Delta Air Lines announced expanded codeshare agreements with China Eastern and China Southern airlines, two of the largest carriers in the China, which will provide more options for customers traveling between the United States and China.

The agreements, recently approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, will allow both Chinese carriers to place their codes and flight numbers on Delta-operated flights between Seattle and Beijing. In addition, China Eastern will place its code and flight numbers on Delta-operated flights between Detroit and Beijing.

“We thank the Civil Aviation Administration of China for approving our expanded partnership with China Eastern and China Southern, which provides significant new options for customers of all three carriers and will enhance travel and trade between our nations,” said Vinay Dube, Delta’s senior vice president – Asia Pacific.

The airlines’ agreement already allows China Eastern to codeshare on Delta’s flight between Detroit and Shanghai; and allows Delta to codeshare on China Eastern-operated flights from New York and Los Angeles to Shanghai as well as China Southern’s service between Los Angeles and Guangzhou.

Delta Expands Partnership with China is a post from: Aviation news - Planegrazy

Travel fans are being given another chance to win 50 fabulous vacations at destinations around the world with the latest version of Orbitz.com’s Facebook sweepstakes Orbitz 50 Faves(1), a fun and free Facebook game.

To play Orbitz 50 Faves, Facebook users simply “Like” Orbitz on Facebook, invite friends to play, and begin bidding. To start, each new player will receive five bids. Every bid placed represents one entry to win. Players can check out the trips, look at what friends that accepted their invitation to play have bid on, and then place bids on their favorite trips. Each day, players get an additional bid for every friend that accepts their invitation to play the game. The more friends that accept the players invitation, the more bids the player gets and the greater their chances of winning. To further encourage players to invite more friends to play, six trips have been ‘locked’ and can only be ‘unlocked’ if at least 10 of a player’s Facebook friends are playing the game.

New to the game this year, each day one player will be randomly selected to win two airline tickets. But, players have to log in to win. Orbitz will announce a new winner daily on Orbitz 50 Faves.

“When we launched Orbitz 50 Faves last August it instantly became a fan favorite with players placing over 3.5 million bids by the end of the game. 90% of our fans surveyed said they would play this game again. We listened to our fans and Orbitz 50 Faves is back with another 50 once-in-a-lifetime vacations,” said Chris Orton, president of Orbitz.com.  “Players who work their social networks the best can end up with enough bids to place on all 50 trips, or increase their odds of winning a particular trip by placing more and more bids on it. And this year, players have even more incentive to play every day because one player will be selected daily to win two airline tickets.”

Orbitz 50 Faves Facebook Game Is Ready for Take-Off is a post from: Aviation news - Planegrazy

Delta Air Lines now offers in-flight Wi-Fi service on all Delta Shuttle flights between New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Boston Logan and Washington National and on all Delta Shuttle flights between LaGuardia and Chicago O’Hare.

Delta operates the world’s largest Wi-Fi-equipped fleet of aircraft and by this summer more than 800 Delta aircraft, including more than 250 two-class regional jets, will be equipped with in-flight Wi-Fi service. More than 550 mainline aircraft are already Wi-Fi-equipped.

Delta is the first carrier to deploy Wi-Fi across its entire mainline and two-class regional fleet. When Wi-Fi installations on regional jets are complete, more than 400,000 Delta customers on more than 3,000 daily flights will have in-flight connectivity on a fleet that already makes up nearly half of the world’s Wi-Fi-equipped aircraft.

“Wi-Fi offers travelers the flexibility and tools to stay connected at 30,000 feet, enabling them to send email or finish a presentation before they reach their destination,” said Gail Grimmett, Delta’s senior vice president – New York. “We are thrilled that Wi-Fi is now available to our Delta Shuttle customers as it’s a perfect complement to other Shuttle amenities including free morning coffee and newspapers.”

Delta was named last month as the “Top Tech-Friendly U.S. Airline” by PCWorld magazine for its airport recharging stations, in-flight Wi-Fi on more domestic flights than any other carrier and smartphone apps with innovative features such as baggage tracking and airport check-in. The magazine also highlighted Delta’s 24-hour customer service via Twitter from @DeltaAssist, as well as the ability to book tickets directly from Facebook.

Delta Offers Wi-Fi Service on all Delta Shuttle Flights is a post from: Aviation news - Planegrazy

The Alaska Air Group board of directors announced today that Mark Eliasen has been elected vice president – finance and treasurer. Eliasen will be responsible for Air Group financing, fuel hedging, fleet management and treasury activities.

“I’m thrilled to have Mark join the Air Group finance team,” Air Group Chief Financial Officer Brandon Pedersen said. “Mark has played a key role in the recent improvements at Horizon. That experience, combined with his diverse finance background, have prepared him well to take on this new role.”

Currently vice president of finance at Alaska Air Group subsidiary Horizon Air, Eliasen brings more than 25 years of corporate and consulting experience to his new position. Before joining Air Group, Eliasen practiced in the Puget Sound area as an independent corporate finance consultant. He previously served as assistant treasurer for WRQ (now Attachmate), a high-ranking connectivity software company with headquarters in Seattle, and as director of finance for Intermec Technologies, a leading manufacturer of barcode systems based in Everett, Wash.

