European Commission yesterday adopted a proposal for an amendment to its slots regulation that would see a temporary freeze of the "80-20 rule" during the March 29-Oct. 24 summer schedule. The rule requires airlines to use their slots at an 80% rate or return them to the pool. The new measure will apply for only one season.
American Airlines' booked load factors over the next four months are running 2.5 points behind last year's pace, Executive VP-Finance and Planning and CFO Tom Horton said yesterday at the JP Morgan Aviation and Transportation Conference in New York. International loads are down 4.5 points and domestic have fallen 2 points. "We're seeing some improvement from what we were looking at in January, but some is being driven by yields coming down from their highs in the fourth quarter," he said.
MexicanaClick, Mexicana's low-cost/regional subsidiary, will lease 25 717-200s from Boeing Capital Corp. Delivery will begin this month and aircraft will replace Click's F100s. The 717s will seat 20 in business class and 84 in economy. Contract includes provision of training for flight crew, cabin staff and maintenance technicians, as well as spare parts, by Boeing's Commercial Aviation Services division.
UFO trade union representing Lufthansa flight attendants authorized open-ended strikes by a 96%-4% voting margin, according to a union statement cited by Reuters. Negotiations between UFO and LH failed late last month ( ATWOnline, Feb. 19).
Delta Air Lines and Midwest Airlines forged an alliance that will include codeshare flights, linked loyalty programs, joint marketing efforts and expanded access to airport lounges across North America. Agreement announced yesterday is an extension of an existing deal between Midwest and DL subsidiary Northwest Airlines. The codeshare arrangement between Midwest and DL takes effect in June, with the loyalty program link to follow.
Gol said yesterday that it will take a "disciplined" approach to capacity in 2009, reducing overall full-year capacity by 1% year-over-year comprising a 25% cut in international ASKs and 5% growth in the domestic market.
Virgin Atlantic Airways will suspend its London Heathrow-Mumbai service on May 2, citing falling passenger demand and "irrational pricing" by rivals. Passenger numbers declined 18% between January and November 2008, VS said. Separately, it promoted Director of Engineering Steve Griffiths to COO, succeeding Lyell Strambi.
Air Canada and Jazz flew a combined 3.41 billion RPMs in February, a 10.5% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 11% to 4.28 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.4 point to 79.6%. EasyJet transported 3 million passengers in February, down 6.8% year-over-year. Load factor rose 2.4 points to 87%. Air Berlin said February unit revenue rose 12% year-over-year to €5.28 cents (6.68 cents). Passenger numbers declined 8.5% to 1.9 million on a 6.3% cut in capacity. Load factor fell 1.7 points to 72.5%.
The UK Department for Transport yesterday outlined its airport regulation reform proposals, which it claimed are designed to improve the passenger experience and call for CAA to promote the interests of passengers as a primary responsibility and to ensure that airports meet environmental obligations.
American Airlines on Sunday operated the first revenue flight with an Aviation Partners Boeing blended winglet-equipped 767-300ER. AA Flight 78 left Dallas/Fort Worth Sunday evening and arrived at London Heathrow yesterday morning. AA plans to install winglets on each of its 58 -300ERs by 2011 and expects to save up to 500,000 gal. of fuel per aircraft each year, depending in mileage. Winglets were installed at AA's Kansas City maintenance base. The airline's 124 757s and 77 737s already fly with winglets.
Aerolift Il-76 freighter en route from Entebbe to Mogadishu crashed in Lake Victoria shortly after takeoff yesterday and none of the four crew or seven passengers are believed to have survived. The aircraft was chartered by Dynacorp to ferry equipment and peacekeepers for the African Union mission in Somalia. It marked the second fatal Aerolift accident in fewer than three weeks as it followed the Feb. 20 crash of an An-12 freighter on takeoff after a refueling stop in Luxor ( ATWOnline, Feb. 23).
China Eastern Airlines is considering joining a global airline alliance in an effort to improve its financial performance, according to Chairman Liu Shaoyong, who told reporters in Beijing that the Shanghai-based carrier is scheduled to evaluate the three global alliances in June in order to find the most "suitable" fit.
