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Dec 25, `07 — BBC News is reporting on British Airways being accused of colluding in setting prices of fuel surcharges and other levies in the provision of air freight services.

“BA confirmed it received a letter of complaint from European Union regulators, alleging that it was part of a suspected air freight cartel. The complaints were also sent to Germany’s Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Scandinavia’s SAS. The airlines have the right to respond, but if found guilty, they face fines.

The European Commission that it had sent official letters, known as statements of objection, to a number of air freight firms, concerning “violation of EU rules on restrictive business practices”.

Officials did not name the specific airlines involved, but BA, Air France-KLM and SAS confirmed they had each received the European Commission letter.” More at BBCNews.

Brussels — Dec 21, `07 — The European Commission said on Friday it has contacted a number of companies regarding their alleged participation in an air freight cartel.

The European Commission can confirm that a Statement of Objections has been sent to a number of companies, concerning their alleged participation in a cartel in the provision of airfreight services, in violation of EU rules on restrictive business practices (Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area).

Procedural background

A Statement of Objections is a formal step in Commission antitrust investigations in which the Commission informs the parties concerned in writing of the objections raised against them. The addressee of a Statement of Objections can reply in writing to the Statement of Objections, setting out all facts known to it which are relevant to its defense against the objections raised by the Commission. The party may also request an oral hearing to present its comments on the case.

The Commission may then take a decision on whether conduct addressed in the Statement of Objections is compatible or not with the EC Treaty’s antitrust rules. Sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the procedure. More at European Commission.

It named no companies in the statement but Scandinavian airline SAS said earlier on Friday it had received a statement of objections accusing the airline’s cargo unit of breaking competition rules.

“SAS Group confirms that it has received a Statement of Objections from the European Commission within the framework of an industry-wide investigation of the air cargo sector, involving a large number of cargo companies and air carriers, including SAS Cargo.

In the Statement of Objections the EU Commission alleges that certain investigated practices in the air cargo sector constitute infringements of EC competition rules. SAS Group intends to review the Statement of Objections immediately and will also have to review the underlying documentation as soon as it has received access to the Commission’s comprehensive investigation file. Therefore SAS cannot comment on the alleged irregularities until this review has been completed.” More at SAS.

On Tuesday, Dec 18, Nick Weininger, Software Engineer at Google introduced a new “Flight Status Check Feature” on Official GoogleBlog.

In his words, “The holiday season is upon us, and we know that many amongst you are traveling to be with family and friends. To make sure you spend more time celebrating and less time waiting at the airport, we’re introducing a new flight status feature that we hope will make your travels easier.

For the latest information on a flight’s status, simply search for an airline and flight number, and the first result will tell you whether your flight is on time or delayed as well as the estimated departure and arrival times.

P.S. We’re still working on building a search feature that will find your lost luggage ;-) More at GoogleBlog.

Here’s a quick example for a specific American Airlines flight 118:

Anna Basanskaya writes an in-depth article at IEEE’s Spectrum Online on Electricity Over Glass.

Excerpts from Spectrum Online:

“Running a live wire into a passenger jet’s fuel tank seems like a bad idea on the face of it. Still, sensors that monitor the fuel tank have to run on electricity, so aircraft makers previously had little choice. But what if power could be delivered over optical fiber instead of copper wire, without fear of short circuits and sparks? In late May, the big laser and optics company JDS Uniphase Corp., in San Jose, Calif., bought a small Silicon Valley firm with the technology to do just that.

Photonic Power Systems Inc., in nearby Cupertino, has developed a system that uses a laser to inject power in the form of light into a fiber-optic cable and a photovoltaic (PV) array to convert the light back into electricity for powering devices. This method of transferring power can be highly advantageous in situations where sparks or shorts can be a fatal problem [see photo, “Fatal Short“], where electromagnetic interference is more than just an inconvenience—in cellphone base stations, for example, or in pacemakers—and where conventional methods are bulky and cumbersome.

Already, a Photonic Power device is replacing instrument transformers used in the power grid to measure high currents. But lacking the backing of a big company, aircraft makers and other potential customers have been hesitant to design power over optical fiber into their systems, says Jan-Gustav Werthen, the founder of the company and now the engineering director for the photonic power unit at . After all, power over fiber is still a relatively unfamiliar technology.” More at IEEE Spectrum.

