Archive for 2007
December 27, 2007
JetBlue Airways founder David Neeleman has reduced his stake in the low-cost US airline to 4.07 percent from 6.1 percent, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
Neeleman, who is no longer chief executive but retains his chairman title, disclosed in the filing that his passive stake includes 7.35 million shares.
The filing did not reveal more details, such as when he sold the shares.
(Reuters)
December 27, 2007
United Airlines, recovering from a storm that pounded its Chicago hub over the weekend, canceled more flights on Wednesday as it worked to get planes and staff back on schedule.
According to data from FlightStats, which tracks airline performance, United canceled 121 flights on Wednesday, after calling off 318 flights on Tuesday and 146 on Monday.
United spokesman Jeff Kovick said carrier canceled “less than 5 percent” of its planned flights on Wednesday, due to “a residual impact from this weekend’s weather in Chicago and the Midwest.”
United declined to specify the number of flights canceled.
American Airlines, which also operates a large hub in Chicago, had fewer grounded flights. American canceled 3 flights on Wednesday and a combined 56 on Monday and Tuesday. American had canceled 24 flights on Sunday, compared to United’s 65 cancellations, according to FlightStats data.
The spate of cancellations comes amid increased scrutiny on airline performance after the industry hit a low point in terms of delays over the summer.
The worsening reliability of US airlines led New York state to pass legislation aimed at improving service. Meanwhile, customer groups have been clamoring for a national passenger bill of rights.
After a winter storm pounded the US Midwest over the weekend, United said it worked late into early Monday morning in order to get customers to their destinations.
But the plan put planes and staff out of position, forcing the cancellations on the less-traveled days of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, when it was easier to rebook passengers.
“We were better able to accommodate all of our customers by proceeding with those plans,” United’s Kovick said.
(Reuters)
December 21, 2007
European Union environment ministers voiced optimism they would clinch a deal on Thursday on including airlines in the bloc’s emissions trading scheme, which is designed to fight climate change.
Portugal, the EU’s current president, presented a final compromise deal, under which airlines flying in and out of the bloc would join the trading scheme in 2012, a year later than proposed by the European Parliament.
The plan has irked the United States, which has threatened litigation at international arbitration bodies, and has drawn criticism from airlines and senior officials at the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
But the majority of the ministers insisted the EU must show global leadership on combating climate change, which scientists say results from growing emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide (CO2).
“We are optimistic we will be able to pull it off,” Portuguese Environment Minister Francisco Nunes Correia told the ministerial debate, broadcast to reporters.
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: “We need to send a strong signal that Europe is standing firm on fighting the climate change.”
The trading scheme is the 27-nation EU’s key instrument to fight global warming. It sets limits on the amount of CO2 that industry may emit. Companies buy or sell permits based on whether they overshoot or undershoot their targets.
Under the scheme, internal EU and intercontinental flights would receive, and buy in auction, carbon permits — certificates that essentially assign rights to emit.
Portugal proposed to cap the amount of permits that airlines must buy upfront at auction at 10 percent, compared with 25 percent proposed by the European Parliament.
The sector’s cap should be set at 100 percent of average emissions from the period 2004-2006, higher than the 90 percent proposed by the parliament.
The proposal would exclude all military flights, some public aviation services and carriers operating less than 730 flights annually.
Portugal also proposed setting aside a special quota reserve, amounting to 3 percent of the total, for new entrants or operators in full expansion.
IATA director-general Giovanni Bisignani was quoted as saying last month that the proposal would cost the industry some USD$3 billion a year, while the draft approved by the European Parliament would cost the industry USD$7 billion a year.
But many environmental groups have complained the proposal does not go far enough.
(Reuters)
December 21, 2007
A federal judge dismissed an airline industry lawsuit that sought to block a state law, which would ensure basic services are provided to delayed passengers, the New York State attorney general said on Thursday.
Judge Lawrence Kahn, sitting in the US Court for the Northern District of New York in Albany, dismissed the Air Transport Association of America’s lawsuit, which attempted to block New York’s new Passenger Bill of Rights law, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
New York is the first US state with a law for passenger rights, Cuomo’s office said.
