Virgin Blue will expand its Sydney training center and build a maintenance base in a move that is expected to create almost 1,000 jobs. It will add 737-800 and E-170 simulators to its recently opened V Australia training facility at Botany Bay, which already has a 777-300ER. Blue also announced that the first V Australia 777-300ER due for delivery in November will feature lie-flat beds and two bars.
United Airlines reversed its decision to charge for meals in economy on certain transatlantic flights beginning in the fourth quarter owing to "direct, candid feedback" from customers ( ATWOnline, Aug. 21).
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority wants Qantas to implement a range of improvements to the way it manages and delivers aircraft maintenance following a special review carried out last month. CASA called on the carrier to produce a plan to address deficiencies in meeting some of its own maintenance performance targets. It also wants QF to examine whether existing lines of authority and control over maintenance are delivering the best results ( ATWOnline, Aug. 19).
Finnair and Finncomm Airlines entered into a 50/50 joint venture to establish Finnish Aircraft Maintenance, which will specialize in ATR turboprops and E-145s. FAM will serve domestic and international customers at Helsinki Vantaa pending approval of competition authorities. A new maintenance hangar will open by next spring. Finncomm currently operates nine ATR 72-500s and will grow its fleet to 16 by 2011.
Frustrated by its inability to process travel agency sales through IATA's billing and settlement plans, V Australia launched its own travel agent payment and settlement system. IATA barred the carrier from using the BSPs until it acquires its own operating certificate.
AS US LEGACY CARRIERS COME TO grips with soaring fuel costs, the pain is trickling--in some cases pouring--down onto their regional partners. This reversal of fortune comes after more than a decade of impressive growth that saw regionals assume an ever-expanding role in the nation's air transportation network, deploying hundreds of 50-seat regional jets (and smaller numbers of 70/90-seaters) to markets for which slower but more fuel efficient turboprops would not have been practical and to replace and complement mainline jet service in existing city-pairs.
US airline executives may be feeling a bit of whiplash. Just a year ago, the second quarter was celebrated as the first reporting period in nearly five years that ended with no US carrier in bankruptcy protection, and all of the nation's 10 largest airlines were in the black with cumulative net income of more than $5 billion. A year later, dramatically rising fuel costs coupled with a weak US economy led to the 10 carriers posting a cumulative net loss of $5.8 billion in the 2008 quarter, results that stamped out any remaining enthusiasm about the "recovery" of 2007.
The idea came about when the carrier was thinking of ways to stimulate travel during the fall lull. "We were looking for something unique to get people thinking about travel," Don Uselmann, manager of business development, said. "We wanted a 'water cooler' story, something that people would talk about." JetBlue decided to auction off 218 flight packages--roundtrips for one or two people to specific destinations on specific dates--and six vacation products for weekend trips in September and early October.
Ryanair said it welcomed the decision of the Hamburg Court to uphold its injunction against Vtours.de, which it described as "a screenscraper/ticket-tout website which was previously selling Ryanair tickets, with inflated hidden markups, to German consumers." Ryanair's aggressive stance against screenscrapers has drawn the attention of the European Commission ( ATWOnline, Aug. 27).
Aeroflot's board last week decided to open a branch in Krasnoyarsk, where it will base a Tu-154 and add up to seven aircraft in the fourth quarter. It said the decision was based on "KrasAir's difficulties to continue its operations and to meet the considerable demand in this region." KrasAir is one of the largest constituents of the debt-ridden, five-airline AiRUnion alliance, which recently suffered from operational difficulties and groundings and last week was promised 24,000 tonnes of fuel by the Russian government through Sept.
US National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating an Aug. 28 incident in which a Transaero 747-400 and a Delta Air Lines 737-800 "came within zero ft. vertical and 1 min. lateral separation at an altitude of 33,000 ft. about 179 mi. north of San Juan, Puerto Rico." It added that the Transaero 747 "descended 200-300 ft." after receiving a TCAS alert. The DL aircraft was en route from New York JFK to Port of Spain.
