Northwest Airlines grounds 27 planes to comply with Federal Aviation Administration directive
Northwest Airlines grounded 27 planes Friday after a company audit showed noncompliance with a directive related to landing gear.
Flights on the Boeing 757s were canceled, with about 2,600 passengers affected.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s directive focused on a linchpin in the aircrafts’ landing gear. But Northwest says passengers were never in danger.
Northwest spokeswoman Tammy Lee Stanoch says the problem was fixed on the planes Friday evening. By 10:40 p.m., the FAA had cleared Northwest to begin using the planes again.
Besides putting up some of the affected passengers in hotel rooms, Northwest worked with its new parent company, Delta Air Lines, to find other aircraft to accommodate passengers.
Allegiant Air Adds Nonstop Flight From Grand Rapids To Fort Lauderdale
Starting November 13, Allegiant Air will add a third low-cost nonstop flight from Grand Rapids to Florida — this time to Fort Lauderdale.
The new service brings Allegiant’s nonstop offerings from the Gerald R. Ford International Airport to five locations. That includes Orlando, Fla.; Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla.; Las Vegas; and service to Phoenix that begins next month.
“Allegiant was successful right out of the gate with the two flights to Florida,” said airport spokesman Bruce Schedlbauer. “Their flights are running 95 percent at a time when most airlines are between 45 and 85 percent.”
The airline plans to offer introductory fares as low as $79.99 each way to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Florida is the top destination out of Grand Rapids, and Fort Lauderdale is a top 20 destination in the country, Schedlbauer said.
“It’s a fun and sun destination,” he said.
Allegiant began operating out of Grand Rapids in February after moving from Lansing Capital City Airport to Gerald R. Ford International.
The Las Vegas-based discount airline specializes in serving smaller cities with direct connections to leisure destinations.
Allegiant will operate two flights a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, flying passengers on 150-seat MD-80 series jets.
Airport officials hope plan cuts airline-loss risk
The Williamsport Regional Airport Authority wants to develop a plan to avoid a reoccurrence of what happened this summer when US Airways decided to cancel commercial air service to the airport.
On Thursday, authority chairman Mark Murawski said the airline could decide to leave again, but added that measures can be taken to ensure that doesn’t happen.
“Can this happen again? Yes it could, but we can avoid it happening if fuel prices remain stable and people continue to use the airport,” Murawski said.
“We don’t think they’re going to (leave again). There is no indication that they’re going to do that,” authority member Atwood Welker said.
Blaming high fuel prices, the airline announced in June that it was ending air service between Williamsport and Philadelphia. At the time, oil was about $130 a barrel, far higher than anyone in the industry anticipated.
The announcement prompted the authority to apply to the federal Department of Transportation for relief under the Essential Air Services Act. The act ensures air service to airports by providing subsidies to airlines on a per seat basis.
The department solicited bids and received proposals from Peidmont, Mesaba, and Colgan Air, subsidiaries, respectively, of US Airways, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines.
None of the proposals met criteria set by the department, so they were rejected and another round of bids sought.
Peidmont and Mesaba resubmitted bids, the former for service to Philadelphia, and the latter, for service to Detroit. In spite of a recommendation by the authority, local residents and business owners, the department chose Mesaba to be the airport’s commercial carrier.
When oil price fell dramatically this fall, US Airways withdrew its notice to leave the airport and decided to maintain three daily unsubsidized round-trip flights to Philadelphia.
The announcement drew a sigh of relief from airport officials and airline employees working at the airport.
“It was a difficult time for us the last six months,” airport executive director Thomas Hart said. “It was a trying time (for airport staff) and they all came through and did a stellar job.”
Although the saga ended on a positive note, some authority members promised to do whatever they could to avoid repeating the experience.
“If I learned something out of this, it’s that it’s not US Airways’ job to get people to use our airport. It’s our job,” authority member William Martin said.
Authority member Peter Goodwin agreed.
“We are the ones saddled with developing the use of this airport,” Goodwin said.
Hart suggested developing a partnership with the airline to market the airport and the region.
People need to know the airport is open for business, he said.
Murawski said there was an outpouring of support from the community and county, state and federal officials to keep US Airways in Williamsport. Such support needs to be maintained to ensure the airline stays here, he said.
“The voice was loud and clear to (US Airways) that they were the best choice for our primary service,” Murawski said. “Everybody came together in the community and we need to continue to do that.”
According to Hart, the three daily round-trip flights between Williamsport and Philadelphia was a seasonal schedule the airline implemented last year.
Hart said he believes the airline will increase the number of flights to five in the spring.
Air France-KLM Agreed to Pay $432 million for Alitalia
Air France-KLM Group, Europe’s biggest airline, agreed to pay 323 million euros ($432 million) for 25 percent of Alitalia SpA, beating Deutsche Lufthansa AG for a stake in the reorganized Italian carrier.
“Air France showed more conviction than other suitors,” Rocco Sabelli, chief executive officer of CAI, Alitalia’s owner, said today at a press conference in Rome. The tie-up with Paris-based Air France should deliver 720 million euros in savings and additional revenue over three years, CAI said.
Alitalia was put into bankruptcy on Aug. 29 after political and labor opposition thwarted two years of attempts to sell the Rome-based airline, which was 49.9 percent state- owned. CAI on Dec. 12 agreed to buy Alitalia’s main assets and to combine it with smaller rival Air One SpA before bringing in a foreign airline as minority investor.
Alitalia will operate as a new company starting tomorrow. Air France will take its stake by subscribing to a capital increase, the carrier said in an e-mailed statement. It will get three seats out of 19 on Alitalia’s board and two out of nine on the executive committee.
