Thefts at airport to be addressed

At Las Vegas’ McCarran airport, Delta Air Lines has started a two-month pilot program aimed at curbing the incidence of theft from the airport’s baggage claim carousels. Delta will test the effectiveness of the so-called positive bag match program before determining whether to continue the trial and roll it out at other airports. The strategy involves cordoning off the two Terminal 1 baggage carousels where Delta passengers claim their bags with employees who check that bag tag numbers match up with the passenger’s bag claim stub.

According to sector sources, theft from bags is something of a cyclical crime of opportunity. At McCarran, the Metro Police department works with the Clark County Aviation Department to prevent pilfering. In this, both security cameras and undercover operations are employed. McCarran officials believe that increased airline staffing in the vicinity of carousels and tag match programs will add a further layer of security against potential theft.

World Fuel in acquisition mode

World Fuel Services announced last week that a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Watson Petroleum, a leading distributor of gasoline, diesel, heating oil, lubricants and other products and related services across England and Wales, for a purchase price of £117m (US$191m). The purchase price will be funded through cash-on-hand and the company’s existing credit facilities.“We are very excited to be joining a company with the capabilities and breadth of products and services of World Fuel. Coupled with World Fuel’s solid financial foundation, this transaction will allow us to expand our product and service offerings and further grow our distribution network” Watson Petroleum is headquartered in Brinkworth, the UK, and has 670 employees. With expected 2013 revenues of US$2.2bn, Watson Petroleum is one of the largest fuel distributors in the UK.

 

Have gun, won’t travel

It’s official: travelers flying out of Florida either cannot read or are extremely forgetful… or both.

According to the latest statistics, released by the TSA, Orlando International clocked up more gun arrests than any other airport in Florida last year.

In all, 47 travelers fell foul of the regulation that prohibits firearms to be carried on board an aircraft. Although the vast majority of those arrested had permits authorizing them to own a firearm, nonetheless the once-a-week occurrence has led the airport authority to look anew at its methods when trying to ensure that handguns remain firmly within checked-in luggage.

The holiday period and signage changes were blamed for the last couple of arrests although the fact that Orlando, pro rata, handles more passengers than other local airports was also recognized as a reason. Orlando processed 35m passengers in all in 2013 whilst Fort Lauderdale, only the third busiest airport in the list, still managed to confiscate 45 firearms during the same period.

 

Signature makes its mark in Van Nuys

Signature Flight Support Corporation has completed the acquisition of the assets of Maguire Aviation Group at Van Nuys airport. Through this acquisition, Signature Flight Support thus expands its FBO facility at Van Nuys, with a combined footprint of 1.17m square feet of hangar, ramp, passenger lounge and office space. The expanded Signature Flight Support footprint at Van Nuys is set to provide customers with the added convenience of multiple locations on the field for both FBO services and aircraft storage.

Close of play for Evergreen

Evergreen International Aviation’s future seems to be less in doubt at the time of this upload. McMinnville-based Evergreen International Airlines has now filed a Chapter 7 petition in a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, a filing that followed a period of uncertainty about the company’s future.

In a statement, the parent company admitted that Evergreen’s business had been adversely impacted over the past few years by a decreased demand in military spending and a weakness in global economic markets.

Offshoot Evergreen EAGLE had struggled on, continuing to provide ground handling at more than 35 domestic airports, where a range of services had been on offer, including aircraft cleaning, towing and pushback. The handling side has also now ceased operation, however.

App to make passengers happy

Allegiant Air has introduced a paperless mobile boarding pass capability for its passengers at all the airports it serves. In this, the carrier worked with many small to mid-size airports throughout its network to introduce mobile boarding pass scanners.

Of the total of just over 100 airports, some 55 did not have scanners in place: this occasioned the company to purchase the requisite scanners for these airports and during the procedure it worked with the TSA to gain approval.

Allegiant has also extended its service to other carriers serving the airports to ensure that the mobile boarding pass scanners could be utilized by other airlines’ passengers.

To use the new service, users have to install the Allegiant-To-Go mobile app, which is available for free on Apple and Android mobile devices.