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."
Private equity firms sell 10% of Amadeus Sabre says American is ‘threatening’ agents with new fee Expedia Inc. to spin off TripAdvisor Group European Commission to revisit passenger rights rule GetThere launches ground transportation network In Focus: Have a question about a vacation rental? Just Wise Ask World news briefing
Sabre Travel Network sent an e-mail letter to subscribers warning that American Airlines had "threatened" some travel agents with a new fee of $5.50 per segment booked through a GDS. Sabre said American made the threat to the agencies "through a new 'Content Commitment Policy,' which would essentially force them to either accept AA's one-off, fragmented approach" -- its direct-connect strategy -- "or face the consequences: less than full content through the GDS and a new fee.”
News from Travel Technology Update: Sabre Travel Network sent an email letter to subscribers warning that American Airlines had "threatened" some travel agents with a new fee of $5.50 per segment booked through a GDS.
KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH was mandated by BOC Aviation as arranger and sole lender for a seven-year commercial debt financing of three new Aeroflot-operated Airbus A320-200s. The transaction closed in March and aircraft deliveries are scheduled for April and May this year. ILFC reached a five-year lease agreement with Aerolíneas Argentinas for 10 Boeing 737-700NG aircraft. Deliveries are expected to begin this month and be completed by October 2012.
United Continental Holdings announced that for every customer who uses a mobile boarding document on Earth Day, April 22, the company will donate $1 to support the "Protect an Acre" program in partnership with Conservation International. “For customers who use the Continental Mobile App for Android or iPhone, the company will double the contribution to $2,” it said.
ARC reported that ticket sales through participating travel agencies climbed 9.8% in March compared to March 2010 to $8.34 billion despite a 1.2% decline in the number of transactions. Credit card sales rose 8.9% to $7.44 billion on a 2.8% dip in transactions while cash sales jumped 17.7% to $909 million on a 10.5 hike in transactions. Total fares excluding taxes and fees rose 9.3% to $7.01 billion. Domestic fares climbed 8.4% to $3.58 billion on a 2.3% decline in transactions and international fares rose 10.3% to $3.4 billion on a 1.5% rise in transactions.
Norwegian Air Shuttle said its free inflight Wi-Fi is a “hit” with its passengers and that on some routes—such as Oslo Gardermoen-Geneva—between 40% and 50% of all passengers logged on.
US FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Sunday announced changes to air traffic controller scheduling practices giving controllers “more time for rest between shifts,” as yet another air traffic controller was suspended Saturday for falling asleep while on duty during the midnight shift at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center.
Fokker Aircraft Services reached a contract with Germania Airlines to provide nose-to-tail maintenance and C checks for its five Boeing 737s. After service work, three of the aircraft will retire to FAS’s Boeing storage program, while the remaining two will return to operation until October, after which they will also join the FAS Boeing storage program.
