Delta Air Lines said yesterday that it and subsidiary Northwest Airlines will stop using about 170 gates at airports throughout the US as the merged carriers consolidate operations. CEO Richard Anderson told employees in a recorded message that DL and NWA facilities at US airports all will bear the Delta name by year end. Branding will become uniform at airports internationally by the middle of next year, he said. He claimed the consolidation of airport facilities "translates into multimillions of dollars of rental savings."
Undeterred by the operating environment that has resulted in steep losses at Chinese carriers, Shenzhen Airlines plans to go ahead with the launch of its Kunming Airlines subsidiary on Feb. 15 as it searches for a foothold in the Yunnan market. The new venture has registered capital of CNY80 million ($11.7 million), with Shenzhen holding an 80% stake. Private investor Wang Qingmin will take the remaining 20% with a CNY16 million investment.
Air Berlin will launch four-times-weekly Hanover-Stockholm Arlanda service and weekly Stuttgart-Nice service on May 1. It also announced increased frequencies from Nuremburg to Dusseldorf and Berlin Tegel. AB's January unit revenue climbed 23% to 4.99 euro cents (6.45 US cents). Passenger numbers fell 4.5% to 1.7 million on a 4.9% drop in capacity to 2.5 million seats. Load factor rose 0.3 point to 69.1%.
Mexicana parent Grupo Mexicana will launch a Guadalajara-based regional airline designed to "complement the routes currently covered" by the mainline and its Mexicana Click LCC subsidiary. The unnamed carrier will operate 13 leased CRJ200s and fill the gap on routes that are not cost-effective for its partners or that were operated by competing LCCs that have failed or reduced capacity. Initial flights will be to Puerto Vallarta, Torreon, Veracruz, Monterrey, Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez. A timetable was not announced.
Copa Airlines CEO Pedro Heilbron said yesterday that Panama City's Tocumen International, home of the carrier's "hub of the Americas," has secured financing for a $50-$70 million expansion that will grow the airport's gates to 34 from 22. Speaking at the Raymond James Airline Growth Conference in New York, he said Copa will benefit long term from the expansion and will continue to grow its traffic in the short term despite the economic downturn, with a 13% capacity boost planned for 2009.
EasyJet announced the following new routes: Daily flights from London Gatwick to Munich, Zurich and Vienna (April 2); thrice-weekly LGW-Bodrum (April 23); four-times-weekly flights from Milan Malpensa to Heraklion (July 26) and Dubrovnik (Aug. 2) and thrice-weekly service to Rhodes (July 25) and Split (Aug. 1); thrice-weekly flights from Paris Orly to Faro (July 11) and Dubrovnik (July 12); twice-weekly Berlin Schoenefeld-Cagliari (April 1); twice-weekly Lyon-Pisa (July 11), and thrice-weekly Manchester-Dalaman (Aug.
Ryanair announced a reduction of its Shannon base owing to a €10 ($12.94) "tourist tax" that the LCC claimed "is devastating forward bookings" at the Irish airport. From March 30 it will reduce its based aircraft to four from six, cut five routes (to 25), 20 weekly flights (to 116) and more than 100 employees (to fewer than 200). "Irish tourism can only succeed if Ireland is a low-cost destination," Ryanair said, adding that the cuts "would be immediately reversed" if the tax is repealed.
Air Canada will launch daily service from Calgary to San Diego (May 15, aboard a Jazz Air CRJ700), London, Ont. (June 1 aboard an E-190), Portland, Ore. (June 15 aboard a Jazz CRJ100/200 and Whitehorse (seasonal from June 1 aboard a Jazz CRJ700). Spanair will launch daily Barcelona-Almeria service on May 3. Air Southwest will launch four-times-weekly Plymouth-Guernsey service on April 8. The Plymouth-based regional also named former Caribbean Airlines CEO Peter Davies as MD.
WestJet, Air France and KLM yesterday announced their intention to codeshare by late 2009 or early 2010. An MOU signed by the three airlines also covers the possibility of interline e-ticketing, through check-in and loyalty program cooperation. WestJet said the codeshare would include flights to/from Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. KLM will serve all four when its Amsterdam-Calgary route opens in May, while AF flies to Montreal and Toronto.
SRA International subsidiary ERA Systems will deploy surface multilateration systems at Istanbul Ataturk, Antalya and Ankara airports under a contract awarded by Turkey's General Directorate of State Airports Authority. ERA's MSS multilateration system and Squid vehicle tracking units are designed to provide controllers with complete surface situational awareness in all weather conditions. HITT will integrate the systems into an advanced surface movement guidance and control system.
Emirates launched its thrice-weekly Dubai-Sydney-Auckland A380 service yesterday. Sydney and Auckland are EK's third and fourth A380 destinations. Route becomes daily on May 1. Allegiant Air yesterday launched twice-weekly Oakland-Bellingham service (increasing to thrice-weekly by May and five-times-weekly by June) aboard an MD-80.
Etihad Airways will launch thrice-weekly Abu Dhabi-Chicago O'Hare service on Sept. 2 aboard a 240-seat A340-500. Route becomes daily on Oct. 1. It has been flying to New York JFK since October 2006.
JetBlue Airways will fly to Los Angeles International beginning June 17, more than a year after it suspended plans to serve the airport as fuel prices soared ( ATWOnline, May 7, 2008). It will fly twice-daily to both New York JFK and Boston. "Fuel prices have now reduced and we continue to get overwhelming requests from our customers to serve this market," CCO Robin Hayes said. The LCC also announced the launch of a daily JFK-Montego Bay service on May 21 and the Jan.
AAR named Dave Cann VP-regulatory compliance. Aerospace Industries Assn. welcomed Brian McDermott as VP-supplier management, Robert Young as asst. VP-civil aviation and Lisa Goldberg as dir.-environment, safety & health. Air Berlin selected Matthias von Randow as dir.-global traffic rights & political affairs. Airclaims appointed Tan Soon Kent as a surveyor in its Singapore office and Garrick Andrews to a similar position in its New Zealand office. A J Walter Aviation tapped Tomas Cano as sales dir.-Spain.
THE US FEDERAL AVIATION Administration exists in a state of limbo. Despite debates featuring proposals and counterproposals that stretch back to early 2007, Washington lawmakers have been unable to reach agreement on how to fund the agency and its prized program: Transitioning US air traffic control to a satellite-based "NextGen" system.
AIRPORTS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA ARE designing, conserving and recycling their way into a greener future. Many of these environmental programs are producing savings that will help contain airport costs for their airline tenants.
IT IS A COLD, WET JANUARY NIGHT AT the world's busiest cargo airport, Memphis International, which serves as the central air hub of FedEx's vast global delivery network. The rain has been steady throughout the day, and the executives who manage the FedEx Express airline operation have been monitoring the air temperature closely.
