Aviation Report

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently assessed a civil penalty against Comair for violating federal rules regarding passengers denied boarding (“bumped”) on oversold flights. Comair and affiliated carriers were ordered to cease and desist from further violations and Comair will pay a civil penalty of $275,000. “Our bumping rules are designed to protect passengers when airlines overbook a flight,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We expect carriers to comply with these rules and will take enforcement action when they do not.” When a flight is oversold, DOT regulations require airlines to seek volunteers willing to give up their seats for compensation. If not enough volunteers can be found and the carrier must bump passengers involuntarily, the carrier is required to give bumped passengers a written statement describing their rights and explaining how it decides who will be bumped from an oversold flight. In most cases, passengers bumped involuntarily al...

Unions Agree to Coordinate Aggressive Lobbying Program on Legislative Priorities Including Tightening Aircraft Maintenance Standards, Increased Pilot Training, Protecting Workers During Airline Bankruptcies Three transportation organizations announced today the creation of a large aviation labor alliance to combine and coordinate lobbying efforts on airline safety and security. The American Aviation Labor Alliance (AALA) is a formal partnership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association (CAPA), which represent more than 140,000 aviation workers. "We are leading the fight that workers care about in the airline industry," said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. "As the American Aviation Labor Alliance, we will speak on the most pressing aviation issues facing our membership and the public with one strong voice." "The airline industry is under intense financial an...

Air France has launched an official facebook page for customers where they can get the latest news, book a flight or share their experience. This move is the latest one by the French Airline to promote itself as an avant-garde player in the field of new technologies and social networks. www.facebook.com/pages/Air-France

Travelers scan their tickets at an automatic boarding gate in Frankfurt; while common in Europe, Continental is the first U.S. airline to try a similar procedure with a single self-boarding gate in Houston. Continental Airlines has announced that it is currently testing an automated self-boarding system at one of its gates at Houston Intercontinental Airport. Although self-boarding gates are not a new thing for many of the world’s airlines, the Continental experiment is the first in the US. The airline has not released a great deal of information about the experiment, but all passengers now have to do when they are barding their plane, is to swipe their boarding pass through and electronic reader. Once this is done a turnstile or set of doors will open and the customer can cross the jet-bridge and take their seat. Greg Soule, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which looks after security at the airport, said that there was no security risk posed by the ne...

For the long-suffering commercial aviation industry, signs of recovery are busting out all over. Aerospace manufacturers came away from the bi-annual Farnborough International Airshow this past week with more than $30-billion (U.S.) on their order books, not a record by any means but a far cry from the meager $7-billion in orders last year at Farnborough’s sister show, Le Bourget, near Paris. Airlines – including Air Canada – that not so long ago had been bleeding red ink are reporting stronger quarterly results and presenting upbeat forecasts as passengers take to the skies once again. A cyclical business notorious for its brutal downturns, the aviation sector is beginning to shake off the effects of a recession that left it struggling with its worst crisis in decades. AIRLINES After posting losses of $9.4-billion (U.S.) in 2009, the global airline industry will bounce back this year and make $2.5-billion in profits, according to the International Air Transport Association....

Legislation to overhaul aviation programs, including billions for modernizing the aging U.S. air traffic system, has stalled as congressional negotiators struggle to resolve stubborn issues, one of which involves US Airways Group Inc (LCC.N). Congressional and industry sources said momentum to pass the measure before lawmakers break for August vacation was interrupted this week with key lawmakers unable to reach agreement on provisions affecting long-haul air service and passenger fees that support airport operations. Disagreements have also surfaced on how to proceed in the Senate, which is scheduled to recess August 6. The agenda is crowded with finance and small business bills and a Supreme Court confirmation vote. The House of Representatives breaks for a month next Friday. "We're not that close to getting an agreement on outstanding issues," said one congressional aide not authorized to publicly discuss details while the matter was still being negotiated. T...

The future of aviation that engineers dreamed about 70 years ago didn’t look much like the present. But it did look a lot like the future of aviation they’re still dreaming of today. Back in 1938, for instance, Popular Mechanics magazine ran a cover story on “The Flying Wing of the Future,” an amazing machine in which the fuselage was almost indistinguishable from the wide V of the wings. In May of this year, NASA presented the latest thinking from Boeing, General Electric, Northrop Grumman, and MIT about the “down to earth” shape of planes to come in the next 20 to 30 years, with companion studies by Boeing and Lockheed Martin about supersonic transport. Sure enough, one of the MIT proposals is for the Hybrid Wing Body H-Series, an enormous flying wing, and NASA actually has been test-flying a model of something similar, the X-48B, since 2006. At first glance they look like they’re straight out of 1938. But the operative phrase here is “at first glance.” Basic principles of lift a...