AirBaltic concluded one-year agreements with the Austrian and Swiss governments for provision of flights for government employees to/from more than 60 destinations. It signed similar deals with the Danish, Finnish and German governments this year.
APG Global Associates announced that eight additional carriers joined APG IET in November including Turkish Airlines and Philippine Airlines, bringing the number of airline partners to 54. President Jean-Louis Baroux said the company is targeting 100 carriers by the 2010 first quarter. APG GA introduced the APG IET program to airlines in cooperation with its partner Heli Air Monaco (YO/747), which functions as the validating and issuing carrier.
Delta Air Lines flew 13.57 billion system RPMs in November, a 7.1% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 8.4% to 17.06 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 1.1 points to 79.6%. American Airlines flew 9.49 billion system RPMs in November, down 0.5% year-over-year. Capacity fell 4.2% to 11.92 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 3 points to 79.6%. American Eagle flew 634.6 million RPMs, up 11.7%, against a 6.8% increase in capacity to 901.2 million ASMs. Load factor was up 3.1 points to 70.4%.
Gulf Air Director for Information Technology Jalal Al Qassab has been voted the 'Top CIO” (Chief Information Officer) by a group of global leading technology research organisations.
Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras, the year-old Campinas-based LCC, plans to increase passenger traffic 50% next year and "will continue to grow significantly faster than the overall market," CEO David Neeleman told Dow Jones last week. Azul currently operates 14 aircraft to 16 domestic destinations and plans to add seven planes and three new airports in 2010, he said, "but we could still expand much faster than that."
Air China Senior VP Fan Cheng was named Communist Party Secretary at Shenzhen Airlines last week, increasing speculation in China that CA will seek control of Shenzhen following the arrest of controlling shareholder Li Zeyuan ( ATWOnline, Dec. 2). Fan reportedly will oversee day-to-day operations at Shenzhen, in which CA currently holds 25%.
Dublin Airport Authority said Ireland's Commission for Aviation Regulation has determined that the average maximum passenger charge will increase to €9.97 ($15.04) in 2010-15, more than 33% higher than the current period, although the commission's report "contains many variables." DAA said charges "in real terms" have fallen 30% over the past 20 years and that the increase still compares favorably to European "peers" that charge an average of €12.50 per passenger.
ANA last week told ATWOnline that it is "definitely very interested in deepening our relationships with partner airlines" but would not comment on press reports that it plans to seek transpacific antitrust immunity with both United Airlines and Continental Airlines once an expanded air service agreement is signed by the US and Japan, which could happen as early as this week. "At this point, it's premature for us to talk publicly about plans, timetables, etc.," an ANA spokesperson said.
US FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said regulators, airports and airlines have "picked off all the low-hanging fruit there is to pick" to improve runway safety and now must focus on gathering "more detailed information" that can be analyzed to preemptively identify airfield risks.
Seabury Group completed its merger with Minneapolis-based Organizational Concepts International, a global advisory and investment management firm. Terms were not disclosed. Seabury made a minority investment in OCI in 2008. The firm will use the Seabury name and add Minneapolis to its global office locations, with former OCI President and CEO Marty Kuehne serving as CAO and MD-human capital. John Kuehne, who was executive VP and partner at OCI, will become CFO and MD.
Southern Air Holdings, parent of Connecticut-based ACMI freight carrier Southern Air, announced the appointment of DHL Express Asia/Pacific CEO Daniel McHugh as CEO effective Jan. 1. He succeeds Southern founder James Neff, who is retiring but will remain a board member. Southern operates 16 747 freighters and plans to introduce its first two 777-200LRFs in the 2010 first quarter. It will operate the aircraft for Thai Airways.
Aerowing patented what it described as a "new technology to enhance and improve the leak detection market." According to Nevada-based Aerowing, the portable HyTracker Leak Detector hydrogen tracer gas detector can detect fuel leakage down to "bacteria size."
Bombardier reported a $168 million profit in its fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 31, down 25.7% from the $226 million earned in the year-ago period, but enjoyed an increase in commercial aircraft deliveries and yesterday announced that AMR Corp.'s American Eagle firmed options for 22 CRJ700s.
Finnair is expected to cancel more flights today as ground staff represented by the Finnish Aviation Union continue to walk off the job at Helsinki Vantaa in protest of the outsourcing moves announced Monday ( ATWOnline, Dec. 1). Around 20 flights were cancelled yesterday. Talks between the carrier and the IAU were scheduled for today.
IATA Director-Global Safety Chris Glaeser said this week that through the first 11 months of 2009 there were 73 airline accidents worldwide in which significant aircraft damage was recorded, meaning the industry is on pace for a 38% improvement from the 109 accidents in 2008. "This is the best accident rate we've seen," he told the FAA International Runway Safety Summit in Washington. However, it should be noted that there have been multiple accidents this year with high fatalities, including the May 31 Air France A330-200 crash that killed all 228 aboard.
Shannon Aerospace will complete a D check on one Cyprus Airways A320 this month. Monarch Aircraft Engineering will support Edelweiss Air's Goa operation with line maintenance and technical handling for an A330.
Republic Airways Holdings promoted Director-Flight Operations Don Osmundson to VP-flight operations and Director-Human Resources Kathy Woolridge to VP-human resources and named Frontier Airlines VP-Planning and Strategy Daniel Shurz as VP-planning and strategy and Midwest Airlines VP-Planning and Revenue Management Greg Aretakis as VP-revenue production for Republic's branded airline operations.
Nigerian Eagle Airlines, formerly Virgin Nigeria, signed an MOU with Delta Air Lines "to explore areas of commercial cooperation that will expand travel options," the carriers announced yesterday. The agreement opens the door for loyalty program linkage and a codeshare on DL's New York JFK-Dakar-Abuja service. Nigerian Eagle also announced a "network-wide" codeshare and interline deal with Ethiopian Airlines.
Panasonic Avionics Corp. will provide Asiana Airlines with its eFX IFE system onboard two A321s. OZ already offers eFX on four 747-400s, seven 767-300s and two A330-300s.
News from Travel Technology Update: Since American Airlines told delegates to the Computerized Airline Sales and Marketing Association conference in October that it plans to move all indirect volume to direct connections, industry observers have wondered what such a world would look like and how it would change relationships among airlines, travel agencies, GDSs and customers. Jim Davidson, chief executive officer of Farelogix, shed some light on the issue during the recent PhoCusWright conference in Orlando. "It's not about eliminating the GDS channel," he said.
Allegiant Air flew 350.5 million RPMs in November, up 25.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 24.6% to 387.9 million ASMs and load factor increased 0.6 point to 90.4%.
Air Canada will begin charging economy passengers C$30/$30 to check a second bag on flights to/from the US and C$50/$50 on flights to/from Europe and Israel on Jan. 19. A second piece of checked luggage will continue to be free on flights within Canada and to/from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Australia. Premium loyalty program members will be exempt.
ARINC announced a comprehensive technology replacement agreement with Avicom Japan, that country's service provider for airline and civil aviation communications, under which it will enhance Japan's ACARS data link infrastructure with "efficient ACARS multiple-service technology." New technology will allow for increased data link message traffic while enabling Avicom to prepare for eventual controller-pilot data link communications and aeronautical telecommunications network operations, according to ARINC.
