CAE was awarded contracts to provide flight training to two US customers at a total value of roughly $14 million over a five-year period. Under the first, CAE will furnish training on A320s to USA3000 Airlines through the Airbus-CAE training cooperation. In the second contract, CAE SimuFlite was selected by FAA Aviation System Standards' Aviation Training Team to provide initial and recurrent training to more than 150 FAA pilots on a number of different business aircraft.
Proliferation of city-pairs has continued after a slight downturn following 9/11, according to new data from OAG. The figures were presented by VP-Marketing Randy Baseler as part of Boeing's latest market forecast, which uses the number of nonstops in OAG's August schedules on a year-over-year basis. The figures, which exclude regional jets, show that in 1985 there were just under 5,000 city-pairs and this number grew to 9,000 in 2000 and just over 10,000 in August 2004.
Blue1 VP-Finance and CFO Stefan Wentjaervi was appointed president and CEO of the Finnish SAS subsidiary. He will take up his position after the summer and is replacing current President and CEO Sveneric Persson, who is leaving to take over as head of the SAS organization in the Americas on Sept. 1.
Global ePoint's AirWorks Division received a new FAA STC for its cockpit door surveillance system, which now spans the entire family of 737s with two configurations.
Traffic at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion came to a halt Tuesday morning, stranding thousands, after tests indicated that the fuel supplied to aircraft at the airport was polluted. However, subsequent tests showed that the fuel was okay and flights resumed, according to media reports.
AAR was awarded a contract by Air Midwest, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mesa Air Group, to provide supply chain services for its fleet of 24 Beech 1900Ds. Under the five-year agreement, AAR will furnish a comprehensive materials management program including logistics, line station management, repair management and scrap replacement and servicing for four primary line stations and 10 outlying repair stations.
Kalitta Air and its pilots, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, reached a tentative agreement on a new contract after more than two years of negotiations. The agreement calls for a 15% pay increase over the three-year span of the contract with an additional signing bonus of 4% for the previous two years. It also provides for enhanced benefits and improved work rules. It is subject to ratification by union members and ballots are expected to go out within the next two weeks.
US airlines flew 41.67 billion domestic RPMs in January, up 8% over the year-ago period, according to US Dept. of Transportation statistics. Domestic capacity climbed 1.1% to 59.61 billion ASMs, pushing load factor up 4.5 points to 69.9%. Delta Air Lines carried 6.2 million domestic passengers during the month, the most of any airline. Southwest Airlines at 6 million and American Airlines at 5.8 million ranked second and third respectively. Among airports, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International was the busiest for domestic travel with 2.9 million passenger boardings.
Lufthansa will increase its fuel surcharge for long-haul flights owing to the record cost of jet fuel. The surcharge will rise to €27 ($35) from €17 for each long-haul leg for tickets purchased from April 25.
News from Travel Technology Update: Travelsky Technology Ltd., a unit of China Travelsky Holding Co. and the largest electronic air travel distribution system provider in China, signed an "exclusive strategic cooperation agreement" with American Express that designates Travelsky as the sole GDS service provider for American Express in mainland China for three years. Travelsky currently is the only GDS provider in China, but it is expected that other GDSs will enter the market.
Ryanair announced yesterday that it will not move forward with plans to offer its passengers digEplayer portable inflight entertainment units after a five-month trial on five Stansted-based aircraft failed to develop sufficient interest among customers. According to the Associated Press, the carrier said an initial lack of availability of non-English-language programs on the handheld players was also a factor in the decision.
Air New Zealand will raise its fuel surcharge from April 20 on international flights from the US to $35 per one-way segment and from Canada to C$45 ($36.05) per one-way segment owing to rising fuel prices.
Qatar Airways is nearing completion of its new $18 million maintenance hangar. The facility, the world's biggest "stretched arch" hangar, will be capable of simultaneously accommodating two A330s and an A380. Dimensions are 509 ft. in length, 443 ft. wide and 115 ft. high at its highest point. It is set to be finished in June.
Travelsky Technology Ltd., a unit of China Travelsky Holding Co. and the largest electronic air travel distribution system provider in China, signed an exclusive strategic cooperation agreement with American Express that designates Travelsky as the sole GDS service provider for American Express in mainland China for three years. Travelsky currently is the only GDS provider in China, but it is expected that other GDSs will enter the market. China has committed to opening its markets to new competition to fulfill its membership requirements in the World Trade Organization.
EU Council of Economics and Finance Ministers has deferred until as least May action on a European Commission recommendation to introduce a series of new taxes on commercial aviation to support humanitarian aid in developing countries ( ATWOnline, April 12). According to a statement from Ecofin, "this topic will appear at the forefront of the agenda for the informal Ecofin meeting in Luxembourg" May 13-14.
US Transportation Security Administration last week began enforcing a ban on all types of lighters from the secure areas of airports and onboard aircraft. TSA announced the ban in February and set aside 45 days to educate the traveling public about it.
Canada's Mechtronix, a recent entry into the ranks of full flight simulator manufacturers, is taking a different approach to the training market with its Non Zero Flight Time Simulator. The NZFT is a Level B+++ full motion simulator with a visual system that fulfills all recurrent training requirements and 80% of initial certification requirements, said Mechtronix President Xavier Herve.
Lufthansa Flight Training and Austrian Airlines Group, as previously reported ( ATWOnline, April 5), entered into a training cooperation agreement under which LFT will construct a simulator center at Austrian's technical base at Vienna International Airport. In conjunction with the existing AAG safety and service center, which trains cabin attendants and pilots, this will result in creation of a comprehensive training center to be called Vienna Aviation Campus.
Austrian Airlines Group flew 1.33 billion RPKs in March, up 3% over the year-ago period. Capacity climbed 2.4% to 1.87 billion ASKs and load factor gained 0.4 point to 71.2%. For the three months ended March 31, RPKs increased 1.5% to 3.75 billion, ASKs rose 5.5% to 5.52 billion and load factor declined 2.7 points to 68%.
Iberia improved its load factor in March by 3.9 points from a year earlier to 78.5%, helped by Easter falling earlier this year. RPKs rose 11.2% to 4.14 billion while capacity grew 5.7% to 5.27 billion ASKs. Passenger numbers increased 5.9% to 2.3 million, of which 1.3 million were on the domestic network. Long-haul traffic went up 12.9% on a 6.7% capacity hike, improving load factor 4.8 points to 86.5%. In Europe, traffic grew 11.6% against a 4.5% increase in capacity and load factor gained 4.3 points to 68.0%.
