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Hawaiian Airlines airs Hawaii Five-0

Hawaiian Airlines has started showing the opening episode of the new Hawaii Five-0 TV series as part of its Hawaiian Skies inflight video programme on transpacific flights in advance of its national TV debut on CBS on September 20.

The preview screenings of the modern-day remake of the classic Honolulu crime drama series are the result of a marketing agreement with the series' producers. As part of the agreement a Hawaiian Airlines aircraft is seen in the opening credits of every episode. Hawaiian’s nearly 4,000 employees are also among the first to receive a new Hawaii Five-0 ring tone to download on their cell phones.
 
The preview is showing on Hawaiian’s transpacific flights between Hawaii and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix and Las Vegas in the western US plus Manila, Sydney, American Samoa and Tahiti.

Horizon Air reports August traffic data

Horizon Air has reported a 2.2% increase in traffic on a 1.1% decline in capacity compared to August 2009, resulting in a 2.7 percentage point increase in load factor to a record 81.9%.

Revenue passenger miles (RPMs) rose to 234 million from 229 million, while available seat miles (ASMs) dropped to 286 million from 289 million. Revenue passengers carried totalled 640,000, up 2.9% from August 2009’s figure of  622,000.

Horizon also reported that 80.5% of its flights arrived on time in August 2010, an 8.1 percentage point decrease compared to the 88.6% reported in August 2009.
 

August 2010 traffic announced for US Airways’ regional subsidiaries

US Airways has reported traffic figures for the two wholly-owned regional subsidiaries – Piedmont Airlines and PSA Airlines – which operate under the US Airways Express brand.

Revenue passenger miles (RPMs) were up 5.3% at 202,988,000 from August 2009’s figure of 192,725,000. Available seat miles (ASMs) totalled 278,988,000, a 1.0% increase on last August’s 276,252,000.

These figures resulted in a load factor increase of 3.0 percentage points to 72.8% from 69.8% in the same month last year. The two airlines carried 721,003 passengers during August, 0.8% up year-on-year from 715,417.
 

Aircell welcomes new CFO

Norman Smagley, the new chief financial officer at Aircell, brings with him 16 years of broad-based CFO experience across many industries, most recently as SVP and chief financial officer with Rand McNally.

Aircell says Smagley has operated as CFO within both public and private-equity owned companies, including technology, financial services, pharmaceutical, retail, industrial and publishing companies ranging in size from Fortune 25 to pre-IPO, and has successfully managed bank, Wall Street, rating agency, auditor and board relationships.

"We are privileged to welcome Norman to our team," says Aircell president and CEO Michael Small. "Norm will consistently challenge and bring forth new ideas and recommendations as we enter the exciting next phase in our growth as a company."

Frontier switches to St Petersburg/Clearwater from Milwaukee

Frontier Airlines will move its seasonal service between Milwaukee and Tampa (TPA) to the St Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport (PIE) beginning on 18 November 2010.

Passengers already booked on flights between Milwaukee and Tampa will be moved to St Petersburg/Clearwater and will be contacted with their new itineraries. St Petersburg/Clearwater airport is located about 12 miles from the Tampa airport.

“The move to the St. Petersburg/Clearwater airport supports Frontier’s effort to provide our guests with convenient and affordable air travel,” explained Daniel Shurz, vice-president of strategy and planning. “With easy access to the gorgeous beaches, our guests can start their vacation as soon as they arrive. In addition, guests flying out of St Petersburg/Clearwater airport will now enjoy nonstop access to two Frontier destinations with connections to our more than 70 destinations across the United States, Mexico and Costa Rica.”
 

AirTran reports August traffic stats

AirTran Airways has reported its traffic data for the month of August 2010.

Revenue passenger miles (RPMs) generated totalled 1,878,317,000, an increase of 1.7% over August 2009’s 1,846,137,000. Available seat miles (ASMs) were increased by 2.1% year-on-year to 2,221,894,000 from 2,175,407,000.

These figures led to a drop of 0.4 percentage points in the load factor, to 84.5% from 84.9% in August 2009. The airline carried 2,278,242 passengers during the month, 1.1% fewer than the 2,304,135 carried last August.
 

Willis Lease Finance signs MoU for 6 SSJ100s

SuperJet International and US leasing company Willis Lease Finance Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the lessor to purchase six Sukhoi Superjet 100s with options for a further four of the type.

