Sky Talk

Congress passes new pilot rules as part of FAA extension bill

An overhaul of commercial pilot rules was passed by Congress on Friday morning as part of a Federal Aviation Administration extension bill.

The legislation, which President Obama is expected to sign into law this weekend, increases the minimum flight experience for first officers from 250 hours to 1,500 hours and requires the FAA to propose new rules on pilot schedules to prevent fatigue.

Proponents of the rule changes say that it could force regional airlines to hire more pilots and possibly lead to higher salaries of pilots at regional carriers.

“This legislation brings much-needed improvements to aviation safety in the U.S. by addressing many of the pilot screening, training and certification issues that are the result of the airline industry’s intense focus on the lowest possible operating costs," said Capt. John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association.

ALPA represents 2,700 pilots that fly at American Eagle, the regional carrier owned by Fort Worth-based AMR Corp.

The pilot rule changes were prompted after a series of deadly regional carrier crashes in the U.S. including one near Buffalo-Niagara International Airport in February 2009 where 49 people on board, and one person on the ground, were killed. In that incident, the National Transportation Safety Board investigators faulted the pilots and deficiencies in their training by regional carrier Colgan Air.

More details on the legislation can be found in an Associated Press article here.

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest CEO tells folks to don swimsuits, head to Panama City

During its conference call with Wall Street analysts today, Southwest Airlines chief executive Gary Kelly became a one-man tourism official for Panama City.

Tourism on the Florida Gulf Coast has been hurt by the BP oil spill as reports of tar balls surfacing on Florida beaches hit the media earlier this summer. In May, Southwest Airlines launched service to Panama City and while Kelly said the destination is off to a great start, he wanted to dismiss the idea that the beaches were full of oil.

"I've been there and I can report that the beaches look great," Kelly said. "Everyone should don their swimsuits and get down there ASAP on a Southwest flight."

Other tidbits from the Southwest Airlines call this morning include:

-Chief financial officer Laura Wright said that the carrier has not seen any cannibalization of its Business Select product since it introduced the Early Bird check-in product last fall. In the second quarter, Business select revenues were $24 million, up from $18 million in the same period last year. Early Bird revenues were $23 million, compared to $17 million in the first quarter and $13 million in the fourth quarter.

-Wright said the company expects its labor costs in the third quarter to increase 9.8 percent versus last year because of wage increases and profit sharing under the new labor contracts it signed last year.

-Southwest plans to add only its previously announced South Carolina cities of Charleston and Spartanburg/Greenville to its route map in 2011. The carrier has made no plans for 2012 but has a long list of cities it is contemplating, Kelly said.

-Leisure travel may be strong for Southwest but the carrier is planning to have a "bigger push and a stronger message" for business travelers in the next 12 months, Kelly said.

-Andrea Ahles

Local TWU members head to Tulsa to encourage a "no" vote on proposed contract

A few American Airlines mechanics from D/FW headed up to Tulsa on Wednesday to encourage Transport Workers Union members to vote against a proposed contract.

Tulsa World reporter Don Stewart describes the scene outside of American's maintenance facility as one with honking horns and cheers of support for the D/FW mechanics who brought along a banner that said "Vote No -- Save Our Profession."

Earlier this year, the TWU negotiated three tentative contract agreements with American that covered about 13,000 employees in the mechanics, store clerks and maintenance technician groups.

The mechanics agreement includes wage increases as well as lump-sum signing bonuses for mechanics at its overhaul bases in Tulsa, Fort Worth and Kansas City. The contract agreement also turns the overhaul bases into 24-hour a day, 7-days-a-week operations.

Contract ratification ballots were mailed out to TWU members on Monday and results of the vote are scheduled to be announced on August 24.

Here's the full Tulsa World article.

-Andrea Ahles

American Eagle to add flights from JFK to three more cities

On Thursday, AMR Corp. announced another move to improve its presence in the New York area with its regional carrier American Eagle adding three new destinations from JFK airport.

Starting Nov. 18, Eagle will begin daily service to Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Norfolk, Va. Eagle said it will operate the flights with 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145s.

Earlier this year AMR announced a "cornerstone" strategy where it said it would emphasize its hubs and use Eagle to feed more connecting passengers to American Airlines.

-Andrea Ahles

American flight makes emergency landing at D/FW Airport

A warning light indicating that the rear slide may have deployed prompted an American Airlines flight to make an emergency landing at Dallas-Fort Worth airport Thursday morning.

The flight, originating in Newark and was heading for Dallas, landed safely around 11:30 a.m. with 138 passengers and five crew members.

An Associated Pressarticle said that fire trucks were standing by as a precaution as the flight crew was unable to tell if there was a problem with the slide. American spokesman Tim Wagner told AP that the problem appears to have been a malfunctioning indicator light.

