Japan traffic aids recovery at Delta

August traffic remained strong at Delta Air Lines, boosted by increased demand in Japan, President Edward Bastian told reporters. With the yen showing strong gains against the dollar, more Japanese are flying overseas, he noted. "It has been an important contributor to our recovery from the economic recession we have seen this past year."

 

Delta to shrink Comair unit by 50%, boost mainline flights

Delta Air Lines plans to halve the size of its Comair regional subsidiary over the next two years, dropping most of its 50-seat jets in favor of more mainline flying. "The era in which the economics allowed small jets to be leased and operated profitably on regional routes is over”.

 

Alternative fuel is technically possible but economically challenging

U.S. airlines continue to test various alternative fuels in their ongoing efforts to reduce emissions. Although recent tests have shown that planes can fly on a variety of non-fossil fuels, no energy company has yet shown that it can produce such fuels more economically.

 

The Difficulty in Improving Airline Safety Now

The numbers do highlight a concern among safety officials: Rapid safety improvement that airlines have enjoyed for several decades may be bottoming out.

 

Market Reaction to Earnings from Hawaiian Holdings

Hawaiian Holdings Inc. released its most recent earnings statement about a month ago on Tuesday, July 27th. Hawaiian Holdings Inc. missed expectations with a profit of 17 cents per share---1 cent below the analyst consensus of 18 cents per share.

 

Highest Short Interest in the Airlines Industry Detected in Shares of Republic Airways Holdings (RJET, ALGT, JBLU, HA, AAI)

Hawaiian Holdings has a short interest ratio of 10 based on average daily volume of 549,000 shares and 5.5 million shares short. That equates to 10.7% of the 51.4 million shares outstanding.

 

Simulator training flaws tied to airline crashes

More than half of the 522 fatalities in U.S. airline accidents since 2000 have been linked to problems with simulators, devices that are used nearly universally to train the nation's airline pilots, the records show.

 

Japan Airlines To Cut Jobs Retire 103 Aircraft And Scrap 49 Flights

Japan Airlines a debt-ridden carrier announced that it was downsizing its fleet and cutting routes and employees in an effort to reduce more than $25 billion in debt and bring it back to profitability.

 

Oberstar renews vow to re-regulate airlines

The Department of Justice's decision Friday to approve the merger of Continental and United Airlines shows Congress needs more authority over airlines to prevent further consolidation at the expense of consumers, according to House Transportation Committee chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.).

 

Airlines focus on cabin updates as economy improves

Improving fortunes in the airline industry have led many carriers to upgrade their cabins, ABC News reports. The improvements include more Wi-Fi, leather seating in the coach cabin and better entertainment options.

 

Airline workers want pay, benefits restored

U.S. airlines workers, who have gone through pay and benefit cuts, layoffs, bankruptcies and rising workloads in recent years, are looking to capitalize on the return to profits this year of most big U.S. carriers.

 

Opinion: Airline wages can't return to 2001 levels

At various times in an economic cycle certain stakeholders tend to do better than others – usually at other stakeholders’ expense.  Front and center in the airline industry rent sharing game are labor and management.

 

U.S. Approves Merger of United and Continental

The Justice Department said late Friday that it had approved the planned $3 billion merger between United Airlines and Continental Airlines, lifting the biggest regulatory hurdle to the creation of the world’s top airline.

 

FAA confirms Trent 1000 failure was uncontained

The US FAA has confirmed the 2 August engine failure of the 'Package A' Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 was uncontained.

 

American Air Flight Signals Larger Role for GE, Boeing with FAA

An American Airlines flight today became the first in the U.S. to land using an approach designed by a private company, which may lead to a larger role for business in crafting routes for the government.

 

American to fight record $24.2M FAA fine

Hit Thursday with the largest fine ever levied by the Federal Aviation Administration, American Airlines Inc. executives said they would fight the penalty and work to smooth a fractured relationship with the safety regulator.

 

Boeing Delays Delivery of Dreamliner

The first of Boeing’s long-awaited 787 “Dreamliner” aircraft will not be delivered until early next year, the manufacturer confirmed Friday, adding to a string of delays that has dogged the project and set back the introduction of the 300-seat jet by more than two years.

 

China's Henan suspends operations after crash

China's Henan Airlines has suspended its flight operations temporarily, after last night's deadly air crash involving an Embraer 190 operated by the airline.

 

Fatigue cracking cited in July 2009 Southwest diversion

The hole that developed in the fuselage of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 last year was caused by what the US National Transportation Safety Board describes as "pre-existing fatigue at a chemically milled step" - or in simpler terms, fatigue cracking.

 

Delta launches tender offer to reduce debt

Delta Air Lines Inc. said Wednesday it has launched tender offers to buy certain pass through certificates and its 11.75 percent senior second lien notes due in 2015 as part of its ongoing effort to reduce debt.

 

Mechanics at American Airlines reject latest contract offer

The Transport Workers Union said that of 9,445 voting members, 6,074 voted against the contract, which would have raised wages while reducing retiree medical benefits.

 

FAA Set to Plumb Mid-Air Incidents

Responding to a spate of midair near-collisions in recent months, the Federal Aviation Administration wants to bring pilots and air-traffic controllers together to voluntarily share information after such events.

 

Horizon Air Changes Business Model

Regional service provider Horizon Airlines is making a big change in its business model that will turn over decision-making for all of its routes—and the responsibility and risk for marketing and selling seats for them—to sister company Alaska Airlines.

 

New Logan searches blasted

Logan airport security just got more up close and personal as federal screeners launched a more aggressive palms-first, slide-down body search technique that has renewed the debate over privacy vs. safety.

 

Airbus A350 first delivery likely delayed to 2014

Bernstein Research forecast that A350 deliveries will slip into 2014 and that Airbus will deliver only eight of the next-generation aircraft that year, flagging a significant slippage in the program.

 

FAA prepares to change training rules for airline pilot licences

The US Federal Aviation Administration is poised to shake up commercial airline pilot training standards in response to the February 2009 Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 crash on approach to Buffalo, New York that killed 50 people and raised serious questions about pilot fatigue and upset-recovery competence.

 

Some feel blue as United, Continental wedding mixes old, new

United and Continental airlines aren't yet officially hitched, but some are already grumbling about the monogram they've selected for their china.

 

UPS reduces expected number of furloughed pilots

UPS Inc. is reducing the number of its planned pilot furloughs to about 230 from 300 because of its improving financial condition.