Presented at the Club’s 65th Annual Dinner on October 26, 2007 The Wings Club presented Corporate Angel Network (CAN) with a $50,000 check in a ceremony during the Wings Club’s 65th Annual Dinner-Dance at the Waldorf-Astoria on October 26th. Tshe award recognized 25 years of service of CAN, a public national charity organization that arranges free flights to treatment for cancer patients by using empty seats on corporate jets. “I believe the most lasting

impression I’ve gathered from this mission to cancer patients is the reinforcement of that wellobserved truth, that in giving, it is the giver who receives", said Randall Greene, CAN’s chairman, as the award was presented to him by John S. Slattery, president of the Wings Club. Mr. Slattery thanked Corporate Angel Network for its noble mission. “It is with a sense of profound gratitude for the mission Corporate Angel Network takes on every day that the membership of the Wings Club and its Board of Governors make our first donation to CAN”, he said.

The International Air Transport Association, has appointed Paul Steele to direct its environment initiatives effective 1 December, 2007. Steele joins IATA from WWF International, where he served for six years as the organisation’s chief operating officer. Giovanni Bisignani, director general and chief executive officer of IATA welcomed the appointment. “Air transport takes its environmental responsibility seriously. Alongside safety and security, it is a pillar on which we have built a great global industry. Despite our good track record, air transport’s carbon footprint is growing. That is not acceptable. Our vision is for air transport to achieve carbon neutral growth in the medium-term, on the way to a carbon emission free future. I am pleased that this vision has impressed Paul Steele who comes to us with a strong track record and solid environmental credentials gained at WWF and elsewhere. He will lead our team in turning the vision into reality.”

Use of military corridors eases crunch on ground and in sky Travelers expecting the worst were happy that the worst did not happen as Thanksgiving holiday traffic was not a cause of significant delays at any of our metro airports. When President Bush made the military flight corridors available for commercial flights, it eased both the congestion and allowed airlines to do better flight planning. Diane Spitaliere, spoke for the Federal Aviation Administration, and said that while commercial flights previously used military airspace on an as-needed basis, this was the first time the deal was made beforehand. "It's done on a fairly routine basis, but there's not a lot of planning, they just turn it over. ... The difference this time was it was coordinated well in advance," she said. "(The airlines) knew that space would be available to them and they could plan on using it." More than 100 flights used the airspace the days leading up to Thanksgiving, Spitaliere said, and more than 120 flights had used it before the advent of the holiday. Delays were minimal yesterday at most major East Coast airports, including Newark Liberty and John F. Kennedy International Airport. Some airline officials said they hope the military would continue to make the space available on holiday weekends, such as Christmas and New Year. Clear weather also helped keep the operations running smoothly. Except for some rain Thursday, the weekend weather was cool and clear, said Ray Kruzdlo, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. More travelers flew on the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving and did not cram in on Wednesday or Thursday flights and this also made the traffic ease up from prior years.

U.S. travelers may drive and fly in record numbers for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays facing airport delays, surging gasoline prices and the biggest one-month jump in airfares. ``People are so resigned to the cost that they're not even paying attention anymore,'' said David Brennan, 32, a hospital engineer from Alexandria, Virginia, who plans to drive 218 miles to New Jersey tonight with his wife and two daughters. He and his family are among an estimated 38.7 million people who will travel more than 50 miles from home for Thanksgiving, according to the American Automobile Association of Heathrow, Florida. That would top the previous mark of 38.1 million travelers last year. Fuel costs are rising for motorists and airline passengers alike. A 61 percent surge for crude oil this year has boosted gasoline at U.S. pumps and spurred at least seven industry-wide airfare increases since Sept. 1. Meanwhile, airlines' on-time arrivals are at an all-time low. Domestic fares rose 3.3 percent in October compared with a year earlier, the largest monthly advance of 2007, according to the Air Transport Association, a Washington-based airline trade group. Even with gasoline hovering near the record $3.23 set on May 23, U.S. motorists are paying less than half as much as European drivers. The fuel averages $7.98 a gallon in Germany and $7.82 in the U.K., according to AA Motoring Trust Ltd., the U.K.'s biggest motoring group. The Air Transport Association projects a 4 percent rise in fliers from Nov. 16 through 27, including flights that begin or end outside the U.S. Demand hasn't been hurt by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, Chief Economist John Heimlich said.

The Worldwide Campus of Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University has teamed up with Aviation English Services (AES), a New Zealand based company, to provide the industry with aviation English training solutions to address the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) new requirements, which identify English as the official, recognized language of aviation. In response to international concern over the role of language as a causal factor in a number of high-profile accidents, ICAO has developed a set of English language proficiency standards and recommended practices for pilots and air traffic controllers operating internationally. ICAO's 189 contracting states are required to ensure compliance for licensing of their pilots and controllers by March 2008 in order to continue to operate internationally. The new aviation English program is an integrated educational approach that combines web-based self-paced instruction, classroom seminars, learning aids, and progress testing.

Fraud is costing airlines around the world about 2.2 million each in lost revenue, according to a new survey by Deloitte. In total, the airline industry is believed to have lost 440 million through fraud last year. This is about three times the level in 2000, when Deloitte last conducted this poll, reflecting the increase in the number of airline tickets bought via the internet. The biggest losses came from creditcard fraud, which accounted for an average 700,000 in losses to each airline. Other areas of fraud identified were counterfeit or stolen tickets, cargo theft, false baggage claims, abuse of frequent flyer miles and checks that bounced. Low-cost airlines were the hardest hit, suffering more than 1,000 cases each a year, the survey found. "Low-cost carriers were found to have the highest credit-card fraud losses, due in part to the high number of airline tickets they sell online," Deloitte said.

The rising price of oil is prompting airlines to push up airfares as much as demand will allow and is causing them to rethink how much capacity they'll offer in 2008. Southwest Airlines Co. chief executive Gary Kelly said that Southwest executives "are definitely reconsidering our growth rate for next year" in light of soaring prices for oil and jet fuel. Earlier this year, the Dallas-based carrier cut its planned growth rate from 8 percent to 6 percent. Mr. Kelly said even that reduced rate may be too much if rising fares don't cover rising fuel costs. Executives from other airlines, speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York, said they'll have to keep pushing through airfare increases to compensate for their higher fuel bills. The airlines can do some things to mitigate the costs, but not much, they said. Northwest Airlines Inc. CFO Dave Davis said that when Northwest put together a five-year business plan before exiting bankruptcy court this year, the airline had assumed that crude oil would sell for $63.50 a barrel in 2008. However, futures contracts for 2008 are selling in the high $80s, he said. Mr. Davis said Northwest could respond to weakening demand by parking some its older, paid-off airplanes if passengers balk at paying higher fares. Offering the opposite view was Continental Airlines Inc., which has the youngest fleet among the major U.S. network carriers at less than 10 years on average. Continental chief financial officer Jeff Misner said the carrier's airplanes use 35 percent less fuel per seat per mile than the fleet average a decade ago. "It's a current structural advantage we have," he said. A familiar theme was that big network airlines expect to add little if any capacity in domestic markets, although they continue to expand on international routes.