Avianova, which launched low-fare service from Moscow Vnukovo last August, will transfer its operation to Sheremetyevo's Terminal 1 on March 28. It said it carried more than 130,000 passengers in its first five months of operation.
Air India announced a loss of INR14.74 billion ($316.8 million) in its fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, 2009, a 9.7% improvement from the INR16.32 billion deficit reported in the year-ago period.
Jamaica Finance Minister Audley Shaw said the government expects a final decision regarding Caribbean Airlines' potential takeover of Air Jamaica by the end of the month. He said some 70% of JM's staff of 1,200 will be laid off if the deal goes through, The Gleaner reported. "They'll probably need to keep the planes because they will keep the routes," he said. "We are seeking to divest Air Jamaica on the best terms available and to ensure that we have the seat-lift capacity from all those cities for which we have tourism and Jamaican market travelers.
SR Technics announced that Bernd Kessler will step down as CEO on Jan. 31 after just two years at the helm, "having successfully implemented major restructuring initiatives as well as the repositioning of the company in the market." He will be succeeded by CFO James Stewart, who joined SRT in August 2008 from Aerion Corp. Prior to that he spent 16 years at Bombardier Corp. including a stint as CFO of Bombardier Aerospace.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. posted a 2009 net loss of $651 million, narrowed 87.9% from a $5.4 billion loss in 2008, and said it and the airline industry must continue to pare down costs.
Japan Airlines Group named Japan Air Commuter President Masaru Onishi president of both the Japan Airlines Corp. holding company and the Japan Airlines International operating unit as well as COO for JALS. Onishi, who joined the company in 1978, will join recently appointed CEO Kazuo Inamori in leading it through bankruptcy ( ATWOnline, Jan. 20). The company also named Hisao Taguchi executive VP of both the group and JALI. He has run JAL's Kyushu operation since last April.
ILFC closed out 2009 with the following lease deals and deliveries: One used A320-200 to Wind Jet for five years; one used 737-500 to Georgian Airways for three years; one used 757-200ER to Spanish charter airline Privilege Style for five years (scheduled for February delivery); one used 737-300 to Wings of Lebanon for three years; two used A321-200s to Air Berlin for five years each; one used A321-200 and one used A320-200 to Turkuaz Airlines of Istanbul for five years each; one used 737-400 to Vision Airlines of Las Vegas for five years; one used A310-300 to Biman Bangladesh Airlines
The hybrid model that secured ATW's 2010 Market Leadership Award paid dividends for AirTran Airways in 2009 as it earned a company record $134.7 million net profit that represented a reversal from its $266.3 million loss in 2008 and is the best full-year result reported in the US so far.
Lufthansa Systems signed a five-year deal with Cimber Sterling to provide Lido RouteManual navigation charts and the Lido TakeOff performance analysis solution.
AAR signed a two-year deal with Hawaiian Airlines to provide 10-year checks on 12 HA 717s. Work will be peformed at AAR's Miami facility and will include repainting on certain aircraft.
Aeroflot is on the verge of striking a deal with investor Alexander Lebedev to purchase his 25.8% stake in the carrier, putting SU under full control of the Russian government, which already holds 51%. According to reports from Moscow, Aeroflot will pay around $400 million for Lebedev's shares. He told The Guardian that a deal was reached Tuesday night and that he agreed to purchase Russian-made aircraft for his Moscow Vnukovo-based Red Wings and to sell his 26% share in lessor Ilyushin Finance to the government for $175 million.
Boeing Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said yesterday that "re-engining the 73[7] is under active consideration" with customers "anxious for us to make a move" on a more efficient narrowbody.
Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines, which lost Qantas and Air New Zealand as members, is courting carriers from mainland China as it looks to compensate. "We welcome China's mainland airlines to become members of AAPA. Although their focus is the domestic market right now, their long-term growth is in the international market," DG Andrew Herdman told ATWOnline this week in Beijing. He revealed that the organization has held informal talks with major Chinese airlines and has maintained regular contact with CAAC and the China Air Transport Assn. regarding membership.