The association said its reason for filing the suit was “to preserve the principle that commercial aviation is best regulated by one source — the federal government — and not 50 individual states.”
The ATA said it was considering its options, including an appeal.
The law, set to go into effect on January 1, requires airlines to provide passengers who are confined on a grounded airliner for more than three hours with basic necessities such as clean bathrooms, drinking water and fresh air, Cuomo’s office said.
(Reuters)
December 21, 2007
The European Commission said on Friday it has contacted a number of companies regarding their alleged participation in an air freight cartel.
“The European Commission can confirm that a statement of objections has been sent to a number of companies, concerning their alleged participation in a cartel in the provision of air freight services, in violation of EU rules on restrictive business practices,” the European Union executive said in a statement.
It named no companies in the statement but Scandinavian airline SAS said earlier on Friday it had received a statement of objections accusing the airline’s cargo unit of breaking competition rules.
SAS said it was cooperating with the investigation.
“Sending a statement of objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the procedure,” the Commission said.
(Reuters)
December 21, 2007
Thousands of workers at seven of Britain’s busiest airports have voted to strike in a dispute over pensions, their union said on Friday.
The Unite union said its members will walk out next month in protest at the closure to new employees of the final salary-linked pension scheme of airport operator BAA.
Unite’s National Aviation Secretary Brendan Gold said the strike could close all seven airports. “There will be huge disruption,” he told a news conference.
Union members will stage three strikes: two 24-hour walkouts starting at 0600 GMT on January 7 and January 14 and a further 48-hour strike from 0600 GMT on January 17.
The union’s members include fire crews, maintenance workers, clerical staff and security staff.
The strike will affect Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.
BAA, owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, said it regretted the action and would do all it could to minimize disruption to passengers.
(Reuters)
December 20, 2007
Under pressure from the US government, airlines agreed on Wednesday to cap the number of flights going in and out of New York’s John F Kennedy Airport during peak periods to cut delays and are negotiating to do the same at New Jersey’s Newark Airport.
The US Transportation Department, which pushed for the flight caps at the behest of the White House to do something to reduce congestion, also said it plans to auction takeoff and landing slots at JFK and Newark when new capacity becomes available to better manage demand.
“These new measures will cut delays, protect consumer choice, support New York’s economy, and allow for new flights as we bring new capacity online,” Transportation Secretary Mary Peters told a news conference.
But major airlines, mostly those with late afternoon international service at JFK, were dissatisfied with the caps and angry with the prospect of auctions, worried they could permanently lose business as they try to maximize revenue with fuel prices near all-time highs and other costs increasing.
The changes would apply to US and international airlines, including JetBlue Airways, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, British Airways and Lufthansa.
Transportation officials said JFK and Newark could handle more flights per day as peak-hour schedules are flattened. But some airline officials and industry experts cautioned more controlled operations could slow the introduction of new competition. They also said the changes could cut flights to smaller cities, and prompt shifts to bigger planes in some cases to accommodate demand at the busiest periods.
Fares could also go up as fewer flights move at busy times, others said. “The consumer competition on those seats mean some pricing power for those airlines,” said Robert Mann, an industry consultant.
Additionally, overseas carriers expecting to take advantage of a newly negotiated US/EU treaty to launch or expand transatlantic service through JFK could be hurt by the caps.
JFK had the most serious flight delays of any US airport this year. Operations increased 41 percent from March 2006 to August 2007, according to government figures.
JetBlue handles more passengers than any other airline at JFK at 13 million per year and said the caps were “regrettable but necessary” to smooth the traffic flow.
Delays are also a chronic problem at other New York-area airports, affecting flights nationwide. More than a third of US air traffic uses the metropolitan New York region.
Airlines mainly blame bad weather and air traffic control limits for delays, while consumer groups, some in Congress and transportation planners said scheduling is also a problem.
Under the plan at JFK, peak operations will be limited to between 82 flights and 83 flights per hour beginning in March. Carriers can shift flights to less busy times, meaning the airport can handle more flights overall.
The government plans similar caps for Newark to run concurrently to prevent airlines from shifting peak-hour JFK flights to New Jersey. The hourly limit for Newark is being negotiated but regulators hope to settle the matter by March.
