Southwest Airlines said it will allow members of its Rapid Rewards frequent-flyer program 24 months to earn credits for free travel, up from 12 months today. Also, effective Feb. 10, it "will remove systemwide blackout dates and implement seat restrictions for award travel."
For the third year in a row, British Airways suffered a major operational meltdown at its biggest hub during the summer high season. After canceling more than 100 flights at London Heathrow Thursday ( ATWOnline, Aug. 12) when 1,000 baggage handlers and ramp workers walked off their jobs to protest firings at caterer Gate Gourmet, the airline suspended operations for most of Friday as well, resulting in at least 500 flight cancellations and affecting an estimated 70,000 passengers across its system.
Southwest Airlines said it will allow members of its Rapid Rewards frequent-flyer program 24 months to earn credits for free travel, up from 12 months today. Also, effective Feb. 10, it "will remove systemwide blackout dates and implement seat restrictions for award travel."
Lufthansa will close for economic reasons its cabin crew bases in Bremen, Hannover, Cologne and Nurnberg starting with the winter schedule. According to staff magazine Lufthanseat, the carrier also is looking to close Stuttgart. Affected cabin staff will be offered the opportunity to transfer to one of the other LH bases.
As of Friday, a $5-$10 fare increase per one-way ticket on most US domestic airline tickets appeared to be holding, with American, Continental, Northwest, United and US Airways matching an earlier action by Delta Air Lines. LCCs America West and JetBlue also said they will raise fares in certain markets. This is the eleventh time this year that airlines have been able to push through a fare increase, JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker stated.
Delta Air Lines will begin operating MD-88s on the Delta Shuttle between New York LaGuardia, Boston Logan and Reagan Washington National airports Nov. 1, replacing 737-300s currently flying the route. The 737-300s are configured for 120 seats in a spacious single-class arrangement. Switching to the larger MD-88s means Delta can offer 134 seats in the same configuration. "Delta Shuttle customers have asked for more availability on this highly popular, hourly route and we're delivering it, along with our new comfortable cabin interiors," said Delta CMO Paul Matsen.
Stating that "the US airline industry has permanently changed and Northwest Airlines has no choice but must change with it," President and CEO Doug Steenland yesterday reaffirmed the carrier's commitment to fly through a strike by its mechanics and detailed contingency plans should a job action occur. The 30-day cooling-off period expires at 12:01 a.m. Aug. 20 after which the mechanics, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., will be free to strike. Negotiations between the two sides resume on Monday.
In a clear indication that the era of government meddling in Thai Airways International is not over, the airline's president, Kanok Abhiradee, was removed at least temporarily after being criticized by the country's prime minister for failing to react swiftly enough to a series of external crises enveloping the carrier.
Amadeus will provide its Altea technology platform to Pulkovo to replace its legacy system and support the Russian carrier's modernization and growth strategy. In what Amadeus described as a "five-year, multimillion-euro deal," Pulkovo will implement the Altea Plan inventory management system as well as the multichannel sales and reservations system Altea Sell.
A labor dispute at Gate Gourmet's London Heathrow catering operation snowballed into a major headache for British Airways and its passengers yesterday as 1,000 BA airport ground workers walked off their jobs in sympathy with some 800 catering employees who had been fired by Gate Gourmet the day before. Both the catering and airline employees--baggage handlers and ramp workers--are members of the Transport and General Workers Union. Furthermore, Gate Gourmet provides catering for BA flights at LHR.
Independence Air parent FLYi, which warned earlier this week that it might be forced to file for bankruptcy or liquidate ( ATWOnline, Aug. 11), received a reprieve from Airbus when the manufacturer agreed to defer deliveries of firm ordered aircraft and return a $31.5 million deposit. "As of Tuesday, we said our number one focus was to increase cash flow to improve liquidity," Independence spokesperson Rick DeLisi told ATWOnline. "This is a step. We are still looking at all contingencies and possibilities.
Delta Air Lines delayed filing a routine quarterly financial report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as it negotiates a new credit card processing agreement. The current agreement expires Aug. 29 and the carrier said that "the potential Visa/MasterCard processor has advised [Delta] that it will require a significant cash reserve," known as a holdback, for tickets purchased using Visa or MasterCard but not yet flown. Delta is trying to reduce the size of the holdback to free up cash.
World Airways Holdings appointed Jeffrey MacKinney to the board of directors. He was named president of World Airways in April. Eos Airlines, a startup that intends to offer premium service between New York and London Stansted using 757s, named David S. Pottruck nonexecutive chairman. He is MD of The Pottruck Group, a San Francisco private equity firm.
The German federal cabinet Wednesday adopted a legislative proposal paving the way for privatization of DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung, the German air traffic control authority. The action was welcomed by the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization, which stated that the decision "supports a more flexible European air traffic management system and should result in fewer air traffic delays, while airlines should also benefit from lower fuel consumption."
EADS Sogerma Services will lease A330 spares worth $7 million from aviation spares specialist A.J. Walter Aviation to support Sogerma customers worldwide.
Blue1, the Finnish SAS subsidiary, carried 97,000 passengers in July, up 24% compared to last year. Year-to-date through July, 804,000 passengers flew with Blue1, 30% more than in 2004. RPKs increased 29% and ASKs dipped 4% in July. Load factor rose to 76.3%.
Garuda and Singapore Airlines will be able to increase services as the result of an MOU signed yesterday between Singapore and Indonesia that formalizes an agreement in principle reached in May. SIA will be given more access to Bali and Jakarta while Garuda will get fifth freedom traffic rights from Singapore.
Aviapartner will provide ramp handling to Scandinavian Airlines at both Dusseldorf and Hannover from Oct. 1 under a new three-year agreement. It already handles SAS at Brussels, Lyon, Nice, Turin and Venice.
Goodrich Corp. board of directors elected Scott Kuechle senior VP and CFO. He succeeds Rick Schmidt, who is leaving to become CFO of Spirit AeroSystems. Kuechle is a 22-year veteran of Goodrich and has served as VP and controller since 2004.
Boeing and Qualcomm said they successfully demonstrated "the simultaneous use of CDMA and GSM mobile phone technology over an onboard network inflight mobile phone" on Boeing's Connexion One 737demonstrator. Passengers were able to download a variety of applications, send and receive e-mail and use instant message functions.
EVA Air will offer OnAir's two-way SMS beginning with its first 777-300ER that enters service this month. An English-language version will be followed by a Chinese version later in the year. The service will be available to passengers in all cabins and will cost $1.50 per message sent or received. It allows passengers to use the in-seat entertainment system to send messages to mobile phones and e-mail addresses and also to receive replies. The system will be installed on the entire EVA Air fleet over the next few years.
Royal Jordanian carried 186,300 passengers in July, up 3.8% over the same month in 2004 and a record for July. VP-Commercial Hussein Dabbas said load factor rose 3.8 points to 81.6% . The airline carried approximately 984,000 passengers between January and July, up 4.2% over the year-ago period. Based on preliminary figures, it expects to carry around 192,000 passengers in August.
Aviareps opened a new North American branch in Toronto. It already has one in Miami. GM is Matt Bloom, who is responsible for all sales and marketing activities. He has more than 17 years of experience in the tourism industry and previously acted in leading positions for both airlines and destinations.
