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Associated Press | The CEOs of United and Continental airlines
are telling Congress their merger will be good for consumers, airline
employees and the small communities that rely on them for service.
United’s Glenn Tilton told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that
the new airline will improve its profitability through efficiencies,
not higher fares. Continental’s Jeffery Smisek pledged that the nearly
150 small communities and metro areas served by the carriers won’t lose
service.
Associated Press | An experimental aircraft has set a record for hypersonic flight, flying more than 3 minutes at Mach 6 — six times the speed of sound.
The X-51A Waverider was released from a B-52 Stratofortress off the southern California coast Wednesday morning, the Air Force reported on its website. Its scramjet engine accelerated the vehicle to Mach 6, and it flew autonomously for 200 seconds before losing acceleration. At that point the test was terminated.
Get the full story: Boeing Air Force vehicle breaks flight record.
Reuters | United Airlines and Continental Airlines should
provide more information about their merger to a U.S. congressional
committee concerned about possible job and service cuts, key lawmakers
said.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and competition
subcommittee Chairman Henry Johnson said on Wednesday the companies’
written responses failed to answer key questions raised by the panel.
Associated Press | Airline officials are trying to figure out how a sleeping passenger was left aboard a flight for four hours after it landed in Philadelphia.
According to police and the Transportation Security Administration, the passenger didn’t wake up when her United Express flight from Dulles airport outside Washington landed shortly after midnight Tuesday. About four hours later, a cleaning crew found her, according to KYW-TV.
United Airlines says they’re working with a regional partner carrier to determine why the plane wasn’t cleared upon landing.
Reuters | A United Airlines jet was diverted to Montreal on Tuesday after 10 people on board were injured by severe turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean, airport and airline officials said.
The airline said a crew member and nine passengers needed immediate medical treatment. The jet had been en route to Los Angeles from London’s Heathrow airport.
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
| Shares of AAR Corp. fell more than 17 percent on heavy trading volume to
close at $18.26 a share on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday,
following the company’s announcement late Monday that its fiscal
fourth-quarter earnings would fall short of expectations.
Fourth-quarter sales should be $355 million to $365 million, with
diluted earnings of at most 30 cents per share, the Wood Dale-based
company said after the market closed Monday. Analysts surveyed by
Bloomberg had estimated per-share quarterly earnings of 41 cents.
The aircraft leasing and maintenance company attributed the lower
performance to a slower-than-expected recovery in demand for its
after-market products for the commercial aviation industry and one-time
costs associated with an acquisition.
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
| With a landing rights dispute settled, American Airlines launched
service between Chicago and Beijing Tuesday, as part of a schedule that
will offer a daily flight four times a week.
The Texas-based carrier had planned to initiate the service almost a
month ago, but the first flight was canceled only hours before departure
because of a dispute with the Chinese government over landing rights.
Dow Jones Newswires | President Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. has spoken of merging the airline with another to keep it big enough to compete with rival carriers, U.K. newspaper The Times reports Tuesday.
He said that the airline might not be able to remain independent as the pace of industry consolidation picks up, according to the newspaper.
Demonstrators prepare to take part in a protest for British Airways’ cabin crew during the first day of a five-day strike at Heathrow Airport, May 24, 2010. (Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)
Reuters | British Airways cabin crews began a five-day strike
Monday after weekend talks on a long-running dispute over wages, job
cuts and working conditions broke down in acrimony.
The airline
said it planned to operate more than 60 percent of long-haul flights and
more than 50 percent of short-haul flights from London’s main Heathrow
Airport, allowing 70 percent of passengers to reach their destinations.
United CEO Glenn Tilton, left, and Continental Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek in Chicago on May 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Associated Press via Forbes | United and Continental named the executives who will oversee integration of the two airlines, which will begin early next month. The comments came Wednesday in regulatory filings and in a message to employees.
They said the integration process will be led by a steering committee of six executives, including Glenn Tilton, the CEO of United parent UAL Corp., and Jeff Smisek, the CEO of Continental. The other executives are chief financial officer Kathryn Mikells and chief administrative officer Pete McDonald from UAL, and CFO Zane Rowe and chief marketing officer Jim Compton of Continental Airlines.
Get the full story: United, Continental name execs to oversee deal.
Dow Jones Newswires | United Airlines has lodged a protest with U.S. regulators after it was
frozen out of new services to Tokyo’s downtown Haneda airport.
The U.S. Department of Transportation last month made a tentative award
of the four daily routes to Delta Air Lines Inc., the American
Airlines unit of AMR Corp. and Hawaiian Holdings Inc., parent
of Hawaiian Airlines.
From Reuters | The CEO of US Airways, Doug Parker, said Tuesday that the airline does not need to merge to survive and that he supports the proposed deal between Continental Airlines and United Airlines.
Get the full story: reuters.com.
Associated Press | Boeing said it will fix a design flaw in the tail section of its new
787, and it still expects to start delivering the plane by the end of
this year.
Spokeswoman Yvonne Leach said on Tuesday that testing showed that the
outer skin of the plane and the bracket-like piece of metal that holds
it near the tail could separate slightly. She said Boeing will change
the way the device is made, and that should fix the problem.
Associated Press | A United Airlines flight from New York made
an emergency landing on Sunday, with one passenger saying he smelled
burning and saw someone carry a fire extinguisher to the cockpit.
Airlines spokesman Mike Trevino confirmed that a flight from New York’s
John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for Los Angeles was
diverted to Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
By Julie Johnsson | Will the United-Continental merger fly with antitrust regulators?
The two airlines intend to formally link operations to form the world’s largest carrier by the close of the year. First, they’ll have to convince state and federal regulators that their new behemoth won’t harm consumers by hiking prices or dominating competitors.