On Dec 14, `07, Qantas and Airbus celebrated another major milestone in the airframe manufacturer’s relatively short but successful existence - the delivery of its 5,000th aircraft, an A330-200, to Qantas at a special ceremony in Toulouse.

“This is an historical day for Airbus and the aviation industry in general, and I am delighted that Qantas, is here to share it with us,” said Airbus President and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Enders. “After a slow start, Airbus went from strength to strength, developing a highly successful airliner family which is well established on the market place.

The success of this family is also reflected by our very strong backlog of more than 3,000 aircraft including the all new A380 and A350. This gives us great confidence in the future”.

Thirty three years ago, in May 1974, Airbus delivered its very first aircraft, an A300B2, to first operator Air France. Nineteen years later, in 1993, Airbus delivered its first 1,000th aircraft, and it took it another six years to reach the 2000th in 1999.

Reflecting its subsequent rapid growth with an expanded aircraft family and more products on offer, the 3,000th Airbus aircraft was delivered in 2002, and only three years later, in September 2005, the 4,000th.

It needed only another two years to reach the 5,000th delivery milestone of Dec 14. Also, it took Airbus more than 30 years to deliver more than 50 per cent of all airliners of more than 100 seats delivered in one year. This was in 2005, and Airbus continued in the lead since.

It also took Airbus some 30 years after its initial creation in 1970 to bypass it main competitor in terms of sales and remain constantly at around half the market share, with more than 50 percent for five years in a row since 2001.

Airbus continues to considerably ramp up its production rates so as to reach ten A330/A340, 40 A320 Family planes and four A380s per month by 2010 in order to cope with very strong demand for its products. Its backlog of more than 3,000 aircraft should be delivered within the next five to six years only. More at Airbus.

NEW YORK and FRANKFURT, Germany — Dec 13, `07 — JetBlue Airways and Deutsche Lufthansa AG today announced an agreement for Lufthansa to make a minority equity investment in JetBlue. This transaction represents the first significant investment by a European air carrier in a U.S. point-to-point air carrier.

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by the Boards of both companies, Lufthansa will purchase in a private placement approximately 42 million newly issued common shares of JetBlue, or 19% of JetBlue’s equity after giving effect to the issuance.

Lufthansa is acquiring the shares at a price of $7.27 per share, or a total of approximately $300 million, representing a 16% premium to yesterday’s closing price of $6.25.

The agreement provides that a Lufthansa nominee will be appointed to the Board of Directors upon the closing of the transaction. The Lufthansa nominee will be a Class II director and will be up for election at JetBlue’s annual meeting in 2008.

Both airlines also look forward to exploring potential opportunities for further cooperation for the benefit of their customers. No specific areas of potential cooperation have been agreed. More at JetBlue, Lufthansa.

NEW YORK — Dec 06, ‘07 — JetBlue Airways, Yahoo and Research In Motion plan to offer free, in-flight, Wi-Fi web connections for laptop computers and advanced cell phones, RIM said on Thursday, reports Reuters.

The service will allow passengers to access customized Yahoo mail and Yahoo instant messenger services on their laptops or to access corporate e-mails on Wi-Fi enabled versions of the popular Blackberry device from Rim.

According to a spokesperson for Rim the first JetBlue flight offering the service will be on December 11. more at Reuters.

Beijing, China — Nov 26, ‘07 — French industrialists visiting China with President Nicolas Sarkozy say they have finalised trade deals worth almost $30 billion (€20bn).

These include a delivery of 160 Airbus passenger planes to the value of about $15 billion (€10bn euros). And state-owned French energy firm Areva said it had signed a contract to build two nuclear reactors in China.

The Airbus deal to supply 110 of the firm’s single aisle A320 jet and 50 of the slightly bigger A330 plane will be welcome news to the European planemaker, which has struggled in the face of delays to new models and the weakening dollar.

The announcements came as Mr Sarkozy held a second meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

The reactors will be built in six years’ time in the south of the country and will start generating power in 2014.

They will be operated by a new company set up by Areva and its Chinese partner, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp, until 2026.

China is increasingly looking to nuclear energy to meet its growing demand for power and France is keen to make sure that it is involved in this process.

Airbus and its American archrival Boeing Co. predict China will become the world’s second-biggest aircraft market after the United States, with airlines buying 1,900 to 2,600 planes over the next two decades.

Airbus’ final assembly line in the Chinese city of Tianjian is due to deliver its first aircraft in early 2009. The plant is expected to be able to produce four A320s a month by 2011 and a total of about 300 A320 planes by 2016.