A certified public accountant, Eliasen earned a bachelor’s degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Washington.

Alaska Air Group Elects Mark Eliasen Vice President is a post from: Aviation news - Planegrazy

Jviation, Inc., an aviation-focused planning, engineering and construction management firm, has hired Joe Pestka as a Senior Program Manager responsible for expanding Jviation’s client base in the central region of the United States.

Pestka brings 27 years of experience managing complex aviation programs. Previously with the Missouri Department of Transportation, Pestka served as the Administrator of Aviation supervising civil aviation development throughout Missouri from 2003 to January 2012. In this role, he worked to increase public awareness of the aviation industry and strengthen the industry’s economic benefits. Pestka brings strong working relationships with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), state aviation departments and the aviation community. Most
recently, he served as Chair for the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) participation on the FAA’s Airport System Strategic Evaluation Task program. With his extensive experience and visionary leadership, Pestka will continue to have a strong impact on the local, state and national aviation landscape.

Pestka is actively involved in NASAO, recently serving as Chair until joining Jviation in January 2012. He has also served as Former Chairman of the NASAO Block Grant Task Group and Finance and Navaids Committees.

Joe Pestka Joins Jviation as Senior Program Manager is a post from: Aviation news - Planegrazy

Finnair will renew its pre-flight services in order to offer smoother departures for its customers. The aim is to offer an enjoyable traveling experience without queuing at the airport. Finnair aims to considerably increase the number of self-service check-in kiosks and Baggage Drop desks at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Customers will be advised to check in at a time most convenient for them well in advance either using a text message, Finnair’s recently renewed website or the self-service check-in kiosks at the airport, all of which will shorten the queuing time in the departure hall. Service desks will continue to assist customers with special needs and priority customers while economy class service desks will gradually be changed into Baggage Drop desks where any hold luggage can be left after the check-in.

”Checking-in prior to arriving at the airport is the norm with majority of airlines and has quickly become more common among our customers, too. It enables flexible departures and it means less times in queues at the airport”, said Anssi Komulainen, Finnair’s SVP, Customer Service. ”As a whole, the passenger’s route from the terminal door to the security check will become clearer and faster. The customer will be assisted and guided at the airport even better than before.”

Finnair renews its services is a post from: Aviation news - Planegrazy

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged policy-makers to use aviation as a strategic asset. “When the relationship between industry and government works, the results are brilliant. Policies that support aviation’s competitiveness deliver wide-ranging benefits across economies by connecting business to markets,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO. Aviation is a key economic contributor.  In Singapore, for example, where the government has supported aviation as a strategic industry, it contributes 119,000 quality jobs and 5.4% of GDP. This is according to Oxford Economics studies commissioned by IATA to demonstrate to governments the catalytic impact of a healthy aviation sector on national economies. “The connectivity that aviation provides to Singapore has enabled it to develop as a successful regional hub for sectors as diverse as finance, healthcare, culture and education,” said Tyler in a keynote address to the Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit.

Not all governments have the same positive approach.  India is one market that is missing out on aviation’s potential as a result of a policy framework that does not support aviation’s competitiveness. For example, high taxes, a lack of capacity in Mumbai and increasing infrastructure costs in Delhi are holding back Indian aviation’s potential. “The stunted growth of Indian aviation comes with an economic cost. India’s population is about 240 times the size of Singapore’s. But the number of aviation jobs is just about 14 times larger at 1.7 million. And the economic contribution of aviation is still only 0.5% of the Indian economy. It is an important 0.5%. But even considering the differential in GDP/capita between Singapore and India, these numbers tell us that there is tremendous unrealized potential in India,” said Tyler.

Use Aviation Strategically is a post from: Aviation news - Planegrazy

Airlines for America said the White House budget proposal to offset the deficit on the backs of airline customers by adding even more tax increases, would impact demand for air travel and ultimately cost jobs and service to communities. If the White House proposal is implemented, A4A said customers would be paying more in air taxes, meaning fewer will fly, which in turn will prompt airlines to reduce service, impacting hundreds of thousands of the 10 million good-paying jobs that commercial aviation creates

The White House is proposing over the next five years to triple the aviation security tax to $7.50 for each one-way trip in 2018, resulting in an $18 billion government windfall to be used for deficit reduction – not on aviation security programs. In addition, the proposal also seeks to add a new $100 per flight tax with a portion of those proceeds also going toward deficit reduction.

“It makes absolutely no sense at a time when we should be encouraging economic and business development enabled by travel and tourism that we would discourage flying by trying to balance the budget on the backs of airline customers with yet another tax,” said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio. “It is the wrong approach and counter to leveraging commercial aviation – a key enabler of job growth and U.S. economic activity. By holding the line on federal aviation taxes paid by airlines and their customers, the airlines can maintain jobs and provide much needed service to communities.”

Airline customers today pay about $61 in taxes on a typical $300 ticket, rates higher than alcohol and tobacco, products that are taxed to discourage use.

Airlines for America Says White House Budget Proposal Would Offset Deficit on Backs of Airline Customers is a post from: Aviation news - Planegrazy