Ryanair will base a third and fourth 737-800 at Trapani from March and launch new service to Billund, Bratislava, Cagliari, Eindhoven, Genoa, Gothenburg, Ibiza, Baden-Baden, Krakow, Maastricht, Memmingen, Trieste and Valencia. It will increase flights to Brussels South Charleroi, Frankfurt Hahn and Dusseldorf Weeze and plans to operate to 34 destinations from TPS next summer. The LCC also plans to add a third -800 at Bologna and March, supporting a new thrice-weekly service to Malaga and additional frequencies to London Stansted and Ibiza.
V Australia launched twice-weekly Melbourne-Los Angeles service on Sunday and will begin weekly MEL-Phuket on Dec. 3 aboard a 777-300. American Airlines brought forward the start of its daily Chicago O'Hare-Beijing 777 service to April 26 from May 1. Blue1 will operate a seasonal weekly Kittila-Dusseldorf flight Jan. 14 - March 25.
Air India and pilots represented by the Indian Commercial Pilots' Assn. reached an agreement Sunday that allowed the carrier to avoid a strike scheduled to begin today ( ATWOnline, Nov. 18). "The agreement involves some financial payout by the airline," an AI official told The Hindu. ICPA General Secretary R.S. Otaal said AI "accepted all our demands," according to Mint.
Emirates President Tim Clark is upbeat about the airline's future despite the financial challenges facing Dubai that came to light last week, when the emirate announced it would seek to delay debt payments owed by Dubai World, the government's primary investment company.
El Al reported a $12.3 million third-quarter profit, down 60.3% from the $31 million earned in the year-ago period, on an 18% fall in revenue to $496.1 million caused largely by lower yields and the rising US dollar. CEO Haim Romano said the net result is "indicative of [El Al's] ability to weather the global financial crisis." Operating expenses declined 15% to $400.7 million as fuel prices fell, and operating profit slipped 53.4% to $23.8 million from $51.1 million in the 2008 third quarter. Passenger numbers climbed 7% year-over-year.
Edward Stimpson, who retired as chairman of the Flight Safety Foundation on Nov. 1, died Nov. 25 of cancer. He was 75. Before joining FSF he served as US ambassador to the ICAO Council for five years. Prior to his 1999 nomination to the Council, he spent 25 years as president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. and is associated closely with the 1994 passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act, widely seen as helping to revive that segment of the industry.
Travelport reached a deal with Gol to provide its Interline E-ticket Interchange technology, including the ETDBase e-ticket database. The LCC codeshares with Air France KLM, American Airlines, Iberia, AeroMexico and Copa Airlines and has interline agreements with 60 carriers.
European Parliament yesterday adopted a resolution calling on the European Commission to consider proposing new legislation guaranteeing passenger compensation and assistance in case of airline bankruptcy.
Thai Airways took delivery of one A340-500 and one A340-600, lifting its fleet to 90 aircraft. Planes are powered by Trent 500s. The -500 seats 215 across three classes and will operate to Los Angeles and Athens, while the -600 seats 267 and will fly to Tokyo Narita, Shanghai, Zurich and Sydney.
Malaysia Airlines returned to the red in the third quarter, reporting a MYR298.9 million ($88.2 million) loss that represented a reversal from the restated MYR38.6 million surplus earned in the year-ago period and its second deficit in three quarters this year. A precipitous 26.8% year-over-year plunge in operating revenue to MYR2.89 billion, plus a MYR202.1 million loss on fuel hedges, proved too much for MAS to overcome. Nevertheless, MD and CEO Azmil Zahruddin said that "fuel prices are on an upward trend [and] hedging is the right policy as fuel prices remain volatile."
Australia's Regional Express posted net income of A$3.7 million ($3.4 million) for its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30, down 22.9% from a A$4.8 million profit in the year ago period, blaming the decline on one-time restructuring costs incurred by its charter subsidiaries and the "global financial crisis."
Air Slovakia will wet-lease five aircraft to Albanian Airlines for one year and will "assist [Albanian] to develop its operational capabilities in its efforts to operate scheduled services and become the leading airline of the region." Air Slovakia operates 737s and 757s while Albanian has BAe 146s and MD-82s, according to its website.
Engine Alliance named Mary Ellen Jones president succeeding Jim Moravecek, who will return to Pratt & Whitney. Jones led Pratt's Commercial Engines & Global Services Marketing division.
Novair A321 RNP demonstration flights into Stockholm Arlanda over the summer, part of the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions, demonstrated "that there are capabilities in modern aircraft that can be used to reduce the environmental load in today's air traffic system," according to a statement issued yesterday by SESAR and Airbus. The EU ATC modernization program and the manufacturer teamed with charter carrier Novair, Swedish ATC provider LFV and ARN to operate the 10 flights and collect data. "The flights have demonstrated a lateral standard deviation of 0.01 nm.
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.