The first delivery of these LR aircraft in the 98-seat configuration is scheduled for September 2012.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 programme is the largest industrial partnership between Europe and the Russian Federation in the civil aviation sector. The aircraft is currently in the final stages of certification with entry into service expected before the end of the year.
 

Wizz Air announces Belgrade base with 5 extra routes

Wizz Air is to establish its 13th operating base in Belgrade, Serbia, starting in April 2011, initially deploying one brand new Airbus A320 there and adding five new routes.

The new services will operate from Belgrade to Rome Fiumicino, Malmo, Stockholm-Skvasta, Eindhoven, and Munich-Memmingen, adding to the current routes to London and Dortmund.

The services to Rome (3 a week) and Malmo (twice weekly) start on 15 December, the twice-weekly service to Eindhoven on 1 April and those to Stockholm and Memmingen (both twice weekly) on 3 April.

“We are extremely delighted to reach our next expansion milestone,” commented Jozsef Varadi, chief executive officer of Wizz Air. “The opening of the Belgrade base will allow many Serbian people and visitors to enjoy our truly low fares coupled with excellent travel experience of an ever growing Wizz route network. Beyond further enhancing the travel opportunities on the Serbian market we will create hundreds of local jobs and significant revenue uplift for Serbia's tourism industry.”

Wizz Air carried 9.2 million passengers in the last 12 months. The airline's fleet currently consists of 34 Airbus A320s operating from 12 bases in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.
 

Frontier expands from Omaha

Frontier Airlines has announced the addition of nonstop service from Omaha (OMA) to both San Diego (SAN) and Los Angeles (LAX) plus the return of seasonal nonstop service from to both Orlando (MCO) and St Petersburg/Clearwater (PIE).

“With the addition of this service, our guests in Omaha and beyond can now enjoy Frontier’s great service and affordable fares to even more top travel destinations,” explained Daniel Shurz, vice-president of planning and strategy. “With seven nonstop destinations and convenient connections through Denver and Milwaukee, the Omaha community now has more choices and greater flexibility in their travel.”

Frontier will operate its Embraer 190 aircraft on each of these new routes. The aircraft will also feature in-flight Wi-Fi by the end of 2010.

The OMA–LAX service begins on 14 February, operating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The service between Omaha and San Diego starts on 16 January flying on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays until 14 February from when flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

With the seasonal services, the Omaha–Orlando route begins on 15 January, flying on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. A Tuesday service will be added from 14 February and the service will close for the season on 16 April.

Flights between Omaha and St. Petersburg/Clearwater start on 16 January, operating on Wednesdays and Sundays until 17 April.
 

IMS adds purpose-built PMP to COTS line

The IMS Company is switching strategies and will manufacture its own purpose-built portable media player (PMP) for IFE to be sold alongside its current commercial off the shelf (COTS) product, the PAV705.

COTS and IFE are no longer on a fully parallel path, says the California-based solutions provider and leading PMP supplier, and COTS applications in IFE are diminishing.

IMS says its new I7 player differs significantly from previous IMS PMPs in its batteries -- offering more than 24 hours of continuous encrypted video playback with the extended-life option, they are claimed to be the longest life battery in the market  -- and its use of up to 4TB of SD storage.

“Portables in IFE are becoming commoditised with very specific requirements," explains IMS CEO and founder Joseph Renton. "The industry wants a 7-inch screen, rugged case, the storage capacity of a fileserver and a battery that lasts all day for $500.” In the meantime, he observes, COTS devices are optimising with 5-inch screens, less rugged cases, and storage and battery capacity that is less compatible with IFE requirements. Special requirements like a 24-hour battery, he says, are harder to meet cost-effectively with COTS.

“When the requirements are that specific, and are on a different course than COTS, it makes sense to begin making our own,” says Renton. “COTS is becoming a market of iPhones and iPads which, very frankly, meet only limited requirements in IFE. We looked into the next generation of COTS devices and knew it was time to offer something complementary to our COTS offering. Within a few years, as IFE goes a different way than COTS, the applications for COTS in IFE will be significantly diminished.”

The use of SD (Smart Digital) cards for content storage is ideal for IFE and virtually eliminates content loading time and expensive terrestrial loading equipment, advises Harry Gray, IMS vice president of sales and marketing: "The I7 storage is expandable to 4TB, and along with a cost-effective long-life battery helped make the decision clear."

The new player comes with a 7-inch touch screen with WVGA 800x480 resolution, a 16:9 aspect ratio and a weight factor of as little as less than a pound. IMS offers the player with three battery options: where power is provided at the seat, the PMP with no battery weighs just 0.81 pounds; the standard life battery runs for more than eight hours and the PMP with this battery weighs 1.23 pounds. With a 24+ hour extended life battery the PMP weighs 1.79 pounds.

