The Green Aviation Forum & Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) 2008 congress, an initiative of the U.S. trade publication Aviation Week, is to be held in Madrid on September 24-25. A total of 134 of the world’s airlines and more than 3,000 people are expected to attend to event to discuss the new challenges facing the industry, new developments in the environmental sphere –including alternative fuels, and the new European regulations—emerging competition in the Middle East, and rising fuel prices. The event is being organised jointly by Aviation Week and Iberia Airlines.

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Geneva - On Friday 19 September, the first Qantas A380 left Airbus’ Toulouse headquarters en route for Sydney, via Singapore. Onboard were not only media and Qantas VIPs, but also OnAir’s connectivity services, offering its A380 passengers OnAir’s Webchat and Webmail inflight services. When the plane enters commercial service between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October, passengers in all 450 seats will be able to use their seat-back inflight entertainment screen, or their own laptop, to access OnAir Webmail and Webchat*. The service will be upgraded to include full live internet connectivity as soon as Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband satellite service is available in the Pacific region, which is expected later in 2009*. Qantas is the first airline to offer connectivity on an A380, reflecting their reputation for excellence and innovation in customer service. Passengers will be able to access their web-based email, including Gmail and Hotmail, to pick up and send messages, including attachments, during the flight. They can also chat with friends and family using instant messaging accounts such as Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.

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Continuing along a most successful path of engagements in Russia and other CIS countries Lufthansa Consulting wins over a very respected partner in the market. The management of Moscow‘s Sheremetyevo International Airport has chosen the experienced German aviation consultancy to provide support in the field of air service development. Sheremetyevo International Airport served over 14 million passengers in 2007 and reached a passenger growth rate of 10 per cent in the first half of 2008.

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European air routes between Spain and as Frankfurt, Stockholm and Amsterdam first to make changeover: Reduction in paper consumption as electronic messages used - Enhancement of air cargo efficiency - Iberia already uses “Iberia Cargo e-AWB” electronic waybills on domestic routes. Before the end of this year, Iberia will implement a new electronic documentation system for air cargo shipments, initially for routes between Spain and Frankfurt, Stockholm, and Amsterdam, in compliance with the Spanish e-Freight project defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

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Lufthansa passengers can now use mobile boarding passes on all flights from Germany to any destination in Europe. Following the successful pilot scheme conducted in the spring and the across-the-board introduction of mobile boarding passes on all domestic German routes in the summer, this innovative service has gained widespread acceptance among travellers. As the last count, more than 7,000 passengers a week were using electronic boarding passes. The service has now been extended to about 1,000 European flights a day from Germany.

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Ukraine flag carrier airline UIA continues its spectacular growth carrying 21% more passengers in the period from January to August 2008 than in the same period in 2007. August has proven to be another record braking month for UIA carrying 200,000 passengers on 1,900 flights to 32 destinations. The passenger load factor across the whole fleet of 17 aircraft rose by 9.7% from 68.8% in August 2007 to a record of 78.5% in 2008.

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oneworld®, the leading quality global airline alliance, and Lonely Planet, the leading global travel information provider, have joined forces to offer guides, tips and advice on some of the world’s leading destinations in an unique and innovative format - available for free. Their oneworld Travel Stations are being unveiled from today at selected airports across Europe starting with Amsterdam, Brussels and Milan (Linate and Malpensa) where they will be for an initial three-month period. These highly engaging, interactive installations, geared at the smartphone and iPod generation, offer travel-related lifestyle content to busy business and leisure travellers on the move - and all for free. The Travel Stations’ appealing design features interactive, touch-screen technology similar to the Apple iPhone. Travellers can use them before boarding a flight, to access data - text and pictures - and then download useful information, including language guides and audio casts, to their own smartphones, laptops or other devices.

