26 MAY 2009 _______________________________________ * Southwest, WestJet postpone alliance in 'surprise' announcement * Virgin America: Free WiFi at Every Seat, Someday * Branson's Virgin Atlantic Sees 'Challenging Year,' Ridgway Says * Trash depot near LaGuardia runway ruffles feathers * Safety concerns put spotlight on U.S. commuter airlines * IATA Calls For Global Approach to Reducing Emissions * Botswana Must Fly Up To Standard - ICAO *********************************** Southwest, WestJet postpone alliance in 'surprise' announcement Southwest and WestJet have delayed plans to begin a passenger-sharing codeshare alliance. The Calgary Herald writes "the postponement surprised analysts and comes as Southwest, the largest U.S. low-cost airline, redirects program funds to more immediate revenue generating opportunities amid widespread economic woes that last month saw it post a first-quarter net loss of $91 million." "WestJet understands the decision made by Southwest. Our continued U.S. expansion is a key strategy for our airline, but code-sharing is only one element of this. Both airlines remain committed to minimizing delays and are focused on generating revenue as quickly as possible," Hugh Dunleavy, WestJet's executive vice president for commercial distribution, is quoted as saying by The Associated Press. Still, the move is seen as a blow to WestJet, Canada's No. 2 carrier. The National Post of Toronto says "the deal is a cornerstone of WestJet's growth strategy and was to be in place by year-end when its new Sabre reservation system is operational." The Toronto Star adds the pact "was viewed as a key partnership for WestJet because it gave passengers access to Southwest's huge route network in the United States, while allowing WestJet to rely on Southwest's brand and market penetration to fill WestJet flights heading home to Canada." The Globe and Mail of Toronto notes "WestJet is looking to double its seat capacity between Canada and the United States." Both carriers say they remain committed to the deal, but Reuters writes "Southwest has not given WestJet any indication when the codeshare implementation might be revived, (said WestJet's Dunleavy.)" Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King tells the National Post: "We don't know the exact time frame, but I would say the earliest it would be implemented would be late 2010." http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/blog.aspx/item.aspx?type=blog &ak=67275557.blog *********************************** Virgin America: Free WiFi at Every Seat, Someday By Bryce Longton. This is a game changer. Virgin America has successfully launched wifi in every seat in its fleet of airplanes. They've long had outlets in every seat, so now it's just a matter of plug in and get on. The service isn't free (yet), but it's less than most hotel rooms charge, and since they're the first airline to have such complete coverage, I'll give it to them, but I'm hoping for the price to go down to zero dollars some point soon. For laptop use, it'll cost you $9.95 for flights less than three hours long, $12.95 for flights over three hours. Handheld devices, i.e. BlackBerry or iPhones, will cost you $7.95 regardless of flight time. For those hoping to get some shut-eye on your next red-eye, don't worry-voice service is not supported on phones at this time. However, it might not be the phone calls you'll have to worry about-as long as laptops work, so does our friend Skype. And just to prove that skyping works from the ground to the sky, check out today's Oprah show, wherein Oprah skypes the first-class cabin of flight VX780 en route from Seattle to Los Angeles. Apparently there's a wine-tasting segment that Oprah leads from the ground while the passengers sniff, swirl, and sip aloft. There goes the excuse about not being able to send emails because you were stuck on a flight. Sigh. http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/virgin-america-free-wifi-at-every-seat/7 663 *********************************** Branson's Virgin Atlantic Sees 'Challenging Year,' Ridgway Says By Steve Rothwell May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., the long-haul carrier controlled by billionaire Richard Branson, is having a "very challenging year" as demand for air travel slumps, according to its chief executive officer. "It's not about making a profit this year, it's about making sure we protect our cash," CEO Steve Ridgway said today in an interview. "Fares and yields are at all-time lows and the premium market has shrunk dramatically." Virgin Atlantic has trimmed capacity by about 7 percent by eliminating some flights to destinations including New York, and probably will reduce seating further this year, Ridgway said. The carrier is 49 percent owned by Singapore Airlines Ltd. The Crawley, England-based carrier doubled pretax profit last year as it carried more premium passengers, bucking a trend of net losses at competitors including British Airways Plc and Air France-KLM Group. Virgin is unlikely to repeat that feat. Ridgway called on the European Union to extend the suspension of a rule that requires airlines to use takeoff and landing slots at least 80 percent of the time, or face losing them the next year. The European Parliament has put the requirement on hold until Oct. 24. "The important thing is that this happens during the winter," Ridgway said. "The industry needs to balance capacity to the demand that is out there." Airline Cooperation Virgin also wants the U.S. to deny British