Sky Talk

All but six American flight attendants accept recall notices

In its weekly missive to union members, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said that all but six furloughed flight attendants accepted recall notices from American Airlines.

"A total of 221 of the 227 flight attendants offered recall have accepted - only six declined," the APFA hotline message said. "We look forward to seeing you on the line in December!"

American had announced earlier this month that it would be recalling 545 flight attendants and 250 pilots as it added new routes as part of its joint business venture with British Airways and Iberia. APFA said the next recall group should receive letters by the end of November or early December.

And in its ongoing campaign to get federal mediators to release APFA from its contract negotiations with American, the hotline reminded members to write letters to the National Mediation Board and "make sure your voice and story is heard."

-Andrea Ahles

Lockheed hatches plan for F-22, F-35 to better communicate

Fine aviation scribe Stephen Trimble posts on his Dew Line Blog that Lockheed Martin is proposing to improve the performance of the F-22 Raptor and its ability to communicate and work with the F-35 by upgrading the F-22s now ancient (by tech industry standards) computer architecture.

The disconnect extends deep beneath the titanium and steel skin. Major subsystems for both aircraft are based on different computing architectures. So improving hardware or software on the F-35 yields no benefit for the F-22, and vice versa.

No decisions have been made, but Lockheed officials at the F-22 factory are asking if that should change, only 16 months before the production line is shut.

The concept involves installing the F-35 computing architecture and certain hardware in the F-22. Even Lockheed acknowledges the idea would require "significant initial investment", but could yield "some cost savings" in the long-term. Discussions with the US Air Force are underway.

- Bob Cox

Air Force eases specs for rescue copter

Interesting post today on Defense Tech about how the Air Force has lowered its performance specifications for acquiring new combat-search-and-rescure helicopters. An excerpt:

Most obvious is a change made on Oct. 27 requiring proposed aircraft to be “capable of sustaining 125 knots true air speed” while flying at 4,000 feet in 80 degree temperatures and loaded with 2,000 pounds of cargo along with enough gas “to meet [a]  maximum Combat Radius” of 195 nautical miles.

The original “sources sought” notice, published on March 23, lists a sustained speed of 130 knots at 4,000 feet altitude in 95 degree heat carrying more than 2,500 pounds of cargo with radius of 220 nautical miles.

Some interesting comments too suggesting this is because the Pentagon, to hold down costs, is pushing hard to just buy new Sikorsky Black Hawks for the job and they simply can't meet the earlier "hot and high" requirements.

- Bob Cox

Law enforcement checking planes, trucks for suspicious cargo

The Associated Press is reporting that law-enforcement officials are investigating suspicious packages in several places in the eastern U.S. and one in England.

Cargo planes in Philadelphia and Newark, N.J., are being swept.

The New York Police Department's bomb squad also has stopped a UPS truck on the Queensboro Bridge.

A law-enforcement official briefed on the investigation said officials found something suspicious on a cargo plane in Birmingham, England, but test results for explosives were negative.

A spokeswoman for Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. said a suspicious package at one of its sites outside London had been turned over to authorities.

- Bob Cox

NTSB investigating an American Airlines flight that made an emergency landing due to a hole by its door

An American Airlines flight on its way from Miami to Boston made an emergency landing on Tuesday evening after the aircraft experienced "a loss of cabin pressure."

The cause of the depressurization is unknown but American said a one-foot by two-foot hole was found over the front door of the Boeing 757. Flight 1640 had 154 passengers and six crew members.

"The incident occurred at 31,000 feet and oxygen masks automatically deployed; the crew routinely descended to a lower altitude and elected to return to Miami," the Fort Worth-based carrier said in a statement.

"The aircraft has been taken out of service. The official cause of the loss of cabin pressure is unknown at this time. American Airlines has assigned a team of engineers and maintenance technicians who are evaluating the aircraft at this time. We have also been in contact with Boeing, the NTSB and the FAA.

"However, initial reports indicate that the pressure loss was from a small hole in the fuselage just above the L-1 door (the first door on the left side behind the cockpit)," the statement said. 

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident and should have a preliminary report available in a week or so.

UPDATE: Here are a few preliminary photos of the hole in the 757, provided by a Sky Talk reader.

 

 

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly's remarks at media day

Southwest Airlines Gary Kelly talked to reporters and other media folks about a number of issues facing the Dallas-based carrier on Thursday.

Here are a few of the topics he touched on:

-He announced service out of Newark to Chicago and St. Louis starting on March 27. An intro fare sale launched today with $72 fares. Southwest will start with 8 daily departures out of Newark to those two cities.

