Kingfisher to nest with oneworld
Oneworld announced on Tuesday that Kingfisher Airlines has decided to join the alliance starting in 2011.
The Bangalore-based carrier officially applied to India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation for permission to join the group, and an official target date will be announced once that regulatory procedure is complete. The alliance set 2011 as a preliminary goal. Kingfisher will become oneworld’s 13th member and is sponsored by British Airways. Russia’s S7 Airlines is set to join this year (ATWOnline, May 27, 2009).
NTSB asks to monitor pilots’ talk in cockpits
The National Transportation Safety Board has asked permission to “routinely monitor pilots’ conversations and make sure cockpit crews are focusing on their jobs.”
The move represents the first time that workplace monitoring could extend into the nation’s cockpits and has drawn intense fire from pilots’ unions who say that the plan is intrusive. The black box recorders have until now only been used in accident investigation.
The recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) comes amid a string of serious distractions during flight, including the fatal crash near Buffalo after two pilots chit-chatted in the cockpit and two Northwest Airlines pilots who flew 100 miles past their destination because they were using their personal laptops.
ATA: U.S. passenger revenue rises in January for first time in 14 months
The Air Transport Association reported that the U.S. airline passenger revenue rose 1.4 percent “year-over-year in January.”
The organization said that 0.4 percent fewer passengers traveled on US airlines for the month but the average price to fly 1 mi. rose 0.6 percent, the first such increase since November 2008. “Growth was strongest on transatlantic routes, where passenger revenue rose 3.4 percent,” ATA said.
Separately, ATA reported that transatlantic yield for the six largest US carriers, excluding Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways, rose 4.4% in January compared to January 2009 to 12.5 cents per RPM.
(Photo: Debarka Banik/Flickr Creative Commons)
