Archive for April, 2009
Hundreds of once-proud aluminum birds are parked in the desert with engines sealed, tires wrapped and windows covered. Whether these passenger jets will soar across continents again will have a direct impact on how much you pay to fly.
The airline industry has grounded more than 11% of its jets in dusty airplane boneyards, mostly in New Mexico, Arizona and California. Read the rest of this entry »
British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh has called on the Chancellor to abolish the planned increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) along similar lines to the Dutch.
Chancellor Alistair Darling announced the increases in APD last autumn which will be introduced in November 2009 and November 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
United Airlines parent UAL posted a narrowed quarterly net loss on Tuesday, but its revenue was hit hard by economic recession that drained travel demand.
The company said its first-quarter loss amounted to USD$382 million, compared with USD$549 million a year earlier. Read the rest of this entry »
Delta Air Lines said it still expected a profit for the year despite reporting a first-quarter net loss of USD$794 million, helping to push up its shares by 12.5 percent in early trading on Tuesday.
Delta, reporting its first quarterly results since merging with Northwest Airlines in October, said the loss was the result of a drop in travel demand and adverse fuel hedges. Including special items, however, it broke even. Read the rest of this entry »
Czech authorities picked Air France-KLM to bid in a tender for flag carrier CSA Czech Airlines but ruled out Russia’s Aeroflot, which blamed artificial security concerns for its exclusion.
A consortium comprising Czech companies Unimex and Travel Service also advanced to the second round of bidding while private equity firm Odien did not. Read the rest of this entry »
The Climate Registry, a nonprofit organization that sets consistent standards to calculate, verify and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and Virgin America, the California-based award-winning airline, today announced the carrier has become the first U.S. airline to join The Climate Registry and commit to report its GHG emissions according to The Registry’s comprehensive, rigorous standards. Read the rest of this entry »
News from Travel Technology Update: Bill Me Later likes to keep it simple, for both consumers and merchants. The company can approve U.S. residents for deferred payment in a matter of seconds, with just the address, the last four digits of a customer’s Social Security number and a birthdate.
For merchants, Bill Me Later provides a guaranteed payment: Bill Me Later takes the risk of consumer defaults, although John Reistrup, vice president of travel marketing, said that rarely happens. “We’ve been pretty conservative,” he said. “Our customers are more affluent, with higher household incomes than average. They are professionals on the go.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, today reported that passenger revenue based on data reported to ATA by Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, United and US Airways; also includes data for Air Midwest, Air Wisconsin, Allegheny, American Eagle, Atlantic Coast, Atlantic Southeast, Chautauqua, Comair, Continental Express, Executive, Freedom, Horizon, Mesa, Mesaba, MidAtlantic, Piedmont, Pinnacle, PSA, Shuttle America, SkyWest and Trans States fell 23 percent in March 2009 versus the same month in 2008 – the fifth consecutive month in which passenger revenue has fallen from the prior year. This is the second in a series of reports that will be issued by ATA during the recessionary period. Read the rest of this entry »
The European Commission launched two anti-trust investigations on Monday against certain members of the Star and Oneworld airline alliances on concerns their agreements on transatlantic routes might breach EU rules.
The probe relates to two sets of agreements between Star alliance members Air Canada, Continental, Lufthansa and United on the one hand, and between Oneworld members American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia on the other. Read the rest of this entry »
The Advocacy Committee of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) is spearheading a drive to intensify Caribbean lobbying in the United Kingdom (UK) to avert the planned increases in its Air Passenger Duty (APD).
Of urgent importance is the proposed increases contained in the UK Finance Bill before the UK parliament on air passenger duty starting on November 2009 where Caribbean bound passengers will pay a minimum of £50 (US$74) per passenger for economy travel and double for any higher class of travel. The fees will increase in November 2010. Read the rest of this entry »