Boeing is remaining tight-lipped about possible plans for new freighter models of the 767-200/-300 based on its entry in the USAF KC-X tanker competition in order to counter the A330-200F, which has bolted out of the starting gate with 32 orders. While Boeing still is garnering orders for its 767-300F ( ATWOnline, Feb. 16), it is looking for a foil to truly match the A330-200F's 69 ton payload over 3,200 nm.
Northwest Airlines lost $349 million in January, narrowed slightly from a $382 million deficit in January 2006. Revenues rose 0.2% to $892 million and expenses fell 4.3% to $914 million. Operating loss decreased to $22 million from $65 million in the year-ago month. NWA took $291 million in reorganization charges in January.
Air Deccan obtained certification for a Full Flight Trainer manufactured by Mechtronix Systems. Unit originally was acquired by ATR Training Center and used by DN pilots. The FFT can be configured for either the ATR 42-500 or 72-500.
The French government yesterday pledged €100 million ($132 million) in aid to Airbus that will fund the development of carbon-fiber composite materials, but the announcement was overshadowed by labor unions' angry response to the Power8 restructuring plan unveiled Wednesday.
American Airlines applied to the US Dept. of Transportation for authorization to begin codesharing with future oneworld partner Royal Jordanian from March 25. RJ's code would be placed on 15 AA domestic routes out of New York JFK as well as operations to and from Chicago O'Hare. AA would place its code on RJ flights to Amman from ORD, JFK, London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt as well as on services from Amman to Aqaba and Dubai. Brussels Airlines will launch five-times-weekly flights from Brussels to Krakow on March 30 and to Cagliari at the end of April.
Icelandair chose SAS Ground Services as its new provider at Paris Charles de Gaulle. Aviapartner started handling Iberia's flights at Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate.
US Dept. of Transportation will launch an investigation into recent incidents in which JetBlue Airways and American Airlines left passengers stranded onboard aircraft for hours during adverse weather conditions, joining several members of Congress and citizen groups in an effort to find solutions ( ATWOnline, Feb. 21).
Aeroports de Paris sold its interest in Beijing Capital International Airport Co. for HK$1.97 billion ($252.1 million) through an accelerated placement with institutional investors. ADP held 16.2% of BCIA's Hong Kong-listed shares. The French airport operator did not disclose its reason for offloading its stake but said it "reaffirms its willingness to accompany the Chinese authorities in their development of airports in China, in particular at the regional level."
Midwest Airlines said in a letter to shareholders yesterday that "AirTran's business is deteriorating" and that it wants to acquire Midwest to prevent further erosion. "AirTran leaves a trail of broken promises in markets it enters with great fanfare," said the letter signed by Midwest Chairman and CEO Tim Hoeksema.
Adria Airways placed an order for two 86-seat CRJ900s, becoming the aircraft's 12th customer. CEO Tadej Tufek said the CRJ900 will allow for greater capacity than its seven CRJ200s while replacing A320s on routes where "loads are insufficient to support the larger aircraft."
Warning that its current structure is "unsustainable and unacceptable," Airbus yesterday unveiled details of its Power8 restructuring plan, which includes 10,000 job cuts, closing or selling three plants, spinning off three others, outsourcing half of A350 XWB production (see story below) and streamlining its business to achieve a 16% increase in manufacturing productivity.
Years of heavy losses taught US airlines that given the up-and-down nature of the business and the number of factors (such as energy prices) beyond their control, they simply had to manage what could be managed. That meant rigorous cost-cutting and adopting a strict discipline concerning capacity growth and nonfuel expenses. While the post-9/11 restructuring of the US industry may have been "brutal," as recently characterized by Senate aviation subcommittee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), it appears to be paying off.
IT ALL BECAME A BIT TOO MUCH FOR United Airlines to handle. On average, each passenger began checking 10% more baggage following last August's London terror scare and ensuing security rule changes related to carry-on items. The amount of checked luggage grew even larger during the holiday season.
Despite the advent of color displays, weather radar interpretation remains among the blackest of airborne arts. "It still requires significant interpretation and work by the pilot to dig out the information," says Roy Robertson, a principal engineer for Rockwell Collins.
