Continental Airlines expects to record $20 million in special charges on its third-quarter balance sheet. The charges comprise $9 million in "unused facilities," $6 million in "aircraft-related" charges and $5 million in severance payments. CO will release its third-quarter results on Oct. 21. The facility charge was an adjustment to increase a previously established reserve due to reductions in expected sublease income for unused facilities consisting primarily of a maintenance hangar in Denver, it said.
Transaero announced that it has become the first full-service Russian airline to adopt fully the use of e-ticketing for all flights. In 2009, 95% of all its tickets have been electronic.
Air Saint Pierre took delivery of a new ATR 42-500 that will replace an ATR 42-320 that has been operated by the company for 15 years. Due to the special operating conditions of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the ATR 42-500 had to be tested and certified to be able to operate in crosswinds reaching up to 45 kt. at takeoff and landing instead of the 30 kt. for which it already was certified, ATR noted.
Airline ticket sales through Arlington, Va.-based Airlines Reporting Corp. fell 14.2% in September compared to the year-ago month to $5.61 billion. ARC Director-Strategic Communications Allan Muten described as "marginally positive" the sequential upswing compared to August, when total sales were down 16.8% year-to-year. "That's encouraging if it continues," he told ATWOnline. The volume of total transactions processed by ARC decreased 2.3% versus a 1.7% drop the prior month, but the volume of credit transactions was virtually flat compared to September 2008.
US FAA yesterday proposed $9.2 million in civil penalties against US Airways and United Airlines for violations related to federal airworthiness directives and/or the airlines' own federally approved maintenance programs.
Mesa Air Group's Hawaiian subsidiary go! and Mokulele Airlines entered into a "joint venture" to collaboratively operate inter-island air service under both brand names.
Chinese airlines posted collective net income of CNY6.13 billion ($896.7 million) for the first nine months of this year, a big turnaround from a CNY5.55 billion deficit in the year-ago period. CAAC credited "economic recovery" and "lower fuel prices" for the positive result. Total operating revenue dipped 2.2% to CNY153 billion while operating expenses fell 3.8% to CNY153.9 billion.
Southwest Airlines will add more than 100 weekday flights to its network beginning in March, including 21 additional daily flights from Chicago Midway, 18 from Baltimore and nine each from Orlando and Tampa. It emphasized that the increased schedule will "not [be achieved] by adding to our fleet, but by taking advantage of the seasonal decrease in flying time going from winter into spring." AirAsia will launch daily service from Kuala Lumpur to Kolkata, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram in November.
Republic Airways Holdings said it will acquire 10 E-190ARs from US Airways, applying the full balance of its October 2008 $35 million loan to US Airways toward the purchase of the aircraft and assuming the remaining debt on the jets. The loan originally was scheduled to be repaid between this month and October 2011. Four of the 99-seat aircraft are expected to enter service in November and December and will replace 717s being removed from Republic's Midwest Airlines subsidiary. The remaining six are expected to enter service with Republic-owned carriers during the first half of 2010.
Air France KLM declined to comment to ATWOnline on a report in La Tribune that it is considering whether it should negotiate further aircraft delivery deferrals with Airbus and Boeing. The deferrals would affect mainly its 777/ 777F and A380 orders. CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon previously said the group had adjusted its aircraft delivery plan and fleet investment to weather the economic crisis.
Ireland's three main carriers again called on the government to remove the €10 ($14.80) tourist tax added to airline tickets on April 1. In a joint statement, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, Aer Lingus CEO Christoph Mueller and CityJet CEO Geoffrey O'Byrne-White said the tax has had a "devastating impact on traffic and visitor numbers at Ireland's airports" since it was introduced, including a 15% decline in monthly throughput at Dublin. They predict passenger numbers at DUB may fall from 24 million to approximately 21 million this year owing to the tax.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh said merger talks with Iberia have progressed significantly since Altadis Antonio Vazquez replaced Fernando Conte as IB chairman and CEO in July and predicted an announcement regarding a possible joining of the two oneworld carriers will come "in the weeks ahead."
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker said Airbus should offer new engines on its A320s to ward off challenges from Bombardier and stay ahead of Boeing. Speaking to Bloomberg, al-Baker claimed that Pratt & Whitney's PW1000G geared turbofan fitted to the A320 would be "fatal" for Bombardier's CSeries jet, which is slated to enter service in 2013 powered by the same engine ( ATWOnline, June 17). Qatar is considering an order for the CSeries and his claims may well be part of the negotiations for a better deal.
Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Tony Tyler is "not getting too excited" about the carrier's September traffic figures despite positive trends in both the passenger and cargo sectors. Speaking with ATWOnline, Tyler did say that the airline, while remaining cautious, "expects an upswing in the last quarter of the year." CX and subsidiary Dragonair reported a 0.1% September traffic increase to 6.87 billion RPKs on a 9.7% capacity cut to 8.57 billion ASKs, driving load factor up 7.9 points to 80.2%.
Qantas deferred plans for additional flights between Australia and South Africa and decided against summer services to South Korea owing to "current market conditions," according to a regulatory filing citied by the Sydney Morning Herald. Iceland Express will operate seasonal four-times-weekly service from Reykjavik Keflavik to Newark aboard a 757 starting in June. Eastern Airways launched service to Bergen from Newcastle (five-times-weekly) and Aberdeen (six-times-weekly).
Japan Airlines is not commenting on reports in the Japanese media that it will seek ¥250 billion ($2.78