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NEWS

Arpey: Excessive focus on scale is not "shareholder-friendly"
American Airlines is in no hurry to repeat the headaches of a defensive merger undertaken mainly to protect its No. 1 position, CEO Gerard Arpey told an investors' conference on Tuesday. While Arpey said consolidation in general was good for the industry, creating scale for its own sake does not make sense. "At a certain point, [you] have enough scale," he said, answering a question about American's difficult merger with TWA a decade ago. "[Then] you're just creating more scale over and over again. That's not something we see as being shareholder-friendly."
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Delta to announce refurbishment plans for JFK
After months of talks with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, Delta Air Lines is expected to unveil plans for updating its terminals at New York JFK. Observers believe Delta will opt to expand Terminal 4, while demolishing the iconic Worldport terminal to rebuild from scratch. Bastian promised full details within 60 days.
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Spirit finds limited options in pilots' strike
As the pilots' strike at Spirit Airlines drags on, experts say the discount carrier is finding it difficult to re-accommodate passengers due to a lack of interlining agreements with other airlines. Though Spirit originally planned to "wet lease" aircraft to help get through the strike, those plans apparently have fallen through due to pilots' concerns about being identified on the Internet as strike-breakers.
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Airline employment hits record low in April
Employment in the U.S. airline industry fell 4.1% in April, extending a 22-month slide that has brought total employment to its lowest levels since the Transportation Department began keeping statistics in 1990. Regional airlines saw the biggest declines, trimming 9.3% of workers compared with year-earlier levels, while employment at discount carriers edged up 0.5%.
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Swiss CEO: Europe's competitiveness no longer can be taken 'for granted'
Excessive government fees and regulation, aging infrastructure and the emergence of major airlines in the Middle East and Asia are threatening European airlines' long-held position at the forefront of the global air transport industry, according to Swiss International Air Lines CEO Harry Hohmeister.
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Swiss to retrofit entire A340 fleet by mid 2011
Swiss International Air Lines has no short or medium-term plans to acquire replacements for its Airbus A340 fleet as the carrier instead plans to focus on retrofitting all 15 of its A340-300s with a refreshed premium product by next June.
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BA, Unite fail to reach accord through arbitration
The UK's Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service confirmed that it was unable to broker a deal between British Airways and the Unite union to end the long-running dispute between the airline and its flight attendants over pay and working conditions.
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Royal Jordanian looks for new niches as it awaits 787s
Royal Jordanian President and CEO Hussein Dabbas confirmed that delivery of the first of the carrier's 11 787s is now scheduled for September 2013.
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American continues investigation into door separation on a 777
An American Airlines Boeing 777 whose door ripped off on 15 June remains out of service for repairs, but could resume operations today, says the airline.
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Discussion

Polish state considers Tu-154 fate after chartering LOT jets
Poland's defence ministry is considering the future of its second Tupolev Tu-154M after opting to charter two LOT Embraer 175s for government transport.
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Other News

Air Mauritius Group reported a net loss of €6 million ($7.4 million) for its fiscal year ended March 31, narrowed from an €85.3 million deficit in the prior year, and said it would have posted a €32.6 million profit for the year absent €38.5 million in fuel hedge losses. Revenue declined 16.6% to €371.7 million owing to lower capacity and declining yields while expenses dropped 24.6% to €346.8 million, producing a €24.9 million operating profit before administrative expenses.

"For the year, the company implemented various measures to stimulate revenue, modulate capacity to demand, improve efficiencies and reduce costs," it said. "These measures have contributed in posting positive operating results despite of all the challenges facing the airline industry. The various marketing campaigns undertaken coupled with reduction in capacity led to a record load factor of 80.6%."

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is conducting an investigation into a runway overrun at Ottawa International Wednesday. The accident occurred to a United Express ERJ-145 carrying 33 passengers and three crewmembers operated by Trans States Airlines at approximately 2:30 p.m. local time as the aircraft was landing on Runway 25 in what was described as light rain. According to press reports, the pilot and copilot and one passenger suffered minor injuries. Flight 8050 originated at Washington Dulles. The aircraft (N847HK, MSN 14500857) was built in 2004 and sustained substantial damage including a collapsed nose gear, according to Ascend. US National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team of investigators to assist.