AirTran Airways said yesterday that it expects to return to the black in the current quarter and post a full-year profit. The carrier reported a $273.8 million full-year loss for 2008 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 29), but in materials presented at a Raymond James conference in Orlando it said it will be the "leading beneficiary" from lower fuel costs in the US because fuel comprises 46% of its costs, which it said is the highest percentage in the US industry.
Southwest Airlines yesterday launched service at Minneapolis-St. Paul with eight-times-daily service to Chicago Midway. SWA will operate from two gates at MSP's Humphrey Terminal ( ATWOnline, Oct. 2). Delta Air Lines will launch thrice-weekly Atlanta-Brasilia flights Dec. 17 aboard a 757-200ER. Finnair will suspend its four-times-weekly Helsinki-Mumbai service from May until mid-October due to "unfavorable economic conditions" and overcapacity.
News from Travel Technology Update: After wrangling with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Spirit Airlines last week reinstated a "Passenger Usage Fee" of $4.90 each way. Spirit began charging the fee last summer, along with a $2.50 "natural occurrence interruption fee" and an $8.50 "international service recovery fee." A natural occurrence is more commonly known as "weather." The recovery fee aimed to offset the costs of doing business with international destinations.
Air New Zealand was expected to operate a "tailored arrival" into Los Angeles yesterday as part of a trial to prove the procedure's viability into one of the world's busiest airports. NZ Flight 2, a 777-200ER, was due to complete the tailored arrival at 3 p.m. local time. It is approximately 30 mi. shorter than the conventional arrival and features a customized, efficient descent from cruise to runway, eliminating a stepped approach and saving time and fuel.
Alaska Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Assn. announced an agreement "in concept" on a new four-year labor deal covering 1,500 pilots. Meetings are scheduled this week "to finalize the agreement language," AS said. Negotiations have been ongoing since January 2007.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary late last week continued to insist he was serious about charging for onboard lavatory use but issued a rare mea culpa regarding the LCC's investment in rival Aer Lingus. Many observers believe that the outspoken O'Leary merely was stirring the pot when he suggested charging £1 ($1.41) to use the bathroom inflight ( ATWOnline, March 2), but in a press briefing on March 5 he claimed he already has been in touch with Boeing about modifying the lavatory doors on Ryanair's 737s.
Air France KLM flew 14.04 billion RPKs in February, down 6% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 4.5% to 18.92 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 1.2 points to 74.3%. Delta Air Lines flew 7.69 billion RPMs in February, down 9.2% year-over-year. Capacity fell 6.2% to 10.61 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 2.4 points to 72.5%. Northwest Airlines flew 5.14 billion RPMs in February, a 13.6% decline year-over-year, against a 10.2% fall in ASMs to 6.66 billion. Load factor dropped 3 points to 77.2%.
GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies announced a 25-year pressure sensor contract with Honeywell, which will use them on the A350 XWB's air management and conditioning system. Contract is expected to generate $80 million, GE said.
US House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week approved a new FAA reauthorization bill that would provide $70 billion in funding for the agency through 2012 and includes a controversial amendment requiring the US Dept. of Transportation to renew airline alliances' antitrust immunity every three years. The bill also calls for ATC to continue to be funded largely by airline ticket taxes rather than user fees that would force business aviation to provide more system funding.
Lufthansa Cargo said Friday that it will ground two MD-11 freighters based at Leipzig/Halle and park two more aircraft at Frankfurt. The FRA pair will not fly but will be maintained so that they may resume operations immediately if demand dictates. "This reduction equals about 20% of the total capacity of our 19 MD-11F strong fleet. We transferred the [two] aircraft to Leipzig because we got a good offer from the airport [for long-term parking]," an LH spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline.
Finnair Technical Services and Iberia Maintenance signed a seven-year component support agreement under which Iberia will provide spares and related repair services for AY A330s and A340s. FTS in turn will perform component repairs on IB A320s and CFM-56B engines. The contract is expected to generate around €30 million ($37.8 million) in turnover. Work will commence in April, when IB is scheduled to send an A320 to FTS for heavy maintenance.
Frontier Airlines Holdings announced a firm commitment for $40 million in post-petition debtor-in-possession financing from Republic Airways Holdings, subject to bankruptcy court approval. The new facility refinances an existing loan scheduled to mature in April and increases available financing, Frontier President and CEO Sean Menke said. Frontier hopes to exit bankruptcy protection this year.
