Airline calls on stewards to lose excess baggage

Associated Press in New Delhi
Friday May 19, 2006
The Guardian

Indian airlines has warned its air stewards to lose weight or be grounded, a company official said yesterday.

The airline has decided to ground cabin crew members if they are found to be one kilogram over an ideal weight set by the airline, the Times of India newspaper quoted Vishwapati Trivedi, the airline’s chairman and managing director, as saying. “We are part of the service industry and we have to be more presentable. So we are trying to get the cabin crew members to be fit,” Mr Trivedi said.

The overweight person would be taken off flight duties and given 45 days to slim down.

Original Article

Judge keeps airline flying by siding with unions

FROM LOCAL AND AP REPORTS

A bankruptcy judge refused on Thursday to allow Mesaba Airlines to reject its contracts with union workers.

Pilots, flight attendants and mechanics at the feeder carrier for Northwest Airlines Corp. had threatened to strike if Mesaba was allowed to impose its terms on them.

Now, with a strike less likely than it seemed a day ago, officials at the Muskegon County Airport are expressing relief. Approximately 70 percent of the airport’s commercial airline passengers use Mesaba, a regional carrier for Northwest Airlines.

Mesaba runs three round-trip flights a day between Musk-egon and Detroit. A strike could have begun as early as this evening, and Saturday’s flights out of Muskegon might have been jeopardized, according to Marty Piette, manager of the Muskegon County Airport.

“This is good news, of course,” Piette said. “The two sides have to continue negotiating, and we’re looking forward to them coming to some sort of agreement so they can continue to service our passengers.”

In a written order, Bankruptcy Judge Gregory Kishel encouraged the airline and its unions to work out their differences in a mutually beneficial way.

“Clearly, the parties can — and should — continue efforts toward a consensual resolution,” Kishel wrote in his order.

Mesaba spokeswoman Elizabeth Costello said she didn’t have an immediate comment on the ruling.

Mesaba pilots had promised to strike if the airline imposed pay cuts on them. Flight attendants and mechanics also had threatened job actions.

Mesaba gets its planes and passengers from Northwest; both carriers filed for bankruptcy protection within a month of each other last fall. Mesaba, a unit of MAIR Holdings Inc., has said it will only be able to keep flying for Northwest if it gets cost cuts from its workers.

Mesaba is the only air service in many of the 98 mostly Midwestern cities it serves.
Original Article

BA’s Walsh confident airline can avoid labour disruption over pensions

LONDON (AFX) – Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways PLC, said he is confident the airline’s unions will not take industrial action this summer over management plans to tackle a 2.1 bln stg pension deficit.

Last month, BA announced plans to force employees to work until 65 in return for a cash injection of 500 mln stg into its New Airways Pension Scheme.

The proposals drew an angry response from unions who raised the possibility of strike action over the crucial holiday period.

However, speaking to reporters, after BA published full year results, Walsh is adamant a strike is not on the cards.

‘There isn’t going to be one,’ he insisted.

‘I’m confident that we can tackle all of the issues that are before us. I’ve committed to doing this in a structured way in direct discussion and dialogue with the trade unions,’ he said.

‘Our customers can continue to book in confidence with BA and that’s exactly what they are doing.’

Earlier, the airline reported a better-than-expected 21 pct increase in full year pretax profit.

By 9.09 am, shares in BA were up 21-1/4 pence, or nearly 7 pct, at 341-1/4 pence, valuing the business at 3.86 bln stg

Original Article

Airline flight crew told to shape up

NEW DELHI, May 18 (UPI) — India's state-owned domestic airline no longer will carry, as it were, its flight attendants, both men and women who are overweight even by a wisp.

In order to refurbish its image, the Indian Airlines has dispensed with it's the 6.6-pound overweight allowance. Hereon it will be ground duty for those who exceed their ideal weight by even 2.2 pounds — 1 kilogram. Those in violation will have 45 days to work off their extra baggage.

"We are part of the service industry, and have to be more presentable. So we are trying to get the cabin crew members to be fit," the head of the airline told the Times of India. "If any cabin crew member — male or female — is found to be exceeding the ideal weight according to his or her height, the person will be grounded and not allowed to perform in-flight duties."

The attendants apparently have accepted the new requirements.

Original Aricle 

American Airlines Named ”Airline of Choice for Travelers with a Disability” at the OAG Awards 2006

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. –(Business Wire)– May 18, 2006 — Later tonight at the OAG Airline of the Year Awards 2006, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, American Airlines will be presented with the award for "Airline of Choice for Travelers with a Disability" by Alan Whicker, CBE.
This is a new award for 2006. Eddie Bell, Chairman of OAG commented:

"We have introduced this award in response to our customers. They have been asking for airlines to be recognized for putting themselves out to make travel as easy as possible for disabled people.

"Too often when traveling, those with a disability can find things more difficult than able-bodied passengers, which should not be the case. From the comments that came in via the survey it is clear how much people value the extra care and consideration that is shown by certain airlines. American Airlines is highly regarded for making disabled travellers feel comfortable and respected."

The OAG Airline of the Year Awards are based on votes polled from OAG's worldwide customer base of business travelers, and their votes are based on personal experience.

Further Information:

The full results of the Awards will be on the Airline of the Year section of the OAG web site after midnight on Thursday 18th May at www.oag.com.

All press enquiries/interview requests should be directed to: Margareta Stanley at on 0207 930 3636, email dba@nchl.demon.co.uk

US contact: Kathy Marr, 630-515-3240

About OAG

OAG is a global travel and transport information company.

