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Weekly UpdatesJun 14, 2009
RAAOs Strategic Safety Initiative has four elements. It is bringing together safety professionals to review procedures and address issues that can even be perceived as a contributing factor to an accident. The association will commission an independent and scientific study, analyzing the impact of fatigue and other human factors that may affect pilot performance. RAA will create a fatigue awareness management program for use by its member airlines. The industry is reaching out in partnership with Congress, across the government, and to fellow stakeholders in labor and throughout the aviation industry to explore the full range of issues which could help improve safety and prevent future accidents. Among those issues: Establish a single, integrated FAA database of pilot record, extend the period for background checks from five to 10 years, conduct random fatigue testing, examine commuting, analyze information from cockpit voice recorders in settings other than accident investigations and in check ride data for trends. www.raa.org. Jun 12, 2009
US Regional Airline Assn. announced at a Congressional hearing that it would "push for new advances in aviation safety" following this week's announcement that FAA will inspect regional carrier training programs to ensure they are fully compliant. "We need to take bold action to address every single issue that could possibly affect the culture of safety that is the fundamental cornerstone of the aviation industry," RAA President Roger Cohen told members of the House aviation subcommittee. He said RAA will establish a board that will review procedures and issues, conduct a study on fatigue and human factors, create a fatigue awareness program and form an industry-government partnership to develop an integrated database of pilot records. "We need to take steps into the new frontier of information management to better track trends and analyze human factors," he said. Jun 12, 2009
Amid increasing scrutiny of smaller U.S. airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of the carriers, the FAA said it has ordered inspections of pilot-training efforts. Along with the Department of Transportation, the FAA has also scheduled a meeting to discuss airline safety. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said he is working "to make sure that the entire industry -- from large commercial carriers to smaller, regional operators -- is meeting our safety standard." Jun 11, 2009
A Senate panel probing the safety of regional carriers is calling on the FAA to mandate that airlines examine full training records when hiring new pilots. Currently, pilots must sign a privacy waiver before the records are released. "We need to fix that and fix that soon," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Commerce Committee's aviation panel. "There is no reason that you can learn everything there is to know about the airplane, but not the pilot." Jun 11, 2009
Currently one hundred percent of cargo loaded on narrow body aircraft and fifty percent of wide body aircraft is required to be screened. The United States Congress has mandated that by August 2010 one hundred percent of all domestic and international cargo on wide body passenger aircraft must be screened. Jun 11, 2009
The World Health Organisation appears ready to declare the first flu pandemic in more than 40 years, after calling an emergency meeting of experts on Thursday to discuss the spreading H1N1 outbreak. There have been 27,737 cases reported in 74 countries to date, including 141 deaths, according to the WHO's latest tally. Jun 11, 2009
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt have called all U.S. airlines -- both major and regional -- for a safety summit in Washington next week. Labor unions and other industry stakeholders also are being asked to attend, as regulators attempt to hash out a voluntary framework for improving the safety of regional airlines. Jun 10, 2009
Customer satisfaction with hotels remained strong (unchanged at 82.9) but airlines (-1.9 to 75.8) and rental car (-0.3 to 79.0) scores declined in the first quarter of 2009. Mandarin Oriental Hotels, JetBlue Airlines and Enterprise Rent-a-Car ranked number one in hotel, airline and rental car industry customer satisfaction, respectively. Jun 9, 2009
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is on the verge of declaring the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years, but wants to ensure countries are well prepared to prevent a panic, its top flu expert said on Tuesday. Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director-general, voiced concern at the sustained spread of the new H1N1 strain -- including more than 1,000 cases in Australia -- following major outbreaks in North America, where it emerged in April. Confirmed community spread in a second region beyond North America would trigger moving to phase 6 -- signifying a full-blown pandemic -- from the current phase 5 on the WHO's 6-level pandemic alert scale. Jun 9, 2009
Flights on U.S. airlines were on time more frequently in April than the month before and improved from a year earlier, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance, while Comair N a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines Inc. N had the worst. Among legacy carriers, Northwest Airlines N operated by Atlanta-based Delta N was on-time the most, and Continental Airlines Inc. posted the worst on-time performance. Legacy carriers are those airlines that had a large presence in a number of regions before the industry was deregulated in 1978. The airlines reporting had a combined average on-time rate of 79.1 percent, compared with 78.4 percent in March. Last April the on-time arrival rate was 77.7 percent. Weather problems were involved in a little less than half of the delays in April N a slight decline from March. Other delays came from congestion, airport operations, maintenance and crew issues. There are fewer planes in the sky this year, as many carriers have scaled back their flights to meet lower passenger demand. Reports of mishandled baggage declined in April from March, and were lower than in April 2008 as well. DoT said there were about one-third fewer complaints overall from consumers in April than a year earlier, but more than in March. Most were about flight cancellations and delays. DOT received 647 complaints about U.S. carriers during the month, compared with 974 in April 2008. There were 586 complaints in March. Jun 9, 2009
Some of the world's largest airlines Tuesday called for the industry to set global emissions targets as part of efforts to include aviation in a broader climate agreement at the end of the year. The seven airlines, including Air France-KLM and British Airways, along with international NGO The Climate Group, have backed a range of emissions reduction targets for negotiators involved in UN-backed climate talks to consider. Aviation is responsible for about 2 percent of global greenhouse gas pollution and that share is expected to rise. The sector is under pressure from green groups, the European Union and other governments to clean up its act, leading to the airlines to try to craft a deal to tackle emissions, or risk having a deal imposed on them. The proposals, from carbon-neutral growth, a 5 percent reduction and a 20 percent reduction in emissions through to 2020, using a 2005 base-year, will be presented to negotiators at the latest round of climate talks being held this week in Germany. The carriers, part of the Aviation Global Deal Group, said in a statement that participation in an international carbon trading market would be crucial to meeting their goals. Under the group's proposal, a proportion of the sector's emission allowances would be auctioned to generate revenues for climate change initiatives in developing countries. Jun 9, 2009
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines today announced a three-day summer fare discount with 25 percent off all intra-Alaska travel. The sale begins Tuesday, June 9, and ends at 11 p.m. Alaska time, Thursday, June 11, 2009. Tickets must be purchased online at alaskaair.com. Jun 9, 2009
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines announced a three-day summer fare discount with 25 percent off all intra-Alaska travel. The offer is valid for travel from June 16 through Sept. 30, 2009. Customers who travel by June 30 can also take advantage of an existing Double Miles promotion to earn additional miles toward award travel and MVP- and MVP Gold-level status. The sale begins Tuesday, June 9, and ends at 11 p.m. Alaska time, Thursday, June 11, 2009. Tickets must be purchased online at alaskaair.com. Jun 9, 2009
American Airlines
American Eagle Airlines began nonstop jet service between Santa Fe Municipal Airport (SAF) and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), operating the daily service with 44-seat Embraer ERJ-140 jets. Jun 11, 2009
American Airlines
American Eagle Airlines began nonstop jet service between Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO) and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Eagle will operate the three daily flights using 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145 jets and 44-seat Embraer ERJ-140 jets. Jun 11, 2009
American Airlines
American Airlines will demonstrate several "eco-friendly" procedures on a flight between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Miami on June 11. Flight AA63, a 767-300, will use "single-engine taxi on departure and arrival, continuous climbout and descent, optimized routing over water and a tailored arrival," the carrier said. Demonstration is part of the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions. Industry sources told both the BBC and Reuters that Virgin Atlantic's relationship with VK will end next month, at which point it will have to rebrand. The UK group has been looking to offload its 49% stake in the Nigerian airline since last summer. Jun 9, 2009
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