Recently in Caribbean/Latin American Air Transport Category

Here at Runway Girl, we like to break the odd bit of news too (not just stoke the hell fires of controversy).

To that end, we (the multiple personalities of yours truly) can report that leasing firm Aviation Capital Group (ACG) has for the first time acquired new Airbus A330s.

According to a source, Colombia's Avianca brokered a sale/leaseback deal with ACG covering the first two of 10 A330-200s slated for delivery to the carrier.

These are six-year leases with renewal rights, says the source.

Aircraft number one - N948AC - has already been delivered, as reported today by Flight.

The widebody is equipped with Panasonic eX2 in-flight entertainment systems, with iPod connectivity, as the others will be too.

The second A330 covered in the sale/leaseback will be delivered in November.

Avianca continues to hold orders for eight more A330s with the airframer. The carrier already leases a 767-200ER from ACG.

Now then, does anyone have some salve? It gets kind of hot in here.

(Photograph taken by Matthew Bowden - www.sxc.hu/profile/thesaint)

Well that was fast. No sooner does JetBlue announce that it is leasing E-190s to Azul (Portuguese for Blue) and photos emerge of the paint job. VEM Maintenance & Engineering is responsible for the work. Azul - which is being launched by JetBlue founder David Neeleman - plans to launch service with two E-190s and three E-195s in early 2009.

Canadian and US regulators remain a stubborn bunch when it comes to in-flight cell phone usage – they just don’t want it, can’t see needing it, and insist that travellers abhor the prospect of such chatter in the sacrosanct cabin environment. Oh yeah, and some of them think it might be dangerous too. For heaven's sakes! It’s mind-boggling that North America continues to drag its feet on this issue. We look like a bunch of ninnies when Europe and the Middle East are figuring ways through the social and technological issues associated with using cell phones during flight.

Sure there have been hiccups along the way. The UK’s Sunday Times is running a fairly comprehensive piece about how Air France passengers haven’t had the most robust connectivity during a trial of OnAir’s service. But you can be sure that these trouble-spots will be resolved, and where will North America be? Still scare-mongering about potential interruption to aircraft avionics? Still claiming that chatty-Kathy passengers will drive other travellers to the brink of rage?

Further evidence that North America is nearly stagnant on the issue has emerged in recent weeks. In the USA, Congressmen Peter DeFazio, Jerry Costello and John Duncan held a press conference to announce the “HANG UP Act”, which would ban passengers from talking on cell phones abroad US airlines. Both the US Federal Communications Commission and the FAA already ban this activity and have refused to budge on regulations governing it. So these lawmakers are suggesting that we ban something that has already been banned? Now that's rich. The legislation came on the heels of an announcement by the European Union that they will eliminate the ban on cell phones onboard aircraft.

At the same time, Canadian regulators are considering loosening rules that prohibit passengers from making cell phone calls after the aircraft has landed and is taxiing to its gate (like what other countries have been doing for years). Amazingly, however, Transport Canada remains unconvinced that the in-flight use of cell phones or Blackberry-like devices are safe “There is always a risk of potential interference” to aircraft avionics, says a spokesman.

While not keen on cell phones in-flight, the USA is moving forward with trials of WiFi-based services. Aircell recently became the first communications operator to receive approvals from the FAA to provide air-to-ground (ATG) in-flight mobile broadband for US domestic flights. The Colorado-based firm plans to roll out its service – branded Gogo - to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean as soon as possible in 2009 but for now, its focus remains on the US launch.

But the WiFi path that Canada might travel remains unclear. The pending proposed notice about cell phones will likely prompt this discussion, says the Transport Canada spokesman.

(Photo from Air France's web site at www.airfrance.com )

The first aircraft certified for ethanol operations, Embraer’s Ipanema, is quite a nifty sight to behold. During a tour of Embraer’s Sao Jose dos Campos headquarters and assembly facility last week, the company’s executives were generous enough to give a motley crew of journalists an up-close-and-personal look at the green machine, an agricultural aircraft that was wholly designed in Brazil.

The original low-wing Ipanema entered service in 1973, but the ethanol-fuelled version – of which there are now 196 in operation - was certified well over 30 years later. Of this amount, a total 41 Ipanemas constitute new-build aircraft and 155 are converted aircraft.

The Botucatu facility in Sao Paulo that manufactures the Ipanema is being expanded.

