AOPA reminded pilots to avoid all professional and collegiate stadiums during the bevy of holiday football games. FAA is enforcing a blanket restriction that prohibits all aircraft operations within a three-mile radius and up to 3,000 feet above sporting events. "Pilots must operate responsibly if they want to continue to enjoy their right to fly," said AOPA President Phil Boyer.
Transportation Security Administration's new $2.50 per segment fee, which is capped at $10 per ticket, is estimated to cost travelers more than $1 billion this year and has airline executives shaking their heads. The new tax on travel "means we have more taxes than any industry but cigarettes," said one airline source. On short-haul flights, passenger taxes and fees will top 30%, up from 10% a few years ago. The fees, starting Feb. 1, also will be charged on frequent flyer tickets.
Boeing said it delivered 144 jet transports in the fourth quarter, bringing total deliveries for the year to 527 commercial aircraft or five more than the latest revised estimate following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The company delivered 12 717s in the quarter and 49 for the year. Its 737 deliveries totaled 85 and 299, 747 seven and 31, 757 13 and 45, 767 11 and 40, 777 16 and 61 and MD-11 zero and two.
Air Canada recently signed an aircraft sale-leaseback deal that will provide roughly C$565 million of new funding for the carrier. In an agreement with GE Capital Aviation Services, Air Canada will sell and leaseback 16 Airbus A320 and one A319 aircraft. "This transaction demonstrates Air Canada's ability to raise liquidity in these difficult times," said Chief Financial Officer Rob Peterson.
Traffic at Charleroi's regional airport - dubbed "Brussels South" -- in Belgium jumped 200% to 773,431 passengers in 2001, boosted by Ireland's low-cost carrier Ryanair, which has chosen to develop operations at secondary airports, including Paris Beauvais and Frankfurt Hahn in addition to Charleroi. Ryanair launched routes to London, Glasgow, Shannon, Pisa, Venice and Carcassonne from Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA) last April. The Belgian airport said its traffic would top 1 million passengers in 2002.
Vanguard Airlines, which is asking the government for a $55 million loan guarantee, is hoping for resolution by the end of the month. Elizabeth Cattell, senior director of marketing, told The DAILY that the company, only the second airline to apply for the loan guarantee, is still in the early process after resubmitting its application Dec. 20. Cattell said Vanguard is undergoing the due diligence process.
US Airways and United this week said they will launch new advertising campaigns in the near future. US Airways signed a letter of intent with Baltimore-based Eisner Communications for domestic advertising. The US Airways account is worth $20 million.
Presidential Emergency Board has scheduled meetings Jan. 9-11 to take up the contract dispute between United and its Machinists. The PEB was appointed Dec. 20 for 30 days. No work stoppages are permissible during that period or during a 30-day period following its recommendations.
Presidential Emergency Board has scheduled meetings Jan. 9-11 to take up the contract dispute between United and its Machinists. The PEB was appointed Dec. 20 for 30 days. No work stoppages are permissible during that period or during a 30-day period following its recommendations.
American says its pilot acted appropriately when he refused to let an armed federal agent of Arab decent board a flight from Baltimore/Washington to Dallas, and said that it "would not be deterred from protecting the safety of its passengers by frivolous claims of racial profiling asserted by the Washington, D.C., law firm of Relman&Associates." The firm represents the agent, who contends he was unfairly profiled when he tried to board Flight 363.
United, facing sharply lower call volumes in the new year, plans to close five domestic reservations offices and furlough an additional 900 employees. The closings will take effect Feb. 28, and the offices are located in El Segundo, Burbank, Moreno Valley and Suisun City in California and one in Rockford, Ill. The closings will affect administrative, clerical, reservations sales and service and management employees.
DOT excluded certain services in the Atlanta-Paris and Cincinnati-Paris markets from its tentative approval of antitrust immunity for Delta, Air France, Alitalia and CSA Czech Airlines. Nonstop unrestricted and premium fares sold in the U.S. would not be covered by immunity for the four SkyTeam carriers owing to Delta's dominance in those markets. The carriers had noted overlaps in the Atlanta-Paris and New York/Paris/Milan/Rome markets.
Boeing said that its B2B portal MyBoeingFleet.com now offers airlines the ability to store and retrieve their own engineering and other data in addition to accessing Boeing. The "Hosted Customer Content" provides an economical way for airlines to manage the huge volume of documents and data generated by their maintenance, engineering and operations departments, Boeing said. Carriers can avoid setting up "costly internal digital systems or relying on cumbersome paper or microfilm-based reference systems," the company said.
Washington National airport flights will be allowed to expand to 620 flights -- 77% of its pre-Sept. 11 operations -- at the end of the current restoration plan. But the ability to restart services is constrained as carriers and airports must comply with stringent security measures, and carriers are slot-limited in their operations.
Thai Airways International will take a second look at its domestic network with plans to drop more unprofitable routes to second-tier private carriers Air Andaman and PB Air. It has already relinquished the Bangkok-Lampang, Mae Hong Son and Phitsanulok routes. Thai, which operates more than 30 domestic routes, has only three profitable ones -- Phuket, Hat Yai and Chiang Mai -- all tourist attractions. TG's losses are due to low fares, which have been controlled by the government for years.
DOT confirmed oral action granting scheduled passenger authority to Boston-Maine Airways d/b/a Pan Am Clipper Connection, reissuing the Pan Am affiliate carrier's certificate to include scheduled service. Boston-Maine has operated charter service since 1999. Using 19-seat Jetstream 31 aircraft, the carrier has begun three daily state-subsidized intra-Maryland flights from Cumberland and Hagerstown, in western Maryland, to Baltimore, where Pan Am operates flights on BWI-Bangor, Maine-Portsmouth, N.H., and -Orlando Sanford-St. Petersburg/Clearwater routings.
Despite recent allegations of tampering with the qualifications for airport baggage screeners, requirements for employment are virtually unchanged from those passed by Congress in December, according to DOT and legislators. Lawmakers who spoke with The DAILY recently say they remain comfortable with the education requirements for screeners, which give the yet-to-be-named under secretary for transportation security the ability to look at workers who may have military or security training but not necessarily a high school diploma.
Continental applied at DOT for allocation of the 14 U.S.-Turkey third-country code-share frequencies that become available April 1. The carrier wants to place its code on KLM's twice-daily Amsterdam-Istanbul nonstops. Under the U.S.-Turkey bilateral, two designations, as well as the 14 frequencies, will be available April 1 for U.S. carriers. (Docket OST-01-11250)
Air Lib, the former AOM/Air Liberte, has managed to muster EUR61 million in equity, asserts the new management of the company. Furthermore, the cash-strapped former subsidiary of Swissair is in a position to borrow an equivalent amount, said the management. These funds would facilitate the survival of the airline, which has lost EUR114 million in 2001 and could run out of cash very soon, according to union sources. The revival plan entails the launch of a new low-cost service on French domestic routes, according to industry sources.