The SD card storage solution enables content to be loaded to the SD cards on the ground and then inserted into the PMP, IMS says. Two 64GB SD cards store 175 hours of encoded/encrypted content that can be loaded to the PMP in less than a minute by swapping SD cards. Fully WAEA 0403 compliant, the I7 supports H.264, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 codecs, and both MP3 and AAC audio encoding.

There are various ground support options for content loading, SD card duplication, and battery charging. A multipurpose rack called an iGPOD can simultaneously charge up to 56 extended-life batteries in less than 4 hours.

IMS says it has reached agreement with all major Hollywood studios on the security requirements that qualify the device for Early Window content, and is using the same security in the I7 as approved for its embedded RAVE system.

New head of state customer for Satcom1

Satcom1 has signed an agreement to supply Inmarsat Aero H+ and SwiftBroadband services for a head of state Airbus aircraft. The company claims to be the leading service provider for head of state and VVIP owners of Airbus and Boeing Business Jet aircraft.

Founded in 2003 as an onboard service provider, Satcom1 provides satellite service using the Inmarsat, Iridium, ViaSat Ku-band and Thuraya satellite communications networks. It specialises in aeronautical satcom services for VIP, business jet and helicopter operators.

The company says it aims to provide a complete service, from system selection and design based on the customer's need, to complete support from satcom configuration of the satcom aero local area network, airtime activation and detailed billing. It also develops special software for VIP customers with special requirements.

Satcom1 currently services VIP, business jet and governmental aircraft and helicopter owners in more than 45 countries.

IMS brings new-gen data loader to WAEA

The IMS Company plans to show its latest embedded data loaders with significantly faster content load speeds, increased storage capacity and the ability to interface with multiple IFE systems at the WAEA exhibition in Long Beach.

Harry Gray, vice president sales and marketing, says the new generation TDLg4 has been delivered to a major hardware provider for use on a major international airline where it has been installed, certified, and is currently flying. More than 500 aircraft are flying with IMS data loading technology.

Combining multiple wireless and removable media capabilities in a compact, lightweight, low power solution, IMS’ new TDLg4 puts the emphasis on increasing content load speeds and storage capacity along with labour-saving automation, he says.

“With gigabit ethernet and an optional fibre channel, on-aircraft content loading is twice the speed of the earlier product, and the on-the-ground speed to prepare the load set for the fleet is three to five times better,” says Gray. “We have also replaced the removable hard disc drive with secure digital (SD) media, which provides higher reliability, lower cost of ownership, and reduced certification costs for upgrades to higher capacity media."

These capabilities "recognise that content load sets in IFE are increasing, and that more and more airlines are using time-sensitive content throughout the month, like daily news,” Gray observes. “The TDLg4 provides the means to process larger monthly content load sets with faster loading speeds, as well as daily and multiple-times daily news during short stays on the tarmac. At the same time we have increased the speed and size of data offloads.

“No other data loader in IFE combines the multiple ingest capability of wireless and removable media in a single LRU with ‘Insert-and-Go’ functionality. The upgrade from Hard Disk Drives to SD technology is truly paradigm-changing.”

TDLg4 also provides dual mini-pc express ports that support two wireless cards with 3G cellular (CDMA, revA, GSM, and HSPDA), WiMAX, and 802.11 a/b/g/n, according to Gray. Diversity antennas are supported for 802.11 connections.

The data loader's wireless capabilities help to automate the IFE content delivery supply chain and data offloading processes at a time when cost-conscious airlines are looking for alternatives to the SneakerNet, observes Gray: “Even the use of removable media is more efficient as it is essentially ‘insert-and-go’ technology rather than a technician typing instructions into a laptop. And it is no longer necessary to have technicians standing by at the end of a flight to manually offload data since the TDLg4 offloads this data automatically and sends it to your network for secure but easy access.”

In addition to wireless and high-speed content loading, TDLs support the capture and offloading of BIT/BITE data, content load status, system conformity, and IFE system logs for IFE health monitoring, says Gray, and assists in system/LRU diagnostics and troubleshooting.

IFE upgrade for Delta 744s

Delta Air Lines has revealed plans for the complete revitalisation of its Boeing 747-400 fleet as part of a plan to provide personal entertainment at every seat in its widebody aircraft.

