Delta Air Lines' pilots union slammed the US National Transportation Safety Board for its handling of the recent Northwest Airlines A320 "overflew" incident, saying the board overstepped its bounds as a safety investigation organization. FAA last week revoked the licenses of the two NWA pilots who flew 150 mi. past their destination on an Oct. 21 flight from San Diego to Minneapolis-St.
Air India and Aerostar Asset Management of Sharjah announced the launch of an engine MRO partnership called The A Team, which will use AI's Mumbai facility and Aerostar's marketing connections in the Middle East to secure third-party work on CF6-50/80, PW4000, GE90 and CFM56-7 engines, as well as CFM56-5s in the "near future."
Ryanair yesterday threatened to cancel or defer aircraft orders from Boeing if it fails to secure a fleet-renewal agreement before year end as the LCC announced an adjusted net profit of €250.5 million ($368.5 million) in the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, a 29.4% increase from the €193.6 million earned in the year-ago period.
Hainan Airlines posted a CNY175.5 million ($26.3 million) third-quarter profit, reversed from a CNY260.8 million deficit in the year-ago quarter, as operating revenue soared 34.2% to CNY4.57 billion. Like other Chinese airlines, it credited a recovery in the domestic market and favorable financial policies from Beijing for the improved performance. Its third-quarter expenses climbed 18.7% year-over-year to CNY3.65 billion. Nine-month profit of CNY350.5 million compared to a CNY50.2 million surplus in the year-ago period.
Turkish Airlines exercised options on three A330s for delivery in 2012 and said it has decided to purchase two A330-200Fs, while Air New Zealand yesterday said it will replace its 15 leased 737-300s with an order for 14 A320s plus 11 purchase rights.
TNT reported third-quarter net income of €97 million ($142.7 million), down 6.7% from €104 million in the year-ago-period, and noted that it has seen "some early signs" of an improving economy. Its air-intensive Express unit continued to struggle, posting a 36.4% drop in operating profit to €63 million on an 11.4% dip in revenue to €1.47 billion. But CEO Peter Bakker noted that "the rate of decline of Express volumes has modestly improved.
ANA reported a ¥3.8 billion ($42.2 million) profit in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, a 75.2% drop from the ¥15.3 billion earned in the year-ago period, but its inability to recover adequately from a steep first-quarter loss prompted it to predict a ¥28 billion deficit for the full year (reversed from its original forecast of a ¥3 billion profit) and to unveil a revised business plan that includes 1,000 job cuts.
Air France took delivery of its first A380 Friday in Hamburg and will become the first European airline to operate the jumbo aircraft when it places it on Paris Charles de Gaulle-New York JFK service on Nov. 20. The Engine Alliance GP7200-powered aircraft seats 538 passengers (nine in first, 80 in business and 449 in economy), will carry 22 flight attendants and is one of three that AF will take through next spring. Johannesburg is scheduled to be its next A380 destination.
Embraer reported third-quarter net income of $60.6 million, slightly ahead of the $59.3 million earned in the year-ago period, and warned that 2010 likely will be another difficult year for sales. CFO Luiz Carlos Aguiar told analysts Friday that the manufacturer is "going through a rough ride in terms of new sales" and cautioned that "a decline of 10% in our revenue" in 2010 is possible. He added that its firm order backlog, which stood at 306 commercial aircraft valued at $18.6 billion at the end of the third quarter, would "make the business sustainable" until sales rebound.
Kenya Airways reported a KES860 million ($11 million) profit in the fiscal semester ended Sept. 30, up 16.8% from the KES736 million earned in the year-ago period thanks to relatively stable operating results and gains on its fuel hedges. Six-month revenue fell 1.7% year-over-year to KES33.5 billion while costs inched up 1.7% to KES33.3 billion, resulting in an 8% fall in operating profit to KES162 million. KQ said the "volatile" political climate, an August strike and the "global economic meltdown" all impacted the results.
Amadeus reached a 10-year agreement with Air France and KLM for implementation and operation of its Altea Inventory system. The solution will replace the carriers' legacy inventory systems by year end and will be fully integrated with the Altea Reservation sales platform.
