EasyJet plans to expand capacity on a number of routes from London Luton over the holiday period due to an expected increase in demand. In total, more than 150 extra flights will be added. Between Dec. 18 and Jan. 8, new daily service will operate between Luton and Malaga, Belfast, Palma de Majorca, Inverness and Aberdeen and an extra daily flight will serve the Luton-Geneva route Dec. 26-Jan. 8.
Continental received its first Boeing 767-200ER aircraft Friday. Sized between the 757 and the 777, the aircraft has a two-class configuration with 174 seats. The 767 is the first of 10 on firm order and will enter scheduled service Dec. 1 between Newark and Zurich.
Air Canada last week said its customer service improvements are in place and its "objective of stable and consistent service is ahead of schedule." CEO Robert Milton said, "By the end of November, after 120 days of upgrading airport facilities, adding staff and achieving our work force agreement, integrating computer systems and centralizing system operations, we will have accomplished the key customer service improvements we committed to at the start of the program." Milton, speaking to reporters several weeks ago when the company released its earnings, pledged that
System traffic growth among the U.S. majors continued to moderate in October with total growth of 2%, the slowest rate in two years, excluding the Y2K impact, according to UBS Warburg.International traffic outpaced domestic flying, growing 4.0% versus 1.2%. Unit revenue for the month is expected to rise 4%-4.5%. "Softer traffic growth was offset by firmer yields," said analyst Sam Buttrick.
After suspending all operations last month, Air Aruba was declared bankrupt by a local judge Friday due to soaring debts. The carrier stopped all flights after it was forced to return half its fleet to a lessor following a cash shortage (DAILY, Oct. 24). The carrier previously operated a fleet of six aircraft, but its three MD-90s were returned to Hwa-Hsia Leasing Ltd. as "certain payments were not made," said Ignacio Martinez-Ybor, Air Aruba general manager of North America.
Following a tumultuous supervisory board meeting last week, Austrian Airlines' Co-CEO Herbert Bammer said he does not see the need to increase the number of seats on the airline's managing board. Rudolf Streicher, head of Austrian's supervisory board, failed to push through his candidate for a third co-CEO at the airline. Supervisory board members walked out of the meeting on Wednesday. His plan was to install Tyrolean Airways' CEO Fritz Feitl at the top of Austrian. Feitl would have been the third co-CEO, in addition to Bammer and Mario Rehulka.
Air France's passenger revenues jumped 16.7% in the carrier's fiscal first half to 4.4 billion euros (US$3.8 billion) thanks to strong traffic and higher unit revenue. Traffic increased 10.3%, easily outpacing the 5.4% capacity gain. Load factor rose 3.6 percentage points to 80.7%, and yield improved 5.2% for the quarter ended June 30. Every international region reported at least a 10% increase in operating revenues, with the airline's North and South American networks growing 29.3% and 27.8%, respectively.
Four bids were submitted on Monday for a 30-year concession to operate Lima Jorge Chavez Airport, involving investment of some $600 million. The bidders are Spain's Aeropuertos Espanoles y Navegacion Aerea (AENA), Germany's Flughafen Frankfurt-Main, Austria's Vienna Airport, and Canada's Vancouver Airport Services. AENA manages airports in Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Cuba. The results will be announced Nov. 15 with the ensuing contract signed February 2001. Lima airport handles 4.5 million passengers a year.
ARINC said that terminal Doppler weather radar is now available at 46 airports through SkySource, which previously offered the radar at only three airports. TDWR provides a real-time, full-color graphic display of precipitation, wind shear, microburst and gust front hazards.
Embraer signed a cooperation agreement with Russian Tsentrainy Aerogidrodynamichesky Institut. Embraer has been making use of the institute's facilities since last June, using its wind tunnel to fine-tune the ERJ 170/190 regional jet family. In addition, it has been making use of TSAGI's computer-based aerodynamic and aeroelastic laboratories.
Senate aviation subcommittee Chairman Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) held a narrow lead of some 3,000 votes yesterday in a recanvass of the vote in the tight Washington state Senate race. A Gorton defeat would deadlock the Senate and put in jeopardy th2e tenure of the present Senate chairmen. With the Gorton seat still not settled, Republicans held a narrow 50-49 majority as a result of Tuesday's elections in which Democrats made a net gain of three seats.
