Aviation Report

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the aviation safety performance for 2010 showing that the year’s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft as the lowest in aviation history. The 2010 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) was 0.61. That is equal to one accident for every 1.6 million flights. This is a significant improvement of the 0.71 rate recorded in 2009 (one accident for 1.4 million flights). The 2010 rate was the lowest in aviation history, just below the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 42% from the rate recorded in 2001. A hull loss is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and is not subsequently repaired. “Safety is the number one priority. Achieving the lowest accident rate in the history of aviation shows that this commitment is bearing results. Flying is safe. But every fatality is a human tragedy that remin...

The Chinese government on Saturday responded to escalating oil prices by raising domestic jet fuel prices 5.8% to CNY6,340 ($963.56) per ton, putting added cost pressure on the country's airlines. Fuel costs, on average, comprise about 40% of Chinese carriers' total expenses. Air China and China Eastern Airlines previously used fuel hedging to offset rising fuel prices, but Beijing disallowed it in 2008 after the two carriers took big hits on their hedging contracts when the oil bubble burst ( ATW Daily News, Nov. 25, 2008 ). CA and CEA are reportedly considering restarting fuel hedging but first must receive government approval. As a short-term solution, most Chinese carriers announced they have increased fuel surcharges on domestic routes. Source :  http://atwonline.com/airline-finance-data/news/beijing-raises-domestic-jet-fuel-prices-58-0222?cid=nl_atw_dn

A French city said Wednesday it was ending the subsidies it pays Ryanair to maintain flights there because the Irish low-cost airline's demands were "intolerable" and amounted to blackmail. The chamber of commerce in Pau, which runs the southwestern city's airport, has informed Ryanair of its decision "not to pay another penny in fees," said chamber official Christian Cloux. Ryanair had asked Pau to hike its subsidies from 1.4 million euros ($2 million) a year to 1.5 million if it wants to maintain flights to Britain, Belgium and Paris, he said, calling the demand "financial blackmail." "The situation had become intolerable," he told AFP. Cloux said it was now up to the airline to decide if it wanted to maintain its routes or not, and added that low-cost airlines CityJet and Flybe were starting up routes from Pau without being promised any subsidies. He said that if Ryanair services from Pau cease when its contract expires in April, ...

The Air transport industry has recently seen a flurry in open competitions that merge brand development with the idea that the crowd might have the next breakthrough in mind. Let's go for a brief summary of what is currently done in this field. The Airbus Fly Your Idea challenge Airbus said more than 2,600 students have registered for the second biennial Fly Your Ideas contest that challenges university students from around the world to develop new ideas for a greener aviation industry. Students of 75 nationalities made up the 315 teams that entered the first round, a 40% increase compared to the first year of the competition in 2009. Of the 315 teams representing 287 universities, 84 have been selected to advance to Round 2. Five teams with the most exciting projects will be chosen in May and advance to the FYI final with the winner to be announced at the Paris Air Show in June. The winning team will take away a €30,000 first prize with the runner-up receiving €15,000. Website...

Eurocontrol released its latest 20-year forecast that shows the number of flights increasing 1.8 times to 16.9 million IFR movements from a 2009 base in the most likely scenario.The range of the forecast scenarios is between 13.1 and 20.9 million flights in 2030 with growth at an average of 1.6% to 3.9% annually, with 2.8% the most likely. It warns that future air traffic will be limited by capacity at the airports, with between 0.7 and 5 million flights not being accommodated in 2030, or between 5% and 19% of demand. However, that congestion is lower than in the forecast two years ago, with the drop in traffic in 2009 giving the system some extra years to react and adapt. But once the limits are reached, the number of unaccommodated flights increases quickly. The forecast says that even with capacity restrictions, airports will grow, and in 2030 there will be 13 to 34 as big as today’s top seven, with some of the faster growing East European airports joining the top 25. The report ...

For Emirates Airline, all routes lead to Dubai. The strategically located aviation hub is the centrepiece of the carrier’s ambitious expansion strategy to tap economic growth in India, China and the Middle East. For its competitors, the renegade carrier and its grand plans have the potential to change global air traffic patterns, disrupting a fragile industry that’s already under pressure from rising fuel prices. Emirates’ game plan – funnelling travellers through Dubai instead of Europe, and on larger and larger planes – has worked wonders so far. The state-owned carrier has managed to not only survive but thrive as an independent carrier, declining to join one of the three major airline alliances in the world – Star, SkyTeam and Oneworld. When it launched in 1985, Emirates flew only to Pakistan and had just two planes. Now, it flies to more than 110 destinations in 66 countries and has some 150 wide-body jets, including 15 Airbus A380 double-decker planes and 85 Boeing 777s. Emirat...

