Air New Zealand CFO and Group GM Rob McDonald says the carrier aims to be recognized as "the world's most environmentally sustainable airline." It has 40 environmental projects underway at the moment.
Some exciting new feedstocks for biofuels are on the horizon while development of existing sources is moving ahead, according to Boeing MD-Environmental Strategy Billy Glover. A new--to-aviation potential feedstock is tallow, or animal fat. Tallow (triglyceride) has been used for years as a raw material for biodiesel and as a metal lubricant. A significant amount of tallow goes to waste and it is "a significant feedstock. We are talking about large quantities," Glover said. Trials on conversion to jet fuel have been completed, although no test flights have been conducted.
Governments around the world need to a take a leading role in shaping and accelerating biofuel development, according to Boeing MD-Environmental Strategy Billy Glover. Speaking with ATW's Eco-Aviation Today in Sydney this week, he said that while he does not favor mandates, government incentives and loan guarantees for feedstock production and development are "essential" if the airline industry is to achieve the goal of 25% of fuel from biofuels by 2030.
Patni Computer Systems won a contract from the US Air Transport Assn. to develop, implement and maintain the "next generation" of the ATA Aviation Marketplace over the next year, ready for hosting by "early 2011." It is the first upgrade for the aviation parts sourcing resource since its redevelopment nearly 10 years ago.
Lufthansa introduced a mobile-friendly version of its MySkyStatus social networking tool, which automatically sends flight status updates to users' Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as through personalized e-mails. IBS Software Services said Japanese regional carrier Amakusa Airlines implemented its passenger reservation system iFly Res for integrated reservations, ticketing and departure control aplications.
Etihad Airways said passenger numbers for the first quarter increased 11% year-over-year with a 5% rise in premium traffic. Load factor was 75%, up 2 points. RPKs climbed 25.4% to an undisclosed figure, growth it attributed to the "continued expansion" of its route network, addition of 10 aircraft to its fleet and "aggressive sales and marketing" of its services. ASKs lifted 22%. "Our 2010 performance is already showing positive results, with all major indicators showing strong improvements on January and February of last year," CEO James Hogan said.
Finnair signed a five-year deal with Champ Cargosystems to transition to automated cargo operations. It will implement the Cargospot Airline, Handling and Revenue modules to interface with global messaging solution GCCS as well as install Web booking, distribution and tracking solution CargoWEB as an ASP service.
US National Mediation Board told American Airlines to resume negotiations with its ground workers and flight attendants while NMB considers requests from the unions representing the labor groups to be released from federally mediated talks to begin 30-day countdowns toward possible strikes
US Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) joined a growing chorus of lawmakers taking on Spirit Airlines, introducing legislation to prohibit air carriers operating in the US from charging fees for carryon baggage.
Amadeus IT Holding launched its IPO on the Spanish stock exchanges in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia yesterday following approval and registration of its prospectus by the Spanish Financial Securities Markets Regulator. It set an indicative per-share price range of between €9.20 ($12.50) and €12.20, giving it an enterprise value (equity plus debt) of between €7.3 billion and €8.4 billion.
Bmibaby appointed Julian Carr MD succeeding Crawford Rix. Carr joined the airline in May 2008 as commercial director, responsible for revenue management, network planning, marketing, PR, customer relations and e-commerce.
Air France KLM Group could gain between €230 million ($313 million) and €280 million in cash from the planned IPO of Amadeus, Les Echos reported. AF KLM declined to comment. Amadeus IT Holding last month announced it would float at least 25% of its share capital on the Spanish stock exchange in the first half of this year
American Airlines 767-300 carrying 145 passengers and crew made an emergency landing yesterday morning at Reykjavik Keflavik after five flight attendants "became aware of some fumes in the cabin," a spokesperson for AA told
Dutch court fined Milan resident Thomas Salme €2,000 ($2,700) for piloting commercial passenger jets in European countries "for more than a decade" without a license, the Associated Press reported. Salme was apprehended in the cockpit of a Corendon Airlines 737 shortly before it was to depart from Amsterdam Schiphol for Ankara carrying 101 passengers.
Baltia Air Lines signed a lease agreement for office space at St. Petersburg Pulkovo. "The signing of the lease agreement in addition to our recently signed fuel and cargo agreements in St. Petersburg were made in preparation for the start of scheduled service," the New York-based startup said. It commenced the FAA Air Carrier Certification process last February ( ATWOnline, Feb. 10, 2009).
Boeing announced yesterday that TUI Travel will be the launch customer for the manufacturer's 787 GoldCare lifecycle support program. It said it reached agreement with the leisure operator to support its fleet of 13 787s. TUI, which last year lowered its firm order for Dreamliners from 23, is expected to take delivery of its first 787 in early 2012. The 13 787s will be operated by Thomson Airways, Tuifly Nordic, Jetairfly and Arkefly. The GoldCare contract is for a period of 12 years from the delivery date of each aircraft.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it began court proceedings against Malaysia Airlines and its wholly owned cargo subsidiary, alleging they engaged in "price fixing of airfreight." MAS is the 13th carrier to be targeted by ACCC
Indian Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel yesterday told reporters on the sidelines of a New Delhi business conference that "the worst is over" for struggling Air India, which has seen average monthly losses of INR4 billion ($90 million) begin to come down by INR1 billion a month.
News from Travel Technology Update: Travelport signed a new multi-year, multimillion-dollar software agreement with IBM for significant upgrades to the existing systems architecture and software infrastructure of its technology platform. The new investment in IBM software will more than double the information it processes, Travelport said. The deal will upgrade Travelport's core system operating software to the IBM z/Transaction Processing Facility (z/TPF).
Raytheon will install passenger checkpoint screening equipment at airports nationwide under an $88 million task order issued under the TSA's Security Equipment Integration Services contract. The contract began March 24 and ends March 23, 2011.
Jordan Kuwait Bank and Royal Jordanian signed a marketing alliance agreement by which the two parties launched "Fly and Plus," a co-branded MasterCard credit card.
GuestLogix and Alpha Flight Services announced a partnership under which the Australian catering firm's customers will use the GuestLogix onboard retail platform OnTouch. The platform includes handheld point-of-sale devices. Alpha provides inflight catering at nine airports in Australia and serves 16 customer airlines.
American Airlines flew 10.58 billion system RPMs in March, a 2.5% rise from the year-ago month, while capacity dipped 0.7% to 12.95 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 2.6 points to 81.7%. American Eagle Airlines flew 664.4 million RPMs, up 3.3%, against a 3.4% rise in capacity to 924.4 million ASMs. Load factor matched the year-ago month at 71.9%.
Responding to Spirit Airlines' industry-first decision to impose a carryon bag fee, US Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he is considering introducing legislation to ban such charges and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called the fee "outrageous." Sprit has gotten considerable attention in the US media since last week announcing it would begin charging customers up to $45 for cabin luggage that goes into overhead bins ( ATWOnline, April 7).
