United Airlines will launch its first flights to Africa next spring when it begins serving Accra and Lagos daily from Washington Dulles. It also announced extension of its daily IAD-Kuwait City 777 service to Bahrain and a new Chicago O'Hare-Brussels flight. The daily IAD-Accra-Lagos flight will commence May 2 and be operated by a 767. The KWI-BAH leg will begin April 2, while the ORD-BRU 767 service will launch on March 28. UA currently serves BRU from IAD.
Airbus yesterday operated the A330-200 freighter's first flight from Toulouse, flying for 4 hr. and reaching 41,000 ft. It expects first delivery to occur next summer to Etihad Crystal Cargo following a 180-hr. flight test program ( ATWOnline, Oct. 30). It currently has 67 firm orders from nine customers. In addition, Turkish Airlines has signed an MOU for two of the mid-size cargo aircraft.
Emirates appears to have flown untouched through the industry downturn, reporting a AED752 million ($204.7 million) profit in the fiscal semester ended Sept. 30, more than double the AED284 million earned in the year-ago period.
Japan Airlines announced closure of the following international routes: Osaka Kansai-Hangzhou, Tokyo Narita-Hangzhou, NRT-Qingdao (both passenger and freighter service), NRT-Xiamen (all on Dec. 7), KIX-Busan, KIX-Hanoi (both Jan. 12), KIX-Singapore-Kuala Lumpur (Jan. 17) and NRT-Vancouver-Mexico City (Jan. 18). It will close its offices in Hangzhou, Qingdao, Xiamen and Mexico City. It will cut one of four daily NRT-Taipei and one of two daily NRT-London Heathrow frequencies from Dec. 7 while increasing NRT-YVR service to daily from five-times-weekly effective Jan. 18.
SkyTeam officials said Vietnam Airlines and Tarom will join the alliance as full members in June, according to a statement from the group's Incheon board meeting cited by Bloomberg News. The Romanian carrier signed an associate agreement with the alliance in May 2008 ( ATWOnline, May 8, 2008), while VN was invited formally last April ( ATWOnline, April 16). SkyTeam also is interested in Japan Airlines, currently a member of oneworld.
Aeroflot reported a RUB5.98 billion ($204.5 million) profit in the first nine months of 2009, up 8% year-over-year according to Russian accounting standards, on a 9% drop in revenue. It carried 6.5 million passengers in the first nine months of 2009, down 8.9% year-over-year, while RPKs dropped 8% to 19.21 billion. Load factor was 69%. SU board approved the lease of six A321s, the airline said.
SkyWest Inc., parent of SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, reported third-quarter net income of $28.6 million, a 9.2% increase from $26.2 million earned in the year-ago period. Quarterly revenue fell 31.7% to $637.7 million while expenses decreased 34.3% to $574.5 million, resulting in operating income of $63.3 million, up 5% from $60.3 million last year. It attributed the revenue drop to a $296.4 million decrease in fuel passthroughs as well as a transition to third-party customer service handling at several stations.
Hawaiian Airlines said it completed installation of Aviation Partners Boeing blended winglets on a 767-300. It expects to have winglets installed on eight 767s by next summer. HA estimated that winglets will produce savings of 700-800 gal. of fuel for every round trip between the US West Coast and Hawaii.
V Australia, the international arm of Virgin Blue, is understood to be close to announcing an order for 777-200LRs for new nonstop Sydney-New York JFK and Perth-London Heathrow service beginning in 2011. CEO Brett Godfrey is in the final stages of negotiations with Boeing for an order of up to 70 aircraft that will include six 300-seat 777-200LRs, 737-800s and 737-900ERs for fleet replacement and expansion ( ATWOnline, Sept. 22).
SAS Group posted its first quarterly profit since the 2007 third quarter, a SEK152 million ($21.5 million) surplus in the three months ended Sept. 30 that represented a reversal from the SEK1.99 billion deficit suffered in the year-ago period.