We have three core activities:

– managing and distributing information within the passenger and cargo aviation sectors

– providing travel information to business travellers

– providing advertising and promotion opportunities for the aviation and travel communities.

Our business is underpinned by our data management expertise. We hold a breadth of travel related content and are best known for our airline schedules database. This holds future and historical flight details for 1,000 airlines and more than 3,500 airports. Every ten seconds a flight is updated on the OAG system. Over the coming year we are tracking around 27 million departures.

Using these vast databases, we provide a broad range of multi-lingual products for business and consumer customers, available in virtually any way the customer wants it: Internet, PDA, mobile, digital and print.

We are a private company with 400 employees based in 9 offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

More information about our company, our products and our services is available on our web sites www.oag.com, www.oagdata.com, www.oagcargo.com and www.inforwarding.com

Original Article 

American CEO: Airline needs $1B in cuts

American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey says the airline needs cut costs by more than $1 billion this year just to keep costs even with 2005.

Arpey says the Fort Worth-based airline has launched initiatives expected to save the company $700 million in 2006 compared with the previous year.
American (NYSE: AMR) said Tuesday that it planned to cut fuel consumption by 30 million gallons in 2006.

Arpey said Wednesday at a shareholders meeting, which was made available via teleconference, that other carriers that have reduced their costs through bankruptcy restructuring have an advantage over American, which finds itself with relatively high costs compared to its peers.

"As we battle the low-cost carriers with one hand and the airlines restructuring through bankruptcy with the other, the competitive imperative to reduce costs in clear to every member of our team…," Arpey said.

Original Article 

Ticket fees pile up for airline travelers

BY JEWEL GOPWANI

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

INTERNATIONAL FEES

• For international travel, fees stack up higher than for domestic trips. The number of fees and their prices depend on the country you're visiting. Here are the fees for a sample Northwest round-trip fare from Detroit to London's Gatwick Airport.
  Total fare	$1,050.68
  Base fare	$818
  Tax to depart and arrive at U.S.	$29
  Animal and plant health inspection	$5
  U.S. Customs	$5
  U.S. Immigration	$7
  Metro Airport	$4.50
  9/11 security	$2.50
  British air duty	$36.53
  British passenger service fee	$13.15
  Total government fees	$102.68, or 10% of fare
  Fuel charge from airline	$130

Anita Patterson felt pretty good about the $202 airfare she paid for a trip to Orlando this month.

But then the 66-year-old Detroiter noticed the fees tacked on to the ticket price.

There's a $5 security fee, a $7.50 airport fee, $15.21 in taxes and another $6.60 fee, adding more than $34 to her ticket on Spirit Airlines.

"It's crazy," said Patterson, eyeing taxes and fees that raised her airfare to $237.10.

"I remember when taxes on airline tickets used to be more around $5 or $10," she said.

As passengers get ready to board planes in record numbers this summer, they're paying a long list of taxes and fees.

Domestically, these fees go to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Security Administration and local airports to watch the skies, screen passengers and build airport projects like new terminals.

Fees stack up higher for international travel, which is subject to customs fees, immigration fees and additional charges depending on your destination.

A few of the U.S. fees are up for review in coming months as the government works on the 2007 federal budget, and changes could end up costing travelers more than they pay now.

Here are the fees you can expect if you're flying in the United States:

• 7.5% federal tax: When you're booking Northwest or Spirit online, this tax usually is included in the price it shows. For instance, a sample Northwest fare of $300 from Detroit to New York has a 7.5% tax, or $20.93, built into it. This tax is applied to domestic fares and is one of two domestic fees that fund the FAA's budget.

• $3.30 federal segment fee: This is the other fee domestic passengers pay to the FAA for its operations. Passengers are charged $3.30 for each leg of a trip. For a round trip with no stops, passengers are charged $6.60.

These taxes and additional fees charged to international travelers and to the airlines are expected to add up to $10.6 billion and cover most of the FAA's $14-billion budget.

But these fees could change. The fees that fund the FAA are slated to expire in 2007. The FAA this year plans to propose a funding plan that isn't a tax connected to the price of a plane ticket, which has dropped since 2001.

• $2.50 security fee: Implemented after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, this fee is charged to passengers every time they board a plane. The fee is capped at $5 each way, so you can't be charged more than $10 for a round trip. This year, the TSA expects to raise $1.9 billion through the fees, with $250 million going to a fund that pays for airport security projects such as installing explosive-detection systems to screen luggage. The rest of the money goes toward the TSA's $4.3-billion budget.

The Bush administration has proposed changing the fee to a flat $5 charge each way to raise $3.3 billion in 2007. Travelers who fly nonstop, like many who fly out of Detroit Metro Airport, would see their current security fee double. But the proposal earlier this year received criticism from members of Congress, who rejected an increase to the security fee last year.

• $4.50 airport fee: Passengers pay $4.50 for every time they get on a plane at Detroit Metro Airport.

You might have to pay the fee when you leave your destination, too. The government caps this fee at $18 or two charges per round trip.

For the 12 months ending in September last year, the Wayne County Airport Authority raised $54.6 million through these fees. These fees pay for construction projects at the airport, including the $1.2-billion McNamara Terminal, and they'll pay for construction of the new North Terminal.

• Fuel: For domestic flights, fuel is usually built into the price of the ticket. That's why, in the last couple of months, airlines have announced fare increases such as a $5 fare increase that Spirit Airlines and Northwest Airlines implemented in April to offset rising fuel costs. But when you fly internationally, expect to see fuel surcharges each way. How much you pay typically depends on how far you travel.

Original Article