AerCap Holdings subsidiary AeroTurbine reached a 10-year deal with British Airways for the purchase, sale and lease of components including wheels and brakes for 737, 757, 767, 777 and 747-400 aircraft. Contract calls for a 6-10-year leaseback in line with BA's fleet renewal plans as well as strategic worldwide wheel and brake positioning to support daily flight operations and maintenance.
Amadeus Activities & Entertainment destination services platform was selected by Iberia. It will be integrated on IB's website and contain more than 7,000 bookable destination products at more than 400 destinations worldwide. It automatically displays content according to the destination and dates of the customer's booked flight segment.
Etihad Airways carried 1.4 million passengers in the first quarter, up 40% year-over-year, leaving the carrier "confident" it will reach 6 million by year end. Load factor was 75%, up 7 points, and yield grew 25% to an undisclosed figure. Its summer flying program will increase 47% to 728 weekly flights. Continental Airlines' March consolidated and mainline RASM each rose an estimated 5.5%-6.5% year-over-year. CO flew 8.29 billion consolidated RPMs last month, up 4.3%, against a 4.6% increase in capacity to 10.07 billion ASMs. Load factor slipped 0.3 point to 82.3%.
GE Aviation won US FAA GEnx-1B engine authority for the 787 following a two-year ground and flight-test program involving eight engines and two flight-test programs. The GEnx-1B, now FAR 33 certified, ran 4,800 cycles and more than 3,600 hr.
Air France KLM extended the deadline to reach agreement with Alitalia's unions to today, AZ announced, noting that all parties including Fintecna and AZ Servizi agreed on the continuance. AF KLM initially set March 31 as the date by which the so-called effectiveness conditions of its binding offer for the failing carrier had to be fulfilled ( ATWOnline, April 1). It reportedly has agreed to further concessions in order to win trade union approval for the takeover.
IATA warned that the airline industry must consolidate if it is to survive as the organization once again lowered its 2008 industry profit projection yesterday. In early December IATA projected an aggregate industry profit of $5 billion ( ATWOnline, Dec. 13, 2007) but yesterday issued another downgrade to $4.5 billion, a figure based on global economic growth slowing to 2.6% and an average annualized price of $86 per barrel of Brent Crude.
A US House of Representatives hearing this week on FAA safety oversight "is the first step in an extensive inquiry into" the agency that also includes a "law enforcement investigation," according to a senior lawmaker who alleged that "complacency has set in at the highest levels of FAA management."
Goodrich reached agreement with Airbus to perform MRO services on various components at its Alabama Service Center in Foley. Facility expects to service flight control surfaces, pneumatic ducting and access doors.
EasyJet said it successfully completed the operational integration of GB Airways following the transition of 15 GB aircraft into its new EU-Ops Air Operators Certificate ( ATWOnline, Jan. 4). It is the first major airline to operate under the new European certificate.
NATS appointed Anne Lambert to the new role of director-government and European affairs. Bmibaby named IATA Head of Marketing and New Business Development Julian Carr as commercial director.
OnAir announced that Oman Air and Jazeera Airways will begin offering its inflight passenger communications services. Oman will install Mobile OnAir on seven new A330s to be delivered next year, offering the full range of inflight connectivity including voice, SMS, e-mails with attachments and Internet connectivity. Jazeera will provide its passengers with OnAir's inflight mobile phone services including voice, SMS and GPRS starting this year. Jazeera's six A320s flying in the Middle East will be retrofitted with OnAir equipment.
US Dept. of Homeland Security gave Maine until 5 p.m. today to agree to requirements of a federal law or face the prospect of the state's residents being unable to use their driver's licenses as valid identification at airports from May 11.
News from Travel Technology Update: The company that operates yellowpages.travel and bills it as "officially the Better Business Bureau of the international travel industry" ran afoul of none other than the Better Business Bureau for using a trademarked name without permission. The company, Idea Labz in Santa Monica, Calif., has bought a number of dot-travel names -- sandiegocalifornia.travel, miamiflorida.travel, yellowbook.travel and pricerunner.travel -- all of which take the user to the same basic interface, with a search applet that promises to "search the travel sites at the s
CONFIRMING THE LONG-PREDICTED leveling off of the aircraft re-equipment cycle, the 2008 Singapore Airshow (Feb. 19-24) lacked the feeding frenzy of new orders that has characterized the air show circuit since the current cycle began in 2005. In fact, the biggest surprise at the spanking new exhibition center came from the sidelines, not at one of the formal press conferences.
Even the most tried and tested of operations assume a fair amount of risk. Planning for unforeseen events, or for troublesome recurrences such as snowstorms, inventory shortages and labor strikes, is never a failsafe panacea for setback. For airlines and manufacturers with highly outsourced supply chains, managing disruptions and delays calls for visibility across elaborate networks, contingency planning and resiliency.
Butler International President and CEO Edward Kopko and Senior VP Jim Beckley recently spoke with Airline Procurement about the company's global expansion, engineering staffing experience and outsourcing activities. (Edited for clarity and length.) AP: Can you please provide a glimpse of Butler's business activities and engineering expertise in the aviation industry?
WHEN BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 038 plowed into the ground at the edge of London Heathrow on Jan. 17, the airline's crisis management response team sprang into action minutes after the plane came to rest and the emergency chutes deployed. Fortunately, there were no fatalities and only one serious injury, but BA was fully prepared to respond regardless of the outcome.
On March 18, American Airlines experienced one of its most horrendous weather days ever at its principal hub, Dallas/Fort Worth. It canceled hundreds of flights. Yet by the next evening, its operations were largely back to normal. American's quick recovery from what could have been a headline-making nightmare was due in large part to new software developed by its operations research department.
A number of travel agency groups, including the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, are engaged in an 11th-hour attempt to postpone the demise of paper tickets. IATA has said that after May 31, paper tickets no longer will be processed through its billing and settlement plans. The deadline does not affect travel agencies in the U.S., whose ticket sales are processed through the Airlines Reporting Corp.
The company that operates yellowpages.travel and bills it as "officially the Better Business Bureau of the international travel industry" ran afoul of none other than the Better Business Bureau for using a trademarked name without permission. The company, Idea Labz in Santa Monica, Calif., has bought a number of dot-travel names -- sandiegocalifornia.travel, miamiflorida.travel, yellowbook.travel and pricerunner.travel -- all of which take the user to the same basic interface, with a search applet that promises to "search the travel sites at the same time" but does not.
THE AVIATION INDUSTRY faces multiple challenges to remain profitable and stay ahead in business. Escalating fuel bills, the threat of a US slowdown, environmental responsibilities and customers demanding more for less are increasing cost pressures in the competitive global environment.
PAUL ALEXANDER'S PERSPECTIVE on procurement is a bit broader than others. "What [it] can sort of do is align the organization and pull together a much broader understanding of success," says British Airways' head of procurement.
Airlines increasingly obtain spare parts under agreements with maintenance providers, or from manufacturers, which can supply parts under terms of initial acquisition agreements for fees per hour. Traders offer used parts or PMA alternatives to OEM parts at discounts. Exchanges and pooling agreements offer access to parts without holding costs. Asset managers can offer access without investment as well.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSISTS AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE planners in several ways. First, IT can convert the unplanned reactions to surprises, both on the line and in the shop, into well-planned actions that reduce expensive downtime and costs. Second, IT allows the regular planning of maintenance events to be conducted and communicated much more rapidly and efficiently. But automating maintenance planning often has been difficult, time-consuming and expensive. Managers must consider a complex web of processes and other IT systems to do it well and make the transition pay off.
