JetBlue Airways and Lufthansa launched codeshare operations yesterday at New York JFK and Boston. Passengers originating in 13 JetBlue destinations currently have access to transatlantic flights on LH out of JFK and BOS, with more cities set to come online next year, the airlines said. Alaska Airlines launched service from Oakland to Kahului (four-times-weekly) and Kona (thrice-weekly) aboard a 737-800. US Airways will resume thrice-daily Melbourne, Fla.-Charlotte service on Feb. 11 after a 12-year hiatus. Flights will be aboard PSA Airlines CRJ700s.
American Airlines Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey reiterated this week that he sees no need to relinquish slots at London Heathrow in order to address possible competition concerns over AA's planned transatlantic joint venture with British Airways and Iberia.
Grupo Mexicana CEO Manuel Borja expects that the carrier's membership in oneworld will strengthen its "position considerably in an increasingly competitive marketplace" and boost international passenger traffic by 5%-7%.
Gol reported third-quarter net income of BRL77.9 million ($45.6 million), reversed from a BRL510.7 million loss in the year ago period when foreign exchange losses and interest expenses weighed down the bottom line.
Hawaiian Airlines said dispatchers represented by the Transport Workers Union ratified a new four-year labor agreement providing "increased pay and benefits as well as profit sharing" to the employees and "operational improvements" to HA.
Singapore Airlines reported a S$158.8 million ($114.4 million) loss in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, reversed from a S$323.8 million profit in the year-ago period, but said that "advanced bookings indicate that demand for air travel has stopped declining and is gradually recovering." Group revenue fell 29.6% year-over-year to S$3.08 billion against a 21.3% cut in expenses to S$3.26 billion. Operating result swung to a S$181.4 million loss from a S$231.7 million profit in the three months ended Sept. 30, 2008.
ANA yesterday unveiled a series of long-haul service enhancements dubbed Inspiration of Japan that will be available beginning next February on 777-300ERs flying from Tokyo Narita to North America and Europe. First class will feature 1-2-1 seating with privacy partitions, 23-in. LCD screens, new decor and bedding, "refined" a la carte menus and touchscreen ordering starting in April. ANA's first class lounge at NRT will be upgraded in February and passengers will have access to a single check-in point (personal, luggage and security) by fall. Cabin upgrades will be available from Feb.
Ryanair will shutter its Basel operation on Dec. 2 and cancel its 18 weekly flights to Alicante, Cagliari, London Stansted, Marseille, Porto and Stockholm Skavsta. It said the airport "refused to lower its high airport charges to reflect the lower fares being paid by passengers in the current recession." Ryanair offered to add 13 more weekly flights to the airport in exchange for lower charges but Basel refused, according to the LCC.
Malaysia Airlines will announce at a press conference today that it has transitioned to the SITA Reservations platform, part of a 10-year, $130 million contract under which SITA will install/manage a variety of MAS IT systems. The changeover to the SITA reservation system took 13 hr. on Nov. 1 and involved the transfer of almost 1.5 million PNRs. MAS CEO Azmil Zahruddin said, "Upgrading to a new reservations platform is the equivalent of a heart transplant for an airline.
Air Canada and Jazz flew 3.85 billion RPMs in October, a 1.3% decrease from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 0.5% to 4.84 billion ASMs and load factor dipped 0.6 point to 79.6%. JetBlue Airways flew 2.02 billion RPMs in October, up 7.2% year-over-year, while capacity rose 7.1% to 2.5 billion ASMs. Load factor was up 0.1 point to 80.8%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 680.7 million RPMs in October, a 5.7% increase year-over-year, and capacity rose 2.6% to 797.7 million ASMs. Load factor climbed 2.4 points to 85.3%.
Shenzhen Airlines plans to sell a partial stake in its Kunpeng Airlines subsidiary to the Henan government in order to raise funding for the troubled regional carrier. "We are still negotiating with the Henan provincial government on how much of a stake to sell and at what price to sell," a Shenzhen spokesperson told ATWOnline. Kungpeng may change its name to Henan Airlines as part of the deal.
Malev Hungarian Airlines expects a final decision about its future ownership by the end of this month. The troubled carrier is in talks with the government, which is considering reinvesting in Malev and helping it restructure, Deputy CEO and CCO Karim Makhlouf told ATWOnline at this week's oneworld event in Mexico City. He said the government likely will acquire at least 51%. The airline currently is 99.5% owned by the AirBridge consortium, which is backed by Russia's Vneshekonombank.
