Hawaiian Airlines orders another Airbus A330
Hawaiian Airlines A330 Hawaiian Airlines has ordered one more A330-200 airliner to its previous order for six A330-200s and six A350 XWB-800s and three lease-deal A330s, Airbus announced Tuesday.
Air Canada Takes Aim At Emirates’ Expansion Plans
The chief executive of Air Canada accused Emirates on Tuesday of wanting to “flood” Canadian skies with airline seats so it can scoop up passengers and divert them through Dubai.
US Weighs Helping Airlines With Air Traffic Upgrades
The Obama administration is weighing help for US airlines to meet the costs of upgrading the air traffic control system, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Tuesday.
We’re ‘Big Threat’ To Delta – Continental CEO
Continental Airlines said its strength in Latin America, Asia and New York poses a “big threat” to its larger rival and former alliance partner Delta Air Lines.
US Airlines See Recovery Signs, Shares Rise
Demand for air travel among business customers is rising and major US airlines said on Tuesday they would consider charging additional fees while cutting costs to increase their profits.
JetBlue Scales Back Growth Plans for Aircraft
JetBlue says it is slowing down deliveries of new aircraft to steady its growth and control costs.
American Airlines moves up in on-time rankings
American Airlines ranked ninth among 18 U.S. carriers in on-time rankings in January.
Normally, a No. 9 spot is no reason for celebration. But it marks progress for the Fort Worth-based carrier as it continues a slow climb from the bottom rungs of the ladder.
For three months in the first half of 2008, it finished at the absolute bottom. After the carrier added time to the schedule and took steps to improve the operation, American briefly climbed high in the rankings before dropping back down a year ago.
Since hitting 17th of 19 carriers last June, American has improved nearly every month since then. The one exception was December when it matched its November finish at 10th.
As usual, Hawaiian Airlines topped the list in January, American Eagle ended up 18th. That’s an improvement from its 19th place finish in December, but only because the list was shortened to 18 carriers in January.
Here’s the full DOT list. A flight is considered on time if it arrives within 14 minutes of schedule.
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| Rank | Carrier | On-time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaiian | 86.73% |
| 2 | Alaska | 85.76% |
| 3 | United | 83.66% |
| 4 | Frontier | 83.16% |
| 5 | Continental | 82.34% |
| 6 | Delta | 81.40% |
| 7 | Southwest | 80.08% |
| 8 | Mesa | 79.97% |
| 9 | American | 79.75% |
| 10 | AirTran | 79.52% |
| 11 | US Airways | 79.38% |
| 12 | Atlantic Southeast | 78.34% |
| 13 | ExpressJet | 76.01% |
| 14 | SkyWest | 74.62% |
| 15 | JetBlue | 74.54% |
| 16 | Comair | 72.98% |
| 17 | Pinnacle | 72.98% |
| 18 | American Eagle | 72.81% |
| All Airlines | 78.69% |
Amsterdam airport tightens security at duty free
Security has been tightened at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport after a team of investigative journalists smuggled bottles of liquid onto passenger jets bound for London and Washington, D.C., the airport and the Dutch anti-terror agency said Tuesday.
American Airlines CEO suggests need for more “profiling” in aviation security
American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey suggested Tuesday that TSA needs to do more “behavioral profiling” to separate “the potential bad guys from the non-bad guys.” Arpey made the remark during a speech that generally complimented TSA’s work since the agency’s creation after the Sept. 11 terror attacks:
“The TSA is doing a good job under extremely tough circumstances. But it’s clear to us that in the years and decades to come, there are going to be more and more flights, more and more people flying, and we are not going to be able to manage that level of activity handling security the way we do today,” Arpey told attendees at the FAA’s Annual Aviation Forecast Conference in Washington. “Common sense tells us we will need to use technology much more aggressively, and we need to use more aggressive behavioral profiling — separating the potential bad guys from the non-bad guys.”
It should be noted that other aviation officials, as well as lawmakers, have argued for more targeted scanning of passengers whose actions or behavior suggests they may pose a threat. The Nexis news database shows a couple of stories that report Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association, said this in late January. “Instead of looking for bad things — nail clippers and rogue bottles of shampoo — security systems, we need to focus on finding bad people,” Bisignani said.
Of course, critics say any type of profiling could become racial or ethnic profiling, with security personnel reverting to stereotypes to pick out passengers who they think look like terrorists.
In remarks to reporters afterward, Arpey didn’t elaborate on his “profiling” comment. Instead, he repeated frequent industry criticism of the security fees that are charged to carriers and passengers to fund TSA. “Why airlines are uniquely singled out to bear the burden of the war on terrorism still escapes me,” Arpey said. “No other industry is being asked to have their customers pay a tax to defend our freedom. Part of the reason that there is not money in the industry for infrastructure, for ATC, is we’re paying for all this other stuff.”
Continental CEO will cancel flights before fines
Continental Airlines plans to cancel flights rather than risk stiff fines under new federal rules designed to punish carriers for delaying passengers.