Continental Airlines said October consolidated unit revenue fell an estimated 14%-15% year-over-year, while mainline RASM was down 15%-16%. It flew 7.26 billion consolidated RPMs, up 1.7%, against a 2.6% cut in capacity to 8.8 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 3.5 points to 82.5%. United Airlines flew 9.68 billion consolidated RPMs in October, down 1.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 4.3% to 11.64 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.3 points to 83.1%.
KLM will conduct a biofuel test flight on Nov. 23 using a 747 with one engine powered by a 50/50 blend of camelina-based fuel and traditional kerosene. A "select group of passengers" will be onboard, which the carrier said is a world first.
US FAA denied an application from the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority to institute a nighttime curfew on air traffic at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. The authority had sought permanently to ban operations from 10 p.m. to 6:59 a.m. local time except for law enforcement, medical flights, emergencies, etc. Passenger airlines currently observe a voluntary curfew during those times, according to the Los Angeles Times. In an Oct.
US FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt yesterday said there is an "extreme need to refocus on professionalism" among airline pilots, citing the "recent very sad example" of two Northwest Airlines A320 pilots who "lost total situational awareness" and overflew their intended destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
AirTran Airways stepped up the competition at Milwaukee yesterday, announcing a new marketing partnership with SkyWest Airlines under which the regional will operate five 50-seat CRJ200s under its own brand and livery to six destinations out of General Mitchell International starting Dec. 4.
ExpressJet Airlines parent ExpressJet Holdings reported a third-quarter loss of $9 million, reversed from net income of $4.4 million in the year-ago period, although it narrowed its operating loss considerably. Revenue dropped 31.7% to $179.2 million. The company attributed the fall to "softness in passenger demand," according to President and CEO Jim Ream. Expenses were down 35.7% to $187.3 million and operating loss narrowed to $8.1 million, a 71.9% improvement over the $29 million suffered last year.
AirBaltic will start charging a €5 ($7.36) fee per passenger for airport check-in on Nov. 16. Internet check-in will remain free of charge. The airport fee will not be levied against loyalty program members, passengers with reduced mobility, children younger than 12 and those departing from airports at which Web check-in is unavailable.
Bmibaby will reduce its 737 fleet by five aircraft to 12 next year as part of a restructuring plan "that will see it focus its activities and efforts on routes where there are clear indications and prospects for future growth and development."
Gol announced a management restructuring: CFO Leonardo Pereira now will be responsible for the technology, business development and strategic planning departments in addition to finance, controls and investor relations. The unnamed VP-market will head cargo, commercial, corporate communications, marketing, yield management and alliance departments, while new VP-Customers, Employees and Management Ricardo Khauaja will run the human resources and management, customer service, airport and commercial crew departments.
WestJet yesterday acknowledged that installation of the SabreSonic Customer Sales and Service reservation system last month has led to numerous complications, including a temporary website shutdown and ongoing difficulty in making changes to passengers' reservations, and asked customers for "patience" while it works out the kinks.
Air India pilots represented by the Indian Commercial Pilots Assn. warned they are ready to strike on Nov. 24, issuing a statement saying, "We intend to tell the public and the political leadership what is wrong with Air India. . .if issues including that of pending arrears are not addressed by Air India management by Nov. 10," the Press Trust of India reported.
Shanghai Airlines suffered a CNY42.7 million ($6.2 million) loss in the third quarter, narrowed 90.2% from a CNY437.5 million deficit in the year-ago period. Operating revenue jumped 14.9% to CNY3.62 billion while expenses rose 6% to CNY3.81 billion. SAL cited a decline in passenger boardings caused by the global financial crisis, stricter security measures taken prior to China's Oct. 1 national holiday and falling fares as the culprits.
Single European Sky prospects took another step forward last week following the signing of an eight-year, €50 million agreement by Eurocontrol and SITA to launch the Pan European Network Service, which will allow air navigation service providers from 38 countries to exchange operational data and voice communications across a common network for the first time.