Korean Air posted third-quarter net income of KRW264 billion ($227.9 million), a dramatic turnaround from the KRW684.1 billion loss it suffered in the year-ago period, marking its second straight profitable reporting period after six consecutive quarterly losses.
Japan Airlines is expected to report a heavy loss Friday for its fiscal first half ended Sept. 30, increasing pressure on the carrier and the Japanese government to develop a restructuring plan to help assure investors and customers that the troubled company won't collapse.
Air France KLM flew 17.68 billion RPKs in October, down 4.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 5.6% to 21.41 billion ASKs and load factor increased 1.3 points to 82.5%. British Airways flew 9.41 billion RPKs in October, down 1.9% year-over-year, against a 6.4% cut in capacity to 11.79 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 3.7 points to 80.7%. EasyJet transported 4.2 million passengers in October, a 6.6% increase year-over-year, while load factor rose 3 points to 86.8%.
Gategroup announced an extended four-year contract between its Gate Gourmet subsidiary and LAN Airlines covering catering and provisioning at eight South American and four long-haul destinations. LAN also reached a four-year deal for asset management and galley planning services with Gate subsidiary Pourshins. Deals are worth a combined CHF200 million ($196.6 million).
SpiceJet lost INR1.01 billion ($21.5 million) in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, a 49% improvement from the INR1.98 billion lost in the year-ago period. Operating revenue rose 31% as passenger numbers soared 98%. Capacity measured in ASKs climbed 44%, load factor was up 19 points and unit cost fell 26% year-over-year. "Traditionally, this is the weakest quarter for the industry," CEO Sanjay Aggarwal said. "However, we continue to improve our load factor and today one out of every eight flyers chooses SpiceJet.
Aer Lingus's third-quarter revenue fell 9.7% year-over-year on a 17.6% drop in average fare, it announced yesterday, adding that it has launched the "first phase" of a restructuring aimed at "reduc[ing] any costs within our control so that we can cope with continued falling fares, compete and maintain balance sheet strength."
United Airlines ended its agreement with Mesa Air Group for operation of 26 50-seat CRJs on its behalf, with the aircraft to be phased out by April 30.
CAE signed contracts for a combined four full-flight simulators and related training devices with Malaysia Airlines, Kenya Airways, Korean Air and Mount Cook Airlines worth a combined C$55 million ($51.1 million). MAS ordered one CAE 7000 Series 737-800 Level D FFS and a Simfinity Integrated Procedures Trainer. Simulator is expected to be operational by the end of 2010. MAS has 35 -800s on order, plus 20 options, with delivery beginning next year. KQ ordered a 5000 Series 737NG FFS, which will be delivered in mid-2010 to a new training center in Nairobi.
Mexicana and its affiliates officially became oneworld's 11th member at midnight last night, adding 24 Mexican destinations, Edmonton and Oakland to the alliance's map. Iberia Chairman and CEO Antonio Vazquez, whose airline sponsored MX's entry, said the alliance's newest member "will considerably strengthen oneworld's long-established position as the leading airline alliance in the Spanish-speaking world and in Latin America." LAN Airlines is oneworld's other Latin American member.
Embraer was certified by EASA as a Part 147 Maintenance and Training Organization for the E-170 and E-190 families. First training customer is KLM cityhopper.
AerCap last week said it signed a series of agreements with China Development Bank covering funding for $86 million of pre-delivery payments and a $272 million "long-term funding facility" covering four new A330s with deliveries scheduled in 2010-11. Aircraft are part of AerCap's order for 30 A330s placed in 2006-07 with deliveries scheduled through 2012.
Feel Air, a new Scandinavian LCC, will begin operations with Stockholm Arlanda-New York JFK and Oslo Gardermoen-Bangkok service in spring 2010 aboard dry-leased A330-200s, it announced yesterday. It currently is raising capital of NOK240 million ($42.1 million) with Norwegian investment bank DnBNOR Markets.
Icelandair Group said third-quarter EBITDA rose 35.5% year-over-year to ISK8.4 billion ($68.2 million) on a 29% surge in revenue to ISK53.7 billion, although release of its full financial report was postponed until December because its financial restructuring "has not been finalized." It warned that depreciation and financial costs "increase[d] considerably" from the 2008 third quarter.
