Air Canada Union Begins Negotiations With Call For Airline To Change
Air Canada’s largest union began two days of scheduled contract negotiations Monday with a call for the airline to change the way it operates in order to secure a contract agreement.
The International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers said its 10,000 members who work at the country’s largest airline feel ignored.
“Right now, unfortunately, there’s no trust between employees and management and that’s something that takes a long time to rebuild,” said Chuck Atkinson, president of District 140.
The airline’s request for a 21-month moratorium on unfunded pension liability payments and for labour peace are among the top items for discussion.
The talks in Montreal follow a preliminary meeting last Friday in Vancouver, where three union bargaining committees had gathered.
Air Canada has already started negotiations with the Canadian Auto Workers, whose contract with 4,500 sales and service agents expired on Sunday.
The contracts for pilots, machinists and flight attendants expire June 30.
The machinists represent Air Canada workers, including maintenance mechanics, cargo agents, baggage handlers, and cleaners.
Air Canada’s new CEO, Calin Rovinescu, has called the airline’s $2.9-billion unfunded pension obligations its top issue.
He also says labour peace if required to seek additional funding.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Air Canada’s shares gained five cents, or 3.68 per cent, at $1.141 in Monday trading. Over the last year, the shares have traded between 73 cents and $9.35.
British Airways Passenger Data Show Drift From Premium To Economy Class
The drift away from premium to economy class air travel has been reconfirmed by British Airways, which has registered another month of falling sales from first- and business-class passengers.
The airline saw premium-class traffic in August fall by 11.9 per cent year-on- year although “non-premium” economy-class custom edged up 1.3 per cent.
Total passengers carried during the busy month dipped 1.7 per cent year-on- year to 3.16m.
Passenger traffic on Asia-Pacific routes was down 13 per cent but there was a small increase on routes to the Americas. Passengers carried on short-to-medium-haul routes in the UK and Europe fell 2 per cent.
The monthly breakdown confirmed trends established this year as BA continued to grapple with a downturn in demand among business travellers.
The airline is also battling against competition from no-frills budget airlines on its less lucrative short-haul routes in Europe.
BA, which last month closed a £350m issue of convertible bonds to strengthen its balance sheet, saw some recovery in demand for cargo services, with cargo load kilometres down 5.4 per cent against a year-to-date decline of 9.2 per cent. The overall load factor on flights was 75.9 per cent, up from 75.1 per cent in July.
BA’s figures came as rival Ryanair announced it had carried 6.88m passengers across its low-cost network of European routes in August.
The expansion in passengers carried, up 19 per cent on August last year, was achieved as Ryanair maintained its load factor for the month at 90 per cent year on year.
Shares in BA closed up 2½p at 184p, while those in Ryanair finished 6.6 cents higher yesterday at €3.13.
*EasyJet is considering plans to close its East Midlands base and reduce its flying schedule at Luton by 20 per cent, placing as many as 230 jobs at risk, in order to redeploy assets to growth markets.
In July, Easyjet said that it would be one of the few airlines to remain profitable in the current year, although earnings would drop sharply, and reiterated its desire to build on that success by increasing capacity by 7.5 per cent a year over the medium term.
The low-cost airline has waged a long battle with Abertis, the Spanish operator of Luton, and Luton borough council, which owns the airport, over charges that it claims have risen 25 per cent in the past three years and are unsustainable.
Talks over the charges broke down in the past few weeks, prompting EasyJet’s management to look for ways to cut costs ahead of the winter months.
Luton borough council declined to comment but said it had done all it could “to work with EasyJet and other airlines to retain and grow their operations during this difficult time brought about by the worldwide recession”.
EasyJet also released statistics showing passenger numbers rose 4.7 per cent year-on-year in August and load factors from 91.3 per cent to 91.8 per cent. EasyJet shares closed up 0.3p at 315.8p.
American Airlines Flight 2253 Emergency Landing at Jackson Hole Airport
The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into an incident in which a passenger jetliner that had landed at Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming failed to stop after touchdown on Thursday.
At about 11:38 AM MT on Thursday, American Airlines Flight 2253, a B-757 (N668AA) inbound from Chicago O’Hare International Airport, ran off the end of runway 19 while landing at Jackson Hole Airport. No injuries were reported among the 181 passengers and crew on board.
The pilot reported that the braking system failed. Flight 2253 continued down the runway, passing the end of the runway and through the runway overrun area which was 300 feet. The aircraft finally came to rest about 350 feet from the overrun area in hard packed snow.
The pilot came on the intercom to reassure passengers that they were ok and stated that the brakes weren’t working properly. Airport officials brought in heavy plows and airport workers began plowing an area around the Boeing 757. A portable staircase and buses were brought in and it took just under an hour before all 181 passengers and crew were able to disembark the aircraft.
Aircraft can and do overrun the ends of runways, sometimes with devastating results. An overrun occurs when an aircraft passes beyond the end of a runway during an aborted takeoff or while landing. To minimize the hazards of overruns, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) incorporated the concept of a safety area beyond the runway end into airport design standards called “runway overrun area”.
To meet the standards, the safety area must be capable, under normal (dry) conditions, of supporting the occasional passage of aircraft that overrun the runway without causing structural damage to the aircraft or injury to its occupants. The safety area also provides greater accessibility for emergency equipment after an overrun incident. There are many runways, particularly those constructed prior to the adoption of the safety area standards, where natural obstacles, local development, and/or environmental constraints, make the construction of a standard safety area impracticable.
