International Aero Engines announced that Air Lease Corp., the leasing company formed by ILFC Co-founder and former Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy, selected the V2500 to power 30 of 51 Airbus A320 family aircraft it ordered at the 2010 Farnborough Airshow. IAE valued the order at more than $500 million. ALC chose the V2500 SelectOne build standard. Deliveries are set to begin in 2011.
US Air Transport Assn. said yesterday that that US airlines' passenger revenue rose 20% in July compared to the same month in 2009, the 7th consecutive month of revenue growth. It noted the pace of improvement slowed from June's 25% year-over-year gain. US airlines carried about 1% fewer passengers in July compared to the year-ago month but the average price to fly 1 mi. lifted 17%, ATA said.
The US National Transportation Safety Board issued a report stating the Southwest Airlines 737-300 that developed a hole in its fuselage in July 2009 while flying from Nashville to Baltimore suffered from "fatigue cracking of the fuselage skin near the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer."
"Mismanagement and a lack of risk awareness" drove Japan Airlines into a bankruptcy filing in January under Japan's Corporate Rehabilitation Law, according to a Kyodo summary of a forthcoming report from a panel investigating the carrier's financial troubles.
Ethiopian Airlines and the US Export-Import Bank signed an agreement worth over $1.6 billion to support the financing of five 777-200LRs, 10 787-8s and GE spare engines. Jazz Air Income Fund said that its August cash distribution of C$0.05 per unit covering the period from Aug. 1-Aug. 31 will be paid on September 15 to unit holders of record at the close of business on Aug. 31.
AirBaltic transported 340,586 passengers in July, a 24% increase year-over-year. Load factor dipped 1 point to 76%. Air Canada and Jazz flew 5.38 billion RPMs in July, a 10.8% increase year-over-year, while capacity rose 9.1% to 6.33 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 1.3 points to 84.9%.
Mexicana Airlines and its pilots have reached agreement on a concessionary labor contract as part of an effort to save the struggling company, Reuters reported, citing media reports in Mexico. The carrier is operating under creditor protection in both Mexico and the US, and CEO Manuel Borja said last week that it is "looking for" a capital injection of "between $100 million and $150 million" ( ATW Daily News, Aug. 12).
Southwest Airlines announced "a shuffling of frequencies" for its January/February 2011 flight schedule, including the elimination of Kansas City-Seattle flights from Jan. 9. Writing on SWA's blog, available on its website, Schedule Planning Department Lead Planner Bill Owen said Long Island Islip-Ft. Myers service will be resumed from Feb. 13 while Nashville-Ft. Myers flights will also be launched that day. He said the MCI-SEA service "in all likelihood...will return" by the 2011 summer. No new cities were announced.
Aegean Airlines reported a net loss of €32.6 million ($42 million) for the 2010 first half, citing the deteriorating Greek economy, a €6.6 million extraordinary social contribution charge and “overcapacity prevailing in certain markets.”
AirAsia reported second quarter net income of MYR199 million ($63 million), up 43% over a MYR139.2 million profit in the year-ago period, and announced that it will defer delivery of seven A320s from 2011 to 2015.
SAS Group's SEK502 million ($68.6 million) second quarter net loss, more than halving its SEK1.05 billion loss in the year-ago period, was attributable to the volcanic-ash-related airspace closures in April that cost it SEK790 million in lost revenue, the airline company said yesterday.
Air Canada will launch daily Vancouver-Tokyo Haneda service Jan. 29 aboard a 767-300ER. Moldavian Airlines will launch twice-weekly Chisinau-Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen service Sept. 15 aboard a Fokker 100. Ryanair will launch four new routesfrom London Gatwickto Bologna, Faro, Milan Bergamo and Porto Oct. 31 andincrease the frequency of its LGW-Oslo Rygge route from seven to 10 flights per week.
Evergreen International Airlines, the Oregon-based 747 freighter operator, faces a challenge on the labor front following its pilots' rejection of a tentative collective bargaining agreement. The Air Line Pilots Assn., which represents EIA's 217 flight crew, said in a statement that 92% of cockpit crew voted against accepting the agreement. "The crewmembers could not get past the fact that they are working under 1999 wages and work rules and would have continued to do so for another two years under the rejected tentative agreement," the union said.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of Monday morning’s crash of an Aires 737-700 as it landed in a storm at San Andres Island, killing one passenger who reportedly died of a heart attack ( ATW Daily News, Aug. 17).
BAA and the Unite union representing the UK airport operator's ground staff reached an agreement that both sides said will avert strikes that had threatened to heavily disrupt or even close six major airports this weekend including London Heathrow, London Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
