IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani, who yesterday announced that he will step down at the organization's next AGM in Cairo in June 2011, outlined his "Vision 2050--Shaping Aviation's Future," a program that aims "to build an industry that is even more successful at serving its customers, so successful that our customers will be our biggest advocates."
IATA yesterday forecast that the international airline industry will post a profit of $2.5 billion in 2010, a significant upgrade compared with its March prediction of a $2.8 billion loss.
Airspace closures owing to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland caused world airport passenger traffic to decline 1.2% in April compared to April 2009 to 268.9 million arriving and departing passengers, according to Airport Council International's PaxFlash traffic report. It was the first global decline since July 2009, according to the association. ACI noted that "at some points, over 300 European airports were closed, affecting nearly 10 million passengers" worldwide.
The US Transportation Security Administration's initiative to observe passengers' behavior at airport checkpoints, on which it spends more than $200 million annually, is coming under scrutiny following a somewhat critical government report issued last month that questions whether the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques program is worthwhile.
Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Mark Dunkerley signed a new three-year contract to extend his time leading the carrier. He joined HA in 2003. JetBlue Airways named Guy Hocker to the new position of VP-strategic initiatives. Hocker joined the airline from RTS Partners, a strategic management consultancy he founded in 1999.
United Airlines planned to operate two "green corridor" transatlantic demonstration flights Saturday "using state-of-the-art flight planning to reduce environmental impact and save fuel."
US FAA awarded Boeing a $1.7 billion research and development support contract associated with the agency's planned transition from ground-based radar to a satellite-based NextGen ATC system. The contract has a five-year base with additional options for another five years. Under terms of the deal, Boeing will "perform work that will demonstrate NextGen procedures in real time on a large scale within the current air traffic system," the company said in a statement.
IATA said there was "significant improvement in all regions at the operating level" for the international airline industry in the first quarter and beyond, with one notable exception: Europe.
ALTA yesterday announced that TAM will operate Latin America's first biofuel demonstration flight in the second half of 2010 using an A320 partially powered by fuel derived from jatropha. The flight will be conducted in conjunction with Airbus and CFM International. The CFM56-5B-powered aircraft will utilize biofuel derived from jatropha oil refined by Honeywell's UOP. According to ALTA, TAM has acquired jatropha seeds from throughout Brazil via the Brazilian Assn. of Jatropha Producers and will pass along the seeds to UOP.
The US Dept. of Transportation issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking yesterday to extend the requirements of the so-called tarmac delay rule to foreign airlines' US operations and to require all carriers to adopt delay contingency plans at all US airports they serve.
A team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology has designed two green aircraft concepts that are estimated to use 70% less fuel than current aircraft while also reducing noise and emissions of nitrogen oxides.
China's government announced that domestic per-ton fuel prices will be lowered by CNY220 ($32.30) with effect from yesterday, a move that is expected to reduce operating expenses significantly for Chinese airlines.
US Dept. of Transportation Friday fined AirTran Airways and Delta Air Lines $20,000 and $40,000 respectively for "violating rules that require airline price advertisements to disclose the full price consumers must pay for air transportation." DOT alleged that AirTran in February advertised fares "starting as low as $39" one-way as part of its 72-hr. "Leave the Blizzard Behind Sale," but that further investigation by the department's Aviation Enforcement Office revealed that the lowest available fare was $44.
US FAA ADS-B Out final rule announced May 28 contains a summary of costs ranging from $2.74 billion to $5.47 billion, assuming a 3% discount rate (net present value) and a cost of $2.15 billion-$4.11 billion discounted at 7% NPV.
The US National Transportation Safety Board issued two urgent safety recommendations to FAA regarding CF6-45/-50 series engines prompted by four recent incidents in which aircraft experienced uncontained engine failures owing to failed turbine disks. None of the incidents led to accidents, but NTSB is concerned that future similar events "present a direct hazard to an airplane and its passengers because high-energy disk fragments can penetrate the cabin or fuel tanks, damage flight control surfaces, or sever flammable fluid or hydraulic lines."
The proposed merger of Continental and United may create a potent global competitor, but only if Continental’s winning ways can be integrated into the successor.
Airlines protested the closure of airspace during the volcanic eruption, but lack of consensus on safe levels of ash left regulators feeling they had little choice.
