Mexico's Interjet earlier this month operated an Airbus A320 partially powered by biofuel on a test flight between Mexico City and Tuxtla Gutierrez. According to Airbus, which provided support for the flight along with CFM International, one of the A320's two CFM56 engines was powered by a fuel blend comprised 30% of a Jatropha-based biofuel sourced from plants harvested in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Honeywell's UOP processed the biofuel.
A J Walter Aviation said it received a five-year contract from Turkish Technic to provide “full power-by-the-hour and leased stock services for Turkish Airlines’ Boeing 777-300ER fleet.” AJW said it will team with its partner BA Engineering to execute the contract, which covers an initial 12 aircraft in-service and on-order.
IATA reported that international premium traffic in February increased 7.7% year-over-year, down from 8.1% growth in January. "There are signs that rising fuel prices are starting to dampen air travel," IATA in its latest Premium Traffic Monitor released last week. February economy travel slowed to 3.3% year-over-year growth, down from 4.9% in January. IATA said there was a “sharper slowdown in the more price-sensitive economy seat segment than for premium travel.”
An Alitalia Airbus A321 en route from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Rome Fiumicino landed safely at FCO on Sunday night after cabin crew and passengers overpowered a passenger who attacked a flight attendant, Italy's ANSA news agency reported. According to ANSA and other news reports, the alleged attacker threatened a female flight attendant with some kind of knife and asked that the flight be diverted to Tripoli. He was reportedly subdued quickly. The flight attendant was treated for what were described as "minor abrasions" after landing.
Boeing last week said 787 training campuses in Seattle, Singapore, Tokyo, London and Shanghai have received approval from US FAA, UK CAA, EASA, CAAC and the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau.
US airlines operating scheduled passenger flights under FAR Part 121 experienced 26 accidents in 2010 but no fatal accidents, according to preliminary statistics released by the US National Transportation Safety Board last week.
The United Arab Emirates represented by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has signed an air services Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and initialed an Air Services Agreement (ASA) with the Government of Vietnam.
US airlines' January scheduled domestic and international traffic rose 3.5% year-over-year to 60.7 billion RPMs on a 2.3% rise in capacity to 79.3 billion ASMs, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Load factor was 76.5%, up 0.8 point from January 2010. Total passengers carried numbered 53.7 million, up 2.2% year-over-year but still 6.9% below the 57.7 million carried in January 2008.
Lufthansa Systems said it will launch a solution transforming iPads into full-fledged Electronic Flight Bags "centered around an advanced version" of its Lido/iRouteManual. The iPad EFB is slated to become available in the current quarter. The suite of applications will consist of three modules: The Lido/iRouteManual and a document viewer—both in the form of iPad apps—and a document management system in the form of a Web service. "Further modules are already under consideration," LHS said.
Sabre Holdings Corp. on Friday told ATW it intends to “aggressively defend” against US Airways’ antitrust claim, calling it “baseless and without merit.”
AirBaltic beginning April 26 will offer a vacant adjacent seat to its business class passengers flying Bombardier Q400 NextGen and Fokker 50 aircraft. It says it plans to make "further improvements" to its business class travelers by offering the service at "more attractive prices" to those who book early.
AirTran Airways announced its flights attendants, represented by the Assn. of Flight Attendants, ratified a new collective bargaining agreement ( ATW Daily News, March 24), which will take effect May 1. In a statement, AirTran said that 96% of its 2,200 voting members approved the agreement, which provides for “increased compensation, improved benefits and preservation of key service and reliability functions.”
Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority is investigating Tiger Airways Australia over “a variety of issues,” according to insiders at the safety regulator. Details of CASA’s investigation emerged Thursday as the airline, owing to an unrelated problem, was forced to cancel several flights, disrupting Easter travel plans for hundreds of passengers. Perth services continue as scheduled.
Boeing's troubled 787 program received a setback Wednesday when the federal National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the company for "unlawfully transferring work to a non-union facility." The charge, brought by NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon, relates to Boeing's decision in 2009 to open a second Dreamliner assembly line in South Carolina to assemble three aircraft per month, complementing the facility in Everett that will eventually assemble seven per month.
US Airways filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Sabre Holdings Corp. on Thursday to halt what it calls “anticompetitive and anti-consumer” practices by the GDS, as well as recover monetary damages. The action comes a week after American Airlines filed a lawsuit against Travelport--parent of Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan--and Orbitz alleging similar antitrust violations ( ATW Daily News, April 14).
Lufthansa Systems was selected by Malaysian regional airline Firefly to supply its Lido/FMS solution under a three-year contract. The carrier operates a fleet of ATR 72-500 and Boeing 737 aircraft. Air-Transport IT Services said it will provide its EASE shared-use infrastructure platform solution to the Sioux Falls Regional Airport. The solution allows any equipped ticket counter or gate podium to be utilized by any airline operating on the system.
The New Zealand Commerce Commission has withdrawn its claim against Air New Zealand cargo employees five years after it launched its investigation into cargo practices at the airline ( ATW Daily News,Dec. 16, 2008).
A number of unions representing workers for oneworld airlines on Wednesday announced the establishment of the "oneworld labor council," described by labor leaders at a Washington press conference as a loose confederation of work groups focused on combating threats to job security they say are posed by cross-border airline cooperation.
Chinese carriers posted collective first-quarter net income of CNY5.73 billion ($879 million), up 31.8% over the year-ago period, according to CAAC, which credited the continuing growth of domestic market demand.
The US Dept. of Transportation on Wednesday finalized new regulations aimed at further strengthening "passenger protections," including extending the tarmac delay rule in place for US domestic airlines to foreign carriers' US operations and increasing required compensation to involuntarily bumped passengers.
AFI KLM E&M was selected by Alitalia for GE90 maintenance and support. The contract includes support services with access to the spare engines pool and engine shop visits on a time and material basis. Separately, the company announced that Sunwing Airlines renewed its Boeing 737-800 component support contract for a further six years. In addition to full component repair and overhaul, it will provide access to the spares pool and deployment of a main base kit of spare parts in Toronto.
Longtime airline equities analyst Jamie Baker of JP Morgan has called on US legacy carriers to develop a new pricing model better able to cope with the roller coaster fluctuations in the price of oil. In a brief investment report on Tuesday, he wrote, "We can think of few consumer products that can be purchased up to 330 days prior to consumption, where the manufacturer or service provider has virtually no knowledge or control over their largest input cost [fuel]."
The EU is banning all air carriers certified in Mozambique, including LAM Mozambique Airlines, from operating to its airports—as well as two Air Madagascar Boeing 767s—owing to “significant safety deficiencies,” the European Commission announced Tuesday in an update of its blacklist.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce slammed the unions representing the airline's engineers, pilots and baggage handlers, telling ATW that they are conducting a "kamikaze" industrial campaign that will "kill jobs."
