Fairchild Dornier admitted on Wednesday that the delivery schedule for the 728JET will slip more than half a year. The aircraft was supposed to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2002 with launch customer Lufthansa CityLine. Fairchild Dornier now targets July 2003 as entry-into-service date. Chief Operating Officer John Wolf said the delay is due to the wing being 350 kilos heavy. This weight increase translated into a 50-nautical-mile-range decrease, which Wolf hopes to eliminate. More than that, he wants to add another 50 nm to the design range.
United and American each experienced slight increases in the power of their corporate brands, but they still trail other U.S. major carriers, according to Corporate Branding's latest airline industry brand study. For the second year in a row, Delta took first place and Southwest second. In the middle of a flurry of news surrounding possible merger deals, the airlines most often cited by industry analysts as likely acquirers -- Delta, United and American -- posted increases in their brand power score in 1999.
A new e-business application for the airline industry has been made available by an alliance comprising of IBM, Siebel Systems, Intentia International and Mercury Systems. The "IBM ConnectEdge for Airlines" integrates four separate applications -- for maintenance and engineering, flight operations, sales&marketing and customer services delivery. Customer airlines can opt for one or all four. They also can subscribe to an IBM-hosted facility or to a licensed user to run the application in the carrier's own data center.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday that he was "very concerned" that the planned merger between United and US Airways could lead to a round of consolidation in the airline industry. McCain, responding to questions from reporters on Capitol Hill, noted that DOT and DOT Inspector General studies have shown that in mergers, "competition is reduced and air fares go up." United has promised not to increase U.S.
U.S. aviation negotiators begin talks today in Rabat, hoping to conclude an open-skies accord with Morocco in time for King Mohammed VI's visit to the U.S. later this month, according to a senior State Department official. U.S. negotiators also will meet this week with Lithuanian aviation representatives in Vilnius and hold consultations in Washington with open-skies partner Peru, which has expressed concerns over FAA's safety assessment of the country. U.S.-U.K. negotiations resume June 12 in London, with follow-up meetings starting July 5 in Washington.
Virgin Atlantic will launch its London Gatwick-Las Vegas service tomorrow, the first nonstop service on the route. The U.K. last December selected Las Vegas as a new gateway point to replace Pittsburgh, where British Airways stopped service. Virgin will operate twice weekly, using Boeing 747s, and will operate London-San Francisco flights the other five days during the summer.
The first reaction of the Argentine government to the Spanish majority shareholder SEPI's three-year rescue plan for financially strapped Aerolineas Argentinas (DAILY, June 6) is positive, said Nicolas Gallo, minister of infrastructure, according to local media reports. He said it would be "worthwhile" for the government to join the capitalization effort, contributing its share of $60 million toward the total of some $1 billion needed to put the carrier back on its feet.
Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries will participate in the GE90-115B engine program as a risk/revenue-sharing partner. IHI forecasts the participation will bring 250 billion yen (about US$2.3 billion) in business to the company over 20 years. Currently, IHI is working in the GE90-85B program also as a risk/revenue-sharing partner.
KLM traffic last month increased 6.3% on 1.2% more capacity, which improved load factor 3.7 percentage points to 77.5%. The strongest overall traffic growth -- 18% -- occurred on the carrier's Asia/Pacific routes. Passenger traffic was up 7.6% and capacity fell 0.3%, with significant increases within Europe. Cargo traffic to Asia/Pacific jumped 21%.
FAA has ordered inspections of the aft wheel well bulkhead of Boeing 777-200s for cracks. It said the airworthiness directive is to prevent fatigue cracking of the bulkhead, "which could result in rapid in-flight decompression of the airplane."
The Airbus supervisory board is understood to be meeting tomorrow and may then decide on the authorization to offer the proposed Airbus A3XX super jumbo transport. Airbus executives told the responsible ministers in the four Airbus states -- Spain, France, Great Britain and Germany -- on Tuesday that the potential launch customers were now interested in taking more than 50 aircraft on firm order.
Smoking is now banned on international flights to and from the U.S. DOT and FAA issued rules, effective June 4, that extend the no-smoking requirement to all scheduled passenger flights, implementing a provision of AIR-21. Domestic passenger flights have been smoke-free since February 1990. The FAA rule prohibits smoking in the cockpit on those flights as well.
