The US Dept. of Transportation released "target figures" for the number of flights it believes can be handled "safely" at New York JFK ahead of meetings between the government and airlines serving the airport ( ATWOnline, Oct. 17), scheduled for today and Wednesday in Washington.
Garuda Indonesia 737-400 crash at Yokyakarta that killed 21 people in March ( ATWOnline, April 9) was the result of pilot error, according to widespread press reports citing comments from National Transportation Safety Commission Chairman Tatang Kurniadi. The pilot, who reportedly had more than 15,000 hr. of -400 flight time, approached the runway at 408 kph--approximately 65% faster than normal--despite at least 15 alerts from the GPWS and advice from the copilot, Kurniadi said.
Qantas announced an order for 12 Q400s for regional subsidiary QantasLink, plus options and purchase rights for an additional 24. Firm order deliveries will begin in June 2008 and boost QantasLink's Q400 fleet to 21 aircraft. QF CEO Geoff Dixon said the order is valued at A$400 million ($356 million) and that the 72-seat aircraft are "central to QantasLink's growth strategy." The carrier will retire its 36-seat Dash 8-100s by early 2010. It is forecasting annual capacity growth of 19% during the July 2008-June 2010 period.
US FAA yesterday touted "significant short-term actions" taken in the past 60 days to improve runway safety and noted that "serious" incursions for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 were down to 24 from 31 in the previous year. But the agency also conceded that development of technology that could help reduce incursions is moving at a slower pace than anticipated.
Dongbei Air, the new regional that Sichuan Airlines plans to launch in the first half of next year, is expected to receive CAAC approval soon. According to a CAAC statement, Sichuan will hold a 33.5% stake in the startup with an investment of CNY53.6 million ($7.1 million), while Shenyang Zhongrui Investment Co. put in CNY54.4 million for 34% stake.
US FAA officials were forced to spend much of yesterday's briefing on runway safety (see story above) responding to questions concerning reports that NASA conducted a comprehensive pilot survey revealing that near midair collisions and runway incursions occur twice as often as FAA data show. According to an Associated Press report, NASA spent $8.5 million commissioning telephone interviews with about 24,000 commercial and GA pilots in 2002-05.
News from Travel Technology Update: SITA plans to develop a new passenger reservations system based on service-oriented architecture that will offer a complete suite of reservations, inventory, ticketing and departure control systems. The new, as-yet unnamed system will be the "final installment" of SITA's Horizon portfolio of passenger management solutions. SITA said it will result in "the retirement of today's mainframe technology following a well-managed migration to new applications."
GE Aviation was selected to provide flight management systems for 200 737 Classics operated by Southwest Airlines in what may be the largest cockpit retrofit program announced to date. The technology upgrade is in keeping with SWA's plan to implement Required Navigation Performance at every airport it serves. Value of the deal was not disclosed. Deliveries are scheduled for 2008-09. The FMSs will be supplied by the Systems division of GE Aviation, formerly Smiths Aerospace.
LOT Polish Airlines management board last week presented a new "seven pillar" strategy for the 2008-12 period. The company plans to standardize its fleet, maintain two brands (LOT and low-cost subsidiary Centralwings), develop connections in the east (especially in Russia and Ukraine) and increase sales through the Internet by a minimum 40% in the next five years. The board also anticipates listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange no later than 2008 and achieving a net profit of PLN200 million ($77.6 million) in 2012.
Lufthansa Systems signed a contract with Austrian Airlines for the use of SchedConnect, which will manage and optimize OS's codeshare schedules. The carrier offers more than 340,000 codeshare connections with more than 40 partners.
Skyservice Airlines announced that Gibralt Capital Corp. of Vancouver completed acquisition of a "majority interest" in Skyservice's charter business ( ATWOnline, Aug. 30), with no changes planned for the carrier's leadership, workforce or operations. Skyservice's business aviation operation will continue to be owned by Skyservice Investments.
Air India Chairman V. Thulasidas said Friday that the carrier remains in negotiations with Star Alliance but has not reached a final decision to join, The Economic Times reported. "We can announce our alliance only after a formal agreement is reached," he told the paper.
Air Arabia last week launched four-times-weekly Sharjah-Bangalore service, becoming daily Oct. 29. It also will increase twice-weekly flights to Coimbatore to thrice-weekly next month.
The European Commission is seeking comments from interested parties on commitments proposed by SkyTeam members hoping to obtain antitrust immunity, including the ceding of slots at certain EU airports to competitors.
Middle East Airlines announced that it earned a net profit of $39 million in 2006 despite the hardships it faced when Beirut Rafik Hariri International was closed for 36 days that summer during hostilities between Lebanon and Israel. The result was down 36.5% from the $61.4 million earned in 2005. Chairman Mohammed Hout said the carrier partially offset a $32.5 million revenue decline with the leasing out of its aircraft, which netted $13.3 million. He said MEA will float a 25% stake "when the time is ripe."
Pacific Blue will bring forward the launch of its New Zealand domestic service by three days to Nov. 12, it announced Friday ( ATWOnline, Aug. 24). Tickets went on sale Saturday for flights between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Ofcom, the UK communications industry regulator, last week issued a proposal to enable airlines to offer "mobile communication services" on UK-registered aircraft. "One of Ofcom's objectives is to create opportunities for companies to develop innovative technologies, in particular to make the most efficient use of the radio spectrum for the benefit of citizens and consumers," the agency said in a statement.
CAE delivered 777-300ER and A330/A340 full flight simulators to Jet Airways, which has received Directorate General of Civil Aviation approval to conduct training. Jet's simulator training center in Mumbai now has four FFSs. Separately, Jet last week launched daily Mumbai-Chandigarh service aboard a newly introduced 737-700 and increased frequency from BOM to Kochi and Bhopal.
The Transport Workers Union said it filed documents with the US National Mediation Board on behalf of Continental Airlines' 8,000 nonunionized fleet service workers seeking to provide representation for them.
Continental Airlines flew 7.29 billion consolidated RPMs in September, up 5.6% from the year-ago month, against a 4.5% lift in ASKs to 9.23 billion. Load factor rose 0.8 point to 79%. Air China flew 5.94 billion RPKs in September, up 6% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 1.4% to 7.13 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 3.6 points to 83.3%. AirTran Airways flew 1.26 billion RPMs in September, a 32.3% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 19.3% to 1.83 billion ASMs and load factor was up 6.7 points to 68.5%.
Vueling Airlines reported a net profit of €350,000 ($498,750) for the third quarter, a sharp decrease from the €5.02 million earned in the year-ago period. "This reduction is completely driven by a fare decrease of 22% which could not be completely offset by improvement in all other fundamental magnitudes that drive the profit and loss account," the LCC said.
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. promoted MD-Planning Andrew Levy to CFO. Scott Sheldon was named principal accounting officer. Finnair named MD-11 fleet captain Veikko Sievanen senior VP-flight operations division. SR Technics announced that Chairman and CEO Hans Lerch will relinquish the latter title effective Jan. 1. New CEO will be Bernd Kessler, who has been president and CEO-commercial maintenance at MTU Aero Engines since 2004. He will leave the company this month.
