Qatar Airways announced new routes from Doha to Bangalore (daily beginning in February), Ankara (four-times-weekly in April) and Tokyo Narita (daily via Osaka Kansai from the end of April). Flights to Incheon currently operated via KIX will become nonstop from Doha at the end of March. WestJet announced the following new routes: Vancouver to Waterloo (daily from June 27) and San Francisco (daily from June 28); Edmonton to Kamloops and San Francisco (each thrice-weekly from May 2); weekly Toronto-Puerto Vallarta beginning May 7.
Tiger Airways filed preliminary paperwork seeking a listing on the Singapore Exchange, although investors Singapore Airlines (49%) and Temasek Holdings subsidiary Dahlia Investments (11%) will not sell their shares as part of the planned IPO, according to the filing. Reuters reported that Indigo Partners (24%) will divest some of its stake and RyanAsia will reduce its share if an overallotment option is triggered.
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China chose CFM International's LEAP-X1C to power the 150-seat C919, the country's large commercial aircraft scheduled to enter service in 2016.
UTair Aviation of Russia launched a Ukrainian subsidiary, UTair-Ukraine, which is operating from Moscow Vnukovo to Luhansk, Kharkov and Nikolaev with ATR 42s. UTair transported 3.2 million passengers in the first 11 months of 2009, up 6.1% year-over-year. Load factor was up 0.8 point to 71.3%.
Ryanair announced a return to Fuerteventura. The LCC pulled out of the Canary Islands airport in January following a dispute with tourism authorities ( ATWOnline, Dec. 11, 2008). It will return next March after reaching an agreement with the local government to extend an airport charges discount scheme through February 2012.
Moscow Domodedovo announced that "in accordance to ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices" it now is capable of operating simultaneous departures from its parallel runways spaced 2 km. apart. The airport said this will "ensure future increased capacity" up to 90 movements per hr. DME is Russia's largest airport in terms of passenger traffic, with a 45% share of passenger volume. It is served by 80 airlines.
Air Arabia reported a AED144 million ($39.2 million) third-quarter profit excluding exceptional items, down 8.9% from the AED158 million earned in the year-ago period. Its nine-month profit excluding exceptional items rose 6% year-over-year to AED337 million from AED318 million last year. Revenue was down 1.7% to AED1.47 billion. Nine-month passenger traffic increased 13.8% to 3 million and load factor was 79%.
Alaska Airlines ramp service and stores agents represented by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ratified a two-year contract extension, while 2,800 clerical, office and passenger service employees represented by the same union rejected an identical two-year offer, the airline announced. It said it will reopen negotiations with the latter group in early 2010.
Turkish Airlines Chairman Candan Karlitekin submitted his resignation last week and will leave the company on Jan. 1. A source close to THY told ATWOnline that Karlitekin left of his own free will and offered no reason for the decision. He had held the post since 2002. Reuters reported that Deputy Chairman Hamdi Topcu will succeed Karlitekin next month.
Telluride (Colo.) Regional reopened last Thursday following completion of Phase II of the airport's modernization project. The $22 million program included removal/replacement of the existing runway, reducing grades, widening safety areas, extending the length of the runway and adding all new runway lighting. The airport said that Phase III of the reconstruction "will likely begin in 2010 and will widen the remaining safety areas and add an engineered material arresting system for runway overruns."
Transaero Airlines is discussing increasing its cooperation with Star Alliance (it currently codeshares with Austrian Airlines and bmi) and would consider full membership, although DG Olga Pleshakova said this currently is "not the top priority," Vienna's Der Standard reported. Transaero is the most obvious Russian target for Star since Aeroflot is a member of SkyTeam and S7 Airlines is set to join oneworld ( ATWOnline, May 27).
Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways and AirAsia "have entered discussions regarding a potential cost-saving joint venture," QF said in a statement last week. A Jetstar spokesperson told Dow Jones that the companies are "looking at ways we can further cut costs through economies of scale" via cooperation on airport operations and procurement. "We both compete for passengers from a growing pool, and that clearly will remain." A source told Dow Jones that no cross-ownership is involved.
The US Air Transport Assn. reported that passenger revenue fell 7% in November versus the same month in 2008 based on a sample group of carriers that includes the major network airlines and their regional partners but excludes Southwest Airlines. November was the 13th consecutive month of annual revenue declines, which ATA said were fueled primarily by the 12th consecutive month of ticket price declines. Approximately 1% fewer passengers traveled on US airlines in November, while the average price to fly 1 mi. fell 6.4%.
AMF, the French stock market regulator, last week cleared 17 current and former EADS/Airbus executives of wrongdoing regarding alleged insider trading related to A380 program delays.
Thai Airways will pass operation of routes to Phitsanulok, Ubol Ratchathani and Mae Hong Son to LCC Nok Airways, in which Thai is the largest shareholder. The change takes effect March 1. Thai said passengers "will continue to receive the same standard of services" on Nok flights. It said it lost an average of THB211.1 million ($6.3 million) per year over the past five years operating to the three cities.
ATR opened a logistics support center at Kuala Lumpur International to be managed by DHL Supply Chain. It said there are nearly 90 ATR aircraft operating in Southeast Asia. ATR also has centers in Paris, Miami, Auckland and Singapore.
SAS Group airlines flew 1.86 billion RPKs in November, down 11.3% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 13.5% to 2.77 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1.7 points to 67.2%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 1.72 billion RPKs, down 12%, against a 14% fall in ASKs to 2.53 billion. Load factor rose 1.5 points to 67.9%. Air Berlin said November unit revenue rose 1.7% year-over-year to €5.24 cents (7.55 cents). Passenger numbers fell 0.1% to 2.2 million and load factor was down 0.8 point to 71.9% on a 1.1% rise in capacity.
Ryanair will outline plans to reduce growth and capital expenditures "significantly" in the first quarter of the new year after negotiations with Boeing for an order of up to 200 new 737-800s formally broke down, although it still plans to take 112 previously ordered -800s (including 48 next year) to sustain growth over the medium term.
China's airlines earned a collective profit of CNY7.35 billion ($1.07 billion) through the first 11 months of 2009, almost triple the CNY2.53 billion reported in the year-ago period, according to CAAC.
EU last week finalized and implemented an open skies accord with Canada, signed an air services pact with the West African Economic and Monetary Union and reached agreement with Iceland and Norway to allow those nations to become part of the EU-US open skies deal. The Canada agreement, first announced in May, allows airlines from each side to operate freely without any restrictions on the number of carriers or flights between any airport in the EU and any in Canada ( ATWOnline, May 8).