MOST AIRLINES THAT finish the year with nearly a 20% increase in net income, not to mention completing an IPO that nets more than $94 million, would enjoy nothing more than sharing the good news with anyone willing to listen. Not so with Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air. "We don't seek the spotlight," Chairman, President and CEO Maurice Gallagher told ATW a month ago on the sidelines of the Raymond James Growth Airlines Conference in New York, where he outlined the carrier's successful business model and talked about plans for growth.
TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF OPERATIONAL experience at airports as diverse as New York JFK, Wichita Mid-Continent and Las Vegas McCarran had taught Tony Grantham to anticipate what he calls the "known unknowns." Then the original America West employee was transferred to Philadelphia International Airport, a facility infamous for frustrating passengers, bewildering executives and springing all kinds of surprises.
AeroSvit Airlines named Aron Maibert DG. AirCell appointed Robin Salem senior VP-strategy & business development and Frances Phillips senior VP-airline solutions. AJ Walter Aviation welcomed Brian Doran as chairman. American Airlines selected Denise Lynn as VP-global human resources services. British Airways promoted Gareth Kirkwood to dir.-operations and Steve Gunning to succeed Kirkwood as World Cargo MD. ATA introduced Edward J. Barron as VP-government affairs & legislative counsel.
BOY, WERE WE WRONG! AFTER Airbus and Boeing booked more than 2,000 orders in 2005, the consensus view was that the industry would experience a significant falloff in ordering activity in 2006. This was an opinion shared not only by aerospace analysts but among senior managers at both airframe OEMs. "We probably won't get as many orders this year as last year," Boeing Chairman President and CEO Jim McNerney said in January 2006 and similar words were spoken in Toulouse (ATW, 3/06, p. 22).
IS IT SAFE? WILL IT MITIGATE A looming pilot shortage? Will it reduce training costs over time? These are but a few of the questions raised by ICAO's new Multi-Crew Pilot License, an alternative method of training air transport pilots by relying far more heavily on simulators than on actual flying time and greatly compressing the amount of time it takes to train an airline pilot (ATW, 10/05, p. 51). For example, under the MPL the applicant may spend as few as 60-70 hr. at the controls of an actual aircraft.
Scanning through back issues of ATW recently, we came across an article from April 1999 describing a promising new technology being trialed by British Airways at London Heathrow that soon might be introduced on a wider scale. The technology was radio frequency identification bag tracking and according to one BA executive, it had the potential to make lost or misplaced bags "a thing of the past."
IT WILL BE A STEP AHEAD OF THE 787 and a generation ahead of the 777" was the bold claim by then-CEO Christian Streiff when Airbus announced its proposed A350 XWB in July. But aside from a supportive, and highly conditional, commitment from Singapore Airlines for 20 and an order in January from Pegasus Aviation Finance for two, carriers have not rushed to embrace the third iteration of the A350, which received industrial launch last Dec. 1. By then, of course, Streiff had yielded the stage to EADS Co-CEO Louis Gallois.
The merging of the US Airways and America West reservations systems got a lot of attention because of the check-in problems that resulted in long lines at Philadelphia and Charlotte, but the "larger issue was the processing for closing a flight," US Airways president Scott Kirby said. Kirby told analysts at the JPMorgan Aviation and Transportation Conference that "we had made it needlessly complex to close a flight," a process that involves tallying passengers and bags and collecting other data before an aircraft can push back from the gate.
British Airways signed a new three-year agreement with Galileo, the GDS unit of Travelport. It is the first GDS agreement announced by the carrier since its previous pacts expired at the end of February. The new deal, which goes into effect April 10, is basically a "continuation" of Galileo's travel agency opt-in program that was launched in 2004, according to the carrier.
US Bankruptcy Court judge approved Northwest Airlines' deal to acquire regional partner Mesaba Airlines under a stock purchase and reorganization plan ( ATWOnline, Jan. 24). The deal still must be approved by a judge overseeing the Mesaba bankruptcy.
