Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.), a member of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, has sent a letter to Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) and Ranking Member Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) expressing support "for a one-year suspension of the 4.3 cents-per-gallon excise tax on aviation fuel as the House [of Representatives] considers ways to facilitate recovery and mitigate the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita."
Sichuan Airlines selected Air France Industries to carry out three A320 D checks scheduled for completion by the end of November. The carrier operates 20 A320 family aircraft.
American Eagle flew 676 million RPMs in September, a 26.2% increase over the same period a year ago. ASMs were up 20.4% to 977 million while load factor rose 3.2 points to 69.2%. The number of passengers boarded increased 14.2% to 1.6 million. Year-to-date, RPMs grew 26.7% to 5.9 billion, ASMs were up 22.6% to 8.4 billion and load factor improved 2 points to 69.9%. Mesa Air Group's RPMs increased 12% in September to 509 million as ASMs grew at the same rate to 739 million. Load factor remained flat at 68%. The number of passengers carried rose 14% to 1 million.
Boeing yesterday confirmed that Ryanair exercised options for nine 737-800s valued at upward of $500 million with deliveries beginning in September 2007. Five airplanes will be for replacement of 737-800s delivered in 1989 and four are for growth ( ATWOnline, Oct. 5). Separately, Boeing said it will supply its Enterprise One software to China Airlines, which will use selected modules to standardize management of airplane configurations and maintenance requirements across its entire fleet.
Wizz Air carried its 2 millionth passenger Tuesday. Martyna Lelinska was traveling from Katowice to Milan Bergamo and will receive unlimited tickets for a year on the Wizz Air network. The airline carried its millionth passenger in April, 11 months after it began operations.
AeroData's ACARS Performance and Weight & Balance System was selected by AirTran Airways, which operates more than 500 daily flights across North America, for use by its pilots.
British Airways flew 9.85 billion RPKs in September, an increase of 7.8% on the year-ago period, on a 5.5% capacity hike to 12.37 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 1.7 points to 79.6%. The increase in traffic comprised an 11.6% gain in premium and a 7.2% rise in nonpremium traffic. Passenger boardings grew 2.8% to 3.21 million and compared with 3.03 passengers million on Ryanair's network. Cargo measured in CTKs rose 0.5% and overall load factor dipped 0.2 point to 72.2%.
American Airlines reported that system RPMs rose 9.1% in September compared to the same month last year to 10.74 billion. Strongest growth was registered on Pacific routes, where traffic jumped 21%, although this is AA's smallest division with RPMs of just 457 million out of total international RPMs of 3.74 billion. Latin America traffic was up 17.4% while transatlantic traffic climbed 6.7% and domestic traffic rose 7.3%. Total capacity (ASMs) increased 5% to 14.1 billion, with the strongest growth in the Pacific, up 32%.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines claims it is the first carrier to offer customers Internet check-in using their mobile phones. SAS MobilePortal, launched in Sweden Oct. 3- 4, also permits customers to check flight times and their EuroBonus points from their phones. They can book rental cars, read the latest news and even order flowers. SAS expects to roll the service out to the rest of Scandinavia later this fall. It developed the mobile portal in cooperation with Digital Act Stockholm AB. The solution is based on the adimo mobile platform and works with both GSM and 3G subscriptions.
The 27-day strike by assembly workers at Boeing that ended last Friday ( ATWOnline, Oct. 3) cut into third-quarter aircraft production as the company reported that it delivered 62 commercial aircraft in the period, down from 67 in the year-ago quarter despite rising production rates. Current-period deliveries comprised three 717s, 47 737NGs, two 747s, two 767s and eight 777s. This compares with three 717s, 49 737NGs, two 747s, three 757s, two 767s and eight 777s delivered in the third quarter of 2004.
One-day national strike by French public workers yesterday resulted in several hundred flight cancellations. According to the BBC, more than 400 cancellations occurred at Paris airports. Ryanair preemptively canceled more than 70 flights while easyJet dropped at least 10. Air France said it intended to operate all of its long-haul flights but short-haul travelers might experience some delays and cancellations. Other airlines merely stated that they expected some disruptions to service.
Emirates SkyCargo and Korean Air Cargo agreed to share cargo capacity on KAL flights to Delhi and Mumbai. Emirates SkyCargo now has an additional 22 tons on offer to Dubai on Korean's 747-400F weekly services from Delhi (Fridays) and Mumbai (Wednesdays).
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh reiterated earlier statements from the board that BA will remain true to its full-service concept, again rebuffing rumors that he intends to copy the low-fare strategy he implemented at Aer Lingus to turn to Irish carrier around. BA has "a renowned reputation for premium travel, and my aim is to make sure that we deliver a world-class experience for all," Walsh said in an interview with the Financial Times.
SAS reached an agreement with Sabre under which the GDS will continue to distribute its "comprehensive and complete content" while achieving lower distribution costs. "We endeavor to give the market full access to SAS's products through the global distribution systems, but while doing so, we need to seek new means to reduce our distribution costs to a competitive level. The agreement with Sabre is a step in the right direction," said SAS Senior VP-Commercial Robin Kamark. Details of the agreement were not released.
Boeing said it will introduce passive radio frequency identification "smart labels" on significant 787 maintenance parts. Typical parts to include RFID tags will be "serialized end items such as LRUs and life-limited parts, as well as onboard emergency equipment."
US FAA on Friday gave the green light to the City of Chicago's massive O'Hare Modernization Program and Airport Layout Plan that calls for realignment of the airport's runways to eliminate most intersecting runways. Currently, six of ORD's seven runways cross paths. In its Record of Decision, FAA said the plan "is the best alternative to improve safety, increase capacity and reduce delays with the least environmental impact."
News from Travel Technology Update: One of the more contentious "partnerships" of the era of online travel sales has landed in court again -- or rather, in two courts. Orbitz accused Worldspan, its GDS provider, with a long-running "scheme" to conceal its position on certain contractual issues in order to entice Orbitz into signing amended agreements. Worldspan then "sprang" claims of wrongdoing on Orbitz and demanded $40 million, Orbitz's complaint charged. Worldspan, meanwhile, accused Orbitz of "stealing" its "valuable data."
Japan Airlines Group appointed Katsuhiko Nawano to serve on the boards of JAL International and JAL Domestic with responsibility for China business activities for JAL International. He also will handle special assignments at the direction of President Toshiyuki Shinmachi in both JAL International and JAL Domestic. Nawano, 58, is a former senior official at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Boeing on Friday said it selected Thales "as the first recommended inflight entertainment provider" for the Dreamliner program. Thales has been competing with Panasonic for the designation and is offering its TopSeries I-8000, which uses a wireless network to deliver audio/video on demand programming to each passenger. The system interfaces with the Connexion by Boeing connectivity product offering. Thales had a chance to demo its system on the 777-200LR Worldliner marketing aircraft that toured Europe in July to demonstrate capabilities to airline executives.
Aegean Airlines is a possible candidate to be the next Star Alliance regional member. The Greek carrier begins codeshare services with Lufthansa this autumn. Lufthansa, which was the sponsoring airline for Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines to join Star regional, could offer the same option to Aegean. "Normally the carrier decides which sponsoring partner they want. But we would be interested to help," Lufthansa Group Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber told ATWOnline.
Discover the World Marketing opened an office in Malta to handle sales and marketing representation for Alitalia, bringing the number of Discover offices to 83 in 54 countries.
