Continental Airlines' October consolidated RASM rose an estimated 9%-10% year-over-year. It flew 7.14 billion RPMs during the month, down 7.3%, against a 6.7% fall in capacity to 9.04 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 0.5 point to 79%. Southwest Airlines flew 6.21 billion RPMs in October, up 2.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose at approximately the same rate to 8.81 billion ASMs. Load factor dippedl 0.1 point to 70.4%.
Embraer, which yesterday reported a 70.5% drop in third-quarter net income to $57.7 million, revealed that it is considering building a larger aircraft potentially to compete with rival Bombardier's CSeries. CFO Antonio Luiz Pizarro Manso said during a conference call with media that the company is "studying the development of a larger plane," adding that it "could be carried out in partnership [with another manufacturer] or not."
Four unions representing Alitalia pilots and cabin staff said they would undertake "all useful actions leading to the cancellation" of Compagnia Area Italiana's agreement to take over the ailing carrier ( ATWOnline, Nov. 4), according to a statement cited by Agence France Presse. Other unions have agreed to terms with the new investors. "I hope good sense will prevail on the part of the pilots and flight attendants because there is no alternative," UIL union Secretary General Luigi Angeletti said on Italian television.
Boeing machinists in Washington, Oregon and Kansas voted overwhelmingly Saturday to ratify a new four-year contract and return to work following a costly 58-day strike. The vote by members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers was 74% in favor of ratification, IAM said, with only a simple majority required. The union represents approximately 27,000 Boeing employees.
Qatar Airways reached a 15-year agreement with Qtel for migration of its data center to the telecommunications provider's operations facilities in Doha. Migration includes systems supporting flight operations, finance, human resources and Internet booking activities.
US House of Representatives' New York and New Jersey delegations wrote a letter to House leaders expressing "outrage" at the US Dept. of Transportation's final rule on slot auctions and flight caps at New York JFK, LaGuardia and Newark announced last month ( ATWOnline, Oct. 16). Lawmakers charged that the DOT plan is an "illegal and untested auction scheme" that will not mitigate congestion at the crowded airports and will force DOT to spend taxpayer money to defend multiple lawsuits.
Flight Safety Foundation last week announced its support for new laws to protect against the release or use in judicial proceedings of information gathered by voluntary self-disclosure reporting programs. Examples of such programs include the Aviation Safety Action Program, the Flight Operational Quality Assurance program and the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing system.
Boeing's chances of flying the 787 this year took another hit after the company acknowledged further fastener problems with the first aircraft on the production line. A spokesperson confirmed the problem, telling ATWOnline that the manufacturer "recently discovered some fasteners on the 787 airplanes in Everett Final Assembly were incorrectly installed and do not conform to specifications. The fasteners themselves are fine."
GHS Aviation Auditing of McLean, Va., was certified to conduct IATA Operational Safety Audits by IATA. GHS was founded in 2004 by George Snyder, who led airline safety departments in the US and Asia. He is a founding member of the IOSA development committee.
Greek Transport Minister Costis Hadzidakis said "at least" 10 companies expressed interest in acquiring Olympic Airlines' flight, maintenance and ground handling operations, with six being interested in all three, according to press reports from Athens ( ATWOnline, Nov. 3). He confirmed that neither Aegean Airlines nor Lufthansa are among the interested parties.
Frontier Airlines won US Bankruptcy Court approval to cancel its labor agreement with mechanics and material specialists represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union announced yesterday. IBT agreed to wage concessions last week but would not consent to permanent outsourcing of heavy check maintenance to Aeroman. The court said Frontier may outsource "only as a last resort, after it has exhausted all other options to perform the heavy check work at its Denver repair station," according to IBT.
EU's revision of the third package of its aviation regulation became law Saturday ( ATWOnline, Dec. 5, 2007). The regulation lays down rules for the granting of operating licenses, control of airlines and market access. It also requires carriers to include all taxes and charges in published ticket prices and bans price discrimination based on place of residence. "Fair competition is the key to success.
IATA late last month extended its e-freight pilot program to the US, New Zealand and Australia. American Airlines, United Airlines, British Airways and KLM began transporting a portion of cargo between New York JFK and London Heathrow and Amsterdam without most paper documents. Similarly, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and DHL began paperless cargo carriage on flights from New Zealand to Singapore and Hong Kong.
Olympic Airlines employees walked out again last Thursday, grounding nearly 100 flights and disrupting other air traffic in a runway protest against Greece's plan to sell the ailing state carrier ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1). The Greek government is looking for an investor to bail out Olympic, which has been losing nearly €2 million per day. Deadline for bidders was Sunday, and as of last week Qatar Airways was the only potential investor whose interest had been made public ( ATWOnline, Oct.
APG Global Associates added Transaero and Daallo Airlines of Djibouti to its interline e-ticketing program. More than 20 carriers have signed with APG-GA in the past five months and 13 more are expected, according to President Jean Louis Baroux.
A J Walter Aviation will provide Jet Time with power-by-the-hour for four 737s under a five-year deal. Consignment stock will be positioned in Copenhagen.
US Airways confirmed last week in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects mainline CASM excluding fuel, special items and transition expenses to rise 6%-8% year-over-year as it cuts capacity 5%-7%. Fourth-quarter Express capacity will fall 1%-3%, with unit cost excluding fuel rising 4%-6%. In 2009, US plans to cut mainline capacity 4%-6% and Express ASMs by 5%-7%. At year end it will operate 354 aircraft in the mainline fleet and 296 in the Express fleet.
Boeing's ambitious plans to ramp up 787 deliveries may be under serious threat, according to forecasts from New York-based Bernstein Research. In a wrap-up following the manufacturer's third-quarter earnings teleconference, Bernstein warned that 787 deliveries may be a further 53 short of plans in the first four years of production (2009-12) and 153 short of plans from last January.
AAR was selected by Allegiant Air to perform maintenance and modification services on six MD-80s on a nose-to-tail basis at AAR Aircraft Services-Oklahoma. Work on the first aircraft began last month.
IN THE LATE 1990S, THE AIRLINE industry was making big profits, traffic was rising, manufacturer assembly lines were humming and Airbus and Boeing were locked in a battle trying to sell their proposed giant people-movers, the A3XX and 747X. The future of commercial aviation was clear to everyone: More people flying more places at steeper and steeper discounts.
Farelogix said it is building an open-source front end for its FLX platform that will better meet the needs of travel management companies and enable airlines to merchandise their products more easily. Dubbed Project Hawkeye, it can be used as an off-the-shelf agent desktop or customized and extended to fit a particular customer's business, preferences or workflow needs.The application can be used separately from FLX when it is developed against a user's own travel source connections, Jim Davidson, chief executive officer of Farelogix, said.
MUCH OF THE FOCUS IN THE airline industry over the past year has been on the soaring cost of fuel and the multitude of revenue-raising possibilities, such as charging for checked bags, that some carriers have undertaken to survive the current crisis--with good reason. IATA is predicting an industry loss of $5.2 billion this year as oil prices remain high while demand weakens, and it suggests that 2009 won't be much better.
