Boeing yesterday operated the first 737-900ER test flight, taking off from Renton and flying for 45 min. over Washington and Oregon before landing at Boeing Field in Seattle, marking the start of a five-month test program aimed at securing FAA and EASA certification by early 2007 followed by delivery to launch customer Lion Air ( ATWOnline, July 20, 2005). The manufacturer has firm orders from five customers for 80 737-900ERs, designed to carry up to 215 passengers and fly up to 3,200 nm.
News from Travel Technology Update: Amadeus said it would reimburse subscribers for fees assessed by American Airlines and Northwest Airlines as an "interim relief measure" while it worked toward obtaining full-content agreements from the carriers. Meanwhile, Delta on Sept. 1 took the industry by surprise and announced that it, too, would impose fees of $3.50 for each segment booked through non-preferred channels beginning at noon the same day.
British Airways yesterday revealed that the disruption at London airports caused by the terrorist bombing scare cost it an estimated $75 million, a figure it said includes lost revenue and costs associated with hotel accommodation, catering and baggage repatriation. BA said advance bookings have returned to year-ago levels but are "still weaker than the trend of the past few months." It cited a drop in transfer traffic owing to carry-on baggage limitations at London airports. During the week of Aug.
Ryanair will launch service from Dublin to Malta, Stockholm Skavtsa and the Canary Islands in February as well as double frequencies to Berlin Schoenefeld, Rome Ciampino, Malaga and Faro, the LCC announced yesterday. Separately, Ryanair said it flew 4 million passengers in August, an increase of 22.9% over the year-ago month. Load factor was steady at 91%.
Continental Airlines reported a 9.6% year-over-year increase in July consolidated RASM and anticipated August growth of 6.5%-7.5%. It flew 8.4 billion system RPMs in August, an increase of 9.3% over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 8.5% to 10.19 billion ASMs and load factor grew 0.6 point to 82.4%. Domestic traffic climbed 7.1% to 3.98 billion RPMs, capacity was up 5.5% to 4.65 billion ASMs and load factor rose 1.2 points to 85.5%. International RPMs increased 11% to 3.46 billion against an 11.3% lift in ASMs to 4.31 billion, dropping load factor 0.2 point to 80.3%.
LCCs are driving global aviation growth, according to an OAG special report released in advance of the Routes Development Forum in Dubai and the World Low Cost Airlines Congress in London taking place later this month. Capacity on low-cost carriers has more than doubled in just four years. This month, budget airlines plan to fly more than 46 million seats on more than 323,000 flights compared with 22 million seats on 169,000 flights in September 2002.
Delta Air Lines yesterday received permission from the US Bankruptcy Court to terminate its pilot defined benefit pension plan. The carrier established Sept. 2 as the effective termination date but still must obtain approval from the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Termination had been opposed by a group of 100 retired pilots, but that organization removed its objection over the weekend. DL will pay the group some $500,000 to cover legal fees and other expenses.
Mary Peters, a former director of the US Federal Highway Administration, yesterday was nominated as the next US Transportation Secretary by President George Bush. "She brings a lifetime of experience on transportation issues from both the private and the public sectors," Bush said of Peters at a White House ceremony, adding that her focus will be on developing a "state-of-the-art" transportation system to meet modern needs.
Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines DG Andrew Herdman assailed recent "unduly onerous" airport security changes as a "knee-jerk" reaction to the foiled transatlantic bombing plot.
KLM will adjust its service to the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba over the next year in response to what it called "changing market conditions." From summer 2007, all flights will be aboard MD-11s instead of the present mixed fleet of 426-seat 747-400s and 282-seat MD-11s. The MD-11s will be "radically modernized" in the coming months to bring the product in line with the World Business Class and economy class standards of KLM's new 777s and A330s. Frequencies will be reduced. Aruba will be served four-times-weekly, twice in combination with Bonaire and twice with St. Maarten.
American Airlines flew 12.48 billion system RPMs in August, a 1.4% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 1.9% to 15.21 billion ASMs and load factor rose 0.4 point to 81.9%. Domestic RPMs fell 4.1% against a 4.8% drop in capacity to 9.64 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.6 point to 82.4%.
British Airways teamed with Google to launch an interactive service on its website allowing passengers to "zoom in on their destination of choice" electronically using Google Earth.
Amadeus said it would reimburse subscribers for fees assessed by American Airlines and Northwest Airlines as an "interim relief measure" while it worked toward obtaining full-content agreements from the carriers. Meanwhile, Delta on Sept. 1 took the industry by surprise and announced that it, too, would impose fees of $3.50 for each segment booked through non-preferred channels beginning at noon the same day. However, it singled out Amadeus as a non-preferred channel. Curiously, it made no mention of Worldspan, with which it had not yet announced an agreement.
On any given night, tens of thousands of pilots and flight attendants are tucked away in hotel rooms in hundreds of cities around the globe awaiting the next duty day or the trip home. No other industry uses as many rooms as do airlines. It is fundamental to the nature of the businessmany carriers used to own hotels specifically for this purpose, although this is much less so todayand the ability to travel to faraway places and spend a bit of time there always has been one of the major attractions to persons considering careers as cabin attendants or pilots.
Although it is too early to tell whether the second quarter marked the beginning of US passenger airlines' financial comeback or was merely a brief respite from years of red ink, flat capacity growth and strong demand were enough to overcome $2.10 fuel for at least three months. Following on the heels of a solid first period, the quarter ended June 30 clearly was the industry's best since 2000. For the first time since 9/11, the phrase "net income" appeared far more frequently in earnings reports than "net loss."
Lise Fournel, the airline's senior vice president of e-commerce and chief information officer, said the new system will take a modular approach and include all reservations, inventory control, seat availability, check-in and airport operations systems. The transition to the new reservations system is slated for next year. Airport modules will probably be rolled out in 2008. ITA already has some modules in place, she said, such as domestic and international faring, but the airport systems will be entirely new.
IATA revised its earnings forecast for 2006, lowering projected industrywide full-year losses to $1.7 billion from the $3 billion estimated in June ( ATWOnline, June 6). "Stronger than anticipated economic growth has boosted airline revenues, and restructuring efforts have elevated load factors to record levels," the organization said in a statement. The collective industry 2006 fuel bill will total $115 billion, it added.
Aloha Airlines parent Aloha Airgroup named Gordon Bethune chairman. He retired as Continental Airlines chairman and CEO in December 2004. ATA Airlines named Gary Ellmer, formerly of American Eagle, as senior VP-operations and GM-charter.
Aviareps reached a GSA agreement with Air Greenland covering the US, where a new route is to open in May 2007 to Baltimore/Washington International. GL operates a fleet of 24 aircraft, including one 757-200 and one A330-200 for international services.
Sabre Travel Network announced the renewal of a full-content distribution agreement with Lufthansa. Sabre will be an LH "preferred GDS" and will make the carrier's inventory available without surcharge to any agency using Sabre.
Dragonair was hit hard by fuel prices in the first half of 2006 and reported a loss of HKD43.3 million ($5.6 million), a reversal from a HKD95.2 million profit in the year-ago period. China National Aviation Co., which for now holds 43.3% of Dragonair, told Hong Kong media that fuel prices climbed 32% for the semester. Passenger revenues increased 8.5% to HKD2.97 billion on a 10.2% rise in passenger numbers to 2.6 million. Load factor improved 0.5 point to 64.6%.