US planemaker Boeing has unveiled the latest version of its jumbo jet. The 747-8 Intercontinental will seat 467 passengers - 51 more than the current 747 - while burning less fuel, the firm says. But Boeing has won just 33 orders for the passenger version of the plane so far - from Lufthansa and Korean Air Lines. However it has also sold 74 of the cargo version of the plane, which has already flown. The new plane was unveiled to a crowd of 10,000 Boeing employees, their families and invited guests in the same hangar where the first 747 was seen in 1968. "Of all the airplanes that we've built, there is one that is identified more closely with Boeing than any other, and that's the 747," said James Albaugh, head of Boeing's commercial airplane unit. Other features of the Intercontinental include new wings, a new tail, a sharper nose, state-of-the-art engines and a new cockpit. And while it carries fewer passengers than the Airbus A380, it will be the world...

The European Commission announced Friday that it has launched formal antitrust investigations into the free-flow codeshare agreements between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines on the Munich-Istanbul Ataturk and Frankfurt-IST routes and between Brussels Airlines and TAP Portugal on the Brussels-Lisbon route. The two investigations are separate. All four airlines are members of Star Alliance. "While codeshare agreements can provide substantial benefits to passengers, some types of such agreements may also produce anti-competitive effects," the EC said in a statement, noting it had opened the investigations on its own initiative. "These investigations focus on a particular type of codesharing arrangement where these airlines have agreed to sell seats on each others' flights on the Germany-Turkey routes and on the Belgium-Portugal routes, where both companies already operate their own flights between their own hubs ('parallel hub-to-hub codesharing') and should, in...

Dec. 27, 2010: Snow removal crews  work  to clear runways at Philadelphia International Airport. A powerful East Coast blizzard menaced would-be travelers by air, rail and highway, leaving thousands without a way to get home after the holidays and shutting down major airports and rail lines for days. Airlines managed to keep their on-time rate for December flat with year-ago results despite severe weather and a higher rate of flight cancellations, with carriers scrubbing scheduled flights in part to avoid costly tarmac delays. Cancellations in December rose to 3.7 percent of all scheduled flights for the 18 largest domestic carriers, versus 2.8 percent in the same month last year, according to data provided Thursday. The on-time rate for the month was 72 percent, the same as a year ago. “Airlines are pre-canceling simply to avoid a potential tarmac delay,” said Terry Trippler, a travel analyst at consultancy Rules to Know.' Starting in April, airlines face fines of ...

Four Thai "ladyboys" have been recruited as flight attendants for a start-up charter airline that says it will be Thailand's first to include transsexuals among its cabin crew. P.C. Air, which will fly to several Asian destinations starting in April, had its first training session this week for 30 recruits, including four from "the third sex." Thailand is known for its tolerance for transvestites and transsexuals, known locally as "katoeys" or "ladyboys." An annual transsexual beauty pageant is broadcast nationally, and Thai doctors' well-honed skills at the snipping and reassembling needed to switch genders - not to mention bargain prices - have made Bangkok a sex-change capital. But while katoeys are prominent in entertainment, frequently appearing on television series and in cabaret shows, other job opportunities are limited. "I had applied to many airlines and was repeatedly turned down. They said because I was a transsex...

Pilatus An Air France Airbus A318-100, registration F-GUGJ performing flight AF-7850 from Lyon to Toulouse (France), entered Bordeaux FIR at FL230 intending to climb higher. The airplane was tracking on an southwesterly heading towards OLRAK waypoint at N44.7844 E2.8372. Some time earlier a private Pilatus 12 enroute from Buochs (Switzerland) to San Sebastian,SP (Spain), had entered the FIR of Bordeaux indicating FL270. The airplane was equipped with two independent pitot systems, one supplying the left hand and the other supplying the right hand instruments. The pilot reported that he had a disagreeing altitude indication, his left hand instruments showing FL270 (also indicating an airspeed of 90 KIAS) and the right hand instruments showing FL290 (and an airspeed of 160 KIAS). His GPS did not allow him to determine which altimeter was indicating correctly. He requested military radar should determine by any means except secondary radar (e.g. using primary radar) which altitude he ...

The Atlanta-based airline hopes customer-service classes will help its staff lose the 'tude, and bring back service with a smile. But Delta has a long way to go before passengers will forget its abysmal record in 2010. During the first nine months of last year, Delta recorded the highest rate of customer complaints with the Department of Transportation. It finished the year with the highest rate of canceled flights. And, as of November 2010, it was ranked second-to-last for on-time arrivals among major carriers. "Nobody here aspires to being what we were last summer," said Delta Executive Vice President Glen Hauenstein. So, as part of a $2 billion improvement plan, the airline is sending its ground staff to finishing school. All employees who come face-to-face with travelers—that includes ticketing agents, gate agents and their supervisors—must attend a one-day session where they engage in role play scenarios with angry, confused and lost customers. Scenes involve lat...

