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.
THERE IS POSSIBLY NO MORE demanding yet resource-rich territory than the "outback" of Western Australia. With summer temperatures above 40 deg. C (104 deg. F) and rugged mountain ranges, it is a challenging environment for the airlines that service almost 50 towns and mine sites spread over an area about one-third the size of the continental US. But those challenges are the fuel that feeds the innovation and success of Perth-based Skywest Airlines, one of Australia's fastest-growing carriers.
FL Group has sold its entire stake in Finnair, the airline announced yesterday. It reduced its 24.4% stake to 12.7% in December ( ATWOnline, Dec. 20, 2007) and yesterday sold all of its remaining 16.3 million shares. Neither company revealed the buyer[s], but FL said the transaction was valued at ISK13.6 billion ($174.4 million).
Air France KLM and Alitalia unions will continue negotiations today after AZ Chairman Maurizio Prato gave both parties another 24 hr. to reach a basic accord, according to widespread press reports. Neither AF KLM nor the Italian carrier issued a formal statement yesterday as the deadline for reaching an agreement on the so-called effectiveness clauses for a possible tie-up expired. AF KLM previously had indicated a willingness to continue negotiating beyond the deadline ( ATWOnline, March 31).
Boeing reached agreement with Vought Aircraft Industries to acquire its interest in Global Aeronautica, a fuselage subassembly facility in North Charleston that performs work on the 787.
S7 Airlines will add four A320s to its fleet during its summer schedule, which began yesterday. First already has been delivered and will begin flying from Moscow Domodedovo to Barnaul and Krasnodar this month. Others will fly from DME to Kemerovo, Sochi, Novosibirsk and Frankfurt and from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok and Beijing, where S7 will operate out of the new Terminal 3. A320s will replace Tu-154s. It will use A319s on a thrice-weekly DME-Dublin service beginning April 27.
Ryanair will close its Dublin Telesales Operation at the end of May and cut up to 40 positions as part of a cost-reduction program announced last week ( ATWOnline, March 27). CEO Michael O'Leary said phone bookings now account for fewer than 1% of sales. Ryanair will maintain call centers in Germany and Romania, which he said are 60% cheaper to operate than the Dublin office.
Alaska Airlines flew 1.42 billion RPMs in February, up 13.5% from the year-ago month, against a 9.4% increase in capacity to 1.94 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 2.6 points to 73.3%. Finnair flew 1.77 billion RPKs in February, a 17.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 20.3% to 2.37 billion ASKs and load factor fell 2 points to 74.8%. Estonian Air carried 51,851 passengers in February, up 18.4% from the year-ago month.
Sri Lankan government named P. B. Jayasundera as the new chairman of SriLankan Airlines, in which the government holds 51.05%. It will seat four on the new board while Emirates, which holds 43.63%, will have three seats. Air India parent National Aviation Co. of India named Raghu Menon as chairman and MD effective today, when he will replace Vasudevan Thulasidas, whose term is concluding. Menon has been serving as special secretary and financial advisor in the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft purchased the Pacelab Cabin solution in order to develop customer-specific cabin configurations and "promote sales" of the Superjet 100 regional aircraft.
Northwest Airlines will join several US legacy competitors and begin charging North American economy passengers $25 for a second checked bag on each segment ( ATWOnline, March 19). Policy goes into effect May 5, applies to Northwest Airlink customers and includes an increase to $100 from $80 for three or more checked bags and to $50 from $25 for pieces weighing more than 50 lb.
American Airlines and Delta Air Lines resumed normal schedules Friday after completing inspections of wiring on hundreds of temporarily grounded aircraft, while US FAA said it will issue preliminary findings this week of its audit of domestic carriers' compliance with airworthiness directives.
Kingfisher Airlines will eliminate the Deccan brand once the carriers complete their merger in late April, Kingfisher Chairman Vijay Mallya told reporters, according to widespread press reports ( ATWOnline, Dec. 21, 2007). He also said Indian civil aviation authorities confirmed that Kingfisher will be able to fly abroad using Deccan's original operating certificate beginning Aug. 28 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 14).
Air France KLM will retain 4,191 out of approximately 7,400 AZ Servizi workers under a new plan submitted to unions last week rather than the 3,300 it originally anticipated, according to a document accessed by Reuters ( ATWOnline, March 26). It eventually plans to cut an additional 500 positions, the news agency reported, and still plans to cut approximately 1,600 employees from Alitalia's flying operation and close the cargo subsidiary in 2010.
Delta Air Lines yesterday grounded 117 MD-88s to inspect wiring, leading to an expected 275 flight cancellations through early today. The move came a day after American Airlines began wiring inspections on all 309 of its MD-80s. AA's inspections continued yesterday, leading to more than 130 flight cancellations in addition to the 325 it cancelled Wednesday ( ATWOnline, March 27). Inspections stem from US FAA's audit of domestic airlines' compliance with agency airworthiness directives.
Lufthansa Systems will continue to provide its Lido Operation Center flight planning solution to Finnair under a five-year contract extension. Agreement covers various IT solutions to optimize routing calculations.
