Sabre Airline Solutions renewed its contract with Aeroflot to continue to provide its SabreSonic customer sales and service reservations system, including new website capabilities. Terms were not disclosed.
Nav Canadasaid it will issue C$250 million three-year floating rate General Obligation Notes. The notes bear interest at the three month Bankers’ Acceptance rate plus 40 basis points. Closing is scheduled for April 29. Proceeds will be used to refinance C$250 million Series MTN2007-1 floating rate General Obligation Notes that will mature on May 3.
Hainan Airlines reported net income of CNY334.7 million ($49.1 million) for 2009, a big turnaround from a net loss of CNY1.41 billion in 2008, citing gains from the government's return of the civil aviation fund and real estate investments. Operating revenue climbed 14.7% to CNY15.55 billion while operating expenses rose 6% to 13.26 billion. Passenger boardings jumped 21.2% to 17.4 million with average load factor decreasing 0.5 point to 78%. Cargo volume increased 26.5% to 236,000 tonnes.
UK Office of Fair Trading announced last week that Virgin Atlantic Airways and Cathay Pacific Airways are being investigated for possible price-fixing on the London-Hong Kong route, adding that CX brought the allegations to its attention.
Vueling Airlines reported a €6.3 million ($8.4 million) first-quarter net loss, on par with the deficit it posted in the year-ago quarter as a standalone company, despite a 90% rise in revenue to €141.8 million.
Air China posted a record profit of CNY4.85 billion ($711.5 million) in 2009, significantly reversed from a net loss of CNY9.26 billion in 2008, saying its fortunes were boosted by a growing domestic market and fuel hedge gains.
US Air Transport Assn. in comments filed at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Friday supported a proposed CFTC rule intended to reduce the volatility of energy prices caused by excessive market speculation. The proposed rule would establish speculative position limits and increase market transparency and reporting requirements, ATA said (ATWOnline, Jan. 18).
United Airlines, in an 8-K document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, announced that owing to a change in accounting for unused frequent-flyer miles it would recognize an additional $64 million of incremental passenger revenue for the recently ended first quarter of 2010.
said its Frontier Airlines subsidiary, consolidating Frontier Airlines and Midwest Airlines, will introduce Aircell's Gogo inflight Internet product on its 32 E-170s and E-190s by year end. Republic said it "will continue to research inflight connectivity options" before making a decision whether to install a system on its fleet of 52 A320 family aircraft. Those aircraft, part of the original Frontier fleet, already are equipped with JetBlue's DirecTV live television product.
Honeywell inked a contract valued at $40 million over the life of the program to supply Varig with its full suite of safety avionics including its IntuVue weather radar, traffic alert and collision avoidance system, quantum line communications and navigation system, solid state flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder and emergency locator transmitter. Equipment will be included on 65 737-800s expected to begin delivering in 2013.
Boeing's 787 has begun a series of extreme-weather tests at Valparaiso, Fla. The manufacturer said a special hangar at McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Elgin AFB allows the airplane to experience temperatures as high as 115 deg. F (46 deg. C) and as low as minus 45 deg. F.
Air Berlin and MC Aviation Partners signed a purchase and leaseback agreement for three 737-800s. The first delivery took place in January with the remaining aircraft scheduled for delivery in May and August. All three are powered by CFM56-7B24s.
Transaero Airlines said passenger traffic during the first quarter rose 72.7% year-over-year to 5.56 billion RPKs with both domestic and international operations experiencing growth.
Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport AG said airlines that had aircraft stranded at FRA during the closure of European airspace don't have to pay a parking fee. Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte said the airport operator could have collected €500,000 ($670,365) in aircraft parking fees.
Aeroflot this year will become the first Russian carrier to offer inflight Internet and mobile phone services, both of which it said will be available on four aircraft by year end. "Mobile telephony onboard an aircraft is a breakthrough for Russian aviation," CEO Vitaly Savelyev said. JSC MegaFon, a Russian mobile services operator, will install mobile communication "base stations" onboard four aircraft in 2010, with the first to be deployed on an A320 this summer followed by an A330 serving transcontinental flights and two additional A320s.
Finnair, one of the airlines most affected by the volcanic ash crisis, said its flight schedule likely will return to normal over the weekend. On Thursday it operated only around 30% of its European flights but was able to resume almost all of its long-haul flights. Seperately, Finnair Technical Services signed a maintenance agreement with Swedish charter airline TUIfly Nordic. The long-term agreement includes C checks for 757-200s and daily line maintenance in Helsinki for 757-200s and a 767-300. TUIfly Nordic operate two 757-200s and one 767-300.
US Dept. of Transportation yesterday denied requests from five US airlines for temporary exemptions from the new tarmac delay rule that takes effect April 29. JetBlue Airways, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines sought exemptions for their operations at New York JFK until the main runway, which is undergoing rehabilitation, reopens later this year. This was followed by requests from Continental Airlines for exemptions at New York LaGuardia and Newark and by US Airways at Philadelphia ( ATWOnline, April 7) .
Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reported its third first-quarter profit in 11 years and its best since 1999, earning $5.3 million during its "seasonally. . .weakest quarter of the year." The positive result, reversed from a $19.2 million loss in the year-ago quarter, was helped by $23 million in baggage fees and the company said it is aiming to streamline that ancillary revenue source going forward.
European Volcanological Society President Henry Gaudru said yesterday that European authorities had no choice but to close much of their airspace for multiple days when volcanic ash drifted over the continent from Iceland
Norwegian Air Shuttle reported a NOK199.1 million ($33.7 million) first-quarter net loss, sharply higher than the NOK109.6 million deficit it posted in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 15% to NOK1.59 billion but operating expenses climbed 20.6%, including a 40% jump in fuel costs. Operating loss deepened to NOK238.5 million from NOK134.1 million in the year-earlier period. But CEO Bjorn Kjos said he was "satisfied with the result," particularly "in light of the strong passenger and production growth."
