Allegiant Air acquired two Boeing MD-87s to boost its charter and scheduled airline operations. Allegiant Air took delivery of the first plane in December, and the second aircraft will be delivered to the airline's headquarters later this month. The MD-87s are configured with 130 all-leather seats. The aircraft are powered by twin Pratt&Whitney JT8D-219 engines and are on long-term lease from Bank of America.
CommutAir's venture into a Continental Express micro-hub in Albany is already getting a good reception from passengers, Chairman and CEO John Sullivan told The DAILY. He said the company is eyeing more spokes beyond the original 12, "but we have to let this play out first," and the company isn't planning to add more aircraft just yet. (See story on Page 6.)
Allied Pilots Association proposed yesterday to American that all 70-seat regional jets be flown by its member pilots. The union said this will remove the primary job-security issue -- the outsourcing of American's flying. APA President John Darrah said the move would "prevent American Eagle from reaching the contractual cap on regional jets." This would "reduce the likelihood that management will trigger" the capacity and block hour limits on American Eagle's operations while any AA pilots are on furlough.
American plans to launch daily nonstop Boeing 777 service between New York Kennedy and Tokyo on April 19. It is AA's 19th international destination from JFK. Following Sept. 11, Delta ceased JFK-Tokyo, but it had planned to restart the flight March 15 (DAILY, Sept. 27). Earlier this month, AA stopped Seattle-Tokyo and DFW-Osaka, and ended San Jose-Taipei last September.
Continental Connection has opened a "micro hub" at Albany, N.Y., to shorten flight times and double the number of connections between New York City and 12 regional business centers. The hub, with flights operated by CommutAir, "reverses the traditional approach of routing all regional flights through major hubs, which often requires travel outside the region," the company said. The hub, located at the center of key business routes, allows the airline to redesign its short-haul service schedule and offer faster, more convenient connections.
FAA crew training guidelines, given to airlines today, set out tools for airline crews to assess risk at four levels ranging from minor disturbances to full-scale hijacking, an FAA spokeswoman said. FAA developed the more-comprehensive strategy -- which shifts crew response from a passive approach to a more active one -- with input from pilot and flight attendant groups. Airlines have 60 days to develop specific plans. Following a 30-day approval period, carriers will have six months to implement their programs.
Midwest Express' pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, denied management requests for concessions, ALPA said this week, claiming that without access to the company's financial records they can find no legitimate need to grant concessions.
America West yesterday missed an aircraft lease payment but promised that it will pay its bills by the end of the week. The carrier did not make the deferred $49 million payment within the grace period that expired yesterday, but said it would submit payment when it closes its loan, "anticipated later this week." The carrier said "it would suffer no materially adverse legal or financial consequences as the result of the lease payment deferrals."
A rift between the FAA and the airline industry over approaches to satisfying national airspace initiatives was exposed this week at an Air Traffic Control Association symposium. An airline spokesman said the industry needed government rules defining costs and risks associated with modernizing air traffic management plans, while an FAA official said this approach did a disservice to elements of the industry that might not have the deep pockets required to comply with a regulatory approach.
French aviation safety authority Bureau Enquete Accidents (BEA) has published the final report on the July 25, 2000, crash of Air France's Concorde F-BTSC, confirming information released in preliminary reports. BEA stated that an aborted takeoff would have resulted in a "high speed runway excursion," causing "the landing gear to collapse and the aircraft to blaze up." According to BEA the aircraft would also have been lost if all four engines worked normally during the initial climb phase as the aircraft's structure would have been significantly damaged by the fire.
Northwest plans to keep operating its large fleet of aging DC-9 narrowbodies well into the future, as the planes are a key part of the carrier's strategy to keep costs low and rebound from the current crisis. As long as industry revenues remain weak, most agree that airlines that keep expenses in check will come out on top. Northwest CEO Richard Anderson views the DC-9 fleet as a significant competitive advantage to keep costs low and maintain its capacity flexibility. "Suddenly our fleet strategy looks good," he told The DAILY in Minneapolis.