Airways antitrust immunity for a proposed alliance with AMR Corp.'s American Airlines. Branson has argued for years that increased ties between the two carriers would stifle competition, particularly on trans-Atlantic routes. Virgin's pretax profit rose to 68.4 million pounds ($108 million) in the year ended Feb. 28 from 34.8 million pounds a year earlier, Virgin said today in a statement. Passenger numbers increased 1.2 percent to 5.77 million in the calendar year. British Airways reported its first full-year loss since 2002 on May 22, as demand plunged and fuel costs rose. The pretax deficit in the period ended March 31 was 401 million pounds. Air France said May 19 that it will deepen job cuts after logging its first loss since 1996. Virgin doesn't report a net income figure. Airlines worldwide will likely lose a combined $4.7 billion this year, the International Air Transport Association said March 24. To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Rothwell in London at srothwell@bloomberg.net http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087 &sid=aUC2vKjiZRLU&refer=home Last Updated: May 26, 2009 05:27 EDT *********************************** Trash depot near LaGuardia runway ruffles feathers By JOAN LOWY WASHINGTON (AP) - About 700 yards from the end of a LaGuardia Airport runway, where thousands of planes take off and land, New York officials want to build what could be the equivalent of a bird magnet: a very large garbage transfer station. Just four months after a run-in with birds sent a jet full of people into the Hudson River separating New York and New Jersey. "That's just insane," said Jeff Skiles, co-pilot of USAirways Flight 1549, which ditched in the water Jan. 15. "We have a lot of difficulty keeping birds away from airports as it is." The city and the Federal Aviation Administration insist that the 2,000 tons of garbage, which would be hauled by truck into the 100-foot tall facility each day and sent out again on barges, won't entice birds because the waste will be kept in containers or inside the building. "We don't see it (the station) as opening up some advertisement to the bird population that says, 'Come here for a meal' - it's not that kind of facility," said Walter Czwartacky, special projects director at the city sanitation department. But pilots, bird experts and members of Congress are not convinced that the department's plan is as bird-proof as its proponents say it is. The Air Line Pilots Association International is asking the FAA and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia, for a wildlife risk analysis of the project. Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., whose constituents are unhappy with the project, said the plan defies common sense. "Stand in any street and watch the garbage truck go by. Guess who is flying above them? They leak liquid, they have trash hanging off the sides - anybody knows that," Ackerman said. "The whole thing is mystifying. Of all the places to put it, why direct deadline center at the end of a runway?" Rory Kay, the pilot association's executive safety chairman and a pilot who flies Boeing 757s and 767s out of LaGuardia, said air traffic controllers have a nearly continuous warning to pilots about birds in the vicinity of LaGuardia. But, he said, when a plane is traveling at 3.5 miles a minute (or 210 mph) "there's not much you can do about it at that stage of the game" short of aborting a takeoff or landing. "It's kind of a leap of faith to conclude there are no bird issues here," Kay said. LaGuardia is the same airport from which the USAirways flight hit a flock of Canada geese. Skiles and Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger were lauded as heroes for averting a catastrophe in densely populated New York by gliding the plane safely into the Hudson. All 155 people aboard survived. LaGuardia is the nation's 19th busiest airport, with 378,521 takeoffs and landings in 2008. The transfer station is planned for property on the shore of the Flushing Bay, which the airport borders on the east. Czwartacky said a smaller transfer station operated on the same site for decades until it closed in 2001, and the department was unaware of a problem with birds being attracted to it. Richard Dolbeer, an expert on bird-plane collisions, said it might be safe to put garbage transfer stations of the type proposed by New York near some airports where scavenging birds aren't common. But he said LaGuardia is exactly the kind of airport and location least compatible with a trash facility. "It certainly raises a red flag," Dolbeer said. "I don't think enough research has been done to really determine if these fully enclosed facilities do not attract wildlife. ... LaGuardia has enough problems (with birds) as it is just being located on the water." The species of greatest concern are sea gulls, said Dolbeer, a wildlife biologist. Four types of gulls are native to Flushing Bay, he said, and all are attracted to trash. Gulls also tend to flock. A lone bird generally isn't much of a threat to an airliner, but a flock can be calamitous. Reports to a bird strike database maintained by the FAA and the Agriculture Department show planes in the U.S. have collided with gulls more often than any other bird species - over 7,000 times since 1990, Dolbeer said. Of those collisions, more than 1,200 damaged or destroyed the aircraft, he said. At nearby John F. Kennedy International Airport, a DC-10 crashed and burned on Nov. 12, 1975, after ingesting gulls in