Alitalia's plans to find a strong alliance partner in Europe seem to have suffered another setback after a high-ranking member of the Italian government said that Air France is too big for the partly state-owned carrier. Enrico Micheli, under secretary of the Council of the Presidency, said an agreement among equals would be possible with Swissair but not with Air France. SAirGroup said, however, that it is no longer interested in an alliance with Alitalia and will focus instead on other issues
Commercial aviation costs in Peru have quintupled in the last few years due to regulations implemented by the Civil Aviation Agency (DGAC) that copy U.S. policies and were not adapted to the local market, Julian Palacin, president of Peru's Institute of Aviation Law, said last week in Lima. He added that the sector expects the present caretaker national government to show clear signs of change and make rules on airline regulation more transparent.
Brazilian startup GOL Transportes Aereos will take off Jan. 15 with 50 daily flights to seven points in Brazil, using six new leased Boeing 737-700s. Operating on a no-frills policy, GOL -- whose name means "goal" and is intended to appeal to soccer-mad Brazilians -- claims it will be able to offer the lowest fares in the large domestic market.
Air France Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta will be chairman of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) in 2001. He succeeds Xavier de Irala, chairman and CEO of Iberia. The Presidents' Committee for the term will comprise Fausto Cereti (Alitalia), Mario Rehulka (Austrian Airlines), Rod Eddington (British Airways), de Irala, Leo van Wjik (KLM), Juergen Weber (Lufthansa) and Philippe Bruggisser (Swissair).
TRAFFIC DATA FOR DECEMBER 2000 RPMs Change ASMs Change In From In From Load Airline Millions 12/99 Millions 12/99 Factor American 8.98 +2.7% 12.93 -4.2% 69.5% Continental 5.05 +5.0% 7.08 +0.1% 71.3% Southwest 3.52 +14.8% 5.30 +11.7% 66.5%
Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines will add one daily nonstop flight between Atlanta and Worcester, Mass., effective April 1. With the new service, ASA will offer three daily nonstop jet flights from Worcester, all operated with 50-seat Canadair regional jets.
Comair in March will upgrade the number of regional jet flights it operates between its Orlando hub and six cities in Florida and Birmingham, Alabama. On March 2, Comair will upgrade to Canadair regional jet service on one daily roundtrip flight between Orlando and Birmingham, Pensacola, Miami and West Palm Beach. Comair will upgrade two daily roundtrip flights between Orlando and Fort Myers and Tallahassee. The remaining existing services to these cities will continue operating with EMB-120 turboprops.
Delta predicted that by yearend its Delta.com web site will top $1 billion in annual sales. Last year, more than 2.5 million Delta tickets were purchased on the carrier's site, representing 5% of Delta's total ticket sales for the year. Those same tickets generated $775 million in revenue in 2000, up nearly 270% from the $290 million in 1999.
United Vacations this week expanded its offerings to include Canadian destinations. The 2001 Canada vacations will feature four provinces -- Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario. United Vacations will offer air service on both United and Star Alliance partner Air Canada. United Vacations also signed a partnership with the Canadian Tourism Commission.
America West signed a new agreement with Continental to modify the airlines' code-share agreement to eliminate code sharing on flights between their hubs, but instead they plan to expand "beyond hub" code sharing. The altered agreement was prompted by the airlines' desire to "increase flexibility for adding or eliminating" markets and the option to terminate the partnership on short-term notice in the future.
US Airways, as expected, launched its fourth wholly owned subsidiary today with service from Washington National to Charleston, W.Va., Greensboro, N.C., and White Plains, N.Y., using 37-seat de Havilland Dash 8-200s turboprops. Potomac Air gained final regulatory approval this week. The US Airways Express carrier was created to establish a pre-merger airline that would become DC Air if United-US Airways is approved (DAILY, Sept. 20).
Shannon Airport yesterday reported its best results ever with annual passenger figures exceeding 2.4 million, a 10% increase from 1999 and a new record for the airport. The U.S. market grew 8% thanks to growth of existing services and the introduction of new flights by Aer Lingus, Air Malta and Aeroflot. The European market "showed exceptional growth" of 43%, fueled by existing scheduled and charter services, and the introduction of new services by Ryanair, Virgin Express and Air Malta. The U.K.
