EDS and Continental Airlines Ink Deal

EDS, an HP company and a technology services provider, announced an agreement with Continental Airlines to enhance its EDS Flight Planning Services in order to reduce flight operating expenses and create efficiencies for Continental by automating some aspects of flight planning.

As part of the agreement with Continental, EDS will develop, implement and deliver enhanced EDS Flight Planning Services. This will be delivered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model based on the EDS Airline SOA (service-oriented architecture) platform.

“The EDS Flight Planning Services will allow us to take full advantage of our modern fleet capabilities, achieve significant fuel savings and increase our operational flexibility,” said Mark Moran, executive vice president of Operations at Continental Airlines. “Our strong working relationship and successful track record together made EDS the right choice to deliver industry-leading flight planning technologies, which will seamlessly integrate with all our flight operations services.”

EDS Flight Planning is the fourth component in EDS’ flight operations suite being deployed to help transform Continental’s flight operations functions. As announced in March 2008, EDS is developing EDS Air-to-Ground Messaging Services, EDS Load Planning Services and EDS Aircraft Movement Services for Continental.

“Effective flight planning will enable Continental to reduce costs and increase operational efficiencies,” said Eric Harte, vice president and leader of the Consumer Travel Industry Group at EDS, an HP company. “The EDS team will combine deep expertise in the airline industry and applications development to transform Continental’s flight operations environment to optimize its cost per available seat mile.”

All Nippon Airways Cooperation With Star Alliance to Add Service on International Flights at Haneda Airport, Tokyo

All Nippon Airways Co. is set to boost its international service amid a travel upturn in Asia by capitalizing on its Star Alliance partnerships, recent government aviation agreements and new slots at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

Demand for international flights has grown in March and April, led by increasing travel to China, ANA President and Chief Executive Shinichiro Ito said in an interview.

“The worst is over,” said Mr. Ito, referring to the industry’s travails in the past couple of years due to the global downturn.

“It is vital how we can transform the growth in customer numbers to growth in income per customer,” he added, noting that income growth usually follows a pickup in passengers by several months.

ANA, Japan’s second largest airline by revenue, has said it expects a wider net loss for the fiscal year that ended Wednesday, due to sluggish customer demand.

It would be the carrier’s second straight year in the red.

Under a two-year business plan outlined two weeks ago, ANA aims to post a profit of five billon yen ($53.3 million) in the current fiscal year and a profit of 37 billion yen in the following year. The carrier has targeted cost cuts of 86 billion yen.

In the fiscal year through March 2012, ANA is looking to raise significantly the share of total revenue it derives from its international passenger business.

The carrier thinks it can do this as demand in China and other Asian countries grows, even as the domestic market remains sluggish.

ANA and its alliance partners, United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp., and Continental Airlines Inc., filed a request in December for antitrust immunity to expand their pact on U.S.-Japan routes. The move followed an “open skies” agreement between the two countries that will ease restrictions on cross-border flights.

Once the antitrust request is approved, the three airlines will team up to market routes offered jointly by the partners and will share revenue from the routes.

“Of course, we have to think about how to raise revenue from our own routes,” Mr. Ito said. “But we will also have to think about our partners as we share the revenue. This is a new stage.”

He expects the joint operations to start paying off next year, as the antitrust immunity should be approved by this autumn.

Meanwhile, ANA is studying how it might use new international flight slots that will be offered at Tokyo’s Haneda airport to increase flights between the U.S. West Coast and Asia.

The Japanese government will decide on the allocation of the slots among carriers by this summer, before the airport’s new, fourth runway becomes available for both morning and night use in October.

“If a plane arrives at Haneda at 6 a.m., can fly to countries like China with planes departing in the morning,” Mr. Ito said.

As part of its growth strategy in Asia, ANA may need a budget airline subsidiary.

But to run such a subsidiary in Japan, it would need a low-cost airport that operates around the clock.

Low-cost carriers usually economize by increasing the number of daily routes and flights per aircraft, and by using low-fee airports, such as in Singapore. But no such facility is on the horizon in Japan.

Mr. Ito said that if ANA can’t find a base for a budget airline in its home market, it may have to look elsewhere, in Hong Kong, perhaps.

As for the woes of its larger rival, Japan Airlines Corp., Mr. Ito said the restructuring process shouldn’t undermine fair competition in the industry.

Japan Airlines (JAL), which filed a bankruptcy protection in January, has been extended a government-backed lifeline of $10 billion.

