SENIOR AIRBUS EXECUTIVES gathered at the manufacturer's headquarters here earlier this year for a high-level meeting on the revamped A350 XWB. As they discussed how the aircraft would be constructed at sites across Europe, a chart was displayed. EADS CEO and then-Airbus CEO Louis Gallois quickly noticed it contained images of flags denoting France, Germany, Spain and the UK.
American Airlines took Google to court over the sale of its keywords to other companies for use in Google searches. In its complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, American took issue with Google's practice of allowing other companies to bid on "American Airlines" as a search term, which allows the companies' ads to appear in the paid search field to the right of "organic" search results.
The two companies filed with the European Commission for antitrust approval to create the new entity. European Union law requires such a filing. Regulatory approval in the U.S. is not required. In a statement, the companies said that "the intent of the joint venture is to establish an industry standard solution to improve and better meet the requirements of the travel industry with payment efficiencies, increased automation, and improved interoperability." "There's no industry standard now for payments not covered by the Airlines Reporting Corp. or BSPs," a Sabre spokeswoman said.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. named Rohit Philip as VP-financial planning and analysis, Todd Arkenberg as VP-employee experience and Robert Sahadevan as VP-Mileage Plus.
Sensis Corp. announced that its Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X system at Louisville International Airport is operational. According to Sensis, ASDE-X uses a combination of surface movement radar, transponder multilateration and ADS-B sensors "to provide controllers with an accurate picture of the location and identity of aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface." The system also features conflict detection and alerting technology.
A380 received EASA and US FAA approval to operate on runways with a width of 45 m. or more, which is the standard at most airports around the world, Airbus said. The aircraft already has visited 45 airports and the manufacturer claimed that more than 70 will be ready for the A380 by 2011.
China's LCCs, which are facing a lack of access to trunk routes, restriction on the introduction of new aircraft and pilot shortages, are experiencing mixed results in their efforts to attract the foreign investors they need to move forward with listing plans. Spring Airlines has met with success, sealing a deal with Citibank under which the latter will serve as strategic investor and financial adviser, Spring spokesperson Zhang Lei revealed ( ATWOnline, July 4).
Ramco said TACA Regional, which consists of Grupo TACA's domestic carriers operating within Central America--Inter and Aviateca (Guatemala), Islena (Honduras), Sansa (Costa Rica) and Aeroperlas (Panama)--will deploy its Maintenance & Engineering Solution and Aviation Financial Solution.
Alitalia Chairman Berardino Libonati resigned from both his position and the board yesterday. The AZ board is scheduled to convene today in order to discuss the options facing the carrier following the government's failure to sell its stake at auction.
Qantas finalized the first of three investment installments in Vietnam's Pacific Airlines, taking an 18% stake. The entire investment for 30% will be concluded over the next two years ( ATWOnline, April 27). Jetstar Airways CEO Alan Joyce and CFO David Hall will represent Qantas Group on Pacific's six-member board, while QF and Jetstar executives will fill a number of key management roles to support the investment.
GE Aviation said Republic Airways signed a 10-year OnPoint Solutions agreement extending maintenance and overhaul coverage to the CF34-8Es powering the 119 E-170s/-175s in service or on order. GE valued the agreement at more than $240 million.
United Airlines said it received more than 1,000 applications for 100 open pilot positions over a 10-day period. It is hiring new pilots for the first time since 2001 ( ATWOnline, July 17). US Airways and the International Assn. of Machinists are scheduled to begin National Mediation Board-facilitated talks today in Washington regarding the final transition agreements covering more than 10,000 fleet service employees and mechanics. US and the IAM approached the NMB last week.
An-12 freighter belonging to cargo carrier Atran crashed shortly after takeoff from Moscow Domodedovo early Sunday, killing all seven crew onboard. Flight 9655 was on its way to Omsk with nine tons of cargo but crashed and burned in a forest about 4 km. from the end of Runway 32C. The Ivchenko AI-20M-6-powered turboprop first flew in 1964, according to the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network. It was Atran's first hull loss accident.
Aeroflot flew 2.19 billion RPKs in June, up 9.3% on the year-ago month. Load factor was 72.5%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 678.5 million RPMs in June, up 17.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed at the same rate to 779.7 million ASMs leaving load factor steady at 87%. Air Berlin transported 2.2 million passengers in June, up 13.9% on the year-ago month. Load factor was up 0.5 point to 80.3%.
Northwest Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights over the past four days as it continues to contend with high levels of pilot absenteeism ( ATWOnline, July 2). The carrier, which emerged from bankruptcy at the end of May, has announced plans to slash domestic mainline capacity by 4% in August and hire new pilots. It will release its second-quarter financial results today. Pilots have expressed concern over bonuses given to senior executives upon emergence from Chapter 11.
Aviareps said it is offering passenger revenue accounting as a new service in cooperation with Tiralis Global. Separately, Aircalin extended its cooperation with Aviareps beyond Canada to include Germany.
Italian government will not be able to sell its stake in Alitalia through private negotiations, Economy Minister Tomasso Padoa-Schioppa said last week in Cortina D'Ampezzo, according to widespread press reports from Italy. He argued that the courts would investigate why the government negotiated with one suitor rather than another, making the transaction impossible to complete. The government has not revealed its course of action following its failure to sell off its 49.9% stake.
International passenger growth remains robust but cargo growth has halved in the first six months of 2007, IATA reported yesterday. Passenger traffic measured in RPKs rose 6.3% over the first half of 2006, slightly higher than the 5.9% recorded for full-year 2006. However, RPK growth weakened in June to 5.3%, the lowest rate in nine months. While freight demand expressed as FTKs increased only 2.7% in the first semester, well below the 4.6% recorded for full-year 2006, June demand was up 4.9%.
World Airways reached a tentative five-year labor agreement with cabin staff represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The deal will be presented to membership for ratification.
News from Travel Technology Update: Sabre Travel Network is on the verge of rolling out a new product that will enable it to house a "mirror image" of a carrier's inventory within its system to provide a more accurate picture of the airline's availability.
OEMServices was selected by Singapore Airlines to provide A380-800 component support services under a 14-year agreement. OEMServices, a joint venture company formed by A380 suppliers Diehl Aerospace, Liebherr-Aerospace, Thales and Zodiac (acting through IN-Services), will provide "complete support services for more than 600 part numbers." The agreement covers door-to-door repair and overhaul service including advance exchange for more than 300 components as well as coverage of SIA's overseas stations.
