Sky Talk

American files WARN notice for workers at LAX

American Airlines may cut up to 23 airport services positions at Los Angeles International airport, according to a government notice the company filed in California today.

The workforce reduction is a result of the capacity cuts the Fort Worth-based carrier is making to its fall schedule and had previously announced in June. The notices were sent to 289 workers at LAX that could be affected by the job cuts.

"These are painful, but necessary, decisions given the current economic and industry environment," the carrier said in a statement. "American will work to minimize the number of involuntary furloughs by offering voluntary programs to eligible Airport Services and Cargo employees."

The WARN notice says that 11 fleet service clerks/crew chiefs and 12 agents positions are scheduled to be cut at LAX. The actual number of employees laid of by American could be less depending on how many employees accept voluntary buyout or part-time work packages.

Companies are required to file WARN notices with a state government agency 60 days prior to a mass layoff. The WARN notice filed in California said the American furloughs would be effective as of November 7.

-Andrea Ahles

More Southwest planes have unapproved parts

I'm heading out to AMR HQ this morning for a briefing on its union contracts for a.....wait for it.....Labor Day article, I'm working on, but in the meantime, the WSJ has more on the Southwest-FAA issue.

The Journal is reporting this morning that there are 82Southwest planes, not 46 planes, that are flying with unapproved parts. The Dallas-based carrier has told the FAA that approved parts will be installed on 30 planes by Monday, but not all of the affected Boeing 737s by the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

And for the first time, we see in print, the name of the maintenance company that Southwest outsourced the work to and that installed the unapproved parts: Phoenix-based D-Velco Aviation Services. The article goes on to say that D-Velco subcontracted the work for the unapproved parts to another vendor.

I'm sure we'll hear more out of the FAA and Southwest later today or by tomorrow's deadline, since if the FAA decides to ground the remaining 52 planes that won't have the approved parts, that's 10 percent of Southwest's entire fleet.

-Andrea Ahles

Union updates

It's Friday, which means both the Allied Pilots Association and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants put out their news bulletins to their members. Here's a look at the headlines out of their e-mail blasts....

-Mediation talks next week. Both the American pilots and flight attendants have mediation contract talks scheduled with American the first week of September.

-A federal district court judge ruled in favor of American saying that the APA could not conduct a campaign to encourage members not to volunteer for open-time flying. The court cited the uncertain effect of that type of campaign on airline operations as why it denied APA's case for a declaratory judgment.

-Flight attendants that put in for leave requests in order to reduce the number of potential furloughs, will find out by Tuesday afternoon if their requests were granted.

-Andrea Ahles

Boeing says Dreamliner will fly by the end of the year

Boeing announced this morning that it expects the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner by the end of 2009 and that the first shipments of the plane will happen by the fourth quarter of 2010.

The timeline for delivering the first Dreamliners comes after the Chicago-based airplane manufacturer said it needed to reinforce part of the side-of-body section of the plane.

"This new schedule provides us the time needed to complete the remaining work necessary to put the 787's game-changing capability in the hands of our customers," said Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney. "The design details and implementation plan are nearly complete, and the team is preparing airplanes for modification and testing."

Boeing added that it expects to produce 10 Dreamliners a month by late 2013.

American Airlines has said it plans to buy 42 of the wide-body 787 plane.

-Andrea Ahles

Analyst: higher bag fees mean industry outlook poor

With US Airways announcing it is increasing its first bag fee from $15 to $20 - essentially following American and other airlines' bag fee increases earlier this year - one analyst feels that it's a sign that the near term outlook is "poor."

In a research note, Hunter Keay of Stifel Nicolaus said that passenger volumes this fall are almost certain to fall of dramatically after Labor Day when the leisure travel market evaporates. And with business travelers still staying at home, airlines are going to burn significant amounts of cash during the third quarter.

"It's not that airlines aren't just "out of the woods" - from a cash burn perspective all airlines are actually just entering the woods," Keay said.

Of the major airlines, Continental Airlines is the only one who has not raised its bag fees.

