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Wednesday March 18, 2009

EC Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas reiterated yesterday that aviation and maritime, which were left out of the Kyoto Protocol, should "be discussed and made part of the [climate] agreement" at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. Speaking yesterday to media in Washington, Dimas said that if ICAO "takes the right actions, we shall get a solution for the world and a level playing field for everybody. . . We do expect ICAO to come with solutions and proposals."

He added that ICAO had been expected to reach agreement on regulating aviation emissions following the Kyoto treaty "and they did nothing--it's been years. This is the reason we decided to include [airlines] in the European ETS." Dimas, together with Czech Republic Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Martin Bursik, who also serves as the EU Environment Council president, and Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren met this week with their counterparts at the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration, but the topic of aviation was not discussed, Dimas said.

by Perry Flint

Southwest Airlines said yesterday that it recently operated a 737 demonstration roundtrip between Dallas Love Field and Houston Hobby using Required Navigation Performance procedures, yielding 904 lb. of carbon dioxide savings, part of its $175 million program to implement RNP fleetwide that was announced last June at the Eco-Aviation conference presented by ATW and Leeham Co. (ATWOnline, June 20, 2008). "This is a milestone in the six-year plan to implement RNP procedures across the Southwest system and assist [US] FAA with NextGen initiatives," SWA Executive VP and COO Mike Van de Ven said.

Based on data gathered during the demonstration flights, SWA estimated that "carbon reduction in one year of flying RNP procedures between Dallas and Houston could equal a reduction of approximately 8.42 million lb. of CO2." In addition, fuel used per roundtrip between the airports would be reduced by 8%. The LCC said the demonstration flights were operated in conjunction with FAA.

Singapore Airlines reported a record decline in passengers for February, a 20.2% year-over-year plunge to 1.2 million. RPKs fell 17% to 5.86 billion against just an 8.5% cut in capacity to 8.41 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 7.1 points to 69.7%. Cargo declined 15.2% to 473.7 million FTKs on a 7% fall in capacity to 835.1 million ATKs, dropping load factor 5.5 points to 56.7%. February 2008 figures were supported by the Chinese New Year holiday, the Singapore Air Show and the leap year.

SIA's capacity contraction is the result of the planned grounding of 17 aircraft, introducing 777-300ERs to replace 747-400s and termination of some routes. It said it "will continue to monitor traffic movement and make appropriate adjustments to its route network where necessary to match capacity to demand." However, insiders at the airline told ATWOnline that traffic for March and April will be "no better."

by Geoffrey Thomas

US Airways President Scott Kirby said in a Monday conference call with investors that March ticket revenue has improved over the first two months of 2009 and that the carrier has "been cautiously optimistic the last couple of weeks" even though leisure fares are falling. Demand is stable and ancillary revenue initiatives are mitigating the impact of falling yields, he said. CFO Derek Kerr said US has arranged financing for 20 of the 25 deliveries scheduled for this year, excluding five A330s. "We want to take them, Airbus wants to deliver them to us, so we will come up with some kind of solution," he said.

European Commission VP-Transport Antonio Tajani said the EC's DG-Transport and Energy plans to ask for information from Airports Council International, Assn. of European Airlines "and other parties concerned" in order to investigate the "lost luggage phenomenon" reported in a study released yesterday by London-based, UK CAA-established Air Transport Users Council. The study revealed that airlines mishandled 42 million bags worldwide in 2007, up 40% from 2005, and that "passengers often struggle to get reasonable redress from airlines after the event," the AUC said. "Safeguarding passenger rights is an essential component of European transport policy. . .It is for this reason that I have decided to act immediately so as to shed some light on these alarming figures which, if they were to be confirmed, would call for a strong political intervention," Tajani said.

Emirates will remove the two A380s operating its twice-daily Dubai-New York JFK service in April and use one to operate its thrice-weekly DXB-Toronto beginning June 1 and the second on one of its twice-daily DXB-Bangkok flights. A 777-300ER will replace the A380 on the DXB-JFK flight. President Tim Clark said the airline would like to fly to Toronto daily on the A380 and that there was enough demand to support a second daily 777 flight. EK said it also is interested in serving Calgary and Vancouver.

Lufthansa Group's summer capacity will be up 0.6% year-over-year owing to Lufthansa Italia, which will compensate for a 0.5% reduction on the rest of the network (ATWOnline, March 5). The March 29-Oct. 24 summer schedule will feature 14,038 weekly flights to 206 destinations. European capacity will rise 1.5% and intercontinental ASKs will climb 0.2% owing to the addition of 22 additional economy seats on LH's 747-400s.

Air New Zealand will incorporate fuel surcharges into all fares from March 30 as a lure for travel agents to book clients on the carrier. The practice of excluding surcharges, which have been substantial, has caused significant rifts between travel agents and airlines around the globe. ANZ GM-Australia John Harrison said he expects the decision to have a "positive effect" on sales. "Apart from the benefits of simplicity and transparency, Air New Zealand commissions will now be calculated using the fuel inclusive level, providing improved earnings ability when selling Air New Zealand," he said. "This change will make Air New Zealand fares fully inclusive."

Armavia took delivery of its first new A319 in Hamburg. Aircraft is on lease from ILFC, will seat 134 passengers across two classes and is powered by CFM56s. Armavia already operates two A319s and two A320s.

Sun Country Airlines will launch thrice-weekly Dallas/Fort Worth-Branson service on May 11.

European Court of Justice ruled last week that the EU's list of articles prohibited onboard aircraft, which is attached to the European regulation on aviation security, cannot be enforced because it has never been published in the Official Journal of the European Union and thus passengers cannot know exactly what is banned. An Austrian passenger brought the case after security staff at Vienna ordered him to leave an aircraft because his cabin baggage contained tennis rackets, which were considered prohibited.

An initial annex to the aviation regulation list adopted in 2002 stated that "Bludgeons: Blackjacks, billy clubs, baseball clubs or similar instruments" were banned. In 2004 the annex was amended though never published, even though the amending regulation emphasized the need for passengers to be clearly informed of the rules relating to prohibited articles. "An act adopted by a Community institution cannot be enforced against individuals before they have had the opportunity to learn of its existence by proper publication in the Official Journal," the ECJ reasoned.

Delta TechOps announced an eight-year, $55 million power-by-the-hour contract extension with Star Air covering MRO on the 22 CF6-80A2/C2 engines powering the Copenhagen-based cargo carrier's 11 767-200SFs. Deal also includes APU and component support.

Honeywell said Qantas received approval from Australia's CASA to use the Honeywell SmartPath Ground-Based Augmentation System at Sydney for satellite-based landings on QF's A380s. The airline previously had been approved to fly GBAS approaches with its 737s, recording more than 1,600 GBAS landings at Sydney to date.

Nav Canada and Sensis Corp. were selected by Airservices Australia to participate in Airservices' National Tower Program Technology Project, intended to "provide controllers with immediate access to flight data and voice communications and to monitor the airfield and surrounding airspace." Under the agreement, Nav Canada and Sensis technology will be used to upgrade ATC towers at Melbourne, Adelaide and Rockhampton, "with the potential for additional towers." The solution also will be installed at the Airservices Melbourne Air Traffic Centre and Learning Academy.