The greatest threat confronting the industry today is back-door re-regulation, according to IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot. The threat can be seen from three directions simultaneously -- shortcomings in aviation infrastructure, which amounts to de facto capacity restriction, suggested limits on aircraft utilization in the name of environmental protection, and the notion that governments need to legislate consumer "bills of rights," rather than allowing the free market to operate.
Alliance Aircraft Corp., a U.S. startup company based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, founded by Earl Robinson, Fairchild Dornier's former head of aircraft development, says it will launch its StarLiner 200/300 regional jets within a month. Robinson said that Alliance is looking at 100 launch orders. The company claims it has two letters of intent for 30 aircraft and is in discussions with a total of five airlines. Alliance aims to deliver the first StarLiner in 2003.
Embraer has scheduled a news conference today at the Berlin air show, where it is expected to announce a major deal for the ERJ-170 and ERJ-190 regional jets, underscoring the air show's focus on booming RJ sales.
Iberia's board approved a new four-year strategic plan yesterday for 2000-2003 that aims to maintain growth, boost margins and generate group profits of 153.5 billion pesetas (US$875 million) during the period. The plan estimates a total income of more than 3 trillion pesetas, up 8.4% annually. Iberia estimates that margins will increase to 16.6% from 15% in 1999. To achieve this goal, the airline will reduce unit costs by 10%, while improving productivity by an aggressive 23%.
British Airways' premium traffic jumped 10% in May as its overall load factor climbed 1.8 percentage points to 68.4%. Total traffic grew 4.2%, outpacing the 1.4% increase in capacity. Most of the capacity growth occurred in the Americas, Africa and the Middle East.
Air Transport Association President Carol Hallett said yesterday that the group's New York and Los Angeles offices will be closed Aug. 1 to cut costs. Hallett said that "times have changed and there is no longer a need for multiple offices around the nation. In line with airline practices, ATA can provide better services "without unnecessary real estate expenses." She said the "modest restructuring" will result in a new telecommuting program for the seven employees involved or their positions will be phased out.
TRAFFIC DATA FOR APRIL 2000 RPMs Change ASMs Change In From In From Load Airline Millions 4/99 Millions 4/99 Factor AirTran 0.35 +16.0% 0.50 +5.2% 71.4% Alaska 0.99 +5.7% 1.40 +1.1% 70.8% American 10.01 +6.3% 13.53 -0.4% 74.0%
Ryanair has called on Ireland's Consumer Minister Tom Kitt to protect consumers from the "high cost Aer Rianta monopoly" at Dublin Airport. Ryanair told Kitt recently that over the past 12 months, the monopoly has increased the cost of daily car parking at Dublin from 7 Irish punts to 12 -- up more than 70%, and is thwarting competition.
Bavaria International Aircraft Leasing has become the first customer for Fairchild Dornier's 90-passenger 928JET regional airliner. The Munich-based company placed firm orders for four aircraft plus two options and also ordered two 728JETs plus two options. The company signed the contract with Fairchild Dornier at the Berlin air show yesterday. Bavaria Managing Director Karsten Sensen said the leasing company has decided to focus on the regional market in the next few years.
Airline web sites and other Internet travel providers should focus their attention on affluent consumers that are, literally, a rich base of online customers, a new study says. "Because these successful, take-charge individuals are optimistic about technology, affluent consumers are among the strongest online travel buyers," said Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt. Affluent consumers are defined as individuals or families that have investable assets, excluding their homes, of $1 million or more.
The top 10 U.S. carriers canceled 2.5% of scheduled domestic flights in April, up from 2.1% in March, according to DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report. Alaska was highest, 7.2%, followed by America West, 4.3%, and Southwest was lowest, 0.7%. TWA posted the second-best record, 0.8%, as well as canceling the fewest flights, 187. United canceled the most, 2,694. Of 463,263 flights scheduled in April, a total of 11,642 were canceled. On-time arrivals in April averaged 75.4%, worse than the 77.0% posted in March.
The Australian government wants the world to move away from the bilateral system of international air services agreements toward a free world in aviation. To this end, Australia believes it is taking a leading role in moves to liberalize aviation policy in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and is taking a similar role in the 2000 round of the General Agreement on Trade in Services.
