Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport announced an agreement with airline representatives regarding airport charges in 2010 and 2011. Charges will increase 4% on July 1 and an additional 3% on Oct. 1. On April 1, 2011, they will rise by another 3% and then by 2.5% on Oct. 1, 2011. In total, charges will rise 12.5% over the two-year period. The agreement is contingent on a deal setting a charge schedule in 2012-15 that must be reached by Feb. 19. In the absence of such a contract, charges will rise 8.4% on April 1.
US National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman yesterday criticized FAA for failing to act on runway safety recommendations the board repeatedly has made, including multiple recommendations first issued in July 2000.
US FAA's Aviation Rulemaking Committee said at a US Senate hearing yesterday that it has pushed back its Jan. 1 deadline for issuing new rules on pilot fatigue for an additional month. "We will unfortunately miss the first of next year," Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Peggy Gilligan said. FAA expects to complete its analysis by the end of January. Pilot fatigue has been on the National Transportation Safety Board's "Most Wanted List of Safety Improvements" since it first was published almost 20 years ago.
IATA said 75 major airlines around the world that have reported third-quarter financial results were a combined $718 million in the black, improved from a $3.37 billion loss in the year-ago quarter, but that the industry still is expected to lose $11 billion this year despite the gradual recovery.
European Commission released its updated list of airlines banned from EU airspace and cited progress with carriers from Ukraine and Angola. From the former, Motor Sich was removed from the list entirely and Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines now is allowed to operate into the EU with one aircraft while TAAG Angola Airlines was permitted to increase the number of planes it flies to Portugal owing to "significant progress" made by the carrier and civil aviation authority "to resolve progressively any safety deficiencies," the EC said.
American Airlines yesterday named ExpressJet President and CEO James Ream as its new senior VP-maintenance & engineering. He will take over on Jan. 1, succeeding the retiring Carmine Romano. Ream held various positions at AA between 1987 and 1995 and led ExpressJet for the past eight years.
What distinguishes these "high performers"? Accenture recently released a comprehensive study, "Achieving High Performance in the Airline Industry," that may provide some clues. The consultancy--which has spent the last six years conducting a wide-ranging research project trying to determine what distinguishes high-performance businesses across a range of industries--turned its attention to airlines, closely examining and analyzing the financial performance of carriers from around the world for the period 2001-07.
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. "It's not about either/or."
Early next year, Amadeus will begin rolling out technical standards that it has developed in conjunction with ATPCO to enable travel agencies to sell airlines' ancillary fees through the GDS, David Jones, Amadeus chief executive officer, told TTU. The pace and urgency with which airlines have gone "charging in" to create new ancillary revenue streams is uncharacteristic of the industry, Jones said. The development of electronic distribution and the protocols of interlining required a shared set of technical solutions, he said.
US National Transportation Safety Board will dispatch a team to assist China's investigation into Saturday's crash of an MD-11F owned by Avient Aviation. The aircraft crashed on takeoff at Shanghai Pudong, killing three crewmembers and injuring four others. Indications are that it may have lifted off before the tail struck the runway. It was built in 1990 and subsequently converted. It was delivered recently to Avient and was en route to Bishkek.
EasyJet called for introduction of mandatory environmental standards covering the next generation of aircraft that will ensure a 40% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. "Step-change technology is in the pipeline, and we need tough legislation on emission standards for it to be delivered sooner," CEO Andy Harrison said last week. "Wartime has led to the biggest leaps in aviation technology.
Aer Lingus scheduled an extraordinary board meeting for today to determine an "alternative" plan to achieve its targeted €97 million ($145.4 million) in cost cuts in case ongoing negotiations with labor unions do not result in an agreement ( ATWOnline, Nov. 19). CEO Christoph Mueller confirmed that EI will "proceed with alternative means of delivering the savings within the same timeframe as the plan in the absence of agreement."
Continental Airlines is adopting a cashless cabin for onboard purchases (except duty free) from today utilizing hand-held credit card readers on all mainline flights except to/from China. CO said it is working with China on accepting The China Union Pay card. It expects to go cashless on Continental Express, Continental Connection and Continental Micronesia flights in the 2010 first quarter.
Lufthansa will charge economy passengers €40/$50 for a second piece of checked luggage on flights between Europe and North America beginning Jan. 1, a spokesperson was quoted as saying in German press reports. The first bag weighing up to 23 kg. and ski transport will remain free. Premium loyalty program members and passengers whose North Atlantic itineraries do not originate in Europe will be exempt.
Finnair announced the transfer of some 490 Northport ground handling employees at Helsinki Vantaa to Barona Group, a staffing agency, and some 130 Cargo Terminal Operations warehouse employees to Suomen Transval, effective today. "By creating solutions based on strategic partnerships, we can change our fixed costs into variable costs and focus on Finnair's core business," Deputy CEO Lasse Heinonen said. Around 200 Northport employees went on strike yesterday to protest the decision and AY said that "delays and individual cancellations are possible" as a result.
Bombardier last week said it will lay off 715 Montreal-based employees during the first seven months of 2010 as it slows the CRJ production rate, citing the "economic and airline industry environments [that] continue to make it difficult to gain new aircraft orders." It did not provide further insight into the current or future production rate for the CRJ family. Its operating profit, revenue, deliveries and order book all fell in its fiscal second quarter ended July 31 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 3).
ALAFCO, the Kuwaiti lessor, earned a KWD10.2 million ($35.8 million) net profit in its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, "slightly more" than the previous year, it said.
Air India and pilots represented by the Indian Commercial Pilots' Assn. reached an agreement Sunday that allowed the carrier to avoid a strike scheduled to begin today ( ATWOnline, Nov. 18). "The agreement involves some financial payout by the airline," an AI official told The Hindu. ICPA General Secretary R.S. Otaal said AI "accepted all our demands," according to Mint.
Edward Stimpson, who retired as chairman of the Flight Safety Foundation on Nov. 1, died Nov. 25 of cancer. He was 75. Before joining FSF he served as US ambassador to the ICAO Council for five years. Prior to his 1999 nomination to the Council, he spent 25 years as president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. and is associated closely with the 1994 passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act, widely seen as helping to revive that segment of the industry.
Travelport reached a deal with Gol to provide its Interline E-ticket Interchange technology, including the ETDBase e-ticket database. The LCC codeshares with Air France KLM, American Airlines, Iberia, AeroMexico and Copa Airlines and has interline agreements with 60 carriers.
Austrian IT Solutions and flight services company Caeroscene has extended aircraft management solutions and operational support to charter aviation with the addition today of a fuelling partner.
