He explained, “We were a nofrills, low-tech, all-domestic, point-to-point operator, [but new technology and initiatives to attract business passengers] are enabling us to evolve to something more than that.” He said this year saw SWA implement “the largest number of new technology” initiatives of any year in its 38-year history. “The big story of 2008 and 2009” was employing schedule optimization programs that have allowed it to trim unprofitable routes and increase profitable flying, he said, noting that even though capacity will shrink by 5% for full-year 2009, the carrier added four new destinations. The new additions include Boston and New York LaGuardia, two airports that SWA previously made a point of avoiding but that now are critical to establishing a complete network, Kelly said. He added that the LCC has had “easily the best market penetration” at BOS, where flights started in August, of any new market in which it ever has launched service. He said that a revamped website is allowing SWA to charge “higher average fares” and has led to a “higher book-to-look ratio,” meaning an increasing percentage of visitors to the site are purchasing tickets. It also is using the site to generate ancillary revenue via car rental, hotel and cruise bookings. “We think we have an opportunity to grow that business,” Kelly said. He assured the audience that while SWA’s capacity will be “roughly flat” in 2010 following this year’s contraction, “we still see ourselves as a growth company.” He did not rule out acquisitions. “We’ll be on the prowl looking for opportunities to grow in any form that it takes,” he said.

The CEO of Delta Air Lines Inc. told investors that there’s room in the airline industry for more consolidation. “If a transaction were to occur, economics should prevail,” CEO Richard Anderson said, according to The Associated Press. “I think the case can be made ultimately, but it remains to be seen what this administration’s take will be.” Delta, the world’s biggest airline, bought Northwest Airlines last year. Since then there has been no additional consolidation in the industry. “Some analysts have speculated in the past that Alaska Air Group Inc. or JetBlue Airways Corp. could be appealing targets for Delta,” AP writes. “There also has been talk in recent years of possible combinations between Continental Airlines Inc. and United Airlines and between American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc.” Since its merger, Delta has focused on expanding through alliances. The airline currently has a joint venture with Air France-KLM and is working to bring Japan Airlines into the SkyTeam alliance.

American Airlines has confirmed that it is working with the FAA and US National Transportation Safety Board to analyze an MD-82 landing incident at the Charlotte Douglas International airport the night of 12 December. The crew of Flight 1402, flying to Charlotte from Dallas Fort-Worth with 110 passengers and five crew, was performing an instrument landing at Charlotte in poor visibility at 2248h that night when the aircraft’s right wing received “substantial” damage, according to the FAA preliminary incident report. American Airlines is not commenting on the incident, other than to say that the “ damage was not caused by an attempted auto-land” and that there were no reported injuries to the passengers and crew. Air traffic control tapes reveal that the tower controllers had asked the pilots if they would be performing a go-around as the aircraft approached the runway end, an indication that aircraft might have appeared to controllers to be on an unstabilized approach. The pilots however responded, “No, we’re on the ground”. The wing scrape comes three days after a Northwest Airlines DC-9 scraped its wing on landing at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport on the morning of 9 December in very gusty wind conditions. None of the passengers or crew on Flight 7012 were injured.

Republic Airways Holdings is considering replacing some of the Airbus jets flown by its Frontier Airlines subsidiary with Bombardier C Series planes now under development in Canada, according to a Canadian news report. The Gazette newspaper of Montréal reports that Indianapolis-based Republic is eyeing Montréal-based Bombardier’s CSeries 100- to 145-seater jets to possibly meet Denver-based Frontier’s future needs. The Gazette attributed the report to comments by Republic CFO Hal Cooper at an airline industry conference. Frontier traditionally has been a mostly Airbus airline, although its Lynx short-haul subsidiary has been using some Bombardier turboprops. But the Gazette quoted Cooper as saying that many of Frontier’s 51 narrow-body Airbus A320 jets are subject to leases expiring between 2013 and 2017. Cooper said that a decision on Frontier’s future needs will likely be made early next year. The CSeries is under development and is scheduled for first delivery in late 2013. Republic acquired Frontier in October when the Denver carrier emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It is opertaing Frontier as a separately branded airline.

World airport traffic rose 1.8% in October compared to October 2008 to 287.6 million arriving and departing passengers, continuing the upward trend seen in September, according to Airport Council International’s PaxFlash traffic report. Domestic traffic climbed 3.5% to 151.7 million passengers while international traffic dipped 0.2% to 131.6 million passengers. Airfreight trends also showed improvement, with international freight up 1.4% to 3.5 million tonnes and domestic freight up 2.2% to 1.7 million tonnes, bringing the monthly total increase to 5.5 million tonnes, up 1.3%. ACI DG Angela Gittens said, “The black ink in all three freight categories for the first time since July 2008 is the best traffic news of the month.” Returning to the passenger side, airports in the Latin America/Caribbean region led all others with a 25.8% rise in domestic throughput. This was followed by airports in the Asia/Pacific region, which were up 8.9%. North American airports posted a 1.4% decline while Europe was virtually flat at minus 0.2%. African airports experienced a 3% year-to-year fall. Latin America/Caribbean airports also had the strongest international passenger throughput, up 18.8% over October 2008. Recovery in the Asia/Pacific region continued with a 6.7% rise and Middle East airports enjoyed an 8.7% increase in international traffic. European airports were down 1.9%, as were African airports, while North American airports saw a 1.3% drop.

A major airline union intends to launch a campaign to tell passengers and Congress about what it perceives to be the risk of overseas aircraft maintenance. The Transport Workers Union, representing more than 200,000 workers and retirees, contends that all major U.S. carriers except Fort Worth’s American Airlines Inc. are, to some degree, having their planes worked on outside the U.S., raising safety and even terrorism fears.