Aer Lingus cabin crew represented by Impact week voted 92% in favor of the airline's cost-savings proposal following discussions at Ireland's Labor Relations Commissions. Impact said it received "deeper clarification into a number of areas," adding that "cabin crew branch committee has said that they are very pleased with the outcome of the ballot." Aer Lingus three weeks ago said its €97 million ($129.2 million) cost-cutting initiative was being held up by its flight attendants, prompting it to announce 230 redundancies
Austrian Airlines received word from the Russian Ministry of Transport Friday that its traffic rights will be extended until July 1. "We are confident that we can finish negotiations with Russian authorities in a positive way and that the summer schedule will be confirmed to its complete period through Oct. 30," an OS spokesperson told
British Airways said it planned to serve more than 75% of those customers booked on flights from Saturday through Tuesday, when flight attendants represented by Unite were scheduled to engage in the second of two strikes protesting imposed crew reductions.
European airlines expressed disappointment that the provisional agreement on a second-stage EU-US open skies accord reached last week did not increase their access to ownership stakes in US airlines in the near term. The agreement stated that upon legislative change in the US of current foreign ownership restrictions in US airlines (no more than 25% of voting rights), the EU in turn will allow majority ownership of EU airlines by US nationals ( ATWOnline, March 26).
Noting that 2009 was marked by the "extraordinary circumstances" surrounding its re-launch as a private carrier, the integration with Air One and a "thorough reorganization of company procedures, commercial policies, industrial organization and network layout," Alitalia Group closed the year with a net loss of €326 million ($434.3 million) on revenue of €2.92 billion.
Lufthansa Systems signed a five-year contract with Bulgaria Air to provide its Lido RouteManual navigation charts. Contract includes an option to migrate to Lido eRouteManual.
Shenyang Aircraft Corp., an AVIC subsidiary, yesterday began construction on the 21,000-sq.-m. facility in which the CSeries fuselage will be built. SAC delivered the first test fuselage barrel last August to Bombardier's Saint-Laurent site. It is being used to demonstrate manufacturing and engineering structural concepts in advance of the aircraft's final design phase, which is scheduled to begin before year end. It has been subjected to 40,000 simulated flight cycles of testing, Bombardier said
Jet Airways will dry-lease three 777-300ERs to Thai Airways for three years each ( ATWOnline, March 19). Jet also has four -300ERs on lease to Turkish Airlines. Skyworld Aviation said it is assisting in the marketing of six Q400s being sold by Republic Airways Holdings. Aircraft were operated by Frontier Airlines subsidiary Lynx Aviation, which will be dissolved by Republic in September ( ATWOnline, Feb. 5).
Ryanair yesterday launched new bases at Leeds Bradford and Faro. It has two 737s at LBA, from which it will serve 17 destinations. The LCC plans to transport 1 million passengers per year at the airport. It will base seven 737s at Faro operating 30 routes. It plans to serve 1.3 million passengers per year.
Copa Airlines parent Copa Holdings said the secondary offering of 1.8 million Class A nonvoting shares held by Corporacion de Inversiones Aereas resulted in $99.9 million in proceeds, net of underwriting discounts and commissions. Copa did not receive the proceeds.
Transaero Airlines said it plans to begin service from Moscow Domodedovo to Beijing (twice-weekly on June 4 aboard a 747-400), Yakutsk (June 24) and Kostanay and from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok (May 21), Khabarovsk (May 22), Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (May 23) and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (May 24).
AerCap Holdings and Genesis Lease announced completion of their $1.76 billion merger yesterday. Genesis shareholders will receive one AerCap ordinary share for each Genesis share. AerCap said it now is the world's largest independent aircraft leasing company with assets of some $8 billion and a portfolio of 345 commercial aircraft and 92 engines. AerCap CEO Klaus Heinemann and CFO Keith Helming will lead the enlarged company, in which Genesis shareholders now own approximately 29% ( ATWOnline, Sept. 21, 2009).
EU and Turkey initialled a "horizontal" aviation agreement that will remove nationality restrictions in the bilateral air services agreements between EU member states and Turkey. Deal will allow any EU airline to operate flights between Turkey and any EU nation where a bilateral agreement with Turkey exists and traffic rights are available. Turkey is the third-largest external aviation market for EU passenger numbers after the US and Switzerland.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani praised the Latin American airline industry for earning an $800 million profit in 2009 and likely repeating that result this year, but warned that the region's success is too geographically limited and threatened by excessive taxation. Speaking this week at the Wings of Change conference in Santiago, Chile, he said profitability "is a remarkable achievement. . .But the success of the Latin American industry is based on the leadership of a few countries.
Highland Airways, based at Inverness, entered administration Wednesday owing to "ongoing liquidity issues." All flights have been suspended ( ATWOnline, Jan. 26).
Chile President Sebastian Pinera completed offloading his ownership stake in LAN Airlines by selling an 8% share to Chile's Solari and putting the remaining 3.3% up for sale on the Bolsa de Comercio de Santiago, the country's main stock exchange
Japan Airlines announced yesterday that it will ground its freighter fleet after more than half a century of operations and continue its cargo business "solely" through utilizing belly space on its passenger flights.
Air Berlin yesterday said it is expecting a "noticeable increase" in 2010 profit compared to the €9.5 million loss suffered last year, while it simultaneously announced the sale of 11 aircraft to two separate parties.
China Southern Airlines plans to introduce 35 new aircraft this year, increasing its total fleet to 400 by 2011, according to GM Tan Wangeng. He noted that the Guangzhou-based carrier will phase out older MD-90s and 757s. It is scheduled to take delivery of its first A380 and 787 in 2011. It has firm orders for five A380s and 10 787s.
The EU and US yesterday reached a provisional agreement on a second-stage open skies accord, building on the original air services agreement that entered effect in March 2008 and setting a strict timetable and framework for approving the final second-stage agreement.
Southwest Airlines' Aug. 15-Oct. 30 schedule features a reduction of 116 daily roundtrip flights to 3,254 and a move to "restructure" its Washington Dulles service, which it said has been a "small, boutique operation" since it was launched in October 2006. "We're going to refocus our service there to strengthen connectivity to the Midwest and Western parts of our network," Lead Planner Bill Owen said. SWA will eliminate flights from IAD to Orlando International and Tampa and will redirect its flight to Las Vegas through Denver. Daily departures will drop from 11 to eight.
Aires of Colombia took delivery of its eighth 737-700. Aircraft will seat 149 passengers and will be followed by two more this year. It also operates 13 Dash 8-200s. The Bogota-based airline carried 203,405 passengers in January, a nearly fourfold increase year-over-year.
