SR Technics signed a technical training agreement with Etihad Airways running until February 2010 covering 1,000 instructor days of theoretical and practical training on A320s and A330s/A340s as well as difference training, run-up in simulators, health and safety and aviation/technical English.
Amadeus said total travel bookings fell 2.1% last year to 526.6 million but its revenue was up 2.2% from 2007 to €2.86 billion ($4.05 billion). It said its market share rose 1.7 points to 35.6%. In the first quarter of 2009, its travel agency bookings slid 9.1% year-over-year and the entire GDS market dropped an estimated 13.2%, it said.
SkyTeam said the first level of its first co-branded alliance lounge, located in London Heathrow's Terminal 4, will open Thursday. Facility eventually will consist of two floors covering more than 1,600 sq. m. Second level is scheduled to open in November. Eligible passengers on Delta Air Lines, KLM, Continental Airlines and Kenya Airways will have access immediately, with more coming as additional SkyTeam carriers shift operations to T4.
Assn. of European Airlines members said last week that there remains no indication about when an economic recovery might begin and that the current downturn could have a "profound impact on the market" well past this year. IATA said last week, "The worst may be over.
AAR was selected by IAI's Bedek Aviation Group to provide the cargo system for its 767-300 conversion program. AAR and IAI developed a GMF system for the 767-200 conversion in 2002.
Search aircraft scoured wide swaths of the South Atlantic yesterday in search of any trace of the Air France A330-200 that lost contact with Brazilian ATC after possibly encountering a severe thunderstorm Sunday night. AF Flight 447 departed Rio de Janeiro Galeao at 7:30 p.m. local time May 31 carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew. Contact with the aircraft was lost approximately 3.5 hr. later, shortly after the pilots reported encountering heavy turbulence some 360 mi. off Brazil's northeast coast, according to press reports.
Airlines will now be able to get a lot closer to their passengers including their likes and dislikes, thanks to an innovation called Customer Journey, from the airline IT specialist, SITA, which provides a 'live' record of the passenger's experience with the airline right down to seat preference, meal choice and the last time they made a complaint.
FOR THE US TRANSPORTATION SECURITY Administration and the international air cargo industry, the definitions of "screen," "cargo" and "100%" have become critically important. That's because by August 2010, 100% of cargo transported on passenger aircraft to, from and within the US must be pre-screened under the Improving America's Security Act of 2007 (also known as the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act, or the 9/11 Act).
IT'S HARDER THAN EVER AMID THE CURRENT financial crisis to find a buyer for a commercial aircraft, let alone one that's been grounded for some time or retired. Most of the hundreds of planes parked in the desert boneyards of the western US never again will return to revenue service. Boeing projects more than 8,000 aircraft will be retired by 2025.
An International Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal ordered IATA to cease using any ticketing information transmitted by Amadeus in its PaxIS product. The tribunal found that IATA's use of the data breached its contractual agreements with Amadeus and infringed on Amadeus' rights under the European Union Database Directive. The directive states that the holder of database rights may prohibit the extraction and/or re-utilization of the whole or of a substantial part of the database contents.
Emirates President Tim Clark is getting some strange complaint letters these days. "Passengers are telling me off. They are not getting any sleep on our flights because they are up all night watching classic movies," he muses. The trend toward airlines offering increasing numbers of old movies is not just owing to a fondness for black and white or film noir, however. Some carriers are not happy about the rising price of first-run movies and are turning to the classics, which are one-fifth or less the price of a new release, to help manage costs in these tough times.
United Airlines told some travel agencies that they would " no longer have continued access to United's credit card merchant agreements," effective July 20. The carrier told the agencies that if customers wish to pay by credit card, the agencies should process the transactions under their own merchant agreements and settle in cash with United through the Airlines Reporting Corp. United said agents who received the notice but continued to process transactions using United's merchant facilities would receive $75 debit memos.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE: THAT'S THE QUESTION facing China's smaller privately run carriers. Clearly, Chengdu-based United Eagle Airlines and Wuhan-based East Star Airlines chose no as the answer. United Eagle had to sell a controlling stake to Sichuan Airlines in exchange for a capital injection of CNY200 million ($29.2 million). East Star was forced by CAAC to suspend operations and has gone through bankruptcy owing to its heavy debt burden.
AS US AIRLINES SCROUNGE for every last penny of ancillary revenue to replace the dollars no longer being spent on tickets, some are taking a second look at food service. The post-9/11 buy-on-board programs that grudgingly were introduced after carriers concluded they could not simply withdraw all sustenance from the skies are taking on a new flavor, according to some that have adopted or are considering such options.
ICAO's Group on International Aviation and Climate Change this month recommended "a global aspirational goal of 2% annual improvement in fuel efficiency of the international civil aviation in-service fleet," but noticeably did not make any proposals on emissions trading.
FOR A SUCCESSFUL TECHNOLOGY, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman's famous observation has relevance to the expectation within the aviation industry and general public that the new technology being incorporated into the latest generation of aircraft will by itself eliminate all airline accidents.
A GLOBAL RECESSION, A NEW DISEASE THAT IS PANICKING travelers and governments alike, rising violence and unrest in the Middle East: This is the setting for the 48th International Paris Air Show-Le Bourget (June 15-21), which also celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first air exposition held in Paris in 1909 at the Grand Palais.
US airlines say they made exactly the right moves in the first half of last year to prepare for the global financial downturn--even though they had no idea it was coming. The industry scrambled to counter ballooning fuel costs amid predictions that per-barrel crude oil prices, already at $150, would hit $200 or
IATA has committed to achieving carbon neutral traffic growth by 2020, the organization announced at its 65th Annual General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week. "Two years ago we set a vision to achieve carbon-neutral growth on the way to a carbon-free future. Today we have taken a major step forward by committing to a global cap on our emissions in 2020," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said. After 2020, aviation will have to offset any carbon growth by purchasing credits or offsets under the plan.
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.
One of the least understood and most contentious issues surrounding aviation's impact on the environment has been the potential contribution of contrails to climate change. During the grounding of the US commercial airline fleet in the days following 9/11, scientists at the University of Wisconsin claimed that the absence of contrails was responsible for a 1.1 deg. C (2 deg. F) change in temperature over the US.
Although science is capable of solving the technical challenges of creating safe, sustainable, second-generation aviation biofuels, getting them into production in large quantities will take a major effort that may not be possible without government support, according to speakers at the recent Eco-Aviation conference in Washington sponsored by ATW and Leeham Co.