Between summer 2011 and 2012, Delta says, each of its 16 747-400s, which fly primarily from the airline's Tokyo-Narita hub, will be equipped with new fully horizontal flat-bed seats in the BusinessElite cabin and new economy class seats featuring personal, on-demand entertainment, as well as increased personal space and added under-seat storage.

Delta says it is investing more than $1 billion in enhanced global products and services through 2013 to provide full flat-bed seats on more than 100 trans-oceanic aircraft, including all Boeing 777s, 767s and 747s, and in-seat entertainment for both BusinessElite and economy class passengers on all widebody flights.

"The multimillion dollar investment we are making to completely revitalise our trans-oceanic fleet speaks to our strong commitment to the Asian market," says Delta president Ed Bastian. "While we have solidly positioned ourselves as the leading US carrier across the Pacific in terms of flights and destinations, we are now taking steps to enhance the products and services offered across our Asian-Pacific network to position Delta as a leader in in-flight service."

The new BusinessElite seat by Weber Aircraft, 81.7 inches in length and 20.5 inches wide, will feature a 120-volt universal power outlet, USB port, personal LED reading lamp and Panasonic's 15.4-inch personal video monitors giving instant access to 250 new and classic movies, premium programming from HBO and Showtime, video games and more than 4,000 digital music tracks.

"The design of our flat-bed product meets customers' desire for comfortable sleep, direct aisle access and ample storage and work space when they travel on long-haul flights," says Bastian. "We have had great success from a customer service and business standpoint with flat-bed service since it first rolled out on our 777 fleet, and we expect similar results when customers experience our new trans-Pacific 747 and 767 BusinessElite product beginning next year."

Economy class passengers will benefit from the industry's first seat designed collaboratively by a seat manufacturer and an in-flight entertainment company, Weber Aircraft and Panasonic Avionics, to fully incorporate seat and entertainment functionality into one product. Using a 9-inch screen, the new seat's embedded touch-screen entertainment system will offer each passenger access to 250 movie titles, hundreds of television shows, 4,000 digital music tracks, personalised music playlists, more than a dozen interactive games and a USB port to charge iPods and other personal electronic devices.

The Panasonic Eco 9i Integrated Smart Monitors use 30 per cent less energy and are 60 per cent lighter than entertainment systems installed on other Delta aircraft.

Delta's 747s are dedicated largely to trans-Pacific and intra-Asia flights to and from the Tokyo-Narita hub, including routes connecting Tokyo to Detroit, Honolulu, Manila, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK and Shanghai. 

When reconfigured, the 747s will accommodate 386 passengers in 48 BusinessElite and 338 economy class seats.

Ourmières chosen as new CityJet CEO

CityJet has announced the appointment of Christine Ourmières to the board of directors of the airline as well as to the position of CEO, effective 1 October.

With more than 20 years’ experience working in the airline industry, Ourmières has held a variety of key management positions. She began her career at Air France in 1988 in the maintenance department, and then moved to the information systems department. In 1992 she transferred to Amadeus as VP sales and marketing for the French Market.

From 1998 to 2001 she held the position of VP Air France global sales and was promoted to VP international sales in 2002. In 2005, Ourmières became general manager of Air France and KLM, UK and Ireland. Most recently she held the position as the first general manager and VP for Air France and KLM in the US. She holds a Master of Aeronautics from the Ecole National Supérieure d’Ingénieurs and an MBA from Essec Business School.

“I’m truly excited to join the Board of Directors of CityJet and to take on the role of CEO shortly. I am energised about working with such a dynamic team,” declared Ourmières. “I am confident that together we will succeed in this challenging time in the aviation industry, and continue to strengthen our position in the UK and Irish market. I am looking forward to returning to the UK and Ireland in my new position.”
 

Air Berlin extends training deal with Lufthansa Flight Training

The Air Berlin Group has extended its partnership agreement with Lufthansa Flight Training (LFT) and will continue to have its pilots trained exclusively on LFT flight simulators until at least the end of 2015.

Training involves the use of simulators for Airbus A320s, A330s, Boeing 737NGs and Bombardier Q400s. Most of the required simulator training takes place at Air Berlin’s preferred base at Berlin Schönefeld. Air Berlin currently operates a fleet of 165 aircraft.

“The simulator training at LFT is a key component of our pilot training and ensures that cockpit crews are trained to the latest standards,” remarked Ralf Nagel, corporate director training at Air Berlin. “The extension of the contract until 2015 will also give us greater planning security and control over our costs.”