Reacting to strong growth and forecasts for the Asia-Pacific region, Bombardier Aerospace has established a commercial aircraft regional sales and marketing office in Singapore.
TAP M&E Brazil has completed the first C1/C2 checks performed on an Air Transat Airbus A330-200, and has delivered the aircraft to the carrier. Component Control has been approved by the Aeronautical Repair Station Assn. (ARSA) as the exclusive preferred provider of MRO and logistics software solutions.
Air traffic in the Asia/Pacific region will grow by almost 7% per year over the next 20 years and the low-cost carrier market share will triple, Boeing said Monday.
TAP M&E Brazil received a 777 landing gear overhaul service contract from Boeing. The contract includes inspection, repair and overhaul of the landing gear axles of the 777 through a service bulletin released by Boeing. AeroTurbine was awarded a renewal agreement for the support of CF6-80C2 engine material with Evergreen Aviation Technologies.
Turkish Technic, a wholly owned subsidiary of Turkish Airlines (TK), will open the first phase of its new MRO center at Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (SAW) in early summer.
TAP M&E has deployed mobile RFID technology, "MEERA," into its daily engine overhaul operations. The service is provided in collaboration with TAP group company Megasis, as well as Airbus, Accenture and OAT systems. ST Aerospace ended the 2011 fourth quarter with new contracts valued at approximately $350 million. It redelivered 101 aircraft for airframe related maintenance and modification work, and serviced 72 engines and 13,382 components for both commercial and military customers.
Russian airlines carried 64.1 million passengers in 2011, a 12.6% increase over 2010. International passengers rose 13.2% to 31.4 million; domestic passengers increased 12% to 32.7 million.
Etihad Airways (EY) launched its first aircraft with inflight connectivity—three Airbus A330-300s and one A320—in January. One additional connectivity-enabled A320 will be delivered in March ( ATW Daily News, Nov. 10). The service provider for these five aircraft is OnAir. The remainder of the widebody fleet will fall under its Panasonic agreement, according to an EY spokesperson.
Chinese carriers are supporting Beijing’s decision to prohibit its airlines from participating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) while still reserving the right to file a lawsuit ( ATW Daily News, Feb. 7).
IATA DG and CEO Tony Tyler criticized European governments and the European Commission (EC) for instituting aviation policies focused on "restricting and taxing" rather than boosting the competitiveness of the continent's airlines.
Air BP Lubricants was selected by Etihad Airways to provide online training to 125 of its maintenance and engineering personnel. The program covers "key aspects" of the use of turbine oils in the aviation industry including "the definition of a lubricant, to turbine oil composition, the different applications for BP turbine oils, a market-wide survey establishing which lubricants are in direct competition, detailed turbine oil specifications, servicing and monitoring, and storage and handling."
RAK Airways has partnered with foreign exchange and remittance house Al Ghurair Exchange to offer customers the option of paying for tickets booked through its call center at any Al Ghurair Exchange branch across the UAE.
Payment network UATP has achieved record transactions for calendar year 2011 and recorded a 23% year-over-year increase in total charge volume. The company—which counts among its airline customers Air New Zealand, American Airlines, Austrian Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Japan Airlines, Qantas Airways, United Airlines and US Airways—said it processed approximately $13 billion in 2011. It signed new contract with five airlines: Aeromexico, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Shandong Airlines and Turkish Airlines.
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported that US airlines employed 389,361 workers in November, up 2.6% from November 2010. BTS said this is the 12 th consecutive increase in full-time equivalent employee levels for the scheduled passenger carriers from the same month of the previous year.
News from Travel Technology Update: The debate over the US Transportation Department’s new raft of regulations governing how airlines sell their tickets took a turn for the zany when Spirit Airlines imposed an “unintended consequences” fee of $2 per one-way trip per passenger.
The long battle over reauthorizing FAA—which has been operating for more than four years via a series of 23 temporary funding extensions—finally came to an end Monday with the US Senate's passage of a bill allocating $63.3 billion to the agency through Sept. 30, 2015.
Amadeus acquires Airconomy Sabre Travel Network launches ‘virtual payment’ solution Travelport makes moves in Middle East, Africa EAN launches hotel cross-sell options for airlines Air France-KLM to extend credit card surcharge to U.K. OpenTravel addresses new ADA rules on hotel bookings World news briefing
The debate over the U.S. Transportation Department’s new raft of regulations governing how airlines sell their tickets took a turn for the zany when Spirit Airlines imposed an “unintended consequences” fee of $2 per one-way trip per passenger. Spirit said the fee was necessary to cover the costs that airlines will incur by adhering to a new rule requiring airlines to hold fares for 24 hours after booking without penalty.
Lufthansa Systems announced that Malaysia Airlines has begun using its electronic flight bag solution, Lido/Flight Bag. Hahn Air has implemented Interline E-Ticketing with three new partner airlines: Sol del Paraguay Lineas Aereas, Juneyao Airlines and SOL Lineas Aéreas.
Inflight Productions USA (IFP) and Atlas Air Entertainment Concepts (AAEC) have merged, and AAEC has been absorbed into the Los Angeles branch of IFP. The two companies are owned by Advanced Inflight Alliance (AIA). “This is one of several measures we are carrying-out to accelerate our reorganization strategy in order to present broader options to the airline community,” IFP and AIA Content Service Group president Roberts Hunter said.
China has prohibited its airlines from participating in the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), escalating the row over the new and controversial carbon emissions tax.
S7 Group, which includes Sibir (S7) and Globus (GH), carried 6.6 million passengers in 2011, up 11.4% on the year-ago period. The number of flights increased 11.5% to 61,464. The group did not disclose the exact numbers for each carrier but the Russian Ministry of Transport stated on its website that S7 in 2011 carried 5.13 million passengers, up 6.1% year-over-year. GH carried 1.47 million passengers, up 34.7% from 2010.
Unions for pilots, cabin attendants and ground workers in France have called for strike action from Feb. 6 through Feb. 9 to protest a bill going before the French senate that would obligate each employee planning to strike to give 48 hrs.’ notice. The new bill was voted by the national assembly Jan. 25 and aims to secure a minimum service by the air transport sector during strikes.
Iberia (IB) is facing a further five days of industrial action this month by ground staff, cabin crew and pilots to protest the possible impact on their jobs from plans to create low-cost carrier Iberia Express ( ATW Daily News, Jan. 25).
