SITA announced a three-year deal with Aeroflot to implement its airport management system at Moscow Sheremetyevo. System already is in use in Terminals 1 and 2 and will be implemented in T3 when it opens later this year. Deal includes the provision of SITA's AirportResource Manager and AirportHandling Manager.
News from Travel Technology Update: Virgin Blue, the Australian low-cost carrier, will migrate to Navitaire's New Skies platform later this year. Virgin Blue has been using Navitaire's Open Skies system since its launch.
Air Corporation Employees Union, Air India's largest union, will go on "indefinite strike" beginning July 1 if the airline carries through with its plan to delay employee wages ( ATWOnline, June 16), General Secretary J.B. Kadian told the Indo-Asian News Service. "This has never happened in Air India. We are not going to accept this at any cost," Kadian said.
IATA said April international premium traffic fell 22% year-over-year, a steeper decline than the 19.2% reported in the first quarter and a number distorted by the shift in this year's Easter holiday to April, which often depresses business traffic. The number of passengers traveling on economy tickets inched up 0.3% year-over-year. "It is too soon to say whether April marked a turning point in the current down cycle of air travel," IATA said. "Unfortunately, fares and yields are falling at an increasing rate so even if traffic volumes are stabilizing, revenues are not."
Continuing its effort to improve airline safety, US FAA said this week that it wants to improve training and make it easier for prospective employers to access complete FAA files for pilot applicants. The renewed focus on safety was sparked by February's fatal crash of a Colgan Air Q400 outside Buffalo. The pilot, Marvin Renslow, did not reveal to Colgan that he had failed check rides prior to his employment at the regional carrier.
US Dept. of Transportation reported that the 10 US carriers collecting the highest amount in baggage fees racked up a total of $566.3 million in the first quarter, more than four times the $122.6 million collected in the year-ago period. American Airlines led with $108.1 million, followed by Delta Air Lines (excluding its Northwest Airlines subsidiary) at $102.8 million and US Airways at $94.2 million.
SAS Group flew 2.29 billion RPKs in May, down 18.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 16.7% to 3.2 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 1.2 points to 71.5%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 2.11 billion RPKs, down 19%, against a 17.5% fall in ASKs to 2.93 billion. Load factor was down 1.3 points to 72%. Alaska Airlines flew 1.5 billion RPMs in May, a 7.5% drop year-over-year. Capacity fell 6.3% to 1.95 billion ASMs and load factor was down 1 point to 76.8%.
Air Canada announced tentative agreements on its 21-month pension funding moratorium with some 3,200 pilots represented by the Air Canada Pilots Assn. and approximately 6,700 flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, giving the airline the consent of all five Canadian unions and allowing it to move forward with its effort to seek new funding ( ATWOnline, June 10).
Iberia flew 4.02 billion RPKs in May, an 11.4% drop from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 9.6% to 5.15 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 1.6 points to 78%. SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew 1.47 billion RPMs in May, down 1.2% year-over-year. Capacity fell 2.8% to 1.83 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.2 points to 80.1%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 682.6 million RPMs in May, down 2% year-over-year. Capacity rose 0.9% to 819.5 million ASMs and load factor dropped 2.4 points to 83.3%.
US Airways is offering voluntary furloughs to 400 flight attendants. VP-Inflight Services Hector Adler said in a message to employees last week that the airline has "waited as long as we could to address our overstaffing situation hoping that attrition and other voluntary leave options would offset the need for today's action," according to the Associated Press. US is asking 300 cabin staff based in Phoenix or Las Vegas to take voluntary leave from Aug. 5 to Nov. 30, 2009, or Nov. 30, 2010, according to Assn.
American Airlines promoted MD-Airline Profitability and Financial Analysis Kenji Hashimoto to VP-strategic alliances and MD-International Planning Don Casey to VP-revenue management. Republic Airways Holdings promoted Finance Director Joe Allman to VP and controller.
Gulfstream International Airlines yesterday released its response to US FAA's proposed $1.3 million civil penalty for improper scheduling and the installation of an unapproved component on its 1900Ds, admitting several schedule and recordkeeping errors but challenging the fine and citing "differences in interpretation" and its 20-plus years of accident-free operations in its defense.
Alaska Air Group board last week authorized a stock repurchase program worth up to $50 million. The company repurchased "nearly" $112 million of its common stock in 2007 and 2008.
Jet Airways said it will expand its Jet Airways Konnect all-economy service from today owing to "strong customer demand." It increased the domestic program by 30 daily flights over the weekend and will operate more than 100 as of today. The Konnect fleet comprises seven 737-800s and 10 ATR 72-500s ( ATWOnline, May 8).
China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines have agreed on several major issues regarding their pending merger and expect to reveal further details within three weeks, CEA Chairman Liu Shaoyong said. Discussions began last Thursday when the airlines agreed to maintain the SAL brand and that no employees would be cut. Liu noted at a shareholders conference over the weekend that "the specific merger plan will have to be approved by the boards of CEA and SAL and the relevant government organs first before it can be made public."
Air India, which lost an estimated $800 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, will delay around $70 million in salary payments to its 31,500 employees for two weeks until July 15, several officials confirmed in news reports from India. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said the government is considering a bailout "very actively" and that the carrier's health is the state's "responsibility," according to the Press Trust of India.
European Commission's SESAR Joint Undertaking Friday signed contracts totaling €1.9 billion ($2.7 billion) related to the development of a future "Single Sky" air traffic management system in the EU. The Joint Undertaking is a public-private research and development venture overseen by Eurocontrol ( ATWOnline, Dec. 10, 2008).
Travelport GDS said it introduced "a travel industry merchandising first and technology leap forward for Air Canada" with the full market launch of Travelport Agencia, a travel booking solution that delivers access to the complete portfolio of Air Canada's ala carte product "in a seamless manner" to users of Travelport's Apollo GDS.
Sensis Corp.'s runway status lights were installed last week at Los Angeles International, which became the third US airport to add the safety technology. RWSL is a system of red lights embedded in runways that are triggered automatically by ASDE-X, warning pilots that it is unsafe to cross or enter a runway. Los Angeles World Airports paid $7 million for the system, which US FAA installed and will maintain.