Vanguard Airlines, which has applied for a $55 million federal loan guarantee, is close to breaking even and looking toward growth with added frequencies and cities as it replaces its fleet with MD-80 aircraft, VP-Marketing Elizabeth Cattell told The DAILY yesterday. Cattell said the company, which received about $7.2 million in federal bail-out funds, was talking to prospective investors when Sept. 11 virtually slammed the doors on new capital.
U.S. appeals court in Washington tomorrow is scheduled to hear arguments on a lawsuit by the Air Transport Association against the FAA objecting to the agency's clarification of current crew-rest rules that limit a pilot's duty day to 16 hours. FAA last May gave airlines until the following Nov. 17 to adjust scheduling practices to comply. ATA challenged the FAA directive, and the court last Sept.
FAA continues to face "significant challenges" in implementing an effective, "credible" cost accounting system despite progress made over the last year -- and is unlikely to have one in place until early in calendar year 2003 -- the DOT Inspector General concluded in its annual assessment of the FAA's cost accounting system and practices.
AMR Corp., confirming yesterday that it will retire its fleet of TWA-inherited Boeing 717s, reported a deep fourth quarter loss of $798 million. Before one-time aircraft and employee charges, the carrier posted a $734 million loss, compared with a $56 million profit in 2000. The loss was narrower than analyst expectations, but officials warned that the company faces a painfully slow recovery.
The domestic airline industry will take longer than expected to recover from the Sept. 11 attacks and the economic slowdown that preceded them, an industry expert told the Sloan-ESI forum this week on Capitol Hill. Peter Belobaba of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Global Airline Industry Program said carriers will have to renew their focus on hub networks, lean more heavily on global alliances and consider potential consolidation with our without bankruptcies.
Alitalia has approved plans to lay off 2,500 staff, or 15% of the work force, in an effort to shrink the airline to profitability. The decision is expected to hit fierce union resistance. Under Italian legislation, Alitalia has to enter negotiations for up to 75 days and can proceed with layoffs unilaterally only after that period. The carrier already had announced plans to cut 3,400 jobs through early retirement, sale of company divisions and non-renewal of contracts.
SkyWest continues to have "the strongest balance sheet in the regional airline industry," according to analyst James Parker of Raymond James. SkyWest is scheduled to receive 31 regional jets this year, and Parker estimates its earnings per share will grow 25% in 2003.
Continental yesterday reported a fourth quarter net loss of $220 million, excluding the U.S. government cash grant and special charges, but CEO Gordon Bethune predicted the airline would post a profit in the second and third quarters of 2002. Including the $174 million government grant and $61 million of fleet impairment charges, Continental reported a $149 million loss. The loss was not as deep as analysts anticipated, which airline officials credited to a strong operational performance and improved revenues.
Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha are seeking to take advantage of a provision in the Aviation Transportation Security Act inserted by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) that would allow them to share scheduling and other information without merging. Under the provision, DOT would approve an antitrust exemption permitting the carriers for a limited time to coordinate schedules and security arrangements and collaborate and operate more efficiently. Inouye inserted the provision in November, and Aloha and Hawaiian announced plans to merge on Dec. 20.
U.S. Justice Department filed an expected appeal of an April 2001 decision dismissing the government's predatory pricing suit against American. Antitrust regulators told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit that the district court's decision "rested on serious errors of law" in failing to "make the critical inquiry" on whether AA's capacity increases "made business sense unless they excluded rivals."
United and its International Association of Machinists yesterday resumed talks in Washington, at the same time the airline's CEO warned that labor must make large concessions for United to recover. The new talks follow a Presidential Emergency Board hearing that concluded last week. The three-member board will present its non-binding recommendation to the President on Jan. 19 if United and the union cannot strike a deal before that deadline.