one engine while landing. No one was killed, but the airplane was destroyed. There were 935 bird-plane collisions at LaGuardia between 1990 and late 2008, although only 28 were severe enough to seriously damage or destroy the aircraft, according to the bird strike database. It ranks 14th out of 754 U.S. airports for bird collisions. FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the agency's determination last year that a transfer station wouldn't be a hazard was based on whether the facility would interfere radar and radio operations at the airport. He said FAA doesn't consider transfer stations where trash is enclosed to be hazardous if they are operated properly. FAA also doesn't have the power to stop a project, he said. "That's strictly a local issue," Peters said. The city has received bids for the project and hopes to begin construction this summer, with a goal of completion by 2012, Czwartacky said. Last week, Ackerman and Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., inserted into a House aviation bill a provision directing FAA to rescind its determination that the project isn't a hazard. It was fortunate, Crowley said, that the pilot of Flight 1549 "had the split-second judgment" to ditch into the Hudson. "Another pilot, another plane may not be so fortunate," Crowley said. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jfnuzwxH9Z7hH9VO0ASW4yonQ7 0AD98DP8R80 *********************************** Safety concerns put spotlight on U.S. commuter airlines Mon May 25, 2009 Even if safety probes do not frighten passengers away, regional airlines could face lawmakers' demands for costly operational changes -- especially as the last three commercial flights to crash were operated by commuter carriers. "There will be some increased costs at regionals," said airline industry consultant Robert Mann. "It'll be associated with enhanced training requirements, maybe some different crew scheduling requirements." In the United States, regional carriers operate just over half of all domestic flights. More than 160 million passengers flew on regional airlines in 2007, up 40 percent from 2003, according to data from the RAA. Regional carriers -- Air Wisconsin, Mesa Air Group and Pinnacle Airlines Corp are examples -- typically lease small planes of 90 seats or less from major "mainline" airlines and fly connecting routes between less-traveled cites under the names of the larger partners. Reduced service would have an impact on the towns served. About 75 percent of U.S. airports -- 240 cities -- are served exclusively by regional airlines. Cities like Toledo, Ohio; Tupelo, Mississippi; and Aspen, Colorado, have airports served only by regional airlines, according to the Regional Airline Association (RAA). "Every one of those communities has come to depend on our service," said RAA president Roger Cohen. Regional carriers have suffered as weak travel demand hurt their revenues. For the first quarter, for example, ExpressJet Holdings Inc, which provides regional flights for Continental, reported a loss. SkyWest Inc, which flies for Delta Air Lines and UAL Corp's United, said its quarterly profit dropped 68 percent. Earlier this month, Mesa Air Group Inc also posted a loss against a year-earlier profit for its most second quarter ended March 31. But Cohen predicted publicity about the Colgan crash would not jeopardize the regional aviation business, telling Reuters: "This industry has a tremendous safety record ... It's absolutely the safest way to travel." Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, said he doubted U.S. corporations would bar their employees from traveling on regional airlines. "But I'd bet you they're going to make it a choice for the employee to make even if an alternative is higher priced," he said. "And that could have a sizable impact." (Additional reporting by John Crawley. Editing by Peter Bohan and Alan Elsner) http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE54N2DP20090525?pageNumber =2 &virtualBrandChannel=10531 *********************************** IATA Calls For Global Approach to Reducing Emissions Published on: May 26, 2009 The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reiterated aviation's commitment to responsibly addressing the challenges of climate change and called on governments to deliver a global and sectoral approach to reducing aviation emissions in Kyoto 2. "Air transport is a global industry with a good track record and ambitious targets for environmental performance. But to achieve them, we need governments to take a global approach," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director general and CEO, in a statement to the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen. Bisignani called on governments to define a sectoral approach in Kyoto 2 with global accounting for aviation's emissions through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and open access for airlines to properly regulated carbon markets. Such an approach would maintain a level playing field for all airlines and replace overlapping national and regional schemes. A global approach is already underpinned with three ambitious industry targets: a 25 percent improvement in fuel efficiency by 2020 compared to 2005; to use 10 percent alternative fuels by 2017; and a 50 percent absolute reduction in emissions by 2050. "We are already working to set an important fourth target: a date for carbon-neutral growth beyond which our emissions will not grow even as demand increases," said