Sky Talk

Virgin Atlantic submits comments to DOT, says AA-BA deal will "distort competition"

Virgin Atlantic said on Wednesday that it wants the Department of Transportation to either deny American Airlines and British Airways joint venture or impose harsher conditions on the two airlines.

The British carrier, founded by Richard Branson, submitted comments to the DOT arguing against the DOT's preliminary ruling that it will approve the American/BA anti-trust immunity application.

"The DOT seems determined to approve an agreement which threatens severe competitive and consumer harm and one of the primary justifications seems to be to preserve parity amongst the large global alliances," Branson said in a statement. "This is not a reason for approval."

In its preliminary approval, the DOT proposed that American and British Airways give up two slots between Boston and London-Heathrow and another two slots between London-Heathrow and two undetermined U.S. airports.

"The number of slots the DOT has suggested should be given up is entirely inadequate and the idea that BA and AA's competitors should lease slots from them, asking competitors to potentially pay to right the consumer wrong for BA and AA is astonishing," Branson said.

Virgin Atlantic has submitted similar comments to the European Commission which is studying a slot-pair proposal by American and British Airways where the carriers would give up slots on routes between London Heathrow and London Gatwick to Boston, New York, Miami and Dallas/Fort Worth in exchange for anti-trust immunity.

-Andrea Ahles

Arpey comments on JetBlue and New York expansion

This morning, American Airlines chief executive Gerard Arpey made several comments about the new partnership with JetBlue as well as its expansion into New York.

-thoughts on the JetBlue partnership: "This represents a great opportunity for both JetBlue and American to attract a greater share of the traffic flowing in and out of the United States and bring it here to New York."

-the two carriers are also looking at a reciprocal frequent-flier program agreement. "By joining forces, we are able to deliver a broader network and better travel experience. Connections will be smoother and better coordinated."

-between JFK and LaGuardia Airports, daily departures will total 216 with 63 unique destinations.

-on growing its schedule: "We have long preached the importance of capacity discipline and we have practiced what we've preached. In these uncertain times, it's more important than ever to not let supply run away from demand. But having said that we are determined to compete and compete hard in the markets that are most important to our customers."

Arpey added that he expects to announce additional international destinations out of New York later this year when American implements its joint venture with British Airways and Iberia.

And during his prepared comments, JetBlue chief executive Dave Barger said that executives at both companies have been working on this partnership deal for the past 9 months.

-Andrea Ahles

American adds routes to New York, announces partnership with JetBlue

American Airlines announced on Wednesday that it is boosting its New York service with new routes and with a new partnership with JetBlue.

The Fort Worth-based carrier said its agreement with JetBlue allows customers on JetBlue to connect on to American's international flights out of of Boston Logan International Airport and New York's JFK Airport. American customers will also be able to connect on to JetBlue flights to domestic destinations where the two carriers don't compete such as JFK to Portland, Maine or Nantucket, Mass.

The JetBlue partnership also calls for American to transfer of eight slot pairs at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. and one slot pair at White Plains, N.Y. to JetBlue. In return, JetBlue plans to transfer 12 slot pairs at JFK to American. The slot swap is likely to be reviewed by federal regulators.

"We have a long history in New York, and we're going to grow those roots with new routes, new partnerships, even deeper local relationships, and the kind of service that New Yorkers expect and that will attract more visitors and commerce to the city," said American chief executive Gerard Arpey in a statement.

American's expansion in New York includes seven new destinations served by 23 additional flights to and from LaGuardia and JFK. At LaGuardia, American Eagle will add daily routes to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C. The additions include previously announced service at JFK to San Jose, Costa Rica; Madrid, Spain, Manchester, England and Austin, Texas.

The company also announced it will spend $30 million to renovate Concourse D at LaGuardia Airport.

Arpey will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. CDT this morning to make further comments about American's New York commitments.

-Andrea Ahles

American's flight attendant negotiator wants to "continue to move foward towards reaching a new deal."

As American Airlines and its flight attendants union waits for a decision from federal mediators on whether the union can be released from contract talks, American put out a statement from one of its negotiators, advocating for more mediation.

The letter, from flight services managing director Cathy Scheu, says that both sides made considerable progress while at the negotiating table and that she is confident a new deal can be reached in the "near future."

"I am personally aware, both as a former flight attendant and as a negotiator, the bargaining process can be lengthy, even muddled, and at times, well, frustrating. But we have come a long way, and we shouldn't lose sight of that progress," Scheu wrote.

To read the full letter, look here.

-Andrea Ahles

DFW Airport expects almost 100,000 additional passengers for Super Bowl XLV

With 312 days to go to Super Bowl XLV, the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport is already planning for the influx of visitors to the area.

In a briefing held Tuesday, airport staff said they expect 100,000 out-of-town visitors to arrive by air, with 96,000 coming through Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

And while visitors will arrive over several days, the airport will have to handle a large departing crowd, estimating that 65,000 passengers could fly out of D/FW airport the Monday after the game.

"We are going to have to plan and accommodate and we will have to be ready for it. We will look at this as a challenge," said D/FW Airport chief executive Jeff Fegan.

Fegan said that with the National Football League cutting its decor budget, the airport may have to consider using its own funds to pay for signs, decor and other Super Bowl-related items for the airport since it is the first and last impression visitors will have of North Texas.

-Andrea Ahles

American Eagle flight diverted to Dulles Monday night because of security issue

American Eagle flight 4117 was diverted to Dulles International Airport last night because of a "security concern."