Ryanair made further changes to its baggage policy, offering passengers the choice of buying a larger (up to 20 kg.) checked bag allowance for £25/€25 as an alternative to its standard 15 kg. allowance that costs £15/€15. In the July-August peak season, the charges will be £30/€30 and £20/€20 for a first bag respectively. A second checked bag of up to 15 kg. can be purchased for £35/€35 off-season or £40/€40 in summer.

Air Canada will today launch daily service from Toronto Pearson to San Diego and Portland, Ore., aboard an A319 and E-190 respectively.

Norwegian will increase Stockholm Arlanda service to Copenhagen from five-times-weekly to six-times weekly and Arlanda service to Helsinki from 12-times-weekly to 23-times weekly Sept. 2 with the addition of a ninth aircraft to be based at the airport. It said it will add two flights to its Helsinki-London Gatwick service but did not disclose frequencies.

Turkish Airlines will launch four-times-weekly Istanbul Ataturk-Alexandria service June 19, its second destination in Egypt. It commenced thrice-weekly IST-Entebbe-Dar es Salaam service June 14.

Alaska Airlines will launch daily Seattle-St. Louis service Sept. 27 aboard a 737.

Frontier Airlines will operate weekly Kansas City-Los Cabos service Dec. 18-April 16 and weekly Denver-Ixtapa flights Jan. 15-March 26 aboard E-190s.

ANA and Air Macau reached a codeshare agreement effective July 1 under which ANA will place its code on Air Macau's flights to Macau from Tokyo Narita (thrice-weekly) and Osaka Kansai (five-times-weekly) while Air Macau will place its code on ANA's domestic flights. The two carriers also will link their frequent-flyer programs. Separately ANA announced it will increase daily Tokyo Narita-Seoul Incheon service to 10-times-weekly Aug. 10-Sept. 26.

Gulf Air launched four-times-weekly service between Bahrain and Medina aboard an E-170 in a two-class configuration.



AVIATION QUOTE

"Aviation is proof, that given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible."

- Eddie Rickenbacker



AEROSPACE TERM

Impact Area

The area in which a rocket strikes the surface of the earth or other celestial body.
Used specifically in reference to the impact area of a rocket range.



DAILY VIDEO





EDITOR’S CHOICE





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HUMOR

What just happened here?
A military cargo plane, flying over a populated area, suddenly loses power and starts to nose down. The pilot tries to pull up, but with all their cargo, the plane is too heavy. So he yells to the soldiers in back to throw things out to make the plane lighter. They throw out a pistol. "Throw out more!" shouts the pilot. So they throw out a rifle. "More!" he cries again. They heave out a missile, and the pilot regains control.

He pulls out of the dive and lands safely at an airport. They get into a jeep and drive off. Pretty soon they meet a boy on the side of the road who's crying. They ask him why he's crying and he says "A pistol hit me on the head!"

They drive more and meet another boy who's crying even harder. Again they ask why and the boy says, "A rifle hit me on the head!"

They apologize and keep driving. They meet a boy on the sidewalk who's laughing hysterically. They ask him, "Kid, what's so funny?" The boy replies, "I sneezed and a house blew up!"



TRIVIA

Google Airports

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Quick guess before Germany vs Serbia starts:
1. SAT San Antonio
2. LED Sankt Petersburg-Pulkovo
3. LCA Larnaca, Cyprus
4.
5.
6.
7. MLA Malta-Luqa
8. DAL Dallas-Love Field
9. AUS Austin-Bergstrom
10. CFU Korfu-Corpudistrias (or something)

1. ??
2. St Petersburg LED
3. Larnaca
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7. Malta
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10. Corfu

ANSWERS:
1. SAT, San Antonio International, San Antonio, TX
2. LED, Pulkovo, St. Petersburg, Russia
3. LCA. Lárnaca, Cyprus
4. RGN, Mingalodon, Rangoon, Burma
5. RMS, Ramstein Air base, Germany
6. LIV, Chisinau, Moldova
7. MLA. Luqa, Malta
8. DAL, Love Field, Dallas, TX
9. AUS, Bergstrom Int’l, Austin, TX
10. CFU. I. Kapodistrias, Corfu, Greece