US Airways' pilots union said Monday it is concerned a deal with Delta Air Lines to swap takeoff and landing slots could lead to higher fares and a reduction in service to smaller communities.
The US Airline Pilots Association said it sent a letter to the Justice Department seeking a full investigation on the impact of the proposed transaction between US Airways and Delta at New York's LaGuardia and Washington's Reagan National airports.
The dispute pits the US Airways pilots union against its counterpart at Delta, which supports the slot swap deal. The Delta pilots union encouraged members in a memo Nov. 6 to help in the effort to get government approval.
In August, US Airways said it had agreed to transfer 125 operating slot pairs to Delta at LaGuardia. In exchange, Delta agreed to transfer 42 operating slot pairs to US Airways at Reagan National.
Slots, especially at peak times of day and in busy corridors like the Northeast, are valuable to airlines.
A slot is an interval of time during which an airline can take off or land its aircraft at an airport. A pair refers to cities airlines fly between.
The same week as the Delta-US Airways deal was announced, it was disclosed that AirTran Airways planned to stop flying to and from Newark, N.J., effective Oct. 25 and would give its takeoff and landing slots there to Continental Airlines Inc. in exchange for Continental slots at LaGuardia and National airports.
Continental has a hub at Newark Liberty International Airport, which is used by many travelers heading to or from New York City.
US Airways' pilots union said it believes the Delta deal may raise antitrust implications.
"We are extremely concerned about the market concentration that this transaction would create if it is allowed to be consummated," union President Mike Cleary said in a statement. "Those conditions raise the prospect of much higher fares and, if history repeats itself, a reduction in service to smaller communities."
A spokesman for Delta Air Lines Inc., based in Atlanta, said nearly 10,000 of Delta's customers and employees have voiced their support for the proposed transaction directly to the Transportation and Justice departments. US Airways Group Inc. spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said her airline, based in Tempe, Ariz., believes the transaction will pass government review.
It's not clear when government regulators will reach a decision.
The transaction would add 11 gates to Delta's LaGuardia operations. The world's biggest airline operator has said the deal would allow it to create a domestic hub at LaGuardia, even as Delta maintains a strong presence at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. At the Washington airport, Delta said previously it expected to cut its daily departures from 89 to 55.
If its deal is approved, Delta has projected it would operate nearly 30 percent of the total available seat miles from the three main airports serving New York City. Available seat miles measure an airline's capacity for carrying passengers. It equals the number of seats available multiplied by miles flown.
US Airways, meanwhile, has said it would expand its service at the Washington airport and reduce its Express flights at LaGuardia, while mainline and Shuttle flight levels would not be affected.
The airline's regional carrier Piedmont has been expected to be hit hard by US Airways' plans to discontinue service to 26 destinations served by US Airways Express. The airline has said that would result in the elimination of roughly 300 Piedmont positions at LaGuardia when the reduced flight schedule is implemented in early 2010.
The US Airways pilots union is concerned the deal will place a burden on many of US Airways' New York-based employees whose jobs will be eliminated.
But Delta's pilots union said the agreement will allow more than 2 million additional passengers to fly at New York's preferred domestic airport every year without increasing congestion, moving Delta closer to its goal of becoming the top airline in New York. The union urged members to contact lawmakers in Washington to express their support for the slot swaps.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Northwest Wrong-way pilots' cockpit tapes released
Air-traffic controllers repeatedly gave instructions to change the course of a Northwest Airlinesjet that had been out of radio contact for more than an hour as a test to ensure that it had not been hijacked, according to transcripts released today.
Controllers also asked the two pilots several times to explain why they had flown so long without talking to ground controllers.
"I just have to verify that the cockpit is secure," said a controller at Minneapolis Center 86 seconds after the errant flight resumed radio transmissions.
"It is secure," radioed one of the pilots. "We got distracted."
Capt. Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., and co-pilot Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., told investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board thattheir Oct. 21 odyssey occurred because they had been working on their private laptops in an attempt to understand a new crew scheduling program, which had been introduced by Delta Air Lines. Delta owns Northwest.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revoked their licenses shortly after the incident, charging that they had been "reckless." The pilots flew one hour and 17 minutes without talking to controllers, cruising more than 150 miles past their destination in Minneapolis.
The pilots have appealed their license revocations.
The incident began routinely, according to the transcripts released by the FAA. A controller in the FAA's Denver Center, which oversees the skies over several states surrounding Colorado, told the pilots to contact another controller.
"OK," responded one of the pilots, repeating the instructions.
However, the pilots apparently never contacted the next controller. Mishaps in which pilots briefly lose contact with controllers are relatively common but almost never last as long as the Northwest incident.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said earlier this month that FAA controllers had not reacted swiftly enough to the lack of radio contact and the transcripts indicate that the jet passed through the control of two controllers before a third controller raised alarms about the jet.
About 35 minutes after the Northwest pilots' last contact, this controller began telephoning other controllers and notified air traffic managers, who contacted Delta.
As the jet flew at 37,000 feet toward Minneapolis, a succession of controllers tried to reach it on the radio. But it's possible the Northwest pilots never heard them because the attempts were made on radio frequencies the jet was not tuned to, according to the transcripts.
Finally, at 8:14:06 p.m. CT, the pilots radioed a controller in Minneapolis Center, which oversees the upper Midwest states.
"Minneapolis, Northwest one-eighty-eight," said a pilot, identifying himself with the jet's flight number, 188.
Controllers were careful to ensure that the jet had enough fuel after flying well beyond its destination. The pilots assured them that they had enough reserve to fly for two hours.
The controllers quizzed the pilots several times about what had happened.
"Northwest one-eighty-eight, ah, do you have time to give a brief explanation on what happened?" asked one.
"Ah, just cockpit distractions. That's all I can say," came the response.
Delta Proposes $1 Billion investment in Japan Airlines
In an effort to lure financially strapped Japan Airlines away from current partners American Airlines and the OneWorld alliance, Delta Air Lines and its SkyTeam partners have offered a $1.02 billion package that would stabilize JAL and make it a SkyTeam member.
The proposal from SkyTeam included $500 million in equity, $300 million in revenue guarantees from Delta, $200 million in asset-backed funding and another $20 for costs association with the transition into its alliance of carriers. The other SkyTeam members are Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air France, KLM,Alitalia, China Southern, Czech, Korean Air, Air Europa and Kenya Airways.
American Airlines has offered to broker a deal for the OneWorld carriers in invest JAL but no details have been released. American also claims that JAL would lose $500 million in annual revenue by switching alliances. JAL recently reported a $357 million loss from July through September of 2009 and has a debt-load of $15 billion. It has requested another government bailout, its fourth this decade.
JAL is viewed as a crucial partner in the Pacific region by both OneWorld and SkyTeam as it can deliver a major presence in Asia.
Friday, November 27, 2009
777-2OOLR Business Elite
Delta Airlines New 777-200LR Business Elite. Link Under
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Delta-Air-Lines/Boeing-777-232-LR/1334937/L/
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