Airline fares are expected to trend upward in 2008 in response to continued strong demand, generally tight capacity and higher fuel prices, according to the "Global Business Travel Forecast" released by American Express Travel Advisory Services yesterday. US domestic and short-haul economy fares will rise 1%-5% while international/long-haul business fares climb 5%-10%. Domestic/short-haul fares in Canada should rise 2%-5% while international/long-haul business fares climb 5%-8%.
Continental Airlines granted multiyear IT service contracts to EDS and Hewlett-Packard. Some of the work will involve migration of legacy applications to modern platforms and integration of servers, storage and software. Enaxis Consulting helped Continental through the selection and award process.
Air Mauritanie, which ceased operations last month, has been liquidated owing to its inability to pay off $2.7 million in debt related to aircraft leased from ILFC. Two 737-700s are grounded in France while one F28 and one 727 have been stored at Nouakchott, leaving Mauritania without a national carrier for the time being. A new airline called Mauritanie Airways is scheduled to start operating Nov. 8. That company will be owned 51% by Tunisair, 39% by Groupe Boumatou and 10% by the Mauritanian government. No details have been released regarding its aircraft or network.
US Air Transport Assn. blasted the New York JFK airline scheduling meeting being held in Washington yesterday and today at the behest of the US Dept. of Transportation and FAA as "fundamentally flawed" and said DOT appears intent on imposing "anti-marketplace" schedule reductions and "most likely" congestion pricing at the crowded airport.
JetBlue Airways will launch daily flights from New York JFK to Puerto Plata (from Jan. 10) and St. Maarten (from Jan. 17) and a daily Salt Lake City-Burbank service on Dec. 15, all aboard A320s. JetBlue flew 1.84 billion RPMs in September, up 11.8% on the year-ago month, against a 13.7% rise in ASKs to 2.57 billion that lowered load factor 1.2 points to 71.4%.
Emirates raised $239 million with the support of the US Export-Import Bank to finance two 777-200LRs delivered in August and September. The 12-year financing was arranged and funded by BNP Paribas and its leasing subsidiary Capstar Partners.
FAA Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell yesterday was nominated by President George W. Bush to succeed Marion Blakey, whose five-year term as administrator expired last month. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters urged Sturgell's confirmation, saying the former deputy administrator "has worked tirelessly. . .to fight congestion and modernize our aviation system while preserving the safest period in aviation on record." Air Transport Assn. lent its support despite the current row over proposed schedule caps at New York JFK (see story above).
Alitalia, TAP Portugal and Air France are facing labor issues this week. Work stoppages by the National Flight Assistance Co. and Air Transport Regione Lombardier forced the cancellation of nearly 300 AZ flights Monday in Milan and Rome plus today's Osaka-Milan Malpensa service. TAP said the Civil Aviation Pilots Union scheduled a 3-hr. strike yesterday, a 24-hr. stoppage on Thursday and a 13-hr.
Naverus named United Airlines Senior VP-Flight Operations Steve Forte as its new COO, effective Nov. 1. Air Jamaica released a statement confirming last week's resignation of CEO Michael Conway, saying that his contract "offered the option" to resign owing to a change in the national government, which owns the carrier. The airline's new board, chaired by Shirley Williams, will meet this week. "She will be temporarily assuming a larger executive role until the new direction of the airline's management is determined," the carrier said.
Aeroflot will decide within two weeks whether to submit a second bid for Alitalia, according to press reports citing SU Deputy GD-Finance and Planning Mikhail Poluboyrarinov, who said the airline may raise up to €1 billion ($1.43 billion) to finance the acquisition. SU was named on a shortlist of potential bidders two weeks ago ( ATWOnline, Oct. 9).
Garuda Indonesia 737-400 crash at Yokyakarta that killed 21 people in March ( ATWOnline, April 9) was the result of pilot error, according to widespread press reports citing comments from National Transportation Safety Commission Chairman Tatang Kurniadi. The pilot, who reportedly had more than 15,000 hr. of -400 flight time, approached the runway at 408 kph--approximately 65% faster than normal--despite at least 15 alerts from the GPWS and advice from the copilot, Kurniadi said.