BAA's U.K. airports handled 11.1 million passengers in October, an increase of 3.4% from last year, but the results were lower than expected due to weather disruptions at the end of the month. Total growth for the financial year to date is 6.1%. Among the key markets, fastest growth came in European scheduled traffic, up 7.2%. Stansted was again the fastest-growing airport in the group with an increase of 21.3%, followed closely by Southampton, rising 18.2%. The three Scottish airports combined were up 2.7%, with Edinburgh adding 4.1%.
The National Mediation Board declined to act on a petition by United's International Association of Machinists for release from mediation, and instead anticipates scheduling more meetings next week or the week after. United and its Machinist union halted talks last week when IAM negotiators said no one on the United team had the power to make a deal. United sent some management negotiators to Washington, D.C. to meet with the union, but mediated talks came to a halt on Tuesday. "The sides are too far apart on wages at this point," said IAM spokesman Frank Larkin.
Virgin Atlantic Airways has ordered five new Boeing 747-400s with GE CF-6 engines. The aircraft, ordered from lessor GE Capital, will be delivered between March and June 2001 and initially will be used for growth markets. The aircraft were planned to be delivered to Alitalia, but the Italian carrier dropped the order in favor of Boeing 777s. Earlier this year, Virgin ordered two 747-400s from Boeing, taking the carrier's orderbook up to seven -400s. Virgin also has 10 Airbus A340-600s on order, plus seven options, that will begin to arrive in 2002.
Eyeing several benefits, including a larger presence in the North American overhaul market, SAirGroup -- through subsidiaries SR Technics and Flightlease AG -- finalized a deal to buy 15% of engine lessor Willis Lease Finance Corp. (WLFC) and take larger stakes in two related aftermarket services businesses.
After inaugurating daily nonstop service from Atlanta to Santiago, Delta announced that it will consolidate reservations and sales activities for Central and South America into a Customer Contact Center located in Santiago to be opened next year. The airline expects to invest $3-4 million there. The center will minimize response time on all transactions, support better customer services in marketing, planning and training, and provide direct communication between customers and sales representatives.
Frontier Airlines established an overnight maintenance base at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, effective Nov. 1. The airline is leasing roughly 1,700 square feet for office and aircraft materials storage space and plans to employ approximately 12 full-time Frontier employees by yearend. The facility is equipped to perform maintenance on Frontier's current Boeing 737 fleet, as well as the airline's new Airbus aircraft, which are scheduled to begin arriving in May 2001.
Italian flag carrier Alitalia has canceled a previous deal for five Boeing 747-400s and instead placed an order for six 777-200ERs. The contract also includes options for six Boeing 777-300ERs. Alitalia said the decision was influenced by "the collapsed alliance with KLM." The airline also is known to be looking for a replacement of its aging fleet of MD-80s. Boeing has received 62 firm orders for the 777 this year and is in final negotiations for another 43.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, four cabinet ministers and other top officials met Saturday with representatives of the U.S. company Lone Star Space of Houston about the construction of a satellite launching platform in Venezuela. Minister of Science and Technology Carlos Genations said no specific agreements were reached, but the government left the door open to further talks. "This is a long-range project that requires careful evaluation and feasibility studies," he said.
Air Transport Association (ATA) quietly dropped its venture into e-commerce, saying that it will instead concentrate on enriching its giant databases of parts and pricing. Brad Ballance, ATA's managing director for Spec 2000, told DAILY affiliate AviationNow.com that the association's Spec 2000 committee "made a strategy decision" to drop the ATA Marketplace exchange in September. The decision was announced to the Spec 2000 user community last week at a Los Angeles forum on Spec 2000. Instead, ATA will make its database available to other exchanges for them to use.
A 27-year-old stowaway survived a 22-minute flight in a wheel well of a Deutsche BA Boeing 737-300 on Wednesday. The man managed to climb over the fence of Munich Airport and into the wheel well of the 737 that was waiting for takeoff clearance. The aircraft took off and retracted the gear. The crew realized that the forward gear came up but that the gear doors would not close. The aircraft leveled off at 10,000 feet and returned to Munich. The Romanian stowaway remained unhurt but was affected by hypothermia.
