Kronos said its Altitude Preferred Bidding System was purchased by Pinnacle Airlines. The system will manage the schedules of Pinnacle's 1,000 pilots and 600 flight attendants and is expected to increase productivity.
Teledyne Controls will supply its Integrated Data Management Unit for retrofit installation on 16 Japan Airlines 767-200s/300s. Teledynes iDMU will replace the legacy DMU currently in service, providing enhanced aircraft condition monitoring and recording capabilities.
Emirates-CAE Flight Training received Type Rating Training Organization certification by the JAA, which means that European aircraft operators can have their crews trained at ECFT without needing to revalidate the type ratings with their national licensing authorities.
Emirates SkyCargo purchased three used A310-300Fs that will join its fleet between June 2005 and January 2006. The carrier also will add two A380-800Fs in 2008. Separately, the airline appointed Hiran Perera to the newly created position of VP cargo-freighters. In his new role, Perera will be responsible for the carrier's expanding freighter fleet.
UK's National Air Traffic Services said proposals by the Civil Aeronautics Authority to lower its cap on ATC charges risks "damaging service levels and future increases in capacity." Last year CAA proposed reductions in en route revenues of RPI minus 7.5% for 2006 and 2% in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. The agency argued the reductions could be achieved by more cuts in operating costs than previously planned and a 20% cut in capital expenditures.
Qantas is using Required Navigation Performance on its flights to Queenstown after receiving approval from New Zealand's CAA and Australia's CASA to use the procedures, according to Naverus, a Seattle-based company that developed the system Qantas is employing.
SITA INC said it was selected by the Civil Aviation Bureau of Japan to be the sole provider of airline service via Multifunctional Transport Satellite. SITA said the selection will further strengthen its Satellite Aircom service, which uses Inmarsat satellites.
But for the grace of US taxpayers, patient bankruptcy judges and the deep pockets of GE Capital Corp., the long-awaited consolidation of the US airline industry might have begun in earnest last year as companies such as United Airlines, US Airways Group and Delta Air Lines simply ran out of financial options. Together, the three accounted for $7.5 billion of the $9.2 billion in aggregate losses suffered by US Major passenger airlines in 2004. Delta by itself accounted for nearly 60% of the industry's annual loss and a bit more than half of the fourth-quarter loss.
The advent of GDS new entrants, dubbed GNEs, sparked an unusually acerbic response from the traditional vendors at ResExpo, who warned suppliers and agents that embracing new technology comes with risks. G2 SwitchWorks and ITA Software say they are close to rolling out systems that will take travel reservations off TPF mainframes and onto open systems that are more agile and a lot cheaper.
Sabre Holdings Corp.'s acquisition three years ago of David R. Bornemann Associates, a privately held developer of Windows-based software solutions for smaller airlines, has proven to be both a savvy business decision and a challenge for the company's airline software products and services division, Sabre Airline Solutions.
After numerous false hopes and blind alleys, the wonderful world of IT finally is moving into the airline maintenance world in a fully realized way, with proven technologies offering off-the-shelf solutions while communications advances make it easier still. Harry Stripe from Northwest Airlines' line maintenance operation said at last month's Miami Aviation Symposium sponsored by Intel and Panasonic, "For ten or twelve years we've been walking down this path. Only in the last four or five years have we seen the tools we need."
SkyEurope intends to add four 737-500s this summer, bringing its fleet of the twinjets to 11. It also operates six Brasilia turboprops. The additional aircraft will support an increase in frequencies as well as the launch of 10 new routes: Athens from/to Bratislava and Budapest, Barcelona from/to Budapest and Krakow, Copenhagen from/to Bratislava and Budapest, Manchester from/to Bratislava and Krakow, and Nice from/to Bratislava and Budapest.
IATA reported that international passenger traffic for member airlines rose 7.9% in January compared to the same month in 2004, while seat capacity (ASKs) climbed 7.8% and load factor was 73.5%. IATA DG CEO Giovanni Bisignani said, "There is stronger than expected growth in all regions except for Asia/Pacific, which suffered from the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami." Asia/Pacific RPKs rose 2.5% with a 6.1% increase in seat capacity. Load factor was 70.9%. The strongest year-over-year growth took place in Latin America, which was up 15% on a 12.8% rise in capacity.
UPS announced late Friday that it plans to add an $82.5 million, 700,000-sq.-ft. heavy freight facility to its existing Louisville Cargo operations. The move came just one day after the company announced it was closing its freight-sorting hub at Dayton ( ATWOnline, Feb. 25). UPS said several states were considered as bases for the facility but the decision of the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority to extend it tax incentives helped seal the deal. The new complex is expected to bring 720 jobs to Louisville.