Following the signing of these deals, President Sarkozy will carry on with his official visit, his first to Asia since his election in May.

According to critics, the French President should be doing more during the trip to pressure China over its human rights record and use of the death penalty.

Some observers are calling on China to take a harder line with Iran over its nuclear programme. Mr Sarkozy has warned that it would be unacceptable if Tehran acquired nuclear weapons. Photo Credit: The AP.

NEW YORK — Nov 23, ‘07 — UAL Corp, parent of the No. 2 U.S. carrier United Airlines, is keen for a possible merger, according to an article in the Dec 3 edition of BusinessWeek that cited industry experts, says Reuters.

Reuters further writes, “Pardus Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund, which owns a stake in both UAL and Delta Air Lines is pushing for a merger of the second and third largest U.S. carriers, according to recent media reports.

United and its parent UAL are in a real jam and a sale may be the best option for the airline, which is saddled with relatively high debt and wafer thin profit margins said the BusinessWeek report.

United, along with many of its peers, filed for bankruptcy following the September 11 attacks in 2001. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2006. The report contends that United’s extended pause on fleet expansion is an indication that the company is eager for a deal.

Industry experts believe that a Delta deal with Northwest Airlines is more likely than one with United, as the two companies belong to the same international alliance and have complimentary route structures, according to the report”. More at Reuters.

Nov 21, ‘07 — Israeli authorities plan to issue a new anti-hijack identification system to incoming aircraft which they say is foolproof, but some experts are not convinced it will plug all the security holes on the horizon.

Starting next year, Israel will require pilots who fly to its airports to use the Security Code System (SCS), a local invention designed to ensure planes that have been commandeered for al-Qaeda-style attacks are spotted in time.

Israel plans a trial run for the system, using a credit card-sized keypad, next month, in cooperation with five airlines from the United States, Europe and Africa. About 10 000 of the units will ultimately be issued, with Israel bearing the cost.

Pilots who fail the authentication test when they approach Israeli airspace will be denied entry. Should a plane go ahead, ignoring further warnings, Israel will consider it hostile and scramble fighter planes for an interception.

In the worst case, that could mean an aircraft is shot down. “You can’t bluff this system,” Dani Shenar, chief of security for Israel’s Transportation Ministry, said.

He said the system knows how to differentiate between “a classic hostage-taking hijacking and a 9/11-style hijacking”.

Elbits Systems designed Security Code System (SCS), is an apparel designed to have a 100% identification success rate of who is in the pilot’s seat. The first units of SCS will be deployed on a few American and European planes flying to Israel, starting in December 2007 for live tests.

Several experts familiar with Israeli methodology say the system — also known as “Code Positive” — is based on the assumption that a hijacking will take place in one of two ways.

Hijackers could either kill the pilots and take control — as is believed to have been the case in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Or they could force pilots to issue a compliant response to the system in the hope of buying enough time to reach Israel and crash the planes into a target on the ground.

In the first case, the hijackers would fail the security check as they entered Israeli airspace, giving military authorities about 15 minutes to launch a response. In the second, Shenar said, pilots would be expected to relay a “May Day” alert. He declined to say how they would do this during a hijacking.

“International airliners have long been equipped with a universal transponder for emitting distress signals, something known to most hijackers by now. SCS would, at the very least, offer a novel safeguard,” Chris Yates, aviation security editor for Jane’s publications said. “Any technology enhancing flight safety is a worthwhile addition to the arsenal we have to beat terrorists”. More at M&G Online.

BELLEVUE, Wash –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 19, ‘07 — During the busiest holiday shopping weekend of the year, T-Mobile USA is providing its customers with an additional reason to make a purchase that will not only reward themselves, but also enables them to stick together with those that matter most.

With a compelling new lineup of phones and popular myFaves calling plans, T-Mobile is launching a special Free Flight promotion that will enable customers to take a trip – perhaps to visit a “fave five” – in 2008. Beginning Fri., Nov. 23, and running through Sun., Nov. 25, T-Mobile is giving away a free flight to each eligible customer who activates a qualifying two-year myFaves rate plan online or at any T-Mobile retail store nationwide.

