American Airlines is reevaluating the future of 757-200s in its fleet, Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey revealed this week. Speaking to reporters and analysts following the release of second-quarter results highlighted by a steep revenue drop ( ATWOnline, July 16), he said the carrier is continuing to look for ways to operate more cost efficiently. While emphasizing that no decisions have been made, AA is trying to determine whether it wants its more than 120 757s to play a prominent role in its long-term future.
TAM flew 1.97 billion domestic RPKs in June, up 0.8% year-over-year. Capacity rose 4.7% to 3.05 billion ASKs and load factor fell 2.5 points to 64.7%. International traffic was up 18.1% to 1.42 billion RPKs, capacity rose 25.5% to 2.08 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 4.3 points to 68.3%. SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew a combined 1.63 billion RPMs in June, up 4.9% year-over-year, against a 1.9% rise in capacity to 1.98 billion ASMs. Load factor climbed 2.3 points to 82.3%.
Lufthansa is moving forward with its effort to achieve €1 billion ($1.4 billion) in cost savings through the end of 2011, according to an internal letter to employees sent by Lufthansa Passenger Airlines Chairman and CEO Cristoph Franz.
APG-GA was selected by Santa Barbara Airlines as its GSA in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Nordic and Baltic countries, France and the UK. Aviareps was selected by Air Arabia Maroc to serve as GSA in Germany.
Air Canada said all five of its domestic unions have ratified cost-neutral agreements on labor stability and pension relief following the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers vote Wednesday. The union had rejected the deal two weeks ago ( ATWOnline, July 2).
International passengers traveling on premium tickets decreased 23.6% year-over-year in May, marking the 12th consecutive month in which premium traffic was in decline, IATA said yesterday, warning that a "de-globalization" may be occurring that could discourage international business travel and trade even as economies recover.
Singapore Airlines is retrofitting seven 777-300s with new first and business class seats and improvements to the economy cabin including new seat covers and IFE systems. It said the remainder of the 777 fleet will be upgraded "at a later date." First aircraft is due to enter service with the enhancements on July 22, with the rest introduced before year end.
Virgin Atlantic Airways is asking passengers to register their disapproval of the planned increases in the UK's Air Passenger Duty, set for November 2009 and 2010 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 25, 2008). "The UK government has been quietly increasing APD by huge amounts and claiming it is an environmental tax. Yet, there's not a shred of evidence to suggest the £2 billion-plus currently raised is going towards environmental or sustainable projects," Virgin President Richard Branson said.
US Air Transport Assn. took exception yesterday to a provision in the Senate FAA reauthorization bill introduced this week ( ATWOnline, July 15) that would require airlines to return flights to gates when tarmac delays reach 3 hr. to allow passengers wishing to leave the aircraft to deplane. "A hard-and-fast, inflexible timeframe for returning to the gate will have unintended consequences for customers, including the likelihood of more cancellations and inconvenience," ATA said.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew 6.67 billion RPKs in June, down 14.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 9.1% to 8.67 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 4.5 points to 76.8%. Iberia flew 4.34 billion RPKs in June, down 5.1% year-over-year. Capacity fell 7.3% to 5.23 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1.9 points to 83%. EasyJet transported 4.1 million passengers in June, up 0.8% year-over-year. Load factor dipped 0.6 point to 86.3%.
Innovata signed a long-term contract to supply its worldwide schedules data, minimum connect time and "full range of reference support files" to Sabre Holdings to support Sabre's GDS business.
Pet Airways, a pets-only airline operated by Omaha-based Suburban Air Freight, operated its inaugural flight Tuesday on a New York Republic-Baltimore-Chicago Midway routing with 35-40 pets onboard. The airline's Beech 1900 has had the seats and overhead bins removed, leaving space for pet carriers in the main cabin. It also will serve Denver Rocky Mountain and Los Angeles Hawthorne.
OAG said global airline passenger capacity cuts "are starting to stabilize," evidenced by 315 million seats on offer for this month, down just 1% from July 2008. VP-Market Intelligence David Beckerman said the figures, "show a clear and very welcome upward trend from the dramatic [capacity] declines we have seen in recent months. We can only wait and see if this outlook bears financial fruit in actual passenger numbers and airline load factors."
Nordic Aviation Capital, a lessor of turboprop transports, is opening an office in Singapore. It will be headed by VP-Sales and Acquisitions Mats Ericson, who joined NAC in May from Avion Aviation.
Aircell yesterday unveiled two new pricing options for its Gogo inflight Internet service. Access on flights shorter than 1.5 hr. on AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Virgin America will cost $5.95, while a 24-hr. pass on either AirTran or DL will cost $12.95. Aircell also offers a 30-day pass on FL, DL or VX for $49.95. Standard rates of $9.95 for flights of 1.5-3 hr. and $12.95 for flights longer than 3 hr. still apply. Individual airlines had the option to adopt the various pricing plans.
Austrian Airlines Group will need €1 billion ($1.39 billion) in new capital if its pending acquisition by Lufthansa falls through, Chairman Peter Michaelis told shareholders yesterday at a Vienna meeting. The company has spent two-thirds of the €200 million loan from the Austrian government and is carrying more than €1 billion in debt, Reuters reported.
News from Travel Technology Update: If you disappoint your passengers, "it will be public, and it will live forever," Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt said at the recent SITA IT Summit in Cannes, France. Harteveldt was talking about social media phenomena such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter, which allow travelers to broadcast their experiences immediately to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people.
Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines and Iran's Mahan Air were added to the EU's list of banned airlines, while Garuda Indonesia, Airfast Indonesia, Mandala Airlines and Premiair were removed from the "blacklist." The latest update, issued yesterday, did not include Yemenia Yemen Airways despite recent controversy following the June 29 A310-300 crash that killed 152 passengers and crew ( ATWOnline, July 8).
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh continued to maintain yesterday that the carrier is in a "fight for survival" and that "just hoping for old high-roller times to return is the road to oblivion" at the company's annual shareholders meeting in London.
Jetlink Express, a Nairobi-based regional, will take delivery of a BAe 146 this month on wet-lease from Albanian Airlines. Aircraft will be in use for six months to serve Kisumi, replacing a CRJ200 that will be unable to handle that airport's shortened runway during refurbishment. Albanian operates three BAe 146s but can spare one following its recent wet-lease of an MD-82.
Key US senators yesterday introduced an FAA reauthorization bill that would provide more than $40 billion in funding for agency operations in 2010 and 2011 and set accelerated deadlines for modernizing the US ATC system, but would push contentious questions over long-term funding and how to cover the cost of upgrading ATC to 2011.
AirTran Airways said it has completed installation of Gogo inflight Internet in its entire 136-aircraft fleet ( ATWOnline, May 13). Continental Airlines said it has completed installation of live DirecTV service on 15 aircraft operating in the continental US. It plans to offer the service on its entire 737NG fleet, numbering more than 200 aircraft, by the end of 2010. First class passengers can watch for free while economy passengers must pay $