The flight, with 45 passengers, left Chicago O'Hare at 9:08 p.m. on Monday and was expected to land at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. around 11:35 p.m.

However, mid-flight, American dispatchers notified the crew that there was a security concern for the flight.

"The crew did some investigating and checked several things but did not feel it was a major situation," said American spokesman Tim Smith. The flight planned to continue to its destination but the Transportation Security Administration told the crew to land at Dulles instead.

Smith said upon arrival the aircraft was checked and passengers were allowed to leave either directly from Dulles or received transportation to Reagan, which is 28 miles away.

The plane is currently scheduled to fly empty from Dulles back to Chicago and begin normal flight operations later today.

-Andrea Ahles

Fewer passengers flew in 2009

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics confirmed what pretty much everyone in the airline industry already knows: fewer people flew in 2009 than in 2008.

According to the report released by the BTS on Monday, the number of domestic and international passengers was down 5.3 percent, dropping to 769.6 million.

For the third year in a row, Southwest carried the most domestic passengers with 101 million. However, this report keeps Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines separate and if they were combined, as the two carriers are now, Delta/Northwest carried the most passengers with 108 million.

And for the twentieth year in a row, American Airlines carried the most international passengers to and from the U.S. with 19.5 million.

Dallas-Fort Worth Airport was the fourth busiest airport with 26.5 million passengers.

2009 Rank	Airline	2009 Enplaned Passengers	2008 Rank	2008 Enplaned Passengers	Pct. Change 2008-2009
1	Southwest	101.338	1	101.921	-0.6
2	American	85.720	2	92.772	-7.6
3	Delta	67.745	3	71.615	-5.4
4	United	56.025	4	63.071	-11.2
5	US Airways	50.975	5	54.776	-6.9
6	Continental	43.946	7	46.919	-6.3
7	Northwest	40.865	6	48.772	-16.2
8	AirTran	23.968	8	24.574	-2.5
9	JetBlue	22.378	9	21.824	2.5
10	SkyWest	21.246	10	20.668	2.8

2009 Rank	Airport	2009 Enplaned Passengers	2008 Rank	2008 Enplaned Passengers	Pct. Change 2008-2009
1	Atlanta	42.144	1	43.606	-3.4
2	Chicago O'Hare	31.092	2	33.625	-7.5
3	Los Angeles	27.372	3	28.823	-5.0
4	Dallas/Ft. Worth	26.580	4	27.092	-1.9
5	Denver	23.986	5	24.250	-1.1
6	New York JFK	22.672	6	23.553	-3.7
7	Houston Bush	19.251	8	20.013	-3.8
8	Las Vegas	19.189	7	20.750	-7.5
9	Phoenix	18.532	9	19.426	-4.6
10	San Francisco	18.445	10	18.115	1.8

-Andrea Ahles

American flight makes swimmers sick, NCAA delayed start of championship meet

If you were on an American Airlines flight last Monday from Dallas-Fort Worth to Columbus, Ohio with the Texas, Stanford and Arizona collegiate swimming teams, you may have norovirus.

According to the NCAA's website, the college sports organization decided to push back the start of its national championship meet by one day because so many swimmers were sick with the norovirus. The Ohio Department of Health said the swimmers who were ill were all on the same flight.

The NCAA site said:

"The highly contagious bug heightened concerns that other swimmers and divers might become infected as well as passengers who were on the same American Airlines flight that departed from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, as did the athletes and coaches from the University of Texas, Arizona and Stanford.

"As the rescheduled opening day of competition began Friday, meet officials and medical personnel kept close watch on the development of any new cases. None were reported by school officials.

"Anyone who displayed symptoms was instructed to stay away from public areas for a minimum of 48 hours to avoid the risk of exposure and a potential outbreak.

"Although those who became ill all shared the same flight, public health investigators hadn't ruled out the possibility of the illness being contracted from food or at other locations.

-Andrea Ahles

Is Southwest getting dumped by WestJet?

Things may not be going so smoothly for Southwest Airlines venture into international code-sharing.

A news report out of Canada suggests that WestJet, who Southwest had previously agreed to a code-sharing deal with, may be thinking about teaming up with Delta Air Lines instead.

Delta has been very aggressive in expanding its international presence and earlier this year, unsuccessfully tried to woo Japan Airlines away from its alliance with American Airlines.

In an interview with the Financial Post, WestJet's new chief executive Gregg Saretsky says that it is prioritizing a partnership with a U.S. carrier.

"[Delta] has an interest. They have a capability. We like the Southwest partnership, but they've signaled to us that they're not going to be ready," Mr. Saretsky said in the article. "We're going to move on and tee things up with another partner."

The article says that WestJet is also lined up to receive five daily slots at New York's LaGuardia airport due to the slot swap between Delta and U.S. Airways.

-Andrea Ahles

AA director of crew relations compares pilot talks to baseball

American Airlines and its pilots union have a scheduled negotiations session on Tuesday, March 30 and in advance of the session, the Fort Worth-based carrier released a message from its director of crew relations, Capt. John Hale.

A self-admitted St. Louis Cardinals fan, Hale says, "I've started to view our negotiations in baseball terms. But instead of viewing each other as the opponent, we should be thinking about how we're going to field a team that's going to beat our true adversaries - Delta, Southwest, Continental and all the other carriers that we compete against every day."

As the Allied Pilots Association is in the middle of its national elections right now, labor and industry experts aren't expecting any major news from next week's talks. The focus on American's labor issues right now are on the flight attendants and ground crew groups.

Here's  Hale's full letter.

-Andrea Ahles