Lufthansa Group announced Tuesday that Board Member and Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori will resign Thursday and “shall not be assuming the position as chairman and CEO of Austrian Airlines” as planned.
El Al Israel Airlines reported a 2010 net profit of $57.1 million, reversing a $76.3 million net loss in 2009, on a 19% rise in revenue to $1.97 billion.
China Southern Airlines reported 2010 net income of CNY5.8 billion ($883 million), fifteen times greater than the CNY381 million net profit earned in 2009.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Jim Albaugh asserted that the re-engined Airbus A320neo will have a higher operating cost than a current-model 737NG.
Alaska Airlines and regional affiliate Horizon Air were forced to cancel 150 combined flights on Saturday affecting around 12,150 passengers owning to computer system problems. In a YouTube.com video posted by Alaska, President Brad Tilden explained that "a transformer blew and took down the central computer systems for both Alaska and Horizon." In addition to the cancellations, there were also extensive delays, the company said. The systems were restored by Sunday. "I offer my profound apology to customers inconvenienced by this disruption," Tilden stated.
Olympic Air and Cyprus Airways signed a wide-ranging cooperation accord aimed at “strengthening of the presence of the two airlines in the wider region of Southeastern Europe,” OS said in a statement. Under terms, the carriers’ codeshare began March 27 on flights from/to Athens, Rhodes, Heraklion and Thessaloniki to/from Larnaca and Paphos. From April 15, it will be expanded to cover most domestic and international destinations of OA and CY.
Cameroon Airlines Corp. announced that its new airline, Camair-Co, began operations Monday with an inaugural flight from its base in Douala via the country’s capital Yaounde to Paris Charles de Gaulle using a Boeing 767-300ER.
Japan Airlines on Monday completed its court-monitored bankruptcy restructuring under Japan's Corporate Rehabilitation Law, and also announced more flight reductions as it contends with a steep drop in demand in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crisis that devastated the country.
The MA600, the AVIC-produced 60-seat turboprop, began formal flight operations over the weekend when the Civil Aviation Flight University of China put it into operation to replace a phased out Yun-7.
The European Commission on Monday said it is committed to a “complete modernization of Europe's air traffic control system by 2020, delivering the Single European Sky … and the completion of the European Common Aviation Area of 58 countries and 1 billion inhabitants by 2020.”
Hawaiian Holdings will offer $75 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due in 2016, it said, with UBS Investment Bank as sole book-running manager and Imperial Capital as co-manager. It also expects to grant underwriters of the notes an option for an additional $11.25 million aggregate principal amount to cover over-allotments. It intends to use a portion of proceeds to pay outstanding loans, and for general corporate purchases.
JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic Airways announced a transatlantic interline agreement that will allow passengers flying from VS's four UK airports to connect onto JetBlue's US domestic network of up to 64 cities. The agreement will cover VS services from London Heathrow to Boston Logan, New York JFK and Washington Dulles and from London Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester to Orlando.
Pratt & Whitney completed assembly of the first PW1217G engine intended to power the Mitsubishi Regional Jet. It is the third PurePower PW1000G series engine to complete assembly, it said. "Completion of this first engine to test for the PW1200G series is another important milestone for the PurePower engine program," said Pratt VP-Next Generation Product Family Bob Saia. "Ground testing of our first engine exceeded our expectations, and I predict that testing for this first PW1217G engine will produce similar results."
Lufthansa Group has no plans to buy or invest in additional airlines, Chairman and CEO Christoph Franz told LH's in-house employee magazine Lufthanseat. He said the company will focus on "organic" growth and on bringing subsidiaries Austrian Airlines and British Midland into a stable financial position ( ATW Daily News, March 21).
Air Berlin incurred a 2010 net loss of €97.2 million ($137.3 million), widened from a pro forma 2009 net loss (including Austrian LCC Niki and TUIfly city-to-city routes now operated by AB) of €21.9 million, marking its third consecutive loss-making year.
Lufthansa Systems CIO Jorg Liebe told ATW that Condor Airlines will launch its new wireless inflight entertainment system, BoardConnect, this summer aboard Boeing 767s with business class passengers utilizing "tablet-type" devices provided by the airline to access content and economy passengers given the option to access content via their own personal Wi-Fi equipped devices.
US National Transportation Safety Board said it opened an investigation into last week's incident in which Washington National Airport's ATC tower was unresponsive to two aircraft that landed at DCA between 12:04 a.m. and 12:28 a.m. on March 23.