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Millions of passengers are missing from BA/AA’s stated numbers. Data presented by BA/AA doesn’t include direct bookings and connecting passengers, so their market share appears smaller. BA/AA’s presented data is based on just one month – July 2008 – rather than a whole year. Virgin Atlantic today said that the numbers used by BA and American Airlines, who are planning to create a monster monopoly on transatlantic routes, fail to give regulators or the public a true picture of their market share between London Heathrow and the US. The data presented by BA/AA distorts the true picture of BA/AA’s potential dominance because it omits all bookings made direct with the airlines and omits all passengers making connecting journeys. This means BA/AA are using numbers which portrays their market share at around 20% below the true figure.

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Flights to this metropolis of 12 million residents will depart from Helsinki in the morning and return in the afternoon of the same day. The flight time between Helsinki and Istanbul is 3 hours 20 minutes. The route will be operated all year round and the flights will feature business class. “The Istanbul route will serve Finnish business and leisure passengers in particular and will be served by many connections from Finnish cities as well as Tallinn. From Istanbul, on the other hand, there will be very good connections to domestic locations, the Nordic countries and Finnair’s entire Asian network,” explains Petteri Kostermaa, Finnair’s Vice President Route Strategy and Traffic Planning. Istanbul is Finnair’s second destination on the border between Europe and Asia. The first is Ekaterinburg in Russia, which just opened at the beginning of September.

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TEMPE, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 12, 2008–US Airways (NYSE:LCC) today announced changes to its executive team, including the promotion of David Seymour to senior vice president, technical operations and the expanded roles of Senior Vice President, Marketing and Planning Andrew Nocella and Vice President, Human Resources Daniel Pon. The company previously communicated to its employees the departures of Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Joe Beery and Vice President, Sales and Marketing Travis Christ; and the retirement at the end of this year of Vice President, Culture (which included responsibility for recruitment and leadership development) Larry LeSueur.

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The future of air travel will take off from Auckland Airport this week with the world’s first test flight to measure the impact of optimum flight conduct on reducing carbon emissions. Airways New Zealand, along with key aviation partners in the US, Tahiti and NZ, will provide optimised air traffic control services to an Air New Zealand commercial Boeing 777 flight NZ8, re-named ASPIRE I, between Auckland and San Fransisco. “ASPIRE 1 will demonstrate the potential for the commercial aviation industry to reduce carbon emissions by millions of tonnes annually. We’ve been working closely with Air New Zealand and our international allies to enable the flight to operate under optimum air traffic management flight planning conditions, which means using concepts and technologies to maximise efficiency throughout all phases of the flight” said manager of Oceanic Services for Airways NZ, Mark Goodall.

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SEATTLE — In the face of high fuel prices and a slowing economy, Horizon Air today announced its decision to terminate service to Prince George, B.C., from Seattle effective Oct. 5, 2008. “Continued high fuel prices paired with slowing economies in the U.S. and Canada are making it impossible for us to operate this route profitably,” said Dan Russo, vice president of marketing and communications. “I would like to thank Initiatives Prince George, the Prince George Airport Authority, Tourism BC, Mayor Kinsley, the Prince George City Council and the Prince George business community for their efforts to help make this route a success.”

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Airlines launched a Permanent Fund Dividend sale today, with sale fares up to 25 percent off for in-state travel to or from Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, as well as savings on select routes between Alaska and the Lower 48 states, Canada, Hawaii and Mexico. The airline also is offering PFD savings of up to $550 off Alaska Airlines Vacations packages to Disneyland, Mexico and Hawaii, among other destinations. “We’re pleased to offer Alaskans this special opportunity to get great deals on fares and Vacations on Alaska Airlines,” said Bill MacKay, the airline’s senior vice president-Alaska. “With these specials, it pays to plan ahead and purchase travel now, for use throughout the year.” MacKay noted that the specials will be available for purchase through Oct. 13, 2008, allowing residents receiving their PFD check by mail plenty of time to participate.

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SEATTLE — Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK), the parent company of Alaska Airlines, Inc. and Horizon Air Industries, Inc., today announced it will webcast a presentation given by Brad Tilden, Alaska’s executive vice president of finance and planning and chief financial officer, at the Calyon Securities U.S. Airline Conference on Thursday, Sept. 18, in New York. The webcast will be presented live at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. To participate in the listen-only webcast, listeners should access the “Investor Information” section of alaskaair.com several minutes prior to the scheduled start time to allow sufficient time to register.