Such taxpayer funds should be used only to maintain routes that the people in the country need, and not to fund investment in a new business or sales promotions such as discount air tickets, Mr. Ito said.

Under its restructuring plan, JAL plans to shed 14 international routes over the next three years. ANA may raise the number of its flights on those routes if demand warrants, Mr. Ito said.

source: wsj.com

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Possibility to Modify Structural Next Generation 737 Engine

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing may modify the production of Boeing 737 Next Generation. VP of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in an interview with ATI and Flightglobal ISTAT, “We’ve talked in moderate detail about what to do. What do we think we’ll have to do is we should have a new mast, new nacelle, wing reinforcement and strengthening of the potential wingbox. ”

Tinseth explains that Boeing “doesn’t really want to touch the main landing gear and we don’t have to. We’ve looked a little bit around maybe some minor modifications around the nose landing gear, still yet to be determined.”

He also explains that when a new powerplant is installed on the airframe, some minor additions are necessary to the avionics.

“What we have to do between now and the time we make a decision is to keep diving deep on the technical side and make sure that we’re absolutely confident that we’ll be able to go forward from a technical perspective,” says Tinseth. “We haven’t seen any show stoppers yet.”

Taking time to address some theories that re-engined offerings from Boeing and Airbus are stop-gap measures until a new narrowbody is introduced Tinseth says: “Let’s take a step back. We’ve looked at what it would take to replace today’s 737 for a long time now, and we know it is all about significant improvements in efficiency, maybe 15% to 20%.”

Tinseth says the wish list by customers includes up to a 30% improvement in airframe maintenance costs that could possibly incorporate composite technology from the 787, a wider cross section and a lower price.

“They’re asking for everything as you might envision customers will do,” says Tinseth. “So we have had a really difficult time figuring out the technology package we’d have to have to make that all happen, and frankly, if you make the decision to re-engine the aircraft, you raise that bar even higher.”

That scenario makes re-engining far from an interim solution, says Tinseth. “If you raise the bar higher then you really have to continue to have a robust technology plan in place to someday replace the aircraft, but it gets harder.”

Declining to supply specifics regarding Boeing’s evaluations of the front runners to supply re-engined powerplants, CFM with its Leap X engine and Pratt & Whitney with the PW1000G geared turbofan, Tinseth says: “I don’t want to give a scorecard. But I will say we’re involved with all the engine manufacturers really trying to understand the technical feasibility of the benefits to understand the benefits those engines will provide.”

However, Tinseth says what is interesting about the current dynamic is that “we’re in a position today that I don’t think we envisioned ourselves in five years ago, with the run up in fuel price, the engine manufacturers have acted very quickly to respond to that, and they’ve brought a number of very compelling solutions to the market.”

He believes as some of those solutions develop they become “very intriguing when you can re-engine an airplane and provide up to a 15% fuel burn improvement”.

Still, Tinseth says Boeing is going to take the time to make the right decision about re-engining the 737.

However, he admits: “These engines are available, and we have a lot of new competitors coming to the market with those engines, so it is changing the competitive landscape.”

Tinseth says he’s not shocked by new competitors entering the single-aisle market. “I’m not surprised by what the Japanese are doing, or what the Chinese are doing, or what the Russians are doing in terms of entering that market. It’s a big market place – 19,000 airplanes over the next 20 years. I fully expect one or more of those new entrants will be successful.”

American Eagle Airlines Change Flight Services from Cheyenne

Subsidiary of American Airlines, American Eagle announces change in flight service from Cheyenne Regional Airport. Service flights from Cheyenne go to one a day. This flight service changes will apply from 18 November.

Changes in air service was for some regular passengers using the service airline American Eagle was surprised, but for the American Eagle officers these plans have been announced since the beginning.

“We started out working with this on a one flight (a day) deal,” Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dale Steenbergen said.

American Eagle wanted to offer two flights during the summer months when demand is greater, he said, so backing off to one in winter “was not an unexpected happening.”

The airline will resume the two daily flights plan next April, he said.

American Eagle began services out of Cheyenne Regional Airport with two flights to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on July 15. American Eagle is a subsidiary of American Airlines.

The chamber partnered with Cheyenne LEADS, the city and county’s economic development group; the city of Cheyenne; Visit Cheyenne; the Downtown Development Authority; and the local airport to make up the Greater Cheyenne Foundation and bring in a commercial air service beyond Great Lakes Airlines, which flies solely to Denver International Airport.

