AirTran Airways flew 1.23 billion RPMs in February, a 13.6% fall from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 9.1% to 1.66 billion ASMs, lowering load factor 3.9 points to 74.2%. WestJet said it is expecting first-quarter RASM to drop 10%-12% year-over-year, although that decline will be offset partially by falling fuel costs. The LCC flew 1.12 billion RPMs in February, up 5.5% year-over-year, against a 5.7% rise in ASMs to 1.35 billion. Load factor slipped 0.2 point to 82.6%.
EasyJet broke ranks with its European legacy counterparts and strongly condemned the move toward a temporary suspension of the EU's so-called "use it or lose it" slot rule, which dictates that carriers must use their slots at an 80% rate or return them to the pool.
Esterline CMC Electronics reached an agreement with Boeing for its PilotView Class 2 Electronic Flight Bag hardware to be made available for select aircraft types, starting with 737NGs.
The Chinese airline industry showed some signs of recovery in January as domestic carriers posted a collective net profit of CNY40 million ($5.8 million), according to CAAC. The airlines reported a CNY7.07 billion net loss through the first 11 months of 2008. The regulator credited "favorable policies" implemented in December for the January result, including its decision to withhold approval for new entrants until 2010 and its call for carriers to cancel or delay aircraft orders. Fee reductions and infrastructure improvements also played a role, CAAC said.
US Air Transport Assn. wrote a letter to Senate Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.), who recently introduced legislation targeting antitrust immunity among airline alliances ( ATWOnline, Feb. 6), saying that "the traveling and shipping public will suffer from a withdrawal of the immunity, which fosters the development of seamless networks of service so beneficial to airline customers." Oberstar's bill would require immunity to be renewed every three years.
TAAG Angola Airlines is targeting June for a resumption of services to the EU, from which it was blacklisted two years ago, an executive told state radio in comments cited by Reuters. "There will be a new EU inspection in May. . .and our goal is for TAAG to resume flights to the EU in June," Rui Carreira said ( ATWOnline, Nov. 17, 2008). TAAG reportedly lost $70 million last year.
Jat Airways said that just 288 employees accepted its €300 ($376)-per-year-of-service severance offer and that an additional 300 or so will be laid off, with more cuts to come, CEO Sasa Vlaisavljevic told the Tanjug news agency in comments cited by Reuters ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1, 2008).
A malfunctioning altimeter caused the autopilot system on the Turkish Airlines 737-800 that crashed last week on approach to Amsterdam to reduce power prematurely, and by the time the pilots reacted it was "too late to recover the flight," Dutch Safety Board Chairman Pieter van Vollenhoven said yesterday.
UK government appointed the Environment Agency to "police" the pending aviation emissions trading scheme in England and Wales, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband announced yesterday. Each EU nation must appoint a body or institution to supervise the new scheme to cap aviation emissions that will come into force for flights arriving and departing EU airports on Jan. 1, 2012 ( ATWOnline, Oct. 27, 2008).
American Airlines flew 8.63 billion system RPMs in February, down 13.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 10.1% to 11.67 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 2.9 points to 73.9%. American Eagle flew 522 million RPMs, down 14.1%, against a 9.1% decline in capacity to 800.5 million ASMs. Load factor fell 3.8 points to 65.2%. United Airlines' February traffic plunged 15.2% year-over-year to 7.66 billion consolidated RPMs. Capacity was down 14% to 10.46 billion ASMs, lowering load factor 1 point to 73.2%.
Assn. of European Airlines asked the EU to ease or temporarily suspend the regulation requiring airlines to use their airport slots 80% of the time so they might suspend services during the global economic slowdown without losing them, Reuters reported. "One measure we would like them to look at is freezing the '80-20' rule," an AEA spokesperson said. "Airlines could then be encouraged to withdraw capacity without running the risk of losing specific slots." The slot rule suspension was part of a series of proposals contained in an AEA blueprint for navigating the current downturn.
GE Aviation opened its new systems manufacturing facility in Suzhou about 50 mi. west of Shanghai. The 18,000-sq.-m. facility will produce autoclaved composite parts, mechanical fabrications, structure assembly and civil aircraft actuation systems and will employ 200 by year end.
US Bankruptcy Court judge invalidated the transfer of the Aloha Airlines brand to Mesa Air Group for use on its go! subsidiary because the sale by Aloha shareholder Yucaipa Co. was not public ( ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2008). A second auction will be held.
Alaska Air Group board yesterday announced plans to give stockholders a nonbinding vote on compensation for the company's five highest-paid executives. It said the vote "will inform the board's future decisions on executive compensation." Stockholders proposed the measure last year.
Spirit Airlines yesterday began charging passengers booking flights on its website or through its reservation center a fee of $4.90 per segment. The new "passenger usage fee" is the latest in a series of ancillary revenue generators implemented by Spirit ranging from bag check fees to onboard beverage charges. Customers who purchase tickets at airport check-in counters will not be charged the fee. "It's all part of our overall philosophy. We like to break out the base fare from additional fees and taxes," a Spirit spokesperson told ATWOnline.
Continental Airlines said that February consolidated RASM fell an estimated 11.5%-12.5% year-over-year. It flew 5.88 billion consolidated RPMs, down 13.2%, against an 8.9% fall in capacity to 8.11 billion ASMs.
ANA this month will purchase a 33.5% stake in Overseas Courier Service, a Tokyo-based international parcel delivery and forwarding company, the airline said. Financial terms were not disclosed. The companies have been working together since July 2007, and ANA said the new investment will help "underpin" its Asian parcel delivery service out of the Okinawa cargo hub scheduled to open in October ( ATWOnline, Dec. 19, 2007).
Alitalia CEO Rocco Sabelli said the restructured carrier expects to lose €200 million ($251.8 million) this year, Reuters reported. "We had a terrible first three to four weeks" following the January re-launch he said ( ATWOnline, Jan. 13). "After those terrible three weeks we began to do better even if we're not filling the aircraft as much as we would like."
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani yesterday warned that air cargo demand "has fallen off a cliff" and projected that revenue generated by airlines from cargo in 2009 is likely to drop 9% year-over-year to $54 billion.
IATA said the global airline industry lost up to $8 billion in 2008, $3 billion higher than its previous estimates, stating that a "larger than expected" $4 billion fourth-quarter loss owing to the recession and fuel hedging losses weighed down full-year results.
Southwest Airlines announced a tentative three-year labor agreement with the Transport Workers Union covering freight agents and ramp, operations and provisioning employees. Negotiations began in January 2008 and the contract, if approved, will run through June 30, 2011. The TWU board has submitted to deal to its 7,780 SWA employees for a ratification vote.
Southwest Airlines yesterday agreed to pay US FAA a $7.5 million fine to settle an enforcement action stemming from the carrier's operating 46 737 Classics for nine days in March 2007 after it had disclosed to the agency that the aircraft were in noncompliance with an airworthiness directive.