Jazeera Airways announced a $105 million financing agreement with Natixis Transport Finance for three A320s. It currently flies 11 of the type and has 29 more on order and scheduled for delivery through 2016.
Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. posted a record full-year profit of $76.3 million, more than double the $35.4 million reported in 2008. Operating revenue rose 10.7% to $557.9 million while expenses dropped 2.8% to $435.7 million, boosting operating income more than twofold to $122.3 million from $55.8 million in 2008. Cost cuts came largely from decreased fuel and aircraft leasing expenses.
Airbus signed an MOU with CDB Leasing of China "to share competence and experience to cooperate on a variety of leasing and financing projects," including pre-delivery payment financing, delivery financing and passenger-to-freighter conversion projects. CLC will offer financing solutions to airlines around the world and committed to $4 billion in sale-and-leaseback transactions over the next five years.
Delta Air Lines posted a 2009 net loss of $1.24 billion, narrowed considerably from a massive deficit of $8.92 billion in 2008 when results were affected by heavy goodwill impairment charges and costs related to its acquisition of Northwest Airlines.
American International Group has decided not to divest ILFC after deciding the profit from the sale would be insufficient, sources told the Financial Times. The paper said that Standard & Poor's has cut ILFC's credit rating to the lowest investment-grade level. Sources told FT that founder and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy has not decided whether to leave ILFC. He was replaced as chairman by Doug Steenland last month ( ATWOnline, Jan. 26).
Baboo reported revenue of CHF73 million ($70.2 million) in 2009, up 30% from the prior year, on a 38% rise in passenger numbers to 406,000. The Geneva-based carrier called 2009 "above all a year of consolidation and of establishing a coherent network based on partnerships." It currently operates three E-190s and two Q400s to 19 destinations. Last year it signed codeshare agreements with Air France, Tarom and Alitalia and linked to AF's loyalty program.
FAA expects to have a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking covering new flight/duty-time regulations for commercial airline pilots out this spring, Administrator Randy Babbitt said yesterday. Speaking to the Aero Club of Washington, he acknowledged he had missed his target of a new rule by year end 2009 but compared the rulemaking to running a "3-minute mile" compared to the normal regulatory process. He also said that the agency is "on track" with plans to update pilot training and qualification requirements, a step also arising from last year's Colgan Air crash.
Emirates will launch five-times-weekly Dubai-Tokyo Narita service on March 28 aboard a three-class 777-300ER. AirAsia announced the following new seasonal service to India: Kuala Lumpur to Chennai (daily May 17-Oct. 30 aboard an A320), Bangalore (daily May 20-Oct. 30 aboard an A320), Hyderabad (daily July 20-Oct. 30 aboard an A320), Mumbai (four-times-weekly May 6-Oct. 30 aboard an AirAsia X A330) and Delhi (daily Aug. 4-Oct. 30 aboard an AirAsia X A330); Penang to Chennai (daily April 28-Oct. 30 aboard an A320).
US Air Transport Assn., Regional Airline Assn. and Air Carrier Assn. of America requested a 90-day extension of the US Dept. of Transportation mandate requiring airlines to publish flight delay information on their websites by April 29 ( ATWOnline, Dec. 22, 2009).
Aer Lingus yesterday warned that it expects market conditions will remain "extremely challenging" in 2010 and that full-year revenue will be "lower than 2009, with the first half of 2010 being particularly weak."
Lebanese Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said yesterday that the Ethiopian Airlines 737-800 that crashed Monday into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Beirut failed to follow the flight path established by ATC. All 90 passengers and crew are believed to be dead ( ATWOnline, Jan. 26). The control tower told the pilot "to correct his path, but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar," Aridi told the Associated Press.
LAN Airlines recorded a net profit of $231.1 million in 2009, down 31.3% from the $336.5 million earned in 2008, a result it claimed demonstrated "the strength of the company's business model and LAN's resiliency to external shocks."