-Andrea Ahles

FAA investigating Southwest

Here is Associated Press' look at the grounding of 46 Southwest planes on Saturday by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Wall Street Journal and DMN had the stories this morning, and the rest of us are following it today. A maintenance company hired by Southwest used unapproved replacement parts on the planes and although there is no immediate safety risk, the company has 10 days to address the problem.

No word on how that might affect the $7.5 million settlement agreement Southwest has with the FAA where the Dallas-based carrier made nearly 60,000 flights on planes that had missed inspections.

-Andrea Ahles

More on American-HP deal

American and HP said they will not disclose any financial terms of the deal that will create a new passenger service system for the Fort Worth airline.

The system will take about four years to develop and will be implemented in stages, with the first parts of the system going live in about a year, said American's chief information officer Monte Ford.

Called Jetstream, Ford said customers will be the focus of the new system but are likely not to notice any obvious changes to the system. Initially, functions such as ticketing at airports or getting flight information or check-in information will be improved.

"What we plan to do is put the customer firmly in the middle in the development of the system versus today's systems which are designed around transactions," Ford said.

American's announcement that they have partnered with HP has to be a blow to Fort Worth-based Sabre.

During his teleconference with reporters, Ford reiterated that American is still a customer of Sabre, as it uses the company's GDS system. However, Sabre provides a similar passenger service computer system and was passed over by American.

"We are doing a lot with Sabre and mission-critical systems," Ford said. "We're pretty high on Sabre as a company, as a partner, but I think with this, American figured that HP is clearly the best company for us to move forward with."

Ford added that American spent several years making a decision on who to partner with, visiting 14 to 15 airlines and every system offered by other technology firms.

-Andrea Ahles

American signs tech deal with HP

American Airlines announced on Wednesday morning that it has signed a letter of intent with HP to develop a new passenger service system.

The new computer system will involve reservations, flight information and check-in information and will be called Jetsteam, the two companies said. The partnership will also create online and mobile travel tools for American's customers.

"The current passenger service system has served us well for many decades and remains among one of the most reliable," AMR Corp. chief executive Gerard Arpey said in a release.

More details on what this actually means after a media teleconference with AMR CIO Monte Ford at 10. The full text of the release is here.

-Andrea Ahles

Speedy customs at DFW

Air travelers willing to pay $100 have a new fast lane and kiosk to get them through U.S. Customs quicker at Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection debuted its new Global Entry program this week at thirteen airports across the U.S., including D/FW.

With the program, international travelers who pass a background check will be able to use their passport or permanent resident card at an automated kiosk that requires a digital fingerprint to get through customs faster. There is a $100 application fee and it will allow the traveler to use the program for five years.

D/FW has built an enrollment center at Terminal D for the program, which was tested at Atlanta, Chicago's O'Hare, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Washington (Dulles) airports.

The full press release is here.

-Andrea Ahles

Dog days of summer

Without Southwest Airlines trying to digest Frontier Airlines, this is shaping up to be one of the slowest airline news weeks of the summer.

I'm spending the week talking with labor groups to get updates on the status of their contract talks and may head out to the airport to check out a new Customs fast-lane for travelers who pay $100 to get a background check. So if anyone wants to comment on the status of American's labor talks, send me an e-mail.

In the meantime, here is some morning reading....

USATodaywrites about a House bill submitted in June from Rep. Dan Lipinski that would standardize the size of carry-on luggage across all airlines. The bill says carry on bags "shall not exceed 56 centimeters in length by 45 centimeters in height by 25 centimeters in width (rounded to 22 inches by 18 inches (17.75) by 10 inches (9.85))."

A New York Times reporter was told not to put any personal items in the seatback pocket on a United flight, prompting him to write this article.

And the pilots at Hawaiian Airlines have begun a strike authorization vote but the National Mediation Board has not declared an impasse between the pilots and the inter-island carrier, who have been negotiating for more than two-and-half years. So for those traveling to Hawaii this fall, any strike may be a long way off.

-Andrea Ahles