United Airlines passenger who caused a panic that sent two USAF F-16s scrambling to intercept UA Flight 663 and escort it to Denver International was a Qatari diplomat traveling to Denver on "official embassy business. . .and was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity," according to a statement from Qatar Ambassador to the US Ali Bin Fahad Al-Hajri posted on the embassy's website.
ARC reported that the recovery in US air travel sales that began last November accelerated in March as ticket sales through participating travel agencies surged 29.2% compared to March 2009 to $7.60 billion while credit card sales soared 30.5% to $6.83 billion, the highest figure for March since 2001.
British Airways and Iberia formally signed a definitive merger agreement yesterday, creating a third mega-airline grouping in Europe if all the necessary approvals are granted.
Lufthansa Technik gave its A380 maintenance facility in Frankfurt a trial run Wednesday and Thursday with a test aircraft flown in from Toulouse. "After seven years of preparation to maintain the A380 in the future, this is a very important day for us," LHT Director-New Aircraft Readiness and Aircraft Maintenance Dean Raineri told ATWOnline at the FRA hangar. "Having the A380 here in Frankfurt is the last opportunity to re-check all our devices before scheduled operations start."
WestJet flew 1.37 billion RPMs in March, up 10% year-over-year, on a 7.4% lift in capacity to 1.63 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 1.9 points to 83.8% Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz flew a combined 4.23 billion RPMs in March, up 9.6% year-over-year, on a 7.7% lift in capacity to 5.16 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 1.4 points to 82.1%. Ryanair transported 5.3 million passengers in March, a 13% increase year-over-year. Load factor rose 2 points to 79%.
Jeppesen yesterday unveiled FliteDeck Pro, an electronic flight bag application integrated with its moving map applications including airport moving map. It also includes data distribution management and features "clear guidance on how to handle failure conditions," "easily managed inflight chart revisions," the ability to incorporate "data from wireless or portable memory stick technology," "enhanced touchscreen highlighting" and the "ability to easily record air traffic control instruction and integrate performance tools from airframe manufacturers."
Aircell yesterday announced its Gogo Inflight Internet service will be available as a monthly subscription for $34.95, initially purchasable through inflight portals on AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Virgin America. The subscription, which automatically renews each month, will be redeemable on all equipped airlines. More than 800 aircraft currently are equipped with the Gogo service, Aircell said. It will continue to offer single-flight passes that start at $4.95.
Turkish government is considering selling part of its 49.1% holding in Turkish Airlines, although neither the size of the stake to be offloaded nor the timing have been determined. Reuters quoted Transport Minister Binali Yildirim as saying, "We don't think it is right to leave such a strategic company completely to private ownership. We would prefer to keep some public stake."
American Airlines yesterday became the first US airline to "test next-generation technology and procedures" on a transatlantic flight aboard a 767-300 from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Miami using several fuel conservation measures including single-engine taxi on departure and arrival, continuous climb and descent, a tailored arrival and "several key elements" of its existing fuel conservation program Fuel Smart.
Regional Airline Assn. last week approved establishment of the RAA Safety Council, comprising safety representatives from RAA's 32 member airlines. Dave Faddis of SkyWest Airlines and Ric Wilson of American Eagle were elected chair and vice chair respectively. RAA said the council will meet quarterly to share industry best practices.
Travelport, which operates the Galileo and Worldspan GDSs, and IBM announced a "multiyear, multimillion-dollar agreement" under which IBM will provide Travelport with "significant upgrades to its existing systems architecture and software infrastructure." Under the agreement, Travelport will upgrade its core operating system software to the IBM z/Transaction Processing Facility. Sabre Travel Network signed a three-year global distribution agreement with British Airways, providing global access to the airline's full content and inventory via the Sabre GDS.