“This is a good deal for Air France,” said Jonathan Wober, an analyst at Societe Generale in London with a “buy” recommendation on the French company’s shares. “The Italian market is one of the biggest in Europe. Milan in particular is a very good business market.”
The agreement means Alitalia will remain a member of Air France’s Skyteam global airline alliance.
Lufthansa Proposal
Lufthansa, Europe’s No. 2 airline and a leader of the rival Star alliance, said by e-mail that it wasn’t surprised by the Italian decision and that it hadn’t had access to the commercial data needed to make a firm bid. The Cologne, Germany-based company said it had approached CAI with proposals for a collaboration that included Alitalia joining Star.
Lufthansa had sought to become CAI’s partner after abstaining from earlier bids because of Alitalia’s debt. CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber said in November that he was optimistic about being chosen because of Lufthansa’s multihub strategy.
Italy’s Northern League party, coalition partner with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, had backed Lufthansa as more likely to boost traffic at Milan Malpensa airport.
A joint statement from Alitalia and Air France-KLM said their partnership will be based on multiple hubs, with Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino joining on an equal basis alongside Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol.
Cooperation Vital
Roberto Colaninno, chairman of CAI and now of the new Alitalia, which will subsume the investment group, said the agreement should encourage growth at the airline and increase competitiveness for Italy. Air France Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta said cooperation was vital given the challenges facing carriers amid the global recession.
The deal with Air France includes a lock-in commitment for CAI investors to maintain their combined holding in Alitalia for four years. From the fifth year, existing shareholders will have first right of refusal on any stock put up for sale, in proportion to the number of shares they hold. From the third year, a stock-market listing would annul the pact.
CAI includes more than 20 investors, among them the Benetton family’s toll-highway operator Atlantia SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA. Its takeover of Alitalia was valued at 1.05 billion euros, including 625 million euros of debt.
Air France-KLM was advised by Lazard Ltd. Intesa Sanpaolo advised Alitalia throughout its reorganization and search for investors.
Air Canada Delays Vex Consumer Group
The Consumers Association of Canada will be seeking a meeting with the federal minister of transportation in the new year after being overwhelmed by complaints over Air Canada’s handling of passengers during the snowiest Christmas on the West Coast in decades.
Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers Association of Canada, said his office is unable to handle the number of complaints coming in, mostly about Air Canada and some about Vancouver International Airport itself.
“This is an issue for government. We need protective legislation. What we’ve been given … is a demonstration of the worst that can happen,” said Cran.
As of Friday night they had received 215 complaints and now it’s well over 300, Cran said, without even counting the e-mails he hasn’t had time to read.
Snowstorms across the country last week forced Air Canada to cancel all short and medium-haul flights to and from Vancouver on Dec. 24, which left excruciating long lineups at ticket counters, stranded passengers and frustrations at a boiling point.
The complaints ranged from people being charged $50 to rebook flights, unanswered phone calls to reservation lines, lost baggage and not enough staff to handle the problems.
“We never got one complaint about the weather. It’s all about the way they were treated,” said Cran.
In an e-mail, Air Canada’s manager of media relations Isabelle Arthur said she appreciates how frustrating the delays and cancellations were and said: “We sincerely apologize to our customers.”
“What we could not anticipate was the succession and the severity of the storms and how difficult is was for Vancouver to recover,” Arthur wrote.
She said the airline was limited in Vancouver by “runway restrictions and/or limited de-icing capacity.”
“We used more glycol to de-ice planes in one day than we normally use in half a year.”
She said the storms had a bigger impact on Air Canada’s operations than any other airline’s because it is four to five times larger than its closest competitor, flies larger planes that take longer to de-ice and carries more passengers.
At Vancouver Airport yesterday, 55-year-old Alberta man Costa Staicu said he had been stuck at airports for two days after being delayed in Calgary for seven hours and then missing a Cathay Pacific flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong Sunday.
“It’s a very bad situation,” said Staicu, who wasn’t sure when he would be able to get a flight.
He said disabled people in wheelchairs and entire families had been sleeping on the floor “like stray dogs.”
Cran said his advocacy group will now work on lobbying the federal government on behalf of air passengers.
“We are going to put this together as a case to present to Transport Canada to get us some good, proper rules with teeth for the rights of airline passengers,” said Cran yesterday.
He said legislation introduced in September called Flight Rights Canada is “absolutely useless to most passengers.
“Any weather-related items are excluded,” said Cran. “You’ve got to go through every effort possible with the airline before you can make a complaint with the Ministry of Transport. It just looks like a nightmare procedure with no end to it.”
As part of Flight Rights Canada, passengers are entitled to information on delays, another flight if a plane is overbooked and a meal voucher if a flight is delayed longer then four hours.
However, it says: “Airlines cannot be held responsible for inclement weather.”
Cran is seeking a law that limits how long people can be kept on a plane on the tarmac. Three hours should be the limit, he said.
One flight from Vancouver to Toronto was kept on the tarmac for 12 hours and took 24 hours from gate to gate, he said.
“That’s like torture. I wouldn’t be surprised if Air Canada is hit with a very solid class-action lawsuit over that one,” he said.
“Nobody has got the right to hold you captive for that sort of time.”
Air Canada gave passengers on that flight $500 travel vouchers.
The consumers’ association also heard from numerous employees at YVR who told them there weren’t enough snow tires for trucks or plows to handle the snow.
“It’s also a good wake-up call for the airport to make sure they get their act in order so we aren’t embarrassed during the Olympic Games,” Cran said.
“You know this could happen every now and again. Even if it is 41 years apart, we should be able to do a better job.”