LOT Polish Airlines low-fare subsidiary Centralwings will cease operating scheduled services next month and become a charter and ACMI carrier, it announced last week, saying market conditions have "imperil[ed] the company's stability." It will begin the transition on Sept. 14 and by Sept. 30 will operate only charter flights save for Warsaw-Lisbon service that will end Oct. 7.
Pratt & Whitney and Aviall Services will work together to distribute JT9D spare parts under an agreement announced last week. Contract calls for Aviall to supply Pratt OEM spares to JT9D operators, which number more than 1,200 globally. Produced from 1969 through 1990, the JT9D powers 747s, 767s, A300s, A310s and DC-10s.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace said its ST Aviation Training Academy subsidiary Aviation Training Academy Australia acquired the Bruce Hartwig Flying School for a cash consideration of A$120,000 ($103,655) ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5, 2007).
Polynesian Blue, the joint venture between Virgin Blue and the Samoan government, reported a pre-tax profit of NZ$9.2 million ($6.5 million) in the fiscal year ended June 30, up 71% from the NZ$5.4 million earned the prior year, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation reported. On Sept. 12 DJ will add a 12th weekly Auckland-Apia frequency and on Dec. 1 it will launch weekly Brisbane-Apia service.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau released a preliminary report on its investigation of last month's Qantas 747-400 decompression and fuselage hole incident ( ATWOnline, July 31), saying it is "evident that one passenger oxygen cylinder had sustained a sudden failure and forceful discharge of its pressurized contents into the [forward] aircraft hold, rupturing the fuselage in the vicinity of the wing-fuselage leading edge fairing." It added, "The cylinder had been propelled upward by the force of the discharge, puncturing the cabin flo
European Commission opened its investigation into whether the transatlantic joint business agreement between American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia for flights violates European antitrust regulations. The trio applied two weeks ago for worldwide antitrust immunity from the US Dept. of Transportation together with oneworld partners Royal Jordanian and Finnair ( ATWOnline, Aug. 15). An EC spokesperson said the probe is not the result of competitors' complaints and was launched under the regulator's own initiative.
Lufthansa Systems won a four-year deal with Tirana International for its ELWIS cargo handling solution. Part of LS's AdvancedCargo Suite, ELWIS integrates wireless technology using wireless PCs, handheld devices and forklift-mounted terminals and offers real-time tracking and tracing over shipment lifecycle.
GE Aviation won a six-year OnPoint solution contract from Virgin Blue covering MRO services on CFM56-7Bs operated by Blue and its Pacific Blue subsidiary. Contract is valued at $300 million.
Thomas Cook, Lufthansa and TUI subsidiary TUI Travel are in "early discussions" regarding a merger of their subsidiary carriers Condor Airlines, Germanwings and TUIFly Deutschland, Thomas Cook announced yesterday. "No commercial terms have been agreed. There is no certainty that any transaction will result and a further announcement will be made if and when appropriate," the company said. LH owns 24.9 % of Condor, with the remainder held by Thomas Cook.
US Air Transport Assn. announced yesterday that its request for suspension of the Sept. 3 auction of two slots at Newark was granted by the FAA Office of Dispute Resolution Acquisition ( ATWOnline, Aug. 27). It said it "fully expect[s] that the process will result in a determination that FAA lacks the legal authority to conduct the auction."
United Airlines, which last month said it would slash 5,500 frontline workers by the end of 2009 ( ATWOnline, July 23), will furlough 1,550 flight attendants effective Oct. 31. The carrier said it hopes to achieve as many of the cuts as possible via voluntary programs, but added that it must lower its flight attendant workforce by 10% by the end of October and will make as many involuntary reductions as necessary.
US FAA said it fixed a glitch in its National Airspace Data Interchange Network based near Atlanta that caused more than 600 flight delays Tuesday, including numerous delays as long as 90 min. at several major airports in the eastern US ( ATWOnline, Aug. 27). The system failed for about 6 hr., forcing all flight plans to be filed with FAA's only other NADIN in Salt Lake City. That system overloaded as a result of the extra work and some flight plans had to be entered manually. Operations were back to normal yesterday.
