China Southern Airlines inked an agreement with the Hainan provincial government to base 28 additional aircraft in Hainan and add 93 new routes from the airport by 2015.
A Henan Airlines Embraer 190 crashed on landing at Yichun City Tuesday night, reportedly killing 43 of the 96 people on board. Flight VD8387 en route from Harbin was carrying 91 passengers and five crewmembers. A number of the survivors sustained injuries, some of which were believed to be life-threatening.
FedEx's board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share on FedEx Corp. common stock. The dividend is payable Oct. 1 to stockholders of record at the close of business Sept. 10.
Lufthansa took delivery of its third A380 Aug. 20 with a ferry flight from Hamburg to Frankfurt. The worldwide A380 fleet now stands at 36 operating aircraft. LH’s fourth A380 will be delivered this fall. Thai Airways has started talks with Airbus regarding an order for up to 30 A350s and six A380s, the Bangkok Post reported.
Star Alliance partners Continental Airlines and Aegean Airlines announced plans to start codesharing on CO's flights between its Newark hub and Athens. CO will also place its code on selected flights operated by Aegean in Europe. Effective immediately, Aegean will place its A3 code on CO flights between EWR and ATH. Pending government approval, Aegean also will codeshare on CO flights from EWR to/from Paris Charles de Gaulle and Rome Fiumicino.
Ecuador’s AeroGal received the first of three A320-200s it has on order at a ceremony in Quito. The carrier expects to receive two more by year's end. Airbus said the carrier's A320s will be configured for two classes seating 150 passengers. The aircraft are replacing 737 Classics. AeroGal operates mostly domestic services but also Bogota-New York JFK flights. It carries around 1.2 million passengers annually.
Saudi Arabia-based LCC Sama Airlines announced Monday it is “temporarily discontinuing” all flight operations effective Tuesday. CEO Bruce Ashby said in a statement that stopping flights "is the only option remaining to us" following "many months" of unsuccessfully attempting to find financial relief. He said the airline incurred "heavy losses" during the Oct. 2009-March 2010 winter season and has been unable to recover despite a "sharply" improved revenue performance in the summer season.
Philippine Airlines reported net income minus equity changes of $31.6 million for its fiscal first-quarter ended June 30, down 11% from a $35.5 million profit on the same basis in the prior-year period.
Turkish Airlines reported 2010 first-half net income of €134 million ($170.4 million), significantly widened over a €48 million profit in the first six months of 2009, and predicted the air transport industry's recovery "is expected to continue" absent "another unexpected economic stagnation."
Qantas has grounded five of its Q400s, citing problems with the landing gear. The airline inspected its 21 Q400s after Flybe raised concerns about undercarriage fittings on its fleet of Q400s, a Qantas spokesperson said.
A Mexican consortium called Tenedora K announced it has acquired 95% of troubled Mexicana Airlines' holding company and will take over the airline as well as subsidiaries MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink.
Transaero Airlines in the fall will launch service from Moscow Domodedovo to Rostov-on-Don (five-times-weekly), Donetsk (daily) and Riga (twice-weekly). All three new routes will be aboard 737-500 aircraft in a three-class layout including business, premium economy and economy. Cirrus Airlines will launch daily Zurich–Graz service in its winter schedule aboard a Dornier 328.
Israeli media reports last week stated that El Al has been unable to reach a membership agreement with any of the three global alliances and is considering launching its own alliance. The alliance would include airlines that are not members of oneworld, Star Alliance or SkyTeam. According to the reports, El Al hopes to include three Eastern European airlines as initial partners and believes the alliance could eventually reach 20 members. The alliance would be known as Western-Eastern.
Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson told employees in a message Friday that the carrier will begin rehiring furloughed flight attendants in January with the aim of putting them into service by mid-2011, Bloomberg reported. He did not say how many flight attendants are needed but noted that the focus will be on staffing international flights. "We need lots of folks with language skills given the extensive nature of our international network and the need to be able to communicate with passengers in their own language,” he said.
Japan Airlines on Friday formally unveiled a winter schedule that reflects the dramatic route restructuring announced in April through which the bankrupt carrier will drop 45 routes in addition to previous cuts ( ATW Daily News, April 29). Among the destinations it is in the process of eliminating are Amsterdam, Milan, Rome, Sao Paolo, Brisbane, Denpasar and Kona.
Malaysia Airlines last week reported a second-quarter net loss of MYR533.6 million ($170.4 million), reversed from a MYR875.7 million profit in the year-ago quarter, blaming the result on a spike in fuel costs.
Bernstein Research forecast that A350 deliveries will slip into 2014 and that Airbus will deliver only eight of the next-generation aircraft that year, flagging a significant slippage in the program. Asked to comment, an Airbus spokesperson told ATW, “We don’t have any basis to confirm the data in the Bernstein report.” Airbus has reassured the market in the past that the program is on track for a 2013 first delivery.
Air China plans to launch a new Beijing-based business jet company in conjunction with the Beijing municipal government to compete with Hainan Airlines’ subsidiary Capital Airlines, according to an industry insider.
ANA on Friday announced a significant upgrade to its services and network from Tokyo Haneda, the city's close-in airport that opens to international flights from Oct. 31 following the activation of its fourth runway Oct. 21.
EgyptAir launched twice-weekly Cairo-Juba service aboard a 737. Air Arabia Maroc plans to launch thrice-weekly Casablanca–Cologne service from Nov. 1 aboard an A320. The flight will stop once weekly at Nador and twice weekly at Fez. Emirates SkyCargo will launch five-times-weekly Dubai-Dakar freighter flights from Sept. 1.
Boeing this week booked orders for four 737s but suffered a 777 cancellation, Reuters reported. The customers were unidentified. The manufacturer has tallied 258 orders so far this year. BAE Systems won a contract from SETE Aviation to remarket one CF6-80C2B6F-powered Privatair 767-300ER.
Keilir Aviation Academy, in cooperation with the Icelandic Ministry of Transport, the Civil Aviation Administration and a number of other aviation and meteorological organizations will host a Conference on Eyjafjallajokull and Aviationat Keflavik Airport, Iceland, on Sept. 15-16.