Air France-KLM Group, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, Europe’s three biggest carriers, all dropped after Air France reported an unexpected quarterly loss and cut its forecast. The fiscal third-quarter net loss was 46 million euros ($63 million), missing a forecast for 60 million euros in profit, based on the average of seven analyst estimates. Air France now targets a “positive operating result” for the fiscal year, after earlier predicting profit of more than 300 million euros. Earnings declined after French air traffic control strikes and weather disruptions caused the cancellation of flights. Air France, Europe’s largest airline, also said overcapacity was crimping yields, a measure of profitability, and that fuel costs rose by 28 percent to 1.35 billion euros. “The one-off items are an added negative distraction, but fuel and capacity are the big issues,” said Chris Logan, an analyst at Echelon Research and Advisory in London. “IAG and Luf...

Pointing handheld lasers at aircraft - a growing problem that aviation officials warn could lead to a crash - would become a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison under an amendment approved by the Senate on Thursday. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the sponsor of the amendment, said he was responding to a surge in incidents in which people have pointed at aircraft powerful lasers capable of temporarily blinding pilots. The Federal Aviation Administration says the number of incidents in which people pointed lasers at planes and helicopters nearly doubled last year, from 1,527 in 2009 to 2,836 in 2010. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt has said that in some instances pilots have had to relinquish control of their aircraft to another pilot because they couldn't see. "This is a national security threat," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said. "As the technology increases, it's going to blind pilots permanently. Maybe if they're accurate, they bl...

IATA reported that world international RPKs rose 8.2% last year compared to 2009, while FTKs climbed 20.6%, showing the “the world is moving again.” However, the sharp rise in oil prices could make for a difficult 2011, IATA cautioned. “After the biggest demand decline in the history of aviation in 2009, people started to travel and do business again in 2010,” IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani stated. “Airlines ended the year slightly ahead of the early 2008 volumes but with a pathetic 2.7% profit margin,” he said, noting that “the challenge is to turn the demand for mobility into sustainable profits.” According to IATA, traffic growth outstripped capacity increases of 4.4% for passenger traffic (ASKs) and 8.9% for cargo (AFTKs). Average passenger load factor for the year was 78.4%, which is a 2.7 point improvement on 2009. The freight load factor saw a 5.2 point improvement to 53.8%, said IATA. IATA noted that the severe weather in Europe and North America in December “put a de...

Starting on 29 January 2011, Air France offers on all its long-haul flights a new weekly news broadcast produced by Euronews, the leading international news channel in Europe. This news bulletin, produced exclusively for Air France, offers a 40-minute round-up of the week’s main news. Accessible in French and English versions as part of the in-flight entertainment programme, the bulletin covers worldwide, economic, cultural and sports news, from an international angle. This new news service provides viewers with in-depth, contextual reporting on the major stories, complementing the daily news bulletin. It will replace the different news programmes available to date. About the Air France in-flight entertainment programme Air France offers on board its long-haul flights a “VOD” (video-on-demand) in-flight entertainment system, comprising over 500 hours of programmes, including 85 feature films – some of them translated into nine languages -, 30 hours of TV programmes (cult seri...

Airlines canceled thousands of flights for a second day and began to regroup as a historic winter storm pushed through the upper Midwest and into the Northeast on Wednesday. O'Hare International Airport was expected to have limited or no flight operations as up to two feet of snow was forecast to fall on the Windy City, said Karen Pride, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation. More than 1,300 flights were canceled on Tuesday. At Chicago's Midway Airport, airlines canceled flight operations on Tuesday. The carriers expect to begin operating again on Wednesday afternoon, although most weren't likely to resume before evening, Pride said. Both Chicago airports remained open despite the grounding of flights. Hundreds of cots were made available to passengers stranded by the storm, according to Pride. Some concessions were to remain open to accommodate them. Airlines canceled more than 4,000 flights on Tuesday as the massive storm surged out of the southern Plai...

This month, a cross-country flight won't be a reason to temporarily suspend a poke war. Seven airlines will offer free access to Facebook via their Wi-Fi networks for the month of February. The no-cost service will be available through a partnership between Gogo Inflight Internet and Ford, and will be offered on North American flights of Virgin America, AirTran, US Airways, American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines, and Alaska Airlines, Gogo said in a blog post. Passengers that want to use the Internet beyond some in-flight Facebooking will have to pay extra. Prices for onboard Wi-Fi range from $4.95 on short trips to $12.95 for longer flights. USA Today said Facebook is the number one trafficked site that passengers visit via Gogo, a service that provides Wi-Fi connections for 1,100 commercial planes on roughly 3,800 flights every day. Gogo said that emailing is the top activity passengers do on its network. Virgin was the first airline to offer Gogo, and the company said in t...