-If and how many Boeing 737-800s Southwest will buy should be answered soon, Kelly said. "I expect a decision on the 800 soon... We have worked through that carefully and I expect we will have wrapped that up soon."

Plus the 737-800 would give Southwest the opportunity to fly overseas. Kelly said that could mean Hawaii but not trans-Atlantic flights. "It is certainly more likely than not that we’re going to do it," Kelly said.

-For those AirTran customers who like their assigned seats and upgrades... "I fully expect we will have customers who will choose not to fly Southwest Airlines," Kelly said.

-The airline industry seems to have done better than the rest of the economy, but Kelly is still worried about fuel. "The economyy is not recovering in a very strong way. It is not an outrageous view to hold, the airlines interestingly enough seem to be outperforming the rest of the economy and it’s not because business travel has returned...The fact that capacity has been constrained better matched for demand at higher prices I think that is the story here for the airline recovery here in 2010. My main concern right now is fuel."

-Andrea Ahles

 

Southwest prices in-flight Internet at $5, launches "International Connect" with Volaris on Nov. 12

Two announcements from Southwest Airlines as the media at lunch in their hangar at Love Field: In-flight Wi-Fi will cost $5 for all devices and Southwest-Volaris partnership launches on Nov. 12.

First about Wi-Fi...Southwest has been testing Row 44's satellite-based Wi-Fi service for over a year and finally announced that it will cost $5 for all devices (iPhone, laptop, Blackberry) to log on to the service.

So far, the airline has 32 planes outfitted with the service and hopes to have around 60 planes equipped with Row 44 by the end of the year. Planes with the service look like they have a big bubble on the top of the aircraft close to the tail.

However, the $5 is an introductory rate. But Southwest' Dave Ridley said the rate will likely last at least through 2012 as the carrier outfits more of its aircraft with the service.

Now, about "International Connect." Starting November 12, customers will be able to book flights on Volaris on Southwest's website for flights that start on December 1.

Volaris currently serves three U.S. cities so a passenger on Southwest will have to take a flight to either Los Angeles, Oakland or San Jose to connect to Mexico on a Volaris flight. So that means, no connecting service out of Texas.

-Andrea Ahles

Spirit Airlines coming back to D/FW

Spirit Airlines is flying back to the Metroplex.

The low-cost carrier announced on Thursday that it will offer twice daily flights from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and to Las Vegas starting on May 5.

“We welcome the addition of new competition into the DFW market, and Spirit brings great service, competitive prices and tremendous value to our passengers," said D/FW airport chief executive Jeff Fegan.

This is not the first time Spirit has served D/FW. The carrier had service between D/FW and Fort Lauderdale in 2006 but pulled out after about a year.

-Andrea Ahles

Headlines from the marketing and Airtran panels at Southwest

Here are a few of the highlights from a marketing briefing and an AirTran panel:

-Bob Jordan says that Atlanta could become the largest city that Southwest serves in a few years following the Airtran deal.

-Southwest has filed its Hart-Scott-Rodino paperwork with federal regulators and is waiting for a response. "We’re hopeful that we won’t run into problems and this will go quickly like Continental-United as an example but we just don’t know," Jordan said.

-Look for the "change fee" ad campaign to come sometime soon from Southwest, said Kevin Krone. "Bags fly free is pretty darn straight forward, this is a bit more complex...it will be more of an effort," Krone said, reaffirming that Southwest will end AirTran's bag fees when it acquires the company.

-Southwest is looking at keeping AirTran's Boeing 717s since its Boeing 737-500s are older and will be going off lease in 2013-2015. "If we’re going to try to get into smaller market tier level, we need an airplane that has a good trip cost with it," said Mike Van De Ven.

-The labor integration process between AirTran and Southwest is ongoing. All of the labor unions at Southwest have met with their AirTran counterparts, Jordan said, adding that Southwest will be an "active observer" as the groups discuss seniority lists. "One of the elixirs for seniority integration anxiety is growth," Van de Ven said.

-Andrea Ahles



Hanging out at LUV headquarters

Today is media day at Southwest Airlines' headquarters at Love Field and the fun began early this morning with Southwest communication folks taking mugshots of the reporters out here.

We'll be getting updates on the Airtran merger, Wi-Fi on planes, Volaris interline plans and of course, a business update from chief executive Gary Kelly.

The Southwest folks are pretty good about making news on their media day. Last year, they had beach balls to announce new service to Panama City.

So for those who want to know what Southwest execs are saying, Sky Talk will be tweeting @sky_talk and posting the occasional update here on the blog.

-Andrea Ahles