“The next best thing to actually being there for an occasion or holiday is to share in the moment by phone. With the Free Flight promotion, we can help our customers enrich their most important relationships by doing both,” said Jeff Hopper, vice president of marketing, T-Mobile USA. “It’s T-Mobile’s holiday thank you to our customers, and another way we’re helping to bring people together in ’08.”

Eligible customers will receive a booking request form for a free roundtrip flight from one of 59 departing cities to one of 10 exciting destinations including Las Vegas, New York City, Los Angeles, Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C. For more information about the Free Flight promotion please visit www.t-mobile.com/freeflight. More at BusinessWire.

Tempted by the ‘unbeatable prices’ and ‘unmissable deals’ that airlines offer if you book online? You may be. At least, that is, until you read the small print.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Nov 14, ‘07 — Free or cut-price tickets that turn out not to be available; airport taxes and other hidden costs; insurance that’s automatically added unless you opt out – these are just some of the unlawful practices the EU has found on over 50% of the websites checked.

The ‘airline sweep’, carried out by 15 EU countries on 24-28 September, was more than just a fact-finding exercise – the goal is to enforce consumer rights. “Whether in Brussels or Barcelona, Munich or Manchester, consumers deserve clear and fair pricing and no hidden surprises in the small print of contract terms” said EU consumer protection commissioner Meglena Kuneva.

National enforcement authorities examined 447 websites, of which 226 were flagged as breaching consumer protection law. The companies involved have now been given four months to correct irregularities. The idea is to keep the names of the companies secret for this period, to encourage them to act. But Ms Kuneva has made it clear she will not hesitate to name and shame those who fail to take the necessary steps by the January deadline. Airlines that don’t toe the line may be fined, or have their websites shut down.

“There is a substantial problem in the industry,” said Kuneva after investigators checked more than 400 Web sites through much of the 27-nation bloc. “Over 50 percent of sites checked seem to mislead consumers.”

Allegedly cheap tickets are often leaden with hefty charges. Kuneva said investigators found offers for 20 euros only to find out five pages further on that the total price was over 100 euros. Sometimes there simply are no flights for the lowest prices advertised or insurance is automatically added to the price.

Belgium came out worst, with 46 of the 48 sites showing irregularities. Of the 15 EU nations checked, only Austria, Cyprus and Greece had a clean bill of health in the test of airline and travel Web sites. Kuneva said Web site operators had until the end of January to clean up their act or face fines or closure. More at European Commission.

NORWALK, Conn.–BUSINESS WIRE–Nov. 5, 2007–Priceline.com announced today that it will permanently eliminate airline ticket booking fees on all published domestic and international fares. This means that, in most cases, priceline.com customers will pay less for their tickets than they would at other major full-service online travel reservation services, including Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz.The booking fee elimination applies to all priceline.com tickets purchased on a published-price basis and does not apply to priceline.com’s Name Your Own Price airline ticketing service, which already delivers some of the deepest discounts among the so-called opaque ticketing services.

“Today’s announcement reinforces priceline.com’s brand position as the online travel service with the best deals,” said priceline.com President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffery H. Boyd. “We already offer consumers an easy, one-stop way to do comparative ticket searches for most popular airlines, flights and prices. With our new no-booking-fee policy, priceline.com customers can get the best possible price on their tickets no matter which flight they choose.” More at Priceline.

Sydney–October 25, ‘07–The world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, has landed in Sydney on its first commercial flight, after a seven-hour journey from Singapore. A crowd of dozens of onlookers clapped and gasped as the largest airliner in the world, Singapore Airlines’ A380, landed at Sydney Airport this afternoon.

It can carry some 850 passengers, but took about 450 to Sydney. The superjumbo’s advent ends a reign of nearly four decades by the Boeing 747 as the world’s biggest airliner.

On the oberservation deck at the international terminal, there were shouts of “there it is” and pointing as the plane first came into view at about 5.25pm. Men, women and children craned their necks to catch a glance as it landed, with all manner of recording devices, video records, mobile phones and cameras, to document the moment.

While Airbus sees the future growth of air travel being focused on larger planes such as the A380 flying between major hubs, Boeing is aiming the mid-sized 787 at more flights between airports of all sizes.