Bisignani. Bisignani gave a progress report on the aviation industry's efforts to reduce emissions. "Aviation's emissions will fall by 8 percent this year. Some 6 percent of this is from the recession and 2 percent is directly related to IATA's four-pillar strategy," said Bisignani. The first pillar is technology. Efficiency improved 70 percent over the past 40 years, 23 percent in the last decade alone. This is mainly due to better aircraft and engines. The second is operations. "How we fly makes a difference. IATA's Green Teams are working with airlines around the world to implement best practices. This work is now saving around 30 million tons of CO2 each year," said Bisignani. The third is infrastructure. IATA's work to shorten routes is saving at least a further 30 million tons of CO2. The fourth is positive economic measures. Some 30 airlines have carbon offset programs. In June, IATA will launch an industry offset program so airlines can offer this option even more broadly. Bisignani made special note of the industry progress on biofuels. "One of the most exciting recent developments is the progress being made in sustainable next generation biofuels. These have the potential to reduce our carbon footprint by up to 80 percent. Three years ago nobody thought biofuels could be applied to aviation. Four successful test flights in the last year prove that biofuels work. For the first time aviation could have a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Airlines did this work without government involvement. But we could achieve much more, much faster, with a fiscal and legal framework to accelerate research and reward investment. Governments must get on board," Bisignani said. "Working with governments, a united industry -- airlines, airports, manufacturer and air navigation service provider -- made air transport the safest way to travel. By working together with a coordinated global approach we can make aviation the first global industry to achieve carbon-neutral growth and a model for others to follow," said Bisignani. For more information, visit www.iata.org. http://www.travelpulse.com/Resources/Editorial.aspx?n=56210 *********************************** Botswana Must Fly Up To Standard - ICAO Wanetsha Mosinyi, Staff Writer The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) representative last week challenged the Botswana government to develop its aviation sector up to international standards, especially that Gaborone is the headquarters of SADC. "Botswana should have all 14 SADC countries having direct flights landing here," Tshepo Peege said at the launch of the Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB). "I want to say this especially to the Vice President (Mompati Merafhe) and the Minister of Works and Transport (Johnnie Swartz) who are here that it is time Botswana had an aviation industry that is of international standards," said Peege, who represents South Africa on ICAO's Council. Peege , who is also the President of the African Civil Aviation Commission (ACAC), said New York as the headquarters of the United Nations, Washington as the head office of the International Monetary Fund and Addis Ababa the headquarters of the African Union had developed their aviation industries to meet the standards necessary for hosting such multilateral organisations. Swartz concurred with Peege, saying the government had decided to establish an autonomous aviation authority in order to conform to ICAO standards; CAAB should not only ensure that Botswana met international standards but should also advice the government regarding its obligations under international law. "From the onset, the government expects CAAB to enhance the safety, security and efficiency of civil aviation through effective management," Swartz said. "The Authority should put safety first and ensure that our operators fly airworthy aircraft and that security is (never) compromised." Swartz said civil aviation was a "very important" sub-sector in the development of Botswana's transport sector. "Other than enabling Batswana to travel quickly, comfortably and safely to other parts of the world, air transport is also a key facilitator in the diversification of the country's economy through its support to the tourism and trade sectors," he said. To support the expectations of the international aviation industry, the government had embarked on financing the expansion and improvements of major airports and that work was progressing well at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport and at the smaller Maun and Francistown airports while work on the Kasane and Ghantsi airports was at the design stage. Swartz said his ministry was currently seeking the options of stakeholders on liberalising scheduled services both locally and regionally with a view to attracting more air services into the country. CAAB is mandated to facilitate this arrangement and the process of developing regulations for licensing private air operators. Under the statute establishing it, CAAB will regulate air transport, which will entail the licensing of pilots and other civil aviation personnel, the certification of aircraft and the provision of air navigation and traffic services. Gobusamang Keebine, who has a long track record in civil aviation in Botswana and South Africa, has been appointed the Chairman of the CAAB. http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=4 &aid=19&dir=2009/May/Monday25 ********************************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC