Airline News

United Airlines launched daily nonstop service between Denver and Reagan Washington National Airport. Jul 12, 2004

United Airlines agreed to an $850,000 civil penalty to resolve its violations of state and federal hazardous waste laws at its San Francisco International Airport facility, the Dept. of Justice, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the State of California announced. The penalty relates to "widespread violations of hazardous waste regulations" throughout the UA aircraft maintenance center during inspections conducted by EPA in 1999 and 2001. The violations included failure to close hazardous waste containers, improper labeling of hazardous waste containers and storage of hazardous waste for longer than the allowable time. Jul 14, 2004

United Airlines engaged Discover the World Marketing to "help supplement its sales efforts to travel agencies in the US." Jul 15, 2004

United Airlines and Northwest Airlines were authorized to operate new daily flights between the US and China that were made available under the US-China aviation agreement signed last month. "Today's action marks the first step in an unprecedented expansion in US-China aviation services," US Dept. of Transportation head Norman Mineta said. "Building stronger connections between the fast-growing US and Chinese economies means more opportunity, more travel and more jobs for countless Americans." Both carriers were awarded seven weekly flights for new China services. Northwest will operate a new daily flight from Detroit to Guangzhou with a stopover in Tokyo, while United will begin daily nonstop service between Chicago and Shanghai. Currently, four US airlines serve China with a total of 54 weekly flights. The US will be allowed to name a new all-cargo airline to begin service in the US-China market this year, a service that was made available under the new agreement between the countries. Jul 26, 2004

JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker has widened his full-year loss forecast for the US airline industry to $3 billion from $1.7 billion previously and now predicts carriers will earn a "rather paltry" $500 million in 2005, although he notes that likely capacity reductions at United Airlines and US Airways "may afford considerable upside" to next year's earnings outlook. In a report released June 30 2004, Baker attributed the diminished forecast to "higher fuel costs and softer revenue trends." That latter is actually the bigger problem--"airline earnings are far more sensitive to revenue inputs then oil inputs," he noted, while adding that the industry no longer should expect a cyclical domestic demand recovery that will push revenues higher. "If it hasn't happened by now, it won't likely any time soon," he wrote. Jul 1, 2004

US airline ontime performance plummeted in May compared to the year-ago period, potentially confirming industry and government fears of a coming summer of delays and discontent as traffic and schedules return to pre 9/11 levels. In aggregate, the 19 carriers reporting to the US Dept. of Transportation recorded an ontime arrival rate of 77.6% in May, well below both the 84.9% posted in May 2003 and the 83% mark of April 2004. Hawaiian Airlines posted the highest ontime arrival rate at 95.2% , according to the report released by DOT. Among airlines operating in the continental US, SkyWest's performance was the highest at 86.8% and JetBlue Airways was next at 83.4%. Atlantic Coast Airlines reported the worst ontime arrival rate at 69.4%, with American Eagle at 69.5% and ExpressJet at 74% rounding out the bottom three. The most frequently delayed flight was ExpressJet 2933 from Augusta, Ga., to Newark, which was late 92.31% of the time. The 19 carriers canceled 1.7% of their scheduled domestic flights during the month, higher than the 0.8% recorded in both May 2003 and April 2004. JetBlue Airways was best among the carriers with just two of its 7,335 scheduled flights canceled, while American Eagle Airlines at 5.5% canceled the most flights. Jul 8, 2004