March 2010 Archives

Within the past week, two major U.S. airlines announced plans to partner with smaller regional airlines, a move that gives customers more destinations to chose from and allows passengers to use the booking engines of the major carriers for bookings on the smaller airlines.

Airlines are climbing out of recession with further strong increases for passenger travel and freight in February, industry association IATA said on Tuesday.

Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and Delta airlines had the most passengers in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics released Monday.

The world's airlines should post a combined profit in 2011 the head of airline industry body IATA said on Wednesday.

Summer bookings on major US airlines seem to be up from a year ago with help from fare sales as the industry attempts to regain its footing in the post-recession era, industry experts said on Wednesday.

Boeing says it will speed up its production plans for its 747 and 777 jet models. The Chicago-based jetmaker says it's doing so "in anticipation of greater demand from commercial airlines in a couple of years," The Associated Press writes. AP adds both jet types "are wide-body planes capable of carrying more than 300 passengers and flying longer routes. Several Asian airlines have ordered the planes, which are also more fuel-efficient than other aircraft models."

There are a lot of Internet forums that focus on various aspects of aviation. Some are very useful, some are full of general information, some are unpopulated and unhelpful, and then there are some that are heavily populated, but by people interested in nothing more than gaining an audience for their nightly rant.

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. expects first-quarter passenger revenue to increase between 16% to 17% from a year ago.

JetBlue Airways reported its preliminary traffic results for February 2010. Traffic in February increased 2.7 percent from February 2009, on a capacity increase of 2.7 percent.

ExpressJet Holdings Inc., whose ExpressJet Airlines operates regional flights as Continental Express and United Express, said Monday that its February traffic rose 20 percent on higher capacity and occupancy.

American Airlines has told its pilots that it won't have to furlough any pilots April 1 as feared.

Signs of recovery for the business aviation industry are moderate for 2010 but point to improvement in coming years, the head of the industry’s trade and advocacy group said March 11.

United Airlines has made a firm order for 25 of Airbus' A350 extra-wide bodied jets, fulfilling a commitment signed in December, the European aircraft manufacturer said Wednesday.

Several Airlines are hiring pilots now, with more to begin at various times this year. It is no mystery as to what they are looking for in successful candidates, as the airlines themselves are happy to tell us. American Eagle Airlines has a long history of hiring ATP Graduates and recently told us why they have hired so many and what they will be looking for as they begin to hire pilots again.

SkyWest, Inc. reported a 11.6 percent increase in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) for February, while available seat miles (ASMs) increased 9.1 percent compared to the same period last year.  The combined airlines generated 1.34 billion RPMs for the month, while ASMs increased to 1.75 billion.  Load factor was up 1.7 percentage points to 76.6 percent compared to 74.9 percent for the same period last year.  Passenger boardings for February totaled 2,687,224 a 12.3 percent increase from February 2009.

Allegiant Travel Company today announced it has signed a forward purchase agreement to acquire six Boeing 757-200 aircraft.  The introduction of the 757 aircraft will enable Allegiant to expand its leisure travel strategy into Hawaii with flights to be operated by Allegiant Air, its airline subsidiary.

Republic Airways Holdings said on Thursday that February traffic doubled from the previous year after it added Frontier and Midwest airlines to its stable.

AirTran Airways posted increases in traffic, capacity, enplaned passengers and load factor in February, according to preliminary numbers released March 3.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) today announced that January 2010 demand statistics for international scheduled air traffic showed continuing improvement. Compared to the previous year, January passenger demand was up 6.4%. Against this improving demand, a 1.2% increase in passenger capacity in January pushed load factors to 75.9% (up from the 72.2% recorded for January 2009).

Boeing Co. said United Airlines has finalized its order for 25 787-8 airplanes valued at $4.2 billion at list prices.