Egyptair Maintenance & Engineering will provide Saudi Arabia budget carrier Nasair with heavy checks for five of its Airbus A320s. Rockwell Collins said it has opened a new 16,000 sq. ft. Seattle service center to "enhance the company’s ability to provide asset management and testing" for Boeing and 787 customers. The center employs 38 and houses spare pools and updated 787 test equipment.
Qatar Airways plans to acquire a 33% stake in Cargolux Airlines International, QR CEO Akbar Al Baker told reporters in Dubai on Monday. “Yes we are, 33% ... We are to sign an agreement with them, in the next few weeks. We see there are synergies. Qatar Airways would like to expand and I always said we would only be interested [in other airlines] if they are healthy and well-established,” Baker reportedly told media. He did not mention the value of the planned transaction.
IATA reported that scheduled international passenger traffic (RPKs) rose 3.8% in March compared to the year-ago period, down sequentially from the 5.8% year-over-year increase recorded in February. Capacity growth of 8.6% pushed load factor down 3.5 percentage points to 74.6%
French Air Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA) on Tuesday announced the investigation team searching for wreckage of the Air France Flight 447 located and retrieved the cockpit voice recorder. “It was raised and lifted on board the Ile de Sein by the Remora 6000 ROV at 02:40 UTC this morning,” BEA said in a statement. On Sunday, the ROV retrieved the doomed A330’s memory module of the flight data recorder ( ATW Daily News, May 2).
Airbus confirmed Korean Air has ordered five A330-200s, which brings KE’s orders for the type to 30, of which 23 have already been delivered ( ATW Daily News, Feb. 27, 2009). Airbus said the A330s will be powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000s.
Republic Airways Holdings reduced its loss for the first quarter ended March 31, but its branded flying under the Frontier Airlines banner continued to be a drag on earnings as the parent of Republic, Chautauqua, Shuttle America, Frontier and Lynx posted a loss of $22.4 million, improved from a deficit of $36.5 million in the year-ago period.
WestJet reported first-quarter net income of C$48.2 million ($50.8 million), a big increase over a C$2.4 million profit in the year-ago period, as revenue jumped 24.7% year-over-year to C$772.4 million.
Embraer reported first-quarter net income of $106.3 million under IFRS accounting standards, an almost fourfold increase from a $27 million profit in the year-ago period.
News from Travel Technology Update: Cyndi Hunter is committed to making it easier for corporate clients and their travel management companies to figure out what they are spending on air travel. As director of global accounts at United Airlines, Hunter has an interest in keeping her clients happy. "There's nothing worse than not having an answer," she said. The waters of corporate travel have been considerably roiled by the trend toward airline merchandising, particularly the unbundling of fares.
Travel Channel buys 'meaningful' stake in Oyster.com Delta signs deal with Farelogix for ancillary distribution DOT defers decision on requiring GDS ancillary displays Expedia's hotel path to migrate to new platform by end of June StarCite launches three-tier Marketplace programs In Focus: Nailing down the true cost of corporate travel World news briefing
Cyndi Hunter is committed to making it easier for corporate clients and their travel management companies to figure out what they are spending on air travel. As director of global accounts at United Airlines, Hunter has an interest in keeping her clients happy. "There's nothing worse than not having an answer," she said. The waters of corporate travel have been considerably roiled by the trend toward airline merchandising, particularly the unbundling of fares.
Virtual who's who of airline trade groups united last month to urge the European Commission not to revise slot allocation rules at EU airports. Groups in favor of maintaining the status quo include the Arab Air Carriers Organization, Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines, Assn. of European Airlines, US Air Transport Assn., European Low Fare Airlines Assn., European Regional Airlines Assn., International Air Carrier Assn. and IATA.
Japan Airlines 737-800 en route from Tokyo Haneda landed around 8 a.m. April 13 at Sendai, marking the resumption of commercial services at SDJ for the first time since it was inundated on March 11 by the earthquake-triggered tsunami.
WestJet reported first-quarter net income of C$48.2 million ($50.8 million), a big increase over a C$2.4 million profit in the year-ago period, as revenue jumped 24.7% year-over-year to C$772.4 million. The period marked the Calgary-based LCC's 24th straight quarter in the black.
Alaska Airlines will begin a major renovation project of its facilities at Los Angeles International this year, moving from Terminal 3 to Terminal 6 in late 2011 and integrating its "Airport of the Future" check-in process and "modernized" gate facilities. The new location will open for operations in spring 2012.
TAV Airports said it has completed renovation work at Ohrid Airport and vowed that the new passenger terminal at Skopje will be completed in the fourth quarter. The Turkish airports operator won a 20-year concession to manage the two Macedonian airports in 2008, committing to a €200 million investment program.
BAA outsourced the core IT services of the six UK airports it owns including London Heathrow to a consortium led by Capgemini UK as prime contractor and systems integrator. The deal is worth £100 million.
Operations at Lambert-St. Louis International returned to near-normal levels remarkably fast after the airport suffered a direct hit from a powerful F4-strength tornado on April 22. The twister caused extensive damage in Terminal 1's C Concourse, tearing off part of its roof and rendering its gates inoperable.
The Professional Aviation Maintenance Assn. Board of Directors said it named Dale Forton president. UPS Airlines named 34-year veteran UPS executive Matt Capozzoli VP of flight operations, replacing Capt. Rick Barr, who is retiring after 23 years.
Airbus announced it received the first set of A350 XWB main landing gear produced by Messier-Dowty at its test facility in Filton. Delivery of this MLG set for the A350-900 follows the arrival last month of the nose landing gear ( ATW Daily News, April 15), which will soon be installed together into the landing gear systems test rig, paving the way for integration testing to begin toward the end of 2011, said Airbus.
The Virgin Blue Group will expand its codeshare agreement with Delta Air Lines to include more destinations in the US and within Australia and New Zealand. This will allow V Australia passengers to connect from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Detroit as well as the current New York and Orlando. DL will codeshare on flights from Sydney to Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Auckland and Christchurch.
Cebu Pacific, now the Philippines’ largest airline, flew more than 2.8 million passengers in the first quarter to March 2011, up 12% over the year-ago quarter ( ATW Daily News, June 10, 2010). According to CEB VP Marketing and Distribution Candice Iyog, the airline is on track to achieve its 12 million-passenger target for 2011, up 14% from the 10.5 million passengers carried last year.
