Low Cost Airline News - North America.

For more airline news, data and analysis, please go to: http://www.airguideonline.com/professional.htm Sep 11, 2006

Some airlines return to fuel hedging. Some airlines are reviving their fuel hedging programs because they expect the price of oil to continue to climb. "We sleep better at night if we know what that cost is going to be," says Southwest Airlines Chief Financial Officer Laura Wright. Sep 5, 2006

Canjet Airlines

Canjet Airlines, a four-year-old company that tried to take business from Canada's two big carriers, has grounded its scheduled service, blaming high fuel costs, rising landing fees and stiff competition. The move by CanJet, a unit of privately held IMP Group, leaves a gap in domestic flight services, especially in Atlantic Canada, and represents the latest in a series of failed attempts at establishing major discount carriers. In the past decade, names such as Greyhound Airlines, Canada 3000 and Jetsgo have come and gone. Halifax, Nova Scotia-based CanJet, which has been flying to 14 Canadian and US cities with a fleet of 10 Boeing 737-500 jets, said it will offer new travel arrangements or refunds for anyone booked on its flights after September 10. Sep 10, 2006

CanJet Airlines

CanJet Airlines, a Halifax-based LCC that launched operations in 2000, announced yesterday that it will discontinue scheduled services on Sept. 10 due to "rising business risks" and turn its focus to increasing its charter business. The subsidiary of IMP Group currently operates nine 737-500s and one dash 300 to 13 destinations in Canada, New York and Florida and runs charter services to the Caribbean. Sep 6, 2006

JetBlue Airways 

JetBlue Airways achieved an estimated 15% increase in passenger RASM in August, a figure that was "not as strong as anticipated," according to CEO David Neeleman. He said the security alert, Tropical Storm Ernesto and "lower-than-expected demand toward the end of the month" contributed to the result. JetBlue flew 2.22 billion RPMs in August, an 11.6% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity surged 20.1% to 2.65 billion ASMs and load factor fell 6.4 points to 83.7%. Sep 8, 2006

Ryanair, Southwest Airlines

Low-cost airlines doubled capacity in past four years. Ryanair, Southwest Airlines and other discount carriers have doubled their capacity since 2002, offering 46 million seats on more than 323,000 flights this month, according to travel and transportation data provider OAG Worldwide. The number of low-cost airline flights worldwide increased by 14% in the year to Sept. 30, OAG says. Sep 5, 2006

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said he expects "solid" third-quarter RASM growth, "but likely below 10%" as a result of altered security procedures and "traffic and revenue trends." The LCC flew 6.24 billion RPMs in August, up 10% over the year-ago month, against an 8.5% increase in capacity to 8.09 billion ASMs, which lifted load factor 1 point to 77.1%. Sep 8, 2006

Southwest Airlines

Increased security hurts Southwest revenue: New security rules have hurt summer revenue at Southwest Airlines, the carrier says. The airline also says it posted a record August load factor of 77.1%. Sep 7, 2006

Southwest Airlines

Southwest concourse opening at MacArthur delayed indefinitely. Construction problems will delay indefinitely the opening of Southwest Airlines' second concourse at Long Island's MacArthur Airport, airline and Islip town officials say. Inspectors found an inadequate number of fire extinguishers and problems with a backup generator, among other things. Since those problems became public, town officials have conducted comprehensive inspections. Sep 7, 2006

Southwest Airlines

Upcoming pilot meetings critical to Southwest. Southwest Airlines, under growing pressure to protect threatened profit margins, will negotiate a new labor agreement with pilots in September. According to aviation consultant Stuart Klaskin, Southwest is "a company in great transition right now. It's going to be a tumultuous couple of years." Sep 4, 2006

Spirit Airlines

Spirit sees boost in August traffic. Discounter Spirit Airlines reports August traffic rose 2.4%. Spirit, with hubs in Detroit and Fort Lauderdale, offers service to 29 cities in the U.S., the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

Sep 8, 2006