United President Rono Dutta does not see the need for any further carve-outs to gain approval for the United-US Airways merger, with the exception of the creation of Washington National-based DC Air. The DAILY incorrectly stated Dutta's position (DAILY, June 9).
Jet fuel spot prices in New York last week were $0.78 per gallon, down 5.1% from the beginning of the prior week but up 77.1% from a year ago, according to Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Crude oil futures for July came down slightly, trading at roughly $30.05 per barrel, still shy of a nine-year high of $34.13 reached in early March.
Boeing's 777 passed the five-year mark last week, and the aircraft family has garnered 460 orders and more than 2 million flight hours. More than 280 units are in service, with each flying an average of 10 hours per day. The 777 also has a 99% schedule reliability rate.
Bombardier has signed a purchase agreement with GE Capital Aviation Services for the sale of up to 150 Canadair Regional Jet aircraft comprising 50 firm orders and 100 options. The value of the orders is about $1.3 billion. When all options are executed, the total value will be $3.9 billion. GECAS will purchase a family of 50 firm CRJs, including 15 CRJ200s, 25 CRJ700s and 10 CRJ900s. The CRJ900 orders are subject to formal launch of the program and are convertible to other CRJ types. Deliveries for the firm orders start this year and run through late 2006.
Canadian low-fare carrier WestJet's stock is "particularly attractive for purchase" for investors looking beyond the 12-month horizon, said Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Linenberg. The primary driver of earnings growth will be fleet expansion, he said, forecasting capacity growth averaging 38% per year. "WestJet will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the consolidation of Canada's airline industry."
Varig named Dorival Schultz financial director; Roberto Macedo marketing VP; Eloy Binder VP-flight operations; Manuel Dominguez comptroller, and Jose Lima cargo and air express director.
JetBlue on Aug. 3 will begin daily nonstop "red eye" flights between New York JFK and Oakland International Airport for $99 one way. JetBlue will also add "red eye" JFK-Los Angeles Ontario International Airport service July 21.
Delta and Air Jamaica filed to expand their U.S.-Caribbean code share, beginning July 6. Air Jamaica wants to serve Kingston, Jamaica-Nashville and co-terminalize that service with its Phoenix-Montego Bay flights. Delta wants to display Air Jamaica's code on its Atlanta-Nashville flights. Air Jamaica wants to display Delta's code on Phoenix-Montego Bay/Kingston and Barbados-Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, flights, which would be a continuation of New York Kennedy-Barbados service. (Docket OST-00-7478)
Clarification: British Airways remains present as a player in France, though it has backed away from its ownership position in Air Liberte. A story June 8 in The DAILY may have given the impression that BA has pulled out of France altogether.
Southwest is adding nonstop flights between Raleigh/Durham and Kansas City and Kansas City-San Jose on Sept. 13. The nonstop flights also create same-plane direct service between Raleigh/Durham and San Jose. Fares begin at $79 each way between Kansas City and Raleigh/Durham or $99 each way between Kansas City and San Jose.
Atlantic Coast Jet, which has yet to announce a start date, on July 1 intends to take over three routes currently flown by Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines.ACJet, which can only operate the routes if it receives FAA certification by then, expects to fly ASA routes from New York LaGuardia to Richmond, Va., and Greensboro and Columbia, S.C., ASA President Skip Barnett told The DAILY. ASA, growing rapidly, will redeploy the aircraft to other recently announced new routes.
The Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) wants FAA and Boeing to look into problems reported in Boeing 767 elevators that could provide a mechanical explanation to what triggered the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. In a letter to Administrator Jane Garvey this week, ECAA Chairman Abdelfattah Kato expressed concern over "several" reports of "system discrepancies" in 767 elevators that apparently resulted from failed hydraulic power control actuators (PCAs).
Singapore Airlines is strongly favored to win a contract from Air-India to lease six Airbus A310s and two Boeing 747-300s for a period of three years with an option for another three. The development follows SIA's interest to acquire a stake in the Indian national carrier. SIA earlier turned down a proposal from Jet Airways to bid for a stake in Air-India as a consortium together with British Airways. An Air-India official told The DAILY in Sydney that SIA is bidding for the stake on its own and has included the lease in its proposal.
Varig CEO Ozires Silva told a public hearing yesterday that "This is no time to speak of mergers" because of the low market value of the country's major carriers due to mounting debts and the financial crisis they are going through. Speaking to the Brazilian Senate's Economic and Infrastructure Commission, Silva was joined by his colleague, TAM CEO Rolim Amaro, in requesting help from the government to resolve the crisis.
Pilots at Bearskin Airlines, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International, have voted to authorize a strike if they cannot reach a negotiated labor deal with management by midnight June 18. The 105 pilots voted by 97% in favor of giving union leadership authority to call a strike. Negotiations with management began in January and 14 of 30 contract sections remain open, all involving more important and contentious issues such as pay.
The World Radio Conference 2000, concluded last weekend in Istanbul, was described as an "historic milestone for the future safety and growth of civil aviation" by Pierre Jeanniot, director general of IATA. "Six months ago, it seemed the measures we were taking to ensure that aviation could safely meet every growing demand might come to nothing," he said. Jeanniot was referring to the explosive growth in mobile telecommunications and that industry's search for additional radio spectrum space.
Approval of reciprocal code share by United and British Midland is a wrong decision at the wrong time, American, Continental, Delta and TWA told DOT. DOT proposed to grant British Midland authority to place its code on United's flights to 20 points beyond Chicago and Washington. United would gain rights to place its code on British Midland's flights between Chicago/Washington and Manchester and Manchester/London/East Midlands and other points in the U.K. and about two dozen European points.
Air Caribbean wants authority to add service from Georgetown, Guyana, to Miami, via Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, as extension of its daily Port-of-Spain-Miami nonstops. The carrier serves the route with Boeing 737 aircraft configured for 120-124 passengers. It noted that the requested extrabilateral authority is similar to an exemption granted to BWIA, another Trinidadian carrier. Air Caribbean has received authority from Guyana for the service.
Virgin Atlantic yesterday became the first airline to formally commit to both the Airbus A3XX and rival Boeing 747-400X, having signed letters of intent with both companies to acquire six aircraft from each. Virgin Chairman Richard Branson announced the decision yesterday at London Heathrow Airport. In parallel, the Airbus supervisory board yesterday delayed for the second time the final decision to launch the A3XX.