Great Lakes offers five daily flights to and from Cheyenne Monday through Friday, two on Saturday and four on Sunday.

Airport Manager Dave Haring said Great Lakes adjusts its number of flights annually. This year it added a connecting flight to Worland so people there have easier access to DIA.

“It changes from time to time, but we don’t do anything seasonal,” Great Lakes marketing coordinator Megan Crowson said. “The schedule isn’t set in stone, but it’s based on the availability of aircraft.”

Crowson said Great Lakes serves the business traveler market, meaning that the number of flyers doesn’t fluctuate a lot because they’re traveling year-round.

She said the number of fliers has decreased minimally so far this year compared to last year, but it generally stays steady.

Steenbergen said American Eagle provides monthly reports by day and flight, including load factors, to the Wyoming Aeronautics Division.

The division is providing a $1.4 million state subsidy to this project as an Air Service Enhancement Grant.

Although the original contract with American Eagle called for one daily flight year-round, the Wyoming Aeronautics Commission, the governing board of the division, approved the addition of one flight for the summer months during its February meeting.

According to the meeting minutes, the commission also increased the original grant from $1,050,000 to $1.4 million to cover the additional flight, and the community commitment from the Greater Cheyenne Foundation increased to $459,000.

Division air service/marketing manager Amber Schlabs told the commission during the meeting that after four months, American will evaluate whether to pull a flight.

American also required a $1.4 million revenue guarantee for its first year of service, the minutes show.

An official report of American Eagle flight loads will be available to the public in September, at the end of the first quarter.

Steenbergen said the new air service has been promising so far.

“Our rate of fill for the seats has been very good,” he said.

American Airlines representatives did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

Airlines Company To Develop Business Strategy, Southwest Airlines changing strategy for LaGuardia presence

One of Southwest Airlines Co.’s operating commandments has been very clear since the airline began flying in 1971: Thou shalt not fly into congested airports with slot controls.

But that commandment will be erased from Southwest’s bible if the Dallas-based carrier is successful in buying ATA Airlines Inc. and its 14 takeoff and landing slots at New York’s overcrowded but desirable LaGuardia Airport.

“It’s an interesting idea,” airline consultant Darryl Jenkins said Wednesday. “It’s a different idea. This shows how this is not Herb’s airline anymore. This is not your grandpa’s airline.”

ATA is asking a federal bankruptcy court in Indianapolis to approve Southwest’s bid to buy bankrupt ATA, although another bidder could come along and top Southwest’s $7.5 million offer.

Southwest would be buying ATA’s operating certificate to get the takeoff and landing slots, sufficient for seven round trips a day, and would not operate under ATA’s brand or acquire any of its aircraft, facilities or employees.

In a written statement Wednesday, Southwest chairman and chief executive Gary Kelly said that Southwest intends to start service from LaGuardia if the deal is concluded.

“Even in this volatile environment, we have said we must monitor the competitive landscape and take advantage of prudent market opportunities,” he said.

Airline analyst Bob McAdoo of Avondale Partners called the LaGuardia entry “interesting,” but not “a big deal, one way or the other.”

“It’s seven departures out of over 3,000 a day that they have,” Mr. McAdoo said. “I’m sure it’ll be a nice piece of business to add, but I don’t think it’s anything of consequence.”

Mr. Jenkins said Southwest until recently has stuck to the formula of seeking out secondary airports in or near big cities but without the air traffic problems of airports such as LaGuardia.

“It shows that there are very few opportunities available to them in the United States using their previous business model,” he said. “They’re maxing out on places to go into under their old business model.”

The slot controls at LaGuardia also mean that Southwest won’t be able to take over the airport, Mr. Jenkins said.

At most airports it serves, Southwest can “dominate to the point where no other low-cost carrier would even consider going in there,” he said. “They had their own natural monopoly. That will never be an option at LaGuardia.”

Mr. McAdoo said the only way an airline can grow at LaGuardia is by getting another carrier’s slots.

“The chances of them growing in any meaningful fashion are probably pretty slim,” he said. But a few flights a day will help the carrier, he said.

“Southwest basically works because they do a good job of delivering service to thousands and thousands of customers every day, and that’s the real story of Southwest Airlines,” Mr. McAdoo said. “They’ll do a good job at LaGuardia if they get in.”