Mexico's cabinet under new President Vicente Fox includes several members with direct aviation links.Energy Secretary Ernesto Martens was Cintra chairman through 2000, while Martens' deputy secretary, Juan Antonio Barges, was director general of civil aviation. Pedro Cerisola y Weber, Communications and transport secretary, headed AeroMexico.
EasyJet maintained its impressive Internet sales trend last month, selling 79.4% of all seats via the web. EasyJet is helped by the fact that it requires passengers to book directly with the airline. The carrier posted an 80% load factor for November, up 3.7 percentage points.
Raytheon and Thales -- formerly Thomson-CSF -- signed an agreement to form a 50-50 joint venture encompassing air defense and ground-based air surveillance and weapons-locating radars. The air traffic management (ATM) businesses of both companies are not included in the joint venture and will continue to compete in the ATM market. The new company will have operating subsidiaries in Fullerton, Calif., and in the greater Paris metropolitan area.
Comair last week joined the ranks of airlines taking action against union workers allegedly engaging in grassroots campaigns to disrupt airline operations du
The Regional Airline Association says that a White House report on air traffic erroneously pins some of the blame for congestion on the growth of regional jets. President Bill Clinton's "White House Report on Air Traffic Control Reform" contends that RJs "which fly at the same altitude as larger planes but are not as fast" contribute to congestion. The report says that with the large number of RJs coming into airline fleets annually, "these popular planes will be a factor in delays."
New York jet fuel spot prices ended last week at $0.99 per gallon, down 5.5% from the beginning of the week and up 43% from a year ago, according to Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Oil futures remained steady, trading at $28.40 a barrel on Friday.
SAirGroup's stock has "underperformed" against the European airline sector by 22% since the start of 2000, according to Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. While most airline stocks had big gains in October due to strong third quarter results, SAirGroup shares have underperformed. The firm lowered earnings estimates for SAirGroup for 2001 and 2002 citing a "stream of negative newsflow" from its investments in French carriers and Sabena.
The Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engine last week won its airworthiness certification from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority two weeks ahead of schedule at the end of a three-year development program. The engine is offered on the growth versions of the Airbus A340. Ten customers have made firm and option commitments for 124 units of the aircraft, resulting in advance engine sales approaching $6 billion, the company said.
DC Air Chairman Robert Johnson is in talks with Continental, American and Delta about selling up to 49% of DC Air, sources confirmed.By adding an outside investor, DC Air would add "resources to help the airline grow competitively throughout the region," he told The DAILY recently. Other carriers may still enter the bidding.
United and its International Association of Machinists do not expect to resume contract talks until after the new year begins. The two sides recessed negotiations last week after seven days of intensive talks. IAM Local 141M President Scotty Ford said wage and pension issues remain on the table and "most everything else was put to bed."
The four Senate aviation subcommittee vacancies -- three Republican and one Democrat - may be filled by two from each party if the full Commerce Committee goes to equal membership next year. It would reflect the 50-50 Republican-Democrat split in the new Senate. Republicans -- subcommittee chair Sen. Slade Gorton (Wash.) and Sens. Spencer Abraham (Mich.) and John Ashcroft (Mo.) -- were defeated, while democratic Sen. Richard Bryan (Nev.) retired.
U.S. and Senegal initialed an open-skies accord Friday, making Senegal the 10th African country to agree to open skies with the U.S. The pact would be the 52nd open-skies accord if signed in January as planned, a U.S. official said. The phased agreement becomes fully liberalized on March 31, 2003, with restrictions on third-country code sharing and ground-handling during the transition period. Third-country code-share opportunities will be expanded in three tranches, with 14 frequencies available now, which includes current code sharing by Delta and Air France.
Consolidators International President Julian Keeling predicts that "rates and profitability" are the two most vexing problems for forwarders next year. Many agreements between airlines and larger forwarders announced in 2002 are "not worth the paper they are printed on," and dot-com companies who rushed to sell cargo over the Internet will be "dot-gones in 2001."
