We’ve been away for a few days and there is a lot to catch up on…
- Northwest has announced its new regional subsidiary, Compass Airlines, will launch its new Embraer 175 regional jets this coming Tuesday with a flight from Minneapolis to Omaha. Compass, which was created uses the assets of Independence Air, which Northwest bought in its bankruptcy, currently only flies one jet. Compass will begin with two, and take delivery of two a month through the end of the year, when it will fly 36. Northwest has been adding to its regional fleet with two class Embraers as well as CRJ-900s, both with 76-seats.
- A Westjet 737 landing at LAX came less than 50 feet from hitting a Northwest A320 that was taking off. The Westjet plane managed to stop just in time to avoid a crash. The FAA says the Westjet pilot was on the wrong radio frequency and unable to receive directions from the air traffic controller, furthermore, the ground controller cleared him without checking first with the air traffic controller.
- Midwest Airlines has accepted a bid of $450 million from TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines. Airtran has given up the fight for the carrier, and it is believed the equity firm’s experience, along with an alliance with Northwest, will lead to exciting new developments. Midwest will continue as a stand-alone carrier…which is good, because we’ve been itching to get onboard for some fresh-baked cookies.
- Panama City Airport in Florida has been issued its final permit to relocate the airport to a new location, and work will now proceed.
- Air Canada has expanded its Sun Pass program to include more than 40 sun destinations it flies to in the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Sun Pass holders enjoy price predicability and savings of off to 15% off corresponding fares.
- Air China has introduced a Beijing-Shanghai “Air Express” shuttle. The service features a harmonized schedule for its twenty scheduled flights(including seven code-shares), dedicated check-in counters, baggage service, security inspection, and boarding lanes, similar to the shuttles in the United States operated between Boston, New York, and Washington. Air China will become a full member of the Star Alliance later this year.
- Airtran launched nonstop service from Las Vegas to Dayton, Ohio; Rochester, NY; Bloomington/Normal, IL; Flint, MI; Akron/Canton, OH; and Moline/Quad Cities, IL. Passengers on these new flights were treated to an in-flight performance by ‘Elvis’.
- Singapore Airlines will take delivery of the first A380 on October 15th, and put it into commercial service on October 25th. The carrier will take the flight to Sydney for its first flight, seats for which will be sold in a charity auction between August 27th and September 10th on Ebay. Singapore has 19 firm orders for the plane, and options on six more. They will be equipping their planes with 471 seats in a three class configuration. The plane can seat up to 853 in an all economy configuration, and averages 550 for a three class. For more information, check out their press release.
- The LA Times reports the source of a recent system outage that inconvenienced 17,000 international passengers when a U.S. Customs system went down was a malfunctioning network card in a single desktop computer which caused a domino effect in the system. Customs and Border Patrol will be reviewing not only the incident, but contingency plans for dealing with similar breakdowns for future improvements.
- Copa Airlines began four-times weekly service from Panama to Cordoba, Argentina.
- Galileo and Air Canada have announced a graphical agency desktop solution to provide Galileo-based agency with full access to Air Canada’s unique ala-carte fare products and passes.
- American Airlines has recalled 460 furloughed additional flight attendants, all former TWA employees who had protested their placement at the bottom of American’s seniority list, causing their furlough.
- Frontier Airlines launched its nonstop service to Baton Rouge. The service, twice daily, is the first new service to Baton Rouge in 21 years.
- Jetblue is adding service from Boston to Santiago, Dominican Republic from December 12 to January 15th as a “Holiday Shuttle” with a once-daily flight operated by an Airbus 320. Jetblue is continuing its current plan of connecting existing cities as an expansion plan.
- Today in the Sky reports Frontier’s CEO is hoping to bring fresh new ideas from his time at Air Canada back to Frontier, such as ala carte pricing and new ways to diversify Frontier’s operations outside of its Denver hub. Frontier is struggling with competition from United and Southwest, both enhancing their operations at the airport. We are more in favor of Air Canada’s method of ala carte pricing as opposed to some other models, because of the way it is implemented, giving Air Canada a much higher service feel than some alternatives.