Here are some interesting facts about the Airbus A380 superjumbo:
- The double-decker A380 measures 73 metres in length, or about 80 per cent of the smallest international football field
- The wing area is 845 square metres, enough to park 72 medium-sized cars on each wing
- It has 50 per cent more floor space than the next biggest aircraft, the Boeing 747 jumbo
- It can carry 853 passengers in an all-economy configuration
- The A380 has 530 kilometres of wiring, roughly equivalent to the distance between Frankfurt and Paris

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -October 24, ‘07- The world’s biggest jumbo jet was set to fly from Singapore on Thursday on its long-delayed first-ever commercial flight, as part of the Singapore Airlines daily service to Sydney.

The Airbus’ A380 superjumbo will leave the city-state’s Changi Airport at 8 a.m., returning to Singapore the following day. Passengers paid between $560 and $100,380 to be on the inaugural flight, after they had bid for the tickets as part of a charity auction to drum up publicity.

Virgin Atlantic owner Richard Branson said on Monday, his Virgin Group hopes to produce clean biofuels by around the start of the next decade and early next year will test a jet plane on renewable fuel. He further said, “Virgin hopes to provide clean fuel for buses, trains and cars within three or four years.”

Virgin is developing biofuels for aircraft in conjunction with Boeing Co and engine-maker GE Aviation, a unit of General Electric Co. Previously, Branson had said the company would test the fuel sometime next year and that some people had said it would be late in the year. Air New Zealand has said it plans to test a flight on a combination fuel of biofuel and kerosene in late 2008, but Virgin is trying to beat that airline by testing biofuels first.

A $500 million upgrade of Sydney Airport will boost the number of shops and food outlets, and centralise international security screening as passenger numbers through the airport double within 16 years. The Sydney Morning Herald further reports, “But the upgrade could also lift the price of airline fares, as the costs of the upgrade are passed on to the airlines that service the airport.

Two aerobridges will be dismantled to make way for more frequent arrivals of larger aircraft such as the new Airbus A380, and work has begun on the construction of a centralised baggage handling system and expanded taxiways. The 7300 square metre expansion of the International Terminal is expected to be completed by 2009.”

More at SMH

Airbus is set to hand over its first finished A380 “superjumbo” to Singapore Airlines on Monday, 18 months behind schedule. The construction of the A380, able to carry up to 800 passengers, has been beset by persistent and costly delays. It has also been overshadowed by allegations of insider trading against managers at parent company EADS. Mr Enders and other executives have been under scrutiny for their role in the sale of EADS shares before the announcement in June 2006 that the A380 project would be delayed, news which led to a slump in the company’s share price. The matter is currently being investigated by French prosecutors but Mr Enders, other senior managers and EADS shareholders have all denied any wrongdoing.Responding to a declaration by Arnaud Lagardere, Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Sunday he was not aware of the details of the sale by Lagardere shares to state-owned bank Caisse des Depots (CDC). He also said the government had acted “irreproachably” over the sale of the EADS shares by the Lagardere media group. Villepin further said that, he had kept the government at the time closely informed of his group’s plan to cut its stake in aerospace group EADS.

Paris: The trade association representing international airlines announced a global standard Thursday that could speed the adoption of cellphone check-in services using bar codes, and eliminate paper tickets. International Herald Tribune further reports, “Airlines have been slow to adopt a system based on mobile technology because of competing regional formats. The formats permit a passenger to register a phone during booking to receive a text message containing a bar code that becomes a boarding pass. The bar code can then be read directly from the phone’s screen.

The International Air Transport Association standard will enable new scanning equipment to read several regional code formats, including Aztec and Datamatrix, which are available now in Europe and North America, and QR in Japan.

The group aims to shift entirely to bar code boarding passes by 2010. Among the few airlines that now offer mobile check-in services are Air Canada, Air Berlin and Spanair. “This is significant because without a global standard you really can’t roll this product out,” said Lorne Riley, a spokesman for the IATA. “What this does is that it lays the foundation.”

More at IHT

CHICAGO, Oct. 10, 2007 — The Boeing Company today announced a six-month delay in its planned initial deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner due to continued challenges completing assembly of the first airplanes.

Deliveries of the strong-selling Dreamliner are now slated to begin in late November or December 2008, versus an original target of May 2008. First flight is now anticipated around the end of first quarter 2008. The company said the financial impact of the delay would not be material to earnings and that its earnings guidance for 2007 and 2008 remained unchanged.

“We are disappointed over the schedule changes that we are announcing today,” said Boeing Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney. “Notwithstanding the challenges that we are experiencing in bringing forward this game-changing product, we remain confident in the design of the 787, and in the fundamental innovation and technologies that underpin it.”

More at Boeing…