Vietnam will build a $158 million international airport on Phu Quoc island, according to media reports. It will open in 2008 and is expected to handle 2.5 million passengers per year.
Copenhagen Airport reduced its takeoff charge for cargo flights by 3% on Jan. 1 and introduced a cap on cargo flight charges to the first 200 tons. The new rate is DKK63.25 ($10.25) per 1,000 kg. or part thereof. It will rise to DKK63.90 in 2007 and DKK64.55 the following year.
Northwest Airlines' markets are particularly well-adapted for new-generation large regional jets, the company argues in a special edition of its internal newsletter Passages. As previously reported, the carrier is seeking permission from its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., to create a standalone subsidiary to operate 70/100-seat jets ( ATWOnline, Jan. 6).
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said JFK, Newark and LaGuardia airports handled nearly 100 million passengers last year, a new record. A final tally is still a couple of weeks away, but preliminary figures suggest a 6% rise in passenger throughput, the Port Authority said. JFK handled nearly 41 million, Newark 33 million and LaGuardia about 26 million.
Preston Aviation Solutions, a Boeing subsidiary, announced that Dubai's Dept. of Civil Aviation will use its Total Airspace and Airport Modeler software. NavAero received an STC for its tbag C2 squared electronic flight bag system installed as a Class II EFB on a Miami Air International 737-800. Air One reached agreement with Accenture and Trax USA to implement the latter's Trax Engineering and Maintenance software. Click Commerce announced that American Airlines will implement its Service Parts Optimization and Planning solution.
Frontier Airlines mechanics, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, approved a three-year labor contract. The agreement was reached in December and includes a 3% pay raise over the life of the deal, reinstitution of a company 401(k) match, increased pension contributions and other benefits, according to media reports. Separately, Frontier intends to begin serving five cities in Canada in late May, according to the Rocky Mountain News.
ANA said it will retire its last 747SR March 10 following a flight from Kagoshima to Tokyo Haneda. The carrier's first 747SR took flight 27 years ago. It was the first aircraft to carry 500 passengers in an all-economy configuration. At one point ANA operated a fleet of 23 of the type.
Honeywell will provide its Runway Awareness and Advisory System to Lufthansa, it announced Friday. RAAS uses GPS technology to compare an aircraft's location against a database of airport runways and provides audio alerts.
AeroMexico and Mexicana Airlines plan to end service from Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, according to media reports. AeroMexico, which has served DFW since 1994 and operates one flight per day to Mexico City, will cease operations Feb. 5. Mexicana will leave DFW Jan. 10. It flew once daily to Guadalajara, four times per week to Morelia and thrice-weekly to Zacatecas. AeroMexico codeshares with Delta Air Lines and was hurt by the latter's withdrawal from DFW last year.
National Air Traffic Services said it handled a record 2.3 million flights through British airspace in 2005, a rise of 5.7% over the previous year and the highest annual growth since 1999.
American Airlines' December system traffic rose 4.6% over the year-ago month to 11.49 billion RPMs. Capacity dropped 1.1% to 14.55 billion ASMs and load factor climbed 4.3 points to 78.9%. The number of enplaned passengers lifted 4.8% to 8.2 million. Domestically, RPMs rose 2.6% to 7.55 billion, ASMs fell 4.5% to 9.42 billion and load factor surged 5.6 points to 80.1%. International traffic grew 8.8% to 3.94 billion RPMs with capacity up 5.7% to 5.13 billion ASMs, resulting in a load factor of 76.9%, up 2.2 points. Cargo ton-miles lowered 3.1% to 185.9 million.
Virgin Atlantic service increases from London include: To Mumbai from thrice-weekly to daily, to Shanghai from six-times-weekly to daily, to Cape Town from twice-weekly to thrice-weekly through Jan. 25 and to daily between Jan. 29 and March 25. It also will add a fifth weekly flight to Las Vegas in July and a sixth in September.
Delta Air Lines was granted an extension last week by the US Bankruptcy Court to file its reorganization plan by July 11. The original deadline was Jan. 12.
FLYi, parent of Independence Air, grounded its fleet Jan. 5 following its last flight, an A319 from Tampa that landed at Washington Dulles. Some 2,700 workers were left unemployed by the shutdown. The low-fare carrier, formerly known as Atlantic Coast Airlines, made the decision Jan. 2 to cease operating after failing to gain financial support from outside investors.
British Airways flew 9.16 billion RPKs in December, up 4.7% over December 2004, on a 2.6% passenger capacity hike to 12.34 billion ASKs. Passenger load factor rose 1.5 points to 74.2%. The number of passengers carried dipped 0.2% to 2.73 million, including a 3.1% reduction on the European network to 1.68 million. Cargo, measured in CTKs, rose 0.2% to 436 million. BA's Asia/Pacific routes showed the most growth with a 16.7% increase in RPKs to 1.7 billion and a 13.3% gain in capacity to 2.22 billion ASKs.
Volito Aviation placed a 1995-vintage A320-200 with Aigle Azur for lease through April 2009. Aircraft is financed by DVB Bank. Midwest Airlines sold an MD-81 to AeroTurbine of Miami. Meridian Aerospace acted as an exclusive agent for the seller.
Vueling Airlines signed a five-year agreement with SR Technics under which the latter will provide technical management and component support for the Barcelona-based carrier's fleet of nine A320s.
Japan Airlines will increase one-way domestic fares 3%-11.3% from April 1 to Sept. 30 to help it cope "with the financial impact of sustained high fuel prices." At the same time, JAL will eliminate the domestic fuel surcharge of ¥200-¥300 established in January 2005. The airline said its FY05 fuel bill will be ¥90 billion higher than in the previous year. It expects costs to increase ¥130-¥140 billion in FY06.
Northwest Airlines continues to seek agreement from its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., for permission to launch a new subsidiary carrier that would operate 70/100-seat regional jets at Regional airline industry average pilot labor costs ( ATWOnline, Oct. 14). NWA outlined its plans for the subsidiary in a special edition of its internal newsletter Passages. The airline, which has a working name of NewCo, would have its own AOC and would employ furloughed NWA pilots, who would have the right of recall to NWA when that opportunity arises.
Air France-KLM Group denied reports it is increasing its stake in Alitalia. Earlier this week, Finanza e Mercati indicated AF-KLM might take over the struggling Italian carrier. "We are currently not holding merger talks and we are not increasing our holding in Alitalia," Air France spokesperson Samuel Coulon told ATWOnline. "We start to get used to the reports in the Italian press." He added that the French-Dutch group's position has not changed: "We have always said Alitalia has to be privatized and be profitable before we initiate talks to join our group."
EADS named Michael Hauger head of corporate media relations and communications-Germany. He succeeds Rainer Ohler, who took over as head of government relations, communications and external affaires at Airbus on Jan. 1.
Paramount Airways, an Indian carrier launched last September, will purchase 15 Embraer RJs, according to media reports. MD M. Thiagarajan said a contract valued at $450 million will be signed in the next couple of weeks, with deliveries occurring before year end 2007. The airline ordered five ERJs at the Paris Air Show.
CAE signed a deal with Oman Air to extend its pilot training program. It will involve instructor-led upgrade training and recurrent training for 737NGs at the ECFT center in Dubai. SpiceJet of India signed a similar deal. CAE also reached an agreement with Qatar Airways for A330/A340 pilot training. Separately, CAE said it will invest $630 million in a six-year R&D program dubbed Project Phoenix "with the goal of improving current leading-edge technologies and developing additional ones."