-Andrea Ahles

DFW Airport proposes $567 million FY2011 budget, 3.8 percent less than 2010

On Thursday, the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport board was presented with a $567.5 million budget for its upcoming fiscal year which starts in October.

The proposed budget is 3.8 percent, or $22.1 million, less than the fiscal year 2010 budget.

Although the number of passengers is expected to grow to 57.3 million, up from 56.3 million this year, the airport plans to change its use agreements with the airlines, affecting the revenues the airport uses to pay for operations.

The new use agreements will result in lower landing fees but higher terminal rents for airlines and the airport will have a significant increase in cash it can use for capital programs. The airport is set to undertake a $1.8 billion terminal renovation plan to update Terminals A, B, C and E.

Of its proposed budget, $228.4 million, or 40 percent, is dedicated to debt service payments. The airport plans to issue more debt to help pay for the renovation project and is still making debt payments on bonds issued for the construction of Terminal D.

The board did not act on the budget proposal on Thursday, asking for more information on parts of the budget before making its decision at its August 5 meeting.

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest posts $112 million Q2 profit

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines reported a $112 million profit in the second quarter as planes were full of passengers paying higher fares.

Revenues grew 21 percent to $3.16 billion for the quarter. The net income was 23 percent higher than the $91 million second quarter profit in the second quarter of 2009.

Although Southwest chief executive said business travel demand has not fully recovered, consumer travel demand is "robust."

"We see no signs that momentum will stall in second half 2010," Kelly said, adding that the carrier could post an all-time record load factor for July.

Excluding one-time accounting charges, Southwest posted a net income of $216 million, or 29 cents per share, which beat Wall Street analysts' estimates of 27 cents per share.

Southwest said the average passenger fare for the second quarter was $131.82, up 19.3 percent from the same period last year. The carrier also cut capacity by 0.3 percent.

Keep reading for the full Southwest press release.

-Andrea Ahles

Odds and ends in the airline industry Tuesday

A few odds and ends from American, Southwest and others in the airline industry today.

First off: American Airlines. The Fort Worth-based carrier issued a host of press releases today including....

-It finished renovations on its Admiral's Club in Boston Logan airport. The redone club has new flat panel televisions, oversized leather chairs and private shower facilities.

-It has also moved its operations at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport to the new Terminal 3.

-The company and the FAA honored James Davis, a mechanic at American's Kansas City facility, for 50 years of service. Davis, who began working as an aviation mechanic in the Air Force in 1960, was awarded the Charles Taylor Award which is given to mechanics that have served over 50 years as an accredited aviation mechanic and for a minimum of 30 years as an FAA-certified mechanic.

-American's employees have raised over $200,000 in relief funds for victims of the Haitian earthquake.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines had a little fun today with the Texas Rangers. Pitchers Tommy Hunter and Darren Oliver and outfielder David Murphy showed up at Dallas Love Field today to make boarding announcements, take boarding passes and welcome passengers. Here's a photo from the event.

Delta Air Lines announced it was adding service between 21 cities and Washington D.C. or New York. On Oct. 31, Delta will launch new nonstop service from the airport to Hartford, Conn.; Columbus, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; Orlando, Fla.; Miami, Fla.; Tampa, Fla.; and St. Louis, for a total of 21 new daily nonstop flights to Reagan National. Here's the press release announcing the fall schedule changes.

And my childhood hometown airline, Hawaiian Airlines, reported a $9 million profit for the second quarter with revenues increasing 8.2 percent to $315.9 million.

-Andrea Ahles

Average air fare price climbs 4.7 percent in Q1

The average price of a domestic air fare rose 4.7 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to a government report released on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics said that customers paid an average of $328 for a ticket, which does not include baggage fees or other ancillary fees that airlines charge.

Passengers flying out of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport paid an average fare of $404.36, which was 6.3 percent higher than the average fare in the first quarter of 2009. D/FW Airport had the ninth-highest average fare out of the top 100 airports.

On the other hand, Dallas Love Field had the fifth lowest average fare price out of the top 100 airports. Passengers at Love paid an average fare price $248.49 which was 7.4 percent higher than the same period last year.

The cheapest average fare in the country was $187.78 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The most expensive average fare was $499.59 at Huntsville, Ala.

-Andrea Ahles

Ain't no bird stopping an F-35

Sky Talk buddy Stephen Trimble has posted video of the "frozen chicken hits canopy" bird strike test conducted by Lockheed Martin on the F-35 joint strike fighter. Splat.

This form of testing has come a long ways. They used to use anesthetized chickens until the animal rights and political correctness movements caught up with the aviation industry.

- Bob Cox