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Thursday September 13, 2007

US Airways unveiled plans to hire more than 350 new pilots and move 140 more who were furloughed to US Airways Express positions back to the mainline. Training for the new hires will begin in November, with positions continuing to be filled for the next 12-16 months. Those pilots will fill E-190 seats, which in turn will push current pilots to larger aircraft. US said the hirings were necessitated "primarily by retiring mainline pilots."

Japan Airlines will introduce first class for the first time on domestic flights from Dec. 1. The new offering will be rolled out on seven daily flights between Tokyo Haneda and Osaka Itami and eventually will be available on all flights. From April 1, the first class product will be available on flights from HND to Fukuoka and Sapporo. The move follows the rollout of a dedicated business class (J Class) on domestic routes in June 2004. JAL offers 8 million J Class seats per year with an 85% load factor.

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, whose five-year term ends today (ATWOnline, Aug. 22), said this week that system congestion must be overcome for airlines to prosper in the future and called on carriers to make changes in flight scheduling practices and move as quickly as possible to equip aircraft for next-generation satellite-based ATC. "To be clear, the airlines need to take a step back on the scheduling practices that are at times out of line with reality," she said during a farewell speech in Washington. "Passengers are growing weary. . .Airline schedules have got to stop being the fodder for late night monologues. And if the airlines don't address this voluntarily, don't be surprised when the government steps in."

Blakey declined to detail specific changes airlines need to make or what actions the government would take, but appeared to favor some kind of schedule de-peaking as was done at Chicago O'Hare a few years ago. She also pointed to FAA's planned gradual changeover to a Next-Gen ATC system and encouraged carriers to make necessary upgrades. "Airlines and all the operators in our system are going to have to embrace the change involved," she said. "Regrettably, ours is a world in which we wait for the other guy to step up, and then maybe we will too. We need to stop the phenomenon in aviation of running to the back of the line."

CSA Czech Airlines announced the conversion of eight A319 options stemming from its 2004 order (ATWOnline, April 7, 2005) for delivery in 2011-12. CSA, which is replacing its 737s, already has taken delivery of six A320s and two A319s. Four more A319s will arrive in 2008.

Hong Kong Airlines finalized its order for 30 A320 family aircraft, 20 A330s and one ACJ initially announced at the Paris Air Show (ATWOnline, June 22). Engine choice has not been finalized, Airbus said.

Airbus secured 713 gross orders in the first eight months of 2007, although cancellations reduced the net number to 656, according to the manufacturer's cumulative order data. This compares to Boeing's eight-month gross of 773 with a net figure of 763. However, since Aug. 31 Boeing, which posts its orders weekly, has lifted its tally to 851 gross and 841 net. Those numbers are certain to change significantly before year end with large orders expected from British Airways and Emirates.

Northwest Airlines yesterday retired its final passenger 747-200 from scheduled service. Last flight was Tokyo Narita-Seattle-Minneapolis/St. Paul. The aircraft joined the fleet in 1979. NWA will continue to operate -200s as charter aircraft; it replaced them with A330s. By year end it will operate 21 A330-300s and 11 A330-200s.

European Commission launched a formal investigation into support that would have been granted by the Sardinia Region and SOGEAAL, the publicly owned company operating Alghero Airport, to various air carriers and by the Sardinia Region to SOGEAAL itself. The EC said its investigation will focus on agreements between SOGEAAL and Ryanair concerning marketing support and other contributions, handling fee rebates apparently granted to LCCs serving the airport, and financial support and compensation granted to SOGEAAL for its operating losses and a capital increase.

Separately, the EC approved the creation of Moneydirect, a joint venture between Amadeus and Sabre that will be active in the field of payment processing and clearing systems. "Given the limited size and scope of Moneydirect's business, the fact that this business is not closely related to the parties' GDS business and the fact that Amadeus and Sabre have put in place structures to limit the information flows between Moneydirect and its parent companies, the Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would not risk impeding effective competition," the regulator said in a statement.

Eastern Airways took delivery of a fifth Saab 2000 and will add a sixth next week, supporting expansion of its scheduled route network further into continental Europe. Aircraft also will be used on private charter services.

Royal Jordanian will commence thrice-weekly Amman-Bangkok-Hong Kong flights on Jan. 22 aboard newly refurbished A310s.

Finnair Group ground handling subsidiary Northport Oy agreed to sell its Finnhandling AB and Northport Norway AS units, as well as Arlanda Airport lounge and ticket sales services, to Menzies Aviation. Transaction is scheduled to close on Sept. 30. Financial details were not disclosed. Menzies will provide ground-handling services to Finnair in Stockholm and Oslo.

Separately, Finnair flew 1.77 billion RPKs in August, up 19.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose at the same rate to 2.3 billion ASKs, leaving load factor at 77.1%.

Sabre Travel Network announced that Virgin America signed a multiyear distribution agreement that makes all of the airline's fares available to Sabre-connected travel agencies and corporations.

ARINC announced the availability of AviNet Xmail, which it called "the first desktop XML messaging solution for the air travel industry." AviNet Xmail service will be available immediately to ARINC's aviation network customers and "allows airline and operations staff to easily edit and exchange modern XML and TypeX messages," the company said.

JetBlue Airways added the title of president to COO Russ Chew, who joined the carrier from US FAA in the wake of the February operational difficulties at New York JFK. "Since Russ joined our team, we have established the right foundation for continuous improvement," CEO Dave Barger said.