Varig yesterday boosted its shuttle service between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with the increase of 10 daily flights. With the additional frequencies, the carrier provides a total of 75 daily flights between the two Brazilian cities -- 38 in one direction and 37 in the other. Flights are operated from the downtown airports at Santos Dumont in Rio and Congonhas in Sao Paulo. Varig operates the shuttle flights with its sister company, Rio-Sul, and all flights are operated with Boeing 737-300s.
Southwest last week took delivery of its last two Boeing 737-700s for 2000, bringing its yearend fleet total to 344. July was the busiest month of the year for new aircraft deliveries, with six, while April, June, August, and November each had four deliveries. The only month during which Southwest did not take delivery of a new -700 was February. In all, 35 new aircraft were added to its fleet during the year. In 2001 the airline is scheduled to add 25 -700s and retire four -200s, giving Southwest a net gain of 21 aircraft.
Indonesian investigators revealed in a report that there has been a lack of useful data in the 1997 crash of a SilkAir Boeing 737-300 that has made the investigation an almost impossible task. The National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) of Indonesia, which headed the investigation of SilkAir Flight 185 that crashed Dec. 19, 1997. The report, which was made available to The DAILY in Singapore, indicated that investigators could not explain how and why the accident happened due to the highly fragmented wreckage.
South African Airways and Nigeria Airways have requested authority for SAA to display Nigeria Airways' code on flights between the U.S. and Lagos, Nigeria, which would operate on a New York-Lagos-Johannesburg routing using Boeing 747-300 aircraft.
LanChile's subsidiary carrier Ladeco yesterday signed a new four-year labor contract with its pilot union. The new deal with the 87 pilots of the Ladeco Pilot Union will expire March 31, 2005. The new contract includes a wage increase and "restructured earnings incentives," which amount to a net present value of additional costs for approximately US$1.3 million during the next four years and four months.
Asiana Airlines has become the 15th airline partner of Cathay Pacific's travel reward program Asia Miles. With Asiana's participation, the number of destinations served increased by more than 850.
Skyway Airlines plans to launch nonstop service between Grand Rapids, Mich., and New York LaGuardia, beginning Feb. 15. The Midwest Express subsidiary will offer service twice daily each weekday, operated with Fairchild 328JETs.
Frontier now provides ground-to-air medical support to its flights through MedAire's Emergency Telemedicine Service, MedLink. Effective immediately, crews will be able to contact one of MedLink's board-certified emergency physicians at any time during flight. The airline plans to equip its fleet Boeing 737s and future Airbus fleet with automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). The airline began training its flight crews on the use of the AEDs in August 1999, and will complete the installation of the equipment on all of its aircraft by yearend.
Departing House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), who succeeded in winning guaranteed funding for most aviation programs last year, two years after he achieved the same feat for highway funding, announced yesterday that he will retire from Congress on Jan. 31, eight days after he turns 69.
World Airways signed two contract extensions totaling $55 million. Under a two-year wet-lease agreement with an unidentified major freight forwarder, World Airways will operate an MD-11 freighter five times per week, flying between cargo hubs in Europe and the U.S.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) plans to make major board room changes in national flag carrier Air China within the next month. The move already has seen the removal of the airline's president, Wang Li-an, who has been replaced by Wang Kaiyuan, who previously was assistant director for CAAC.
Executive Jet Management said it has increased its managed fleet by 12 aircraft, including three Gulfstream IVs. All are available for charter. EJM manages a total of 56 aircraft in 31 locations across the country for what it called a "growing demand for retail charter" and to support Executive Jet's NetJets fractional ownership program.
Rolls-Royce has been awarded the contract for maintenance repair and overhaul of the V2500 engines powering the British Airways fleet of Airbus A319s and 320s. The airline had ordered up to 188 Airbus narrowbodies in 1998 and wanted to place the work with one of the partners of the IAE consortium that produces the V2500. Rolls-Royce and Pratt&Whitney are the biggest shareholders. The Rolls-Royce contract is worth 600 million pounds and stretches over a period of 20 years.