There have been accidents at some of these airports where the ability to stop an overrunning aircraft within the runway safety area would have prevented major damage to aircraft and/or injuries to passengers (see Runway Overrun May Have Prevented Flight 331 Accident). Recognizing the difficulties associated with achieving a standard safety area at all airports, the FAA undertook research programs on the use of various materials for arresting systems. These research programs, as well as, evaluation of actual aircraft overruns into an EMAS have demonstrated its effectiveness in arresting aircraft overruns.
The weather was reported to be snowing at the time of the incident. No damage to the aircraft has been reported. Senior NTSB Air Safety Investigator Joseph Sedor has been designated as the Investigator-In-Charge. At this time parties to the investigation are American Airlines, Boeing, the Allied Pilots Association and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Southwest Airlines to Begin Flights To Newark Liberty
Southwest Airlines Co. said Friday it will boost its New York-area flying next year as part of a deal that also seeks to ease concerns from regulators about the proposed merger of UAL Corp.’s United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc.
Dallas-based Southwest plans to lease take-off and landing slots at Newark Liberty International Airport from Continental, adding to its existing services in the region from New York LaGuardia and Islip on Long Island.
Southwest would lease slots to operate 18 daily round-trip flights at peak and off-peak times, which analysts said would likely be enough for high-frequency service to three yet-to-be-disclosed destinations. It would start some flights in March 2011, with a full schedule by next June.
Continental and United said in a joint statement that the plan was a fair solution to concerns raised by the Department of Justice about their proposed merger. The airlines have responded to a second request for information from regulators, and had previously said they were confident of closing a deal by year end. The Southwest plan is contingent on sealing a deal by Nov. 30.
Newark is the New York area’s largest hub and a stronghold of Continental, but rivals including Delta Air Lines Inc., AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and JetBlue Airways Corp. are seeking to buttress their presence in the country’s largest travel market.
Southwest has a limited presence at slot-restricted LaGuardia and successfully campaigned to block a planned transfer of slots at the airport involving Delta and US Airways Group Inc. Delta aimed to strengthen its position at LaGuardia while US Airways would have secured more access to Reagan National in Washington, D.C.
For Southwest, an enhanced New York presence fits its strategy of winning more premium business travelers. The country’s largest carrier of domestic passengers is revamping its frequent-flier program to secure more high-paying corporate accounts, as well as providing in-flight wireless service and credit card tie-ins, a key revenue source for the industry.
The airline, like other low-cost carriers, had reeled in growth plans over the past 18 months but continues to add back limited capacity to balance supply with recovering demand. Southwest had previously announced plans to add two new cities next year to expand its network to 71 destinations. It will also decide in December whether to order larger versions of the Boeing 737 that would suit more congested airports like Newark.
Source : WJS
Airline Trade Group Expects To Chop Loss In Half In 2010
Rising demand will reduce carriers’ red ink to $5.6 billion, the International Air Transport Assn. predicts. A U.S. group, citing volatile fuel prices, is not so optimistic.
The airline industry will rebound modestly next year, losing only about half of what it is expects to lose in 2009, a trade group predicted Tuesday.
“The worst is likely behind us,” said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Assn., the trade group that issued the financial outlook. The association represents about 230 airlines worldwide.
The group’s forecast for $5.6 billion in net losses next year attributes the improving picture partly to growing passenger and cargo demand.
Still, other airline experts say the industry is not in the clear yet. Many unpredictable factors — including fuel prices — could lead to more losses next year.
“There is too much volatility in the marketplace to make a forecast,” said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Assn. of America, which represents the largest air carriers in the U.S.
The recession has hit airlines hard by drying up business travel budgets, a key revenue stream. Most carriers responded by cutting capacity — eliminating flights and parking aircraft — and adopting new passenger fees to check bags, board early and upgrade seats, among other services.
The forecast predicted that net losses next year would be about 15% higher than the $3.8 billion the group had previously forecast. Still, the losses are just a little more than half the $11 billion that association anticipates losing in 2009.
Revenues for the world’s airlines are expected to rise to $478 billion in 2010, an increase of $22 billion from 2009, according to the forecast. Still, that figure is about 11% below the peak of $535 billion in 2008.
After a 4.1% drop in passenger traffic in 2009, the international group predicts traffic to grow 4.5% next year, with a total of 2.28 billion people flying. Airlines will also benefit from a 7% growth in cargo demand, according to the forecast.
North American airlines will continue to cut capacity to reduce losses while European carriers suffer bigger losses because they risk losing access to busy airports if they eliminate flights, the report said.
While Castelveter and other analysts say it’s too early to forecast clear skies for the industry, others say the worst of the financial storm is over.
“The U.S. will come out of it a little stronger,” said Ray Neidl, an independent airline analyst based in New York.
As the economy stabilizes, he said corporate spending on travel will increase.
Stable fuel prices are crucial to the industry’s recovery, Neidl said. For every dollar increase in crude oil prices, the U.S. airline industry must spend an additional $430 million on fuel, Castelveter said.
At an investor day event Tuesday, Delta President Ed Bastian said the world’s largest airline is on track to lose $1.1 billion in 2009, primarily because of fuel hedges. But he said fourth-quarter trends show improvement from earlier in the year, with a 15% increase in business travel sales in the last few weeks.
Businesses may be increasing travel budgets, but they haven’t loosened some of the austerity measures they adopted in the last year, experts say. Many business travelers are required to fly coach and stay in economy hotels.
“Business travel is picking up, but corporate business managers have not loosened up the policies,” said Noah Tratt, a vice president at Egencia, the corporate travel arm of Expedia.com. “Those policies will stay in place for a while.”