Northwest CEO John Dasburg said FAA's recent New York LaGuardia slot lottery "is not the best way to improve customer service." In New York last week, Dasburg called on the government to address ATC challenges and work to expand infrastructure. "Misguided government solutions that are worse than the problems they were intended to solve will benefit no one," he said.
An Alaska Airlines maintenance reliability monitoring system generated an alert that the airline's MD-80 tail jackscrews were being removed at earlier-than-expected intervals three days after Flight 261 crashed into the Pacific Ocean, a top Alaska maintenance official revealed Friday. Wright McCartney, the airline's reliability program manager, said that the third jackscrew removal in a span of four months triggered the Feb. 3 notice, which indicated the assemblies were wearing faster than is normal. The crash occurred Jan. 31.
Airbus executives are hopeful for a launch decision on the A3XX super-jumbo in the next two weeks, thanks to an expected order from Virgin Atlantic made official Friday. John Leahy, Airbus senior VP for marketing, said Friday he was hopeful for a launch decision "before the end of the year." All of the key commercial criteria for launching the program have now been met, including commitments from six customers for 50 aircraft.
Names being floated as possible DOT secretary candidates for President-elect George W. Bush to consider include Elaine Chao, who served as DOT deputy secretary from 1989 to 1991; Sens. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) and Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), both defeated in this year's elections; Gov. Frank Keating, (R-Okla.), also mentioned as likely to head the Justice Department as attorney general; Stephen Goldsmith, former Indianapolis mayor who advised the Bush campaign; David Laney, Texas Transportation Commission chairman and Gov. Argeo Paul Cellucci (R-Mass.).
Sabre plans to increase booking fees next year due to growing costs and tight competition. While rates will vary by participation level and regions, Sabre said the effective average booking fee increase will be 7.7% per booking, beginning Feb. 1. The increase "is in response to growing costs of supporting the travel agency channel and on-line travel distribution outlets" in addition to efforts to develop new products.
South African carrier Nationwide Airlines argued before the Competition Tribunal yesterday that South Africa Airways (SAA) was using predatory pricing to force competitors out of key routes. According to the African News Service, Nationwide filed an "application for interim relief" with the tribunal, arguing that SAA had not increased prices mainly on the Johannesburg-Cape Town and Johannesburg-Durban routes despite soaring fuel prices.
Alaska Airlines signed an agreement with eKiosk Corp. to begin installing high-speed eKiosk Internet workstations at Alaska's "Board Room" lounges starting next month. Five sites in Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles are scheduled to receive multiple kiosks.
Iberia yesterday placed a firm order for three more Airbus A340-300s for delivery in February 2002. Iberia currently has 12 A340-300s, plus three for delivery in 2001.
Thomas Pickering, U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, will join Boeing as senior VP-international relations. He will report to Chairman Phil Condit and will serve on the Executive Council when his appointment becomes effective in January following retirement from the government. In the past year Boeing has opened or expanded offices in Brussels, Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Moscow and in Africa.
IATA survey of corporate travel finds that nearly 90% of those responding are members of at least one frequent flyer program, although business travelers "appear more skeptical of the direct benefits of global alliances."Over a quarter of respondents said there were "no consumer benefits at all" from alliances.
Crossair will pull four Boeing MD-80s from its fleet during the next several months and replace them with Airbus A320s. Crossair said the A320 and the Boeing 737-800 were evaluated and ran "neck and neck" but Airbus was chosen because it provides "synergy within the SAirGroup," Crossair said, referring to Swissair and Sabena, both large Airbus customers. "In addition, Airbus, with the A321, offers greater growth potential in seat capacity."
BAA, the U.K.-based airport company, said its seven domestic airports handled 9.1 million passengers in November, an increase of 5.6% over the same month last year. A major factor in the increase was rail disruptions, which added 200,000 passengers to U.K. air routes. Growth, excluding rail disruptions, was 3.5%. BAA said British Airways will retain a key operation at Gatwick and other airlines, including Virgin, plan new flights at the airport.
