American Airlines does not intend to charge travel agents for content as part of its direct-connect strategy, Cory Garner, director of merchandising strategy, said. Garner said he was responding to "misinformation" about American's distribution plans that are being circulated in the industry.
American Airlines said it will delay the launch of Chicago O'Hare-Beijing service set to commence May 4 and Beijing-Chicago O'Hare service starting the following day "because it has not received commercially viable landing and takeoff slots for Beijing Capital International Airport from Chinese aviation authorities."
reached an open skies agreement last week. Israel becomes the 97th US open skies partner, DOT said. Agreement provides for unlimited codesharing opportunities while the previous pact contained restrictions on codesharing and limits on cities that could be served. It will take effect following a formal signing, DOT said.
will hold a public meeting May 4 on its investigation into US Airways Flight 1549, which safely ditched in the Hudson Riveron Jan. 15, 2009, after both engines failed when the aircraft ran into a gaggle of geese after departing New York LaGuardia.
and Finnair Technical Services signed a contract for MD-11 component support. Earlier this month, AJW signed a contract to provide MD-11 power-by-the-hr. support to Belgium-based Avient.
Sabre Airline Solutions renewed its contract with Aeroflot to continue to provide its SabreSonic customer sales and service reservations system, including new website capabilities. Terms were not disclosed.
Nav Canadasaid it will issue C$250 million three-year floating rate General Obligation Notes. The notes bear interest at the three month Bankers’ Acceptance rate plus 40 basis points. Closing is scheduled for April 29. Proceeds will be used to refinance C$250 million Series MTN2007-1 floating rate General Obligation Notes that will mature on May 3.
UK Office of Fair Trading announced last week that Virgin Atlantic Airways and Cathay Pacific Airways are being investigated for possible price-fixing on the London-Hong Kong route, adding that CX brought the allegations to its attention.
US Air Transport Assn. in comments filed at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Friday supported a proposed CFTC rule intended to reduce the volatility of energy prices caused by excessive market speculation. The proposed rule would establish speculative position limits and increase market transparency and reporting requirements, ATA said (ATWOnline, Jan. 18).
United Airlines, in an 8-K document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, announced that owing to a change in accounting for unused frequent-flyer miles it would recognize an additional $64 million of incremental passenger revenue for the recently ended first quarter of 2010.
Boeing's 787 has begun a series of extreme-weather tests at Valparaiso, Fla. The manufacturer said a special hangar at McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Elgin AFB allows the airplane to experience temperatures as high as 115 deg. F (46 deg. C) and as low as minus 45 deg. F.
Transaero Airlines said passenger traffic during the first quarter rose 72.7% year-over-year to 5.56 billion RPKs with both domestic and international operations experiencing growth.
Aeroflot this year will become the first Russian carrier to offer inflight Internet and mobile phone services, both of which it said will be available on four aircraft by year end. "Mobile telephony onboard an aircraft is a breakthrough for Russian aviation," CEO Vitaly Savelyev said. JSC MegaFon, a Russian mobile services operator, will install mobile communication "base stations" onboard four aircraft in 2010, with the first to be deployed on an A320 this summer followed by an A330 serving transcontinental flights and two additional A320s.
Finnair, one of the airlines most affected by the volcanic ash crisis, said its flight schedule likely will return to normal over the weekend. On Thursday it operated only around 30% of its European flights but was able to resume almost all of its long-haul flights. Seperately, Finnair Technical Services signed a maintenance agreement with Swedish charter airline TUIfly Nordic. The long-term agreement includes C checks for 757-200s and daily line maintenance in Helsinki for 757-200s and a 767-300. TUIfly Nordic operate two 757-200s and one 767-300.
US Dept. of Transportation yesterday denied requests from five US airlines for temporary exemptions from the new tarmac delay rule that takes effect April 29. JetBlue Airways, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines sought exemptions for their operations at New York JFK until the main runway, which is undergoing rehabilitation, reopens later this year. This was followed by requests from Continental Airlines for exemptions at New York LaGuardia and Newark and by US Airways at Philadelphia ( ATWOnline, April 7) .
European Volcanological Society President Henry Gaudru said yesterday that European authorities had no choice but to close much of their airspace for multiple days when volcanic ash drifted over the continent from Iceland