Rolls-Royce announced an order for Trent 700s to power 10 Virgin Atlantic Airways A330s. Contract, including TotalCare service support, is worth $720 million at list prices. Six of the aircraft were ordered directly by Virgin and the remaining four will be leased from AerCap. Delivery begins in 2011 ( ATWOnline, June 23).
Brussels Airlines is seeing a "very slight and progressive" improvement in the business environment, with higher load factors and a stabilization of the decrease in yield occurring thanks to solid sales of its business class and b-flex economy tickets, co-MD Bernard Gustin told ATWOnline.
Bmi suffered a €10 million ($14.8 million) operating loss in the first nine months of 2009, according to the interim report released last week by Lufthansa. The UK carrier reported €301 million in revenue during the period and EBITDA of -€14 million. Comparisons with the year-ago period were not provided. Lufthansa was scheduled to become bmi's sole shareholder Sunday following the purchase of SAS's 20% stake ( ATWOnline, Oct. 2).
US Dept. of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel and US Government Accountability Office Director-Physical Infrastructure Issues Gerald Dillingham last week told Congress that FAA faces considerable challenges in implementing a satellite-based NextGen ATC system, ranging from delays in approving new procedures and technology to skepticism among airlines regarding investment in new equipment.
SAS Group currently operates nine A330s/A340s and will not continue to operate a long-haul network if it is forced to reduce that fleet to fewer than seven, President and CEO Mats Jansson told ATWOnline at last week's Star Alliance event in Newark. "The crisis hit SK in November/December 2007, at a time where we had actually been evaluating extending our long-haul fleet from 11 to 12 aircraft. But we eventually had to reduce the fleet," he said.
A Jetstar Airways A330-200 with 209 passengers and crew onboard suffered momentary erratic speed data indications from its computers in apparent bad weather and possible icing conditions on an Oct. 29 flight from Tokyo Narita to Gold Coast. The scenario bears similarities to that which investigators believe may have been a factor in the loss of an Air France -200 over the Atlantic Ocean five months ago ( ATWOnline, Sept. 1).
Lufthansa Friday refused to confirm press reports that it has decided to defer A380 deliveries. CFO Stephen Gemkow said last week during the company's interim results news conference in Frankfurt that LH was discussing deferrals with manufacturers for aircraft scheduled to arrive in 2010-13. A spokesperson told ATWOnline, "We did not give any specifics regarding which aircraft types could be affected.
Hainan Airlines parent HNA Group launched a business jet subsidiary in Shanghai last Friday in an attempt to tap the increasing potential of the high-end business and general aviation market. Deer Business Jet Co. has registered capital of CNY300 million ($43.9 million), with HNA subsidiaries Deer Air and Yangtze River Express the main stakeholders. The ownership structure has not been made public. It initially will operate two Hawker 800s. China currently has no more than 30 business jets, but it is estimated the country will need 600-1,200 over the next 10 years.
British Airway took a bold stand in late September, introducing a new premier business product targeting an exclusive group of passengers willing to pay top fares for all-business-class service between New York JFK and London City Airport, which serves the Canary Wharf financial district and east London. The twice-daily service is operated on new A318s with a range of 3,200 nm. and configured with just 32 lie-flat sleeper seats.
FAA denied an application from the Glendale-Burbank-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. Airlines currently observe a voluntary curfew during those times, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The dispute between Expedia.com and Choice Hotels International may seem like déjà vu to those who remember the battle between the online agency and InterContinental Hotels Group in 2004. But there is a key difference between the old fight and the new, according to observers close to the issue.
A coalition of US aviation and education officials is urging members of Congress to support extension of the Alternative Minimum Tax exemption for private activity bonds and allowing full refinancing of current debt. The coalition includes ACI-NA, American Assn. of Port Authorities and the Education Finance Council.
The strategy of Fraport AG to accommodate more widebody aircraft in order to increase airport volume and extend intercontinental traffic could put additional pressure on regional aircraft operators.
