Delta Air Lines reported a hefty first-quarter loss of $318 million, significantly widened from a deficit of $256 million in the year-ago period, as a 29% rise in fuel costs added $483 million to the operating expense ledger in the current period.
US National Transportation Safety Board said its investigation of the April 1 midair fuselage skin rupture on a Southwest Airlines 737-300 has found alignment issues with rivets and rivet holes in the area of the fracture, raising the prospect that manufacturing problems could have played a role in the incident in addition to, or instead of, aircraft fatigue.
US Dept. of Justice said Tuesday it has approved Southwest Airlines' acquisition of AirTran Airways, clearing the way for the transaction to close on May 2.
Bombardier Aerospace said that Pluna Lineas Aereas Uruguayas signed a follow-on firm order for three CRJ900 NextGen regional jets, from an order announced last year.
EgyptAir said it has deployed one of its six new Boeing 777-300ERs on its daily Cairo-Bangkok service. The MS 777-300ERs are configured in two classes, with 49 fully flat seats in business and 279 seats in economy. The airline took delivery of the last of six GECAS-leased 777-300ERs it was scheduled to receive earlier this month ( ATW Daily News, April 18).
Mexico's Interjet earlier this month operated an Airbus A320 partially powered by biofuel on a test flight between Mexico City and Tuxtla Gutierrez. According to Airbus, which provided support for the flight along with CFM International, one of the A320's two CFM56 engines was powered by a fuel blend comprised 30% of a Jatropha-based biofuel sourced from plants harvested in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Honeywell's UOP processed the biofuel.
A J Walter Aviation said it received a five-year contract from Turkish Technic to provide “full power-by-the-hour and leased stock services for Turkish Airlines’ Boeing 777-300ER fleet.” AJW said it will team with its partner BA Engineering to execute the contract, which covers an initial 12 aircraft in-service and on-order.
IATA reported that international premium traffic in February increased 7.7% year-over-year, down from 8.1% growth in January. "There are signs that rising fuel prices are starting to dampen air travel," IATA in its latest Premium Traffic Monitor released last week. February economy travel slowed to 3.3% year-over-year growth, down from 4.9% in January. IATA said there was a “sharper slowdown in the more price-sensitive economy seat segment than for premium travel.”
An Alitalia Airbus A321 en route from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Rome Fiumicino landed safely at FCO on Sunday night after cabin crew and passengers overpowered a passenger who attacked a flight attendant, Italy's ANSA news agency reported. According to ANSA and other news reports, the alleged attacker threatened a female flight attendant with some kind of knife and asked that the flight be diverted to Tripoli. He was reportedly subdued quickly. The flight attendant was treated for what were described as "minor abrasions" after landing.
Boeing last week said 787 training campuses in Seattle, Singapore, Tokyo, London and Shanghai have received approval from US FAA, UK CAA, EASA, CAAC and the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau.
American Airlines applied to the US Dept. of Transportation for the right to fly 10 additional weekly frequencies from Miami to destinations in Brazil starting as early as December.
US airlines operating scheduled passenger flights under FAR Part 121 experienced 26 accidents in 2010 but no fatal accidents, according to preliminary statistics released by the US National Transportation Safety Board last week.
Around 90% of scheduled flights operated on Monday to/from Lambert-St. Louis International, which continued recovery efforts in the aftermath of an F4-strength tornado touching down on the airport's main terminal on Friday.
German Leasing Co. took delivery of Air France's fifth A380, which the carrier will operate on the Paris Charles de Gaulle-Montreal route. The leasing company has financed seven Airbus A380s, four Boeing 777s and two A319s, representing a total volume of €1.68 billion ($2.43 billion). Boeing expanded its Landing Gear Overhaul and Exchange Program to cover 777-200LRs, 777Fs and 777-300ERs.
Austrian Airlines will launch thrice-weekly Vienna-Baghdad service from June 8 using an A320, marking the carrier's return to the Iraqi capital after a 21-year absence. It previously operated to Baghdad from 1982-1990. It currently operates flights from VIE to the Iraqi city of Erbil; it will operate six-times-weekly service on the route during its summer schedule.
Air France last week launched twice-weekly service from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Freetown and commenced twice-weekly CDG-Monrovia flights. Both new routes are via Conakry. AF last week increased CDG-CKY service to daily, of which four weekly flights are nonstop and three are via Nouakchott. Flights to CKY, NKC, FNA and MLW are being operated by an Airbus A330-200 with 208 seats in a three-class configuration, including 40 seats in business, 21 in premium economy and 147 in economy.
US airlines' January scheduled domestic and international traffic rose 3.5% year-over-year to 60.7 billion RPMs on a 2.3% rise in capacity to 79.3 billion ASMs, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Load factor was 76.5%, up 0.8 point from January 2010. Total passengers carried numbered 53.7 million, up 2.2% year-over-year but still 6.9% below the 57.7 million carried in January 2008.
Lufthansa Systems said it will launch a solution transforming iPads into full-fledged Electronic Flight Bags "centered around an advanced version" of its Lido/iRouteManual. The iPad EFB is slated to become available in the current quarter. The suite of applications will consist of three modules: The Lido/iRouteManual and a document viewer—both in the form of iPad apps—and a document management system in the form of a Web service. "Further modules are already under consideration," LHS said.
Sabre Holdings Corp. on Friday told ATW it intends to “aggressively defend” against US Airways’ antitrust claim, calling it “baseless and without merit.”
Virgin America enjoyed its first profitable reporting period in the 2010 third quarter but was unable to sustain the momentum in the fourth quarter, posting a $25.1 million net loss, widened from an $18.8 million net deficit in the 2009 December quarter and pushing the company to a $68.7 million full-year net loss.
The Thai government gave Thai Airways the right to decide how it acquires aircraft, clearing the way for the carrier to move forward with a plan to buy or lease up to 75 aircraft over a 12-year period.
Hainan Airlines reported net income of CNY273.3 million ($41.9 million) in the first quarter, up 8.2% over a CNY252.5 million profit in the year-ago period, owing to the rapid growth of Chinese domestic market demand and revenue generated by fleet expansion, according to a Shanghai Stock Exchange filing.
A powerful F4-strength tornado hit Lambert-St. Louis International Airport around 8:15 p.m. on Friday, causing extensive damage that closed STL for about 24 hr. and, according to airport officials, will leave it operating at 70% capacity for some time.