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MONTREAL, Sept. 10 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada and Spafax Canada, publishers of the airline’s award-winning in-flight magazine, enRoute, today announced the launch of a unique entertainment and shopping portal, www.enroute.aircanada.com. The new website, the first of its kind in the aviation industry, will allow Air Canada customers, enRoute readers, and travelers from around the world to experience all aspects of enRoute media, including award winning editorial, a complete summary of all in-flight entertainment choices available on the airline’s fleet-wide seatback entertainment system and a unique retail environment available 24/7. Anyone can now check out the wide selection of movies, TV and audio available at every Air Canada customer’s personal seatback entertainment system, shop for that last minute travel item, and preview enRoute magazine.

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FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines today announced it has hired Burrell Communications as its agency of record for its advertising for the African-American market. In addition to its work with the African-American consumer market, the Chicago-based agency also will work closely with the airline’s longstanding general market agency of record, tm Advertising, on general market campaigns. Burrell will begin working with American on Nov. 1. “We are very happy to bring Burrell onboard,” said Roger Frizzell, Vice President-Advertising and Corporate Communications. “Their services complete our marketing team for African-American travel. The team also includes public relations support from Lagrant Communications of Los Angeles.”

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FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines has been named “North America’s Leading Airline” at the 2008 World Travel Awards, a travel industry award program that has been described by the Wall Street Journal as the “Oscars of the Travel Industry.” American received the designation this past weekend during a gala for North and Central America winners held at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. Nearly 170,000 travel professionals around the world were solicited for their input, with their votes determining the winner. In 2007, travel professionals at the World Travel Awards selected American Airlines as offering the world’s leading Economy Class product. American is a founding member of the global oneworld ® Alliance, itself named the world’s leading airline alliance for the fifth consecutive year at last year’s World Travel Awards.

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SEATTLE — Continuing a long tradition of leadership in safety innovation, Alaska Airlines will be the first major U.S. passenger carrier to equip its entire aircraft fleet with a system designed to help prevent accidents on runways and taxiways. The Runway Awareness and Advisory System (RAAS), developed by Honeywell (NYSE: HON) in 2003, provides pilots with audible alerts when they approach and enter taxiways and runways. The system confirms runway identifications to help ensure pilots are on the correct runway with enough distance to complete takeoff, and provides an audible warning if a pilot inadvertently accelerates for takeoff while on a taxiway. Regulatory agencies, airlines and others in the aviation community regard incidents in these operational areas — known as runway incursions — as one of the industry’s biggest safety issues.

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MONTREAL, Sept. 9 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada intends to begin offering live internet service to customers inflight starting next spring under an agreement announced today with Aircell. “Air Canada prides itself on connecting Canada and the world and an important element of staying connected today is having use of the internet. That is why Air Canada is taking a major step forward to becoming the first Canadian airline to provide its customers inflight, online access through Gogo. In cooperation with Aircell, and pending Canadian regulatory approvals, we plan to eventually offer internet access system-wide so customers can email, work and surf the net while flying, and more fully enjoy what is already a superior travel experience,” said Charles McKee, Vice President, Marketing, at Air Canada.

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Finnair traffic, measured in passenger kilometres, increased by 9.3% in August, while the capacity was up by 5.0%, resulting in a passenger load factor of 80.3% or 3.2 points higher than last year. Finnair transported altogether 723 312 passengers, which is 1.8% more than a year ago. Finnair scheduled traffic increased by 7.0% compared to August last year. Number of passengers carried on scheduled flights was 610 054, which is 0.9% less than in 2007. Passenger load factor in scheduled passenger traffic was 79.0%, 1.8 percentage points higher than last year. Finnair’s Asian traffic grew 13.4% compared to August of the previous year. Number of passengers carried on Finnair’s Asian flights in August was 132 778, which is 13.8% more than a year ago. RPKs in European traffic decreased by 0.4% and passenger load factor increased by 0.6 percentage points to 71.1%. Leisure flights’ passenger load factor increased by 11.0 percentage points to 87.5% compared to the previous year. Arrival punctuality of Finnair flights was 85.2%, which is 2.7 percentage points higher than in August 2008. Arrival punctuality of scheduled flights went up 3.4 points and was 87.1%.