US FAA yesterday touted "significant short-term actions" taken in the past 60 days to improve runway safety and noted that "serious" incursions for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 were down to 24 from 31 in the previous year. But the agency also conceded that development of technology that could help reduce incursions is moving at a slower pace than anticipated.
News from Travel Technology Update: SITA plans to develop a new passenger reservations system based on service-oriented architecture that will offer a complete suite of reservations, inventory, ticketing and departure control systems. The new, as-yet unnamed system will be the "final installment" of SITA's Horizon portfolio of passenger management solutions. SITA said it will result in "the retirement of today's mainframe technology following a well-managed migration to new applications."
LOT Polish Airlines management board last week presented a new "seven pillar" strategy for the 2008-12 period. The company plans to standardize its fleet, maintain two brands (LOT and low-cost subsidiary Centralwings), develop connections in the east (especially in Russia and Ukraine) and increase sales through the Internet by a minimum 40% in the next five years. The board also anticipates listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange no later than 2008 and achieving a net profit of PLN200 million ($77.6 million) in 2012.
Lufthansa Systems signed a contract with Austrian Airlines for the use of SchedConnect, which will manage and optimize OS's codeshare schedules. The carrier offers more than 340,000 codeshare connections with more than 40 partners.
Skyservice Airlines announced that Gibralt Capital Corp. of Vancouver completed acquisition of a "majority interest" in Skyservice's charter business ( ATWOnline, Aug. 30), with no changes planned for the carrier's leadership, workforce or operations. Skyservice's business aviation operation will continue to be owned by Skyservice Investments.
Ofcom, the UK communications industry regulator, last week issued a proposal to enable airlines to offer "mobile communication services" on UK-registered aircraft. "One of Ofcom's objectives is to create opportunities for companies to develop innovative technologies, in particular to make the most efficient use of the radio spectrum for the benefit of citizens and consumers," the agency said in a statement.
The Transport Workers Union said it filed documents with the US National Mediation Board on behalf of Continental Airlines' 8,000 nonunionized fleet service workers seeking to provide representation for them.
Continental Airlines flew 7.29 billion consolidated RPMs in September, up 5.6% from the year-ago month, against a 4.5% lift in ASKs to 9.23 billion. Load factor rose 0.8 point to 79%. Air China flew 5.94 billion RPKs in September, up 6% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 1.4% to 7.13 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 3.6 points to 83.3%. AirTran Airways flew 1.26 billion RPMs in September, a 32.3% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 19.3% to 1.83 billion ASMs and load factor was up 6.7 points to 68.5%.
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. promoted MD-Planning Andrew Levy to CFO. Scott Sheldon was named principal accounting officer. Finnair named MD-11 fleet captain Veikko Sievanen senior VP-flight operations division. SR Technics announced that Chairman and CEO Hans Lerch will relinquish the latter title effective Jan. 1. New CEO will be Bernd Kessler, who has been president and CEO-commercial maintenance at MTU Aero Engines since 2004. He will leave the company this month.
Boeing Shanghai Aviation Service Co., a JV launched last year by Boeing, Shanghai Airlines and Shanghai Airport Group, expects its hangar at Pudong to be operational in 2009, company CEO Timothy Premselaar said. The hangar will be constructed in two phases. At the conclusion of the first in April 2009 it will hold two 747s or two 777s, and by 2010 its capacity is expected to double. BSASC said the hangar will be engaged mainly in aircraft reconfiguration.
Eos Airlines said it will acquire its seventh and eighth 757s thanks to the $50 million injection received during the summer and launch Newark-London Stansted and New York JFK-Paris (airport unidentified) service next spring and fall respectively. Eos said further details will be announced "in the coming months."
Chalk's Ocean Airways, which suffered a fatal crash of a Grumman Turbo Mallard in December 2005 ( ATWOnline, May 31), lost its operating license and has not operated since early last month, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Chalk's had been leasing aircraft from Big Sky Airlines but failed to secure FAA re-approval for its own aircraft or acquire new ones, the paper said, so it lost its license.
Air India Chairman V. Thulasidas said Friday that the carrier remains in negotiations with Star Alliance but has not reached a final decision to join, The Economic Times reported. "We can announce our alliance only after a formal agreement is reached," he told the paper.