Aloha Airlines has decided to eliminate service to the Central and South Pacific and will suspend operations to Burbank and Vancouver following a route analysis. It also has decided to return two 737-300s, but through improved utilization and optimized scheduling it still intends to expand its operations to California.
It is back to the future for Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, who signed codeshare agreements to compete with the new LCCs operating out of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Under the deal, SIA and its regional subsidiary SilkAir will codeshare on a variety of Malaysia Airlines routes starting March 27. SIA and MAS split in 1972 and relations have been cool for decades, but the impending Asean Free Skies starts in 2008. Both airlines have taken the strategic decision to build market presence and cut out wasteful duplication to combat LCCs.
US Airways yesterday said its $125 million financing agreement with Eastshore Aviation ( ATWOnline, Feb. 23), an investment entity owned by Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp. and its shareholders, was approved by the US Bankruptcy Court. The facility is structured as debtor-in-possession financing and $75 million will be available immediately. The remaining funds will be drawn in $25 million increments later. Upon emergence from Chapter 11, the loan will be converted to equity in the reorganized US Airways.
Continental Airlines yesterday announced that it reached tentative agreements on new contracts with its last unsigned work groups, its pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics and dispatchers. Terms of the deals were not released but the carrier has said it needs $500 million in savings, more than $300 million of which has to come from those groups. The agreements are subject to union leadership approvals and ratification by union membership, with votes expected by the end of March.
Valuair, a Singapore-based low-cost carrier, is planning to launch flights to Australia's east coast cities by December. The airline already operates A320s from Singapore to Perth and the success of that operation is prompting expansion plans. Insiders suggest Valuair will lease A330s or A340s to launch the flights. It operates to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Jakarta and plans to start flights to Chengdu and Xiamen in China, Japan and Korea.
US Federal Court judge gave the go-ahead for United Airlines employees to move forward with a class-action lawsuit against the carrier's employee stock ownership plan and its trustees. The suit alleges that those charged with protecting the interests of the employee-owners failed in their duties, costing them "billions of dollars." It claims that the UAL ESOP committee and the plan trustee, State Street Bank, were aware that UAL's stock was unstable and State Street Bank even had placed it on a watch list owing to its volatility.
ATA Airlines will increase its operations to Hawaii significantly in April and June. From Lihue, the carrier will launch three new weekly flights to Los Angeles June 12 and one weekly flight to San Francisco June 11, and from Kona it will commence two weekly flights to Los Angeles on June 12. It also will increase nonstop flights from both Honolulu and Maui to Phoenix from two to six weekly on April 3 and to daily on June 7. In addition, it will begin daily nonstop service from Las Vegas to Honolulu April 3.
Orbitz Thursday said it filed a lawsuit against G2 SwitchWorks Corp. and five of the company's officers and employees. All five formerly worked at Orbitz, according to the lawsuit, which alleges that they "breached their employment agreements with Orbitz," including having "improperly taken and used Orbitz's confidential information and trade secrets." In a statement, Orbitz claimed that one current G2 employee "has already admitted, in writing, that he was 'in possession of and used sensitive documents.'"
Air Canada, as expected, will shift mainline flights to six Canadian cities in May and to three more cities in October to Regional affiliate Air Canada Jazz under a domestic schedule realignment. The moves could affect up to 330 jobs at AC, a spokesperson said, but the workers will be offered several employment options. Beginning May 3, AC Jazz will be the exclusive provider of AC service to Charlottetown, Fredericton, St. John, Moncton, Quebec City and Thunder Bay. It will take over flights to Regina, Saskatoon and Whitehorse on Oct. 1.
SkyEurope said that a disagreement with Warsaw Airport will cause it to divert new aircraft originally intended to be based there to Krakow instead. The Slovakian low-cost carrier is adding four aircraft to its fleet this summer, which will enable it to double its capacity at Krakow, increase frequencies on existing routes and open new routes to Barcelona and Manchester. SkyEurope officials claimed that Warsaw cannot guarantee overnight parking for aircraft and intends to raise passenger charges by 23% to pay for a new terminal.
Inflight breakup of a China Airlines 747-200 on May 25, 2002, with the loss of all 225 persons onboard was "highly likely" the result of "the structural failure in the aft lower lobe section of the fuselage," Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council determined in a report on the accident released Friday. ASC said it found a 15.1-in. fatigue crack in the area, which in turn probably had its origins in an improper repair following a 1980 tail strike incident in Hong Kong.