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SEATTLE – Horizon Air today announced new nonstop jet service between Sacramento and Santa Barbara starting Nov. 9, 2008, linking the state capital with the popular South Coast city. “Instead of spending hours on the road or flying to an out-of-the-way airport, business travelers and and those traveling on government-related business can fly nonstop between Sacramento and Santa Barbara, put in a day’s work, and be home the same day,” said Dan Russo, vice president of marketing and communications at Horizon.” Sacramento and Santa Barbara lost their nonstop air connection on Sept. 1 when another airline pulled out of the route. “This is a challenging time to develop new air service and we feel fortunate to have expanded Horizon flights at Santa Barbara,” said Karen Ramsdell, Santa Barbara Airport director.

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From 24th – 25th September 2008, Lufthansa Consulting will host its second specialist conference for the aviation industry. After the successful first event for airports from Central and Eastern Europe in 2007 the focus this time will be on regional airports from Russia and the CIS countries. Selected executives from airports, investors and banks will discuss the development of regional airports in this area and exchange views on specific challenges and requirements. In St. Petersburg the speech and workshop program will be held in Russian and English. The conference will focus, in particular, on the challenges and requirements facing regional airports in their business development.

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PRESCOTT, ARIZ. — In today’s world, people arrange their air travel from the comfort of their own homes via the Web or the telephone at whatever time is most convenient to them. Airport ticket sales have gone the way of the paper ticket. Reflecting this trend, passengers will be greeted by customer service staff at check-in-only counters for Horizon Air’s new service to Los Angeles, which starts Monday. “For smaller cities in particular, this is the airport of the future,” said Dan Russo, Horizon’s vice president of marketing and communications. “It reflects current realities as to how customers prefer to obtain their tickets, and it greatly increases efficiency. With ticket sales out of the way, our airport team can fully focus on speeding customers through the check-in and boarding process.” Horizon’s check-in counter in Prescott will open 90 minutes before a flight until 30 minutes before the flight departs. To ensure an on-time departure, all baggage must be checked no later than 30 minutes before the flight is scheduled to depart.

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bmi, London Heathrow’s second largest airline, today confirmed it is to double the number of services between Heathrow and Moscow Domodedovo from 26 October 2008. The additional service builds on the success of current daily flights to the Russian capital which launched in October 2006 and marked bmi’s first venture into the mid haul market. The new service sees a widening of the commercial agreement between bmi and Russian Federation carrier Transaero, which will also increase its daily services between Moscow and London, offering travellers a total of four flights a day in each direction - more frequency on the route than any other airline partnership. The deal allows bmi to offer onward connections in the Russian Federation on the services of Transaero from Moscow Domodedovo, whilst Transaero is able to offer connecting flights at Heathrow onto the extensive short, mid and long haul networks of bmi.

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Panama, August 28, 2008 — The Panamanian Environmental Protection Agency (ANAM) and Copa Airlines have signed a partnership agreement through which Copa agrees to voluntarily comply with environmental regulations and reduce the impact of its operations on the environment. The agreement focuses on development of a Copa Environmental Management and Mitigation Program, which encompasses a companywide culture of environmental awareness focused on sustainability. Components of the program include development of a recycling plan throughout the airline’s daily operations, as well as the voluntary reduction and offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, studies will be conducted to promote cleaner production and sustainable resource use. Minister of Environmental Conservation and Related Affairs and general administrator for ANAM, Ligia Castro de Doens congratulated Copa Airlines on the initiative, calling the public-private organization alliance a model for the aviation industry.

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