Seven US airlines late last month filed suit in the US Court of Appeals seeking to reverse a new FAA rule requiring pilots to take additional rest following nonstop flights longer than 16 hr. The carriers--American Airlines, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, JetBlue Airways, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and Evergreen International Airlines--claimed that FAA "bypassed the rulemaking process" and "deprived stakeholders with expertise on the underlying safety issues the opportunity to participate in a public comment process," according to press reports.
Air Canada boosted its liquidity with a series of financial agreements in late December. It arranged a five-year, $78 million loan from Calyon New York Branch and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and secured a revolving credit facility with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which agreed to provide AC with up to C$100 million ($82.9 million) of revolving credit for one year. AC said it drew C$50 million from the facility upon closing. The carrier also concluded a series of agreements for secured financings with General Electric Capital Corp.
Republic Airways flew 783.4 million RPMs in December, up 6.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 4.1% to 1.12 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 1.4 points to 79.75.
Ryanair called a recent amendment to Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion's employee contract awarding him €2.8 million ($3.9 million) if he resigns following a takeover as "indefensible and unprecedented." Irish media revealed the clause over the weekend. In a letter to EI Chairman Colm Barrington, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary argued that the contract proves that management has no faith in Aer Lingus's future as an independent airline.
GKN Aerospace yesterday said it will assume ownership and operational control of Airbus's former UK-based wing component and assemblies manufacturing plant at Filton. The move follows European regulatory approval and is projected to double GKN's order book for large civil aircraft structures. The Filton site has 1,500 employees and brings GKN's global workforce to 10,000.
Singapore Airlines is negotiating leave without pay with its cargo pilots, VP-Public Relations Stephen Forshaw told Agence France Presse. Unpaid leave periods could reach 30 months. "The outlook for the freight industry is weak. . .shipping companies are parking vessels and all-cargo airlines are being severely affected," Forshaw told the news agency. He said SIA Cargo "will work cooperatively with its staff and unions" on the matter and that layoffs "will only be considered as a matter of last resort." There are no discussions for unpaid leave with passenger pilots, he noted.
On Jan. 1, Lufthansa Technik established Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International, a 100% subsidiary integrating the former Condor/Cargo Technik it previously had acquired. LTMI will be based at Frankfurt Airport and will assume responsibility for airline third-party MRO activities previously handled by LHT.
Japan Airlines will conduct a test flight using biofuel refined from the energy crop camellina on Jan. 30. A blend of 50% biofuel and 50% Jet-A will be tested in one of the four Pratt & Whitney JT9Ds on a JAL-owned 747-300. The approximately 1-hr. demo flight out of Tokyo Haneda will be operated by JAL crew and will be the final stage in a 12-month project. The biofuel component will be a cocktail of three second-generation feedstocks: Camellina (84%), jatropha (under 16%) and algae (under 1%).
Emirates has saved almost 10 million liters of jet fuel and 772 hr. of flight time in the five years since working with Airservices Australia, the country's air navigation services provider, to pioneer the flight route planning and airspace management program known as Flex Tracks. Emirates said that over the five years the fuel saving of 9.6 million liters (equivalent to approximately 351 tanker trucks) resulted in a reduction of 26,644 tons of CO2 and 163 tons of NOx.
Continental Airlines followed Air New Zealand's historic trip into the record books a week later by making the first flight on Jan. 7 of a commercial transport partially powered by a fuel derived from algae. The 80-min. test regimen that Richard Jankowski and Joe O'Neil put their 737-800 through went "perfectly," said Jankowski. If parity with Jet A was the goal, the mission may have been a shade better than perfect. He said both fuel consumption and exhaust gas temperatures "were slightly lower" for the No.
Technology standards for airlines that want to unbundle fares, collect ancillary revenues or employ other merchandising techniques are close at hand, according to the Air Tariff Publishing Co. The company, best known for its role in the collection and distribution of fares and fare-related data, said it will roll out a set of standards in conjunction with two other companies that serve the airline industry in the first half of 2009.
Pratt & Whitney has signed two 10-year contracts with Delta Air Lines to provide engine maintenance, material and aftermarket support. Valued at more than $1 billion, the agreements are focused on developing and implementing repairs in Delta's and its customers' fleets.
CAE has announced more than 25 full-flight simulator sales so far in FY09. In December, the Canadian company reached agreements to provide FFSs and related CAE Simfinity training devices valued at C$40 million ($32.3 million) for Saudi Arabian Airlines and the Hua Ou Aviation Training Centre.
Air New Zealand successfully conducted the world's first sustainable biofuel test flight with a Rolls-Royce-powered 747-400 on Dec. 30, capping a year in which air transport efforts on alternative fuels rapidly accelerated from the test tube to the runway. More than a dozen key performance tests were undertaken during the 2-hr. test flight that took off at 11:30 a.m. local time from Auckland International. A biofuel blend of 50:50 jatropha and Jet A1 was used to power one of the 747-400's RB211s.
With American Airlines, Virgin America and Delta Air Lines currently deploying its Gogo inflight Wi-Fi service, Aircell expects commitments for the technology to reach 2,000 commercial aircraft by the end of 2009. In 2007, American Airlines signed a deal with Aircell for Gogo and became its launch customer, and last August it became the first airline in the US to offer inflight Internet access. Now customers traveling on AA's 767-200s can access coast-to-coast coverage on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami.
SITA said Malaysia Airlines recently selected its in-house reservations system as an expansion of an ongoing $130 million improvement program. The 10-year deal, signed in 2006, includes e-ticketing and departure control system upgrades allowing for such self-service options as kiosk and Web check-in.
Deutsche Post's DHL Exel Supply Chain unit won a 10-year, multimillion-dollar deal with British Airways to provide inflight catering services for domestic and short-haul flights from London Heathrow. Contract takes effect in April 2010 and calls for up to 13 million meals annually, inflight retail, media and comfort items as well as waste management and wash-up responsibilities. Northern Foods will prepare the meals under a subcontract with DHL.
GDS executives are calling for the development of technical standards for the booking and processing of airlines' unbundled fares, ancillary revenue and other sales innovations. Sabre chief Sam Gilliland raised the issue at November's PhoCusWright conference.
Australia is emerging as a possible major source of feedstocks for second-generation biofuel such as the hardy jatropha curcas. Speaking to media after the first successful sustainable biofuel test flight, Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe suggested that the massive arid regions of northern Australia would be an ideal region for cultivation.
Sustainable Aviation, a UK-based coalition of airlines, aerospace manufacturers, airports and air navigation services providers, projects that CO2 emissions from air traffic will fall back to 2000 levels by 2050.
World's first commercial aviation test flight powered by a sustainable second-generation biofuel is ready for liftoff. On Dec. 30, an Air New Zealand 747-400 will take off from Auckland for a 2-hr. flight with one Rolls-Royce RB211 powered by a jatropha blend ( ATWOnline, Dec. 11). The pilot in command, ANZ 747 Fleet Manager Keith Pattie, and his crew will operate the flight predominantly over the wider Hauraki Gulf area.
TAM flew 1.95 billion domestic RPKs in November, a 3.4% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 13.4% to 2.96 billion ASKs and load factor fell 6.4 points to 65.8%. International traffic jumped 36.3% to 1.32 billion RPKs against a 32.4% rise in ASKs to 1.88 billion, sending load factor up 2 points to 70%. LAN Airlines flew 2.32 billion system RPKs in November, up 9.9% year-over-year. Capacity climbed 12.4% to 3.03 billion ASKs and load factor was down 1.7 points to 76.4%.