AirTran Airways yesterday opened pilot and flight attendant bases at Milwaukee for more than 100 737 crewmembers. "Opening these crew bases is the next natural step of our expansion in Milwaukee," Chairman, President and CEO Bob Fornaro said. AirTran began operations at MKE in 2002. Yesterday it launched twice-daily MKE-Dallas/Fort Worth service, saying it is "the only carrier to operate full-sized, Boeing jets on the route." A spokesperson told ATWOnline it is operating the service with 717s.
European Regions Airline Assn. said its members recorded a 4.2% decrease in passengers carried for 2009. ASKs remained stable compared to 2008 and RPKs rose a slight 0.5%, inching load factor up 0.3 point to 64.8%. "The economic recession has been worse than the combined effects of the Gulf War and 9/11, making 2009 the most challenging year on record," the organization stated. "Nevertheless, ERA has continued throughout to fulfill its role in providing essential air services for Europe's regions.
Lufthansa pilots renewed their threat to strike for four days starting April 13 unless they can agree with the German flag carrier on terms for arbitration. The Vereinigung Cockpit union denied several German media reports that it had dropped its strike call as demanded by the airline. A one-day pilots strike in February cost LH around €48 million ($64.7 million) as it was forced to cancel 2,000 flights.
Continental Airlines and US Airways implemented passenger deplaning procedures for lengthy tarmac delays in preparation for the US Dept. of Transportation's new rule taking effect April 29 that will require airlines to let passengers disembark when delays reach 3 hr. or face hefty fines.
Two of the airline industry's ancillary revenue pioneers are attempting to see how far the fee-for-service concept can be pushed, with Spirit Airlines announcing that it will charge passengers up to $45 for carryon bags and Ryanair revealing that it is continuing to pursue its pay-per-use toilet idea.
AerCap Holdings signed a five-year, $120 million corporate debt facility agreement with UBS as lead arranger. The facility will be used for "general corporate purposes," it said.
Republic Airways Holdings will rebrand Frontier Airlines and Midwest Airlines, both of which it acquired last year, under a single name and plans to announce the new moniker (likely either Frontier or Midwest, though there is some speculation that a combined name or new brand could be revealed) in dual ceremonies in Denver and Milwaukee on April 13, The Indianapolis Star reported. The rebranded airline will be managed out of Republic's Indianapolis headquarters.
Pinnacle Airlines and United Steelworkers AFL-CIO reached a tentative agreement to amend the collective bargaining accord covering 930 ground operations employees at Memphis and other locations. Ground operation employees now must ratify the agreement, it said.
AirTran Airways flew 1.74 billion RPMs in March, a 9.6% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity grew 5.5% to 2.07 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 3.1 points to 83.8%. AirTran said the load factor and RPMs represent new all-time company records for both the month of March and the first quarter. Allegiant Air flew 571.2 million RPMs in March, up 15.4% year-over-year, against a 14.4% lift in capacity to 636.7 million ASMs. Load factor rose 0.8 point to 89.7%.
Southwest Airlines Pilots Assn. said the US Dept. of Transportation should not approve the Delta Air Lines/US Airways slot-swap deal. Under an arrangement announced last month intended to alleviate DOT concerns, DL would gain a net 110 slot pairs at LGA and US a net 37 at DCA
FedEx moved to take another step in the effort to automate air cargo, yesterday introducing Electronic Trade Documents, which will allow shippers to upload international shipping documentation electronically. IATA has been pushing the air cargo industry to embrace "e-freight," arguing that paper accompanying airfreight adds more than $1 billion in costs annually and creates mistakes, lost documents and related confusion that cause cargo to get held in customs facilities ( ATW, June 2008).
Chinese government cut the domestic fuel price by CNY10 ($1.46) per ton to CNY5,200. It is the second adjustment this year following a CNY20 per ton increase on Jan. 1. Beijing makes a decision on the fuel price each quarter. Fuel currently accounts for 40%-50% of Chinese carriers' total operating expenses. China Southern Airlines is expected to benefit most from the new cut as it operates the largest number of domestic routes, comprising 80% of its total. CZ will save about CNY25.5 million in annual fuel costs.
