Shunfeng Airlines, which will be China's first express delivery cargo airline, has been approved by CAAC. The carrier was established by delivery company Shunfeng Express and has registered capital of CNY100 million ($14.6 million), according to the regulator. Shenzhen Taihai Investment Co. will hold a 75% stake and Shunfeng Express the remainder. The new venture will be based in Shenzhen and is expected to operate two 757-200s initially.
Singapore Airlines flew 7.28 billion RPKs in October, down 6% from the year-ago month, against a 10.3% cut in capacity to 8.98 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 3.6 points to 81.1%. Swiss International Air Lines flew 2.5 billion RPKs in August, a 0.2% fall year-over-year. Capacity dropped 5.1% to 2.9 billion ASKs and load factor rose 4.2 points to 86.2%. Austrian Airlines flew 1.52 billion RPKs last month, an 8.5% reduction year-over-year, against an 11.8% decline in capacity to 1.94 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 2.8 points to 78.2%.
United Airlines will operate seasonal daily Chicago O'Hare-Rome Fiumicino service May 1-Aug. 31 aboard a 767. American Eagle launched daily Charleston, S.C.-Miami service aboard an ERJ-145. Flight becomes twice-daily April 6. Qatar Airways will increase its five-times-weekly Doha-Stockholm Arlanda service to daily on March 28, when it replaces an A310 with an A330.
PACE signed an agreement with Airbus Operations Germany to develop a software solution for streamlining configuration of its passenger cabin maintenance manuals.
Gategroup announced a series of "major contract renewals" with Delta Air Lines and its Northwest Airliens subsidiary worth more than $1 billion "over several years" and encompassing deals with Gate Gourmet, Gate Safe, eGate Solutions, Pourshins and deSter. The company also recently extended its contract with Swiss International Air Lines for three years through 2015. New deal covers operations in Zurich, Geneva and Basel and is worth more than CHF600 million ($593.6 million)
Wizz Air will base a third A320 at Cluj-Napoca from June 12 and launch thrice-weekly service to Pisa and Cuneo. It also will launch thrice-weekly Bucharest Baneasa-Pisa on June 12, twice-weekly Timisoara-Forli on March 29 and thrice-weekly Budapest-Forli on March 30. The LCC said more new destinations from CLJ will be announced "shortly."
Bmi yesterday outlined a major restructuring of its mainline and regional operations, including suspension of unprofitable routes, reduction of its mainline fleet by nine aircraft to 30 and around 600 fulltime job cuts. The manpower reductions equate to approximately 13.5% of bmi's workforce of 4,470 and will impact all areas of the business. "Further job cuts cannot be ruled out," the airline warned. The moves follow the bmibaby shakeup announced three weeks ago ( ATWOnline, Nov. 5).
Delta Air Lines intends to raise $688.7 million through the sale of pass-through certificates in two classes with annual interest rates of 7.75% and 9.75% respectively. The notes are backed by 27 Boeing aircraft, with proceeds going toward refinancing 22 aircraft DL currently operates and payments on an additional five aircraft delivered this year, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Baltia Air Lines, a New York JFK-based startup aiming to serve Eastern Europe, took delivery of its first 747, it announced yesterday. It said the aircraft was purchased and "paid for in full" and that it "has no debt, and we intend to expand our fleet using revenues generated once we start flight operations."
AirAsia's growth continued unabated in the third quarter despite the recession, as the LCC posted a MYR130.1 million ($38.4 million) profit that represented a reversal from the MYR465.5 million loss suffered in the year-ago period.
US Airways yesterday announced that it is deferring 54 of the 72 aircraft it was scheduled to receive from Airbus in 2010-12, comprising 46 A320s and eight A330s, and will push back the launch of its A350 service from 2015 to 2017.
Turkish Airlines firmed its order for two A330-200 freighters announced three weeks ago ( ATWOnline, Nov. 9). Delivery will begin next fall, Airbus said. THY currently operates four A310 freighters.
Continental Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines were fined a combined $100,000 and Mesaba Airlines $75,000 by the US Dept. of Transportation yesterday for their roles in the stranding incident at Rochester (Minn.) International in August. ExpressJet was the operator of CO Flight 2816 and Mesaba was responsible for ground handling. Passengers were stuck onboard the ERJ-145 for more than 5 hr.
Ryanair will set up its 37th base, and first in Norway, at Oslo Rygge in March with three aircraft and 16 new routes, it announced yesterday. It currently service six destinations from RYG. New destinations will be Aarhus, Berlin Schonefeld, Dublin, Dusseldorf Weeze, Eindhoven, Gdansk, Krakow, La Rochelle, Malaga, Memmingen, Palma, Paris Beauvais, Riga, Wroclaw, Valencia and Treviso. The LCC said its investment at the airport will exceed $200 million and that it eventually expects to serve 1.7 million passengers per year.
Emirates said it will begin serving Paris Charles de Gaulle with a 489-seat A380 on Dec. 29 rather than Feb. 1. "An operational review, coupled with demand on the route, has led to an earlier introduction," it said. EK operates the route twice-daily. The A380 will fly thrice-weekly to start, becoming daily Jan. 17. EK also announced a new five-times-weekly Dubai-Tokyo Narita service starting March 28 aboard a 777-300ER. Japan Airlines will codeshare.
Qantas dismissed rumors out of London that it is interested in restarting merger talks with British Airways, stating yesterday that "consolidation is not on the carrier's agenda."
Japan Airlines yesterday said it reached agreement with the Development Bank of Japan for an emergency bridge loan "necessary for continuance of our flight operations." The troubled airline said the Japanese government had approved the loan. JAL did not reveal the loan's amount but Japanese media pegged it at around ¥100 billion ($1.12 billion).
Spring Airlines expects to report a CNY120 million ($17.5 million) net profit for 2009, a sixfold increase from the CNY20 million earned last year, according to the Chairman Wang Zhenghua. The Shanghai Hongqiao-based LCC was CNY140 million in the black through September owing to rapid growth in the domestic market, "but the fourth quarter is the traditional low season, so it's not surprising that we are suffering from a daily loss of CNY600,000 this month," Wang noted. Spring is planning a dramatic fleet expansion.
IATA said that 19 of 34 Eurocontrol states have proposed overflight charge increases in 2010 that will result in a 2.7% net lift in average unit rates equal to around $360 million. The Eurocontrol Enlarged Committee for Route Charges is scheduled to meet today. Armenia proposed the largest increase (32%), while Poland (18%), Romania (17%) and Austria (14%) are the largest when adjusted for the amount of traffic. Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Moldova, Malta, Bulgaria and Finland proposed reductions.
AeroMechanical Services and L-3 Communications reached an agreement under which L-3 will sell AMS's real-time data communications and Internet data delivery systems for aircraft. AMS will be the exclusive provider to L-3 of Iridium satellite-based real-time data communications and Internet data delivery technology under the brand name FLYHT.
Blue Wings 48% shareholder Alexander Lebedev is preparing to transfer his stake to Aeroflot, German daily Handelsblatt reported, adding that he hopes to generate €100million ($148.6 million) from the sale of his shares.
Malev Hungarian Airlines will re-launch daily Budapest-Serbia service Dec. 14 aboard 72-seat Q400s after a 17-year hiatus. It suspended operations to Belgrade in 1992 owing to the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars. Jet Airways increased 13-times-weekly Delhi-Kathmandu to twice-daily and will launch daily Mumbai-Kathmandu flights Dec. 2 aboard a 737. Etihad Airways launched four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Hyderabad service aboard an A320, increasing to daily from the start of 2010.
