wales facility this week shipped out its 3,000th set of Airbus wings, just three years after it hit the 2,000-set milestone. The fully assembled wing section was flown to Hamburg, where it will become part of a US Airways A321. The first set of Airbus wings left Broughton in November 1971, and the 1,000th set was shipped in May 1992. The second thousand was shipped out in just under seven years, with No. 2,000 leaving the factory in February 1999.
American's Allied Pilots Association is asking a Fort Worth federal court to find its seniority integration agreement with TWA pilots "appropriate and lawful," countering charges of collusion between the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents TWA, and APA. The Aviation Workers Rights Foundation (AWRF), a group which represents TWA pilots, has claimed that ALPA was funding a campaign to bring APA under its wing while it was representing TWA pilots in their fight with American's pilots for seniority integration (DAILY, Feb. 19).
None of the U.S. major airlines are expected to fail this year, largely due to the U.S. government's decision to provide $15 billion in grants and loans, according to American CEO Don Carty. "All the major players will likely get the liquidity they need to survive the year," he told the Wings Club in New York yesterday. This point was reinforced when America West was granted a $400 million loan guarantee. The decision to make funds available to the airline "in the poorest shape prior to Sept.
In a surprise move, Air China, which is preparing for a listing on the Hong Kong and New York stock markets next year, is looking for a strategic partner. The partner will be offered a stake in the airline's privatization. No details on what percentage the investor could acquire were available. The search for a foreign airline investor is part of the airline's plan for its proposed listing on an overseas stock exchange. It is to bolster confidence in the share offering.