Okay, so can the ethanol used in general aviation operations be used for jets? Sorry. No. The mass and volumetric heats of combustion do not meet the needs of jet aircraft. It’s a low-speed bird after all. But a cool one nonetheless! Check out the latest official shots from Embraer, and a little personal one of a Kate Winslet-wannabe off the coast of Islabela in Brazil. And then read on for Embraer’s take on the biofuels that just might work for jets.

Embraer’s director of strategies and technologies for the environment, Graciliano Campos, says three sources for biofuel are showing the most promise to Embraer – Babassu, derived from a palm tree in Brazil; Jathropa, commonly referred to as the ‘plague’ due to the ease at which it grows; and algae.

The last of these, algae is “150 times more productive than any other biomass area” and has the potential to “win the technology race”, says Campos.

He confirms that Embraer is involved in all three projects. The company this year is investing a total $250 million into development of technology and pre-competitive technology, which includes biofuel studies, he says.

On 31 March 2004 Mexicana won the distinction of becoming the first operator to voluntarily drop out of the Star Alliance. The carrier’s termination from the grouping came after Mexciana decided to end its long-time codeshare agreement with Star member United Airlines.

Fast-forward a few years, and the big question about where Mexicana would end up has been answered. Yesterday, the carrier accepted a formal invitation to join the Oneworld alliance.

Due to this development, I'm happy to announce that the Runway-Girlfriend-For-A-Day award goes to mister “anonymous” blog poster, who on 12 March made a comment that if he was a bookie, he’d be “slashing the odds on Mexicana” to join Oneworld.

Please step forward and accept your prize. I’ve got a load of laundry with your name on it.

While you’re folding neatly, I’d like to ask you about Brazilian carrier TAM (which flew my butt from JFK to Sao Paulo on Tuesday). I arrived at JFK from Philadelphia on a Bombardier CRJ200 operated by Delta subsidiary Comair. I didn’t need to re-check my bag at JFK through to Sao Paulo. Delta had already done that for me at Philly through the magic of interlining. But an agent at the Philly desk – who will remain nameless as I forget his name - seemed to think that TAM has designs on joining SkyTeam.

So I ask you mister anonymous (and your friends), do you think TAM might join SkyTeam. What about Star? That grouping’s CEO Jaan Albrecht, while at an event in Istanbul to mark Turkish Airlines’ new membership into Star, hinted that TAM would soon be unveiled as the alliance’s latest member. Star’s members are forming bilateral partnerships with TAM, often a precursor to formal alliance membership.

Okay, so back to the Oneworld announcement. It was made yesterday during a ceremony in Los Angeles attended by CEO Manual Borja with his counterparts from all ten of Oneworld’s established member airlines. Mexicana’s subsidiary Click Mexicana will join at the same time, as an affiliate member.

Oneworld says the process will take between 12- and 18 months to complete. Iberia will assist the process as sponsor of Mexicana.

“Mexicana is now moving into the next phase of our development strategy. Joining the world's leading quality airline alliance will enable Mexicana to build on our excellent relationships with our established partners American Airlines and Iberia,” say Borja.

Embraer is cooking with gas, as they say. The company today reported a 61% increase in fourth quarter net profit on a 77% rise in revenue. A number of factors contributed to these gains. Discussing its results in a conference call this morning, Embraer president and CEO Frederico Fleury Curado said dedicated efforts to address the E-Jet family's growing pains over the last 18 months have proven effective.

Now enjoying the product of its labor – with the E-Jets maturing and customers vocalizing their satisfaction – it’s no wonder that Embraer does not see an immediate need to counter the proposed 110/130-seat CSeries (now on sale) or an Airbus/Boeing narrowbody replacement (which isn’t supposed to come down the pike until the latter part of the next decade anyway).

"We still do not have a clear vision about what is the optimum configuration of the next narrowbody aircraft, anything from 80- to 180-seats," he says, noting that it is his understanding that neither Boeing nor Airbus has decided on "anything with that respect either".

As a leading force in the 70- to 120-seat market, he says, Embraer has to be "very sober about making the right move at the right time".

"We will not put ourselves in a pressure until we are convinced exactly which way to go."

Certainly, if the CSeries is launched, and the Mitsubishi MRJ is confirmed, it is "rational" to imagine that Embraer may have "some market share lost with those new airplanes", says Curado.

But he notes that "the level of activity that we have been seeing since last year has not decreased" and, in fact, it is "very intense activity".

Embraer is not idle in terms of development; it continues to develop the E-Jet family, focusing on ETOPS and other initiatives.

Stay tuned...