Delta Air Lines, which operates more than 170 peak departures per day at JFK and is expanding international operations, had already announced plans to spread out flights throughout the day.
However, Delta and other international carriers are unhappy with plans to auction New York-area slots if airport capacity increases. Slots, especially at JFK, are coveted and expensive, and airlines contend any premium access rights they gave up — about 20 per hour during the busiest times — should not fall into the hands of competitors.
“Carriers such as Delta that have substantially reduced their schedules should have their flights restored before DOT sells new capacity to the highest bidder,” Delta chief executive Richard Anderson said in a statement.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs JFK and Newark, called the JFK caps restrictive and said it was “simply wrong” for the Bush administration to pursue flight limits and auctions.
(Reuters)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (TVLW) - The oneworld(R) Alliance has been named the world’s leading airline alliance for the fifth year running in the World Travel Awards, which are described by the Wall Street Journal as the “travel industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.”The awards, which were presented last week at a gala ceremony in the Caribbean’s Turks & Caicos Islands, are based on votes cast by some 170,000 travel professionals and agents worldwide.
oneworld has won the award for leading airline alliance every year since the category was introduced in 2003.
“oneworld is delighted to have received this tremendous vote of confidence once again from some of the most knowledgeable people in the travel industry worldwide,” said Michael Blunt, oneworld’s Vice President of Corporate Communications. “It reflects the quality of our airline members and our commitment to deliver alliance customer service better than anyone else. It’s a wonderful way to end what has been a record-breaking year for oneworld.”
In other top categories, member airline British Airways was named the world’s leading airline for the third year running; Cathay Pacific was selected as having the world’s leading First Class product; and American Airlines was honored for the world’s leading Economy Class.
The leading alliance award is the culmination of a record year for oneworld, with 11 airlines becoming participants in the Alliance, expanding its network to approximately 100 more destinations. Alliance partners also share more facilities in terminals at key airports to smooth customers’ journeys, and oneworld generates more revenues than ever before for its member airlines.
Just last month, oneworld completed its biggest expansion since its launch eight years ago with the addition of China’s Dragonair, an affiliate of Cathay Pacific, following the recruitment earlier this year of Japan Airlines and five of its affiliates, plus Malev Hungarian Airlines, Royal Jordanian, and LAN affiliates LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador. Together, they expanded the Alliance’s network to about 700 destinations in nearly 150 countries.
Also last month, oneworld opened its first airport lounge developed as an Alliance project, at Los Angeles. That followed the consolidation earlier this year of Alliance operations in Terminal 2 at new oneworld hub Tokyo Narita.
 The Dominica government is to construct an international airport mere weeks after Tourism Minister Ian Douglas said that the island could not afford such a facility, according to the Caribbean Media Corporation news agency website.
Economic Development, Julius Timothy, said that the Roosevelt Skerrit administration was holding talks with investors in Dubai on the project. Last month, Douglas said that the government favours instead the development of a night landing at the Melville Airport, because it did not have the funds to construct an international airport. But Timothy said that the island’s growth is being stifled without an international airport. “I think unless we have an international airport we are going nowhere, I think unless we have an air strip that can accommodate direct flights from Europe and the US we are going nowhere,” Timothy said. He urged critics to examine the economic benefits to the island when deciding on the merits or demerits of an international airport. “We have to look at scale, we must be able to have an aircraft bring 200 people here and bring them back unless that happens we are going nowhere in terms of economies of scale,” Timothy said, noting that talks were being held with investors in Dubai with the hope of getting them to construct the facility free of charge to the Dominican taxpayers. “We have been in contact and negotiations with some people from Dubai and they intend to come and build an airport for us. I am working with them and I would like that sometime early next year that we begin to see something tangible,” Timothy said. He added that the negotiation was born of a trip made by a government delegation earlier this year. “It is coming out of the trip the Prime Minister and I made to Kuwait and Dubai. The talks are continuing and it is not meant to cost the Dominican treasury a dollar. The intention is that they build it and they run it for 25 or 30 years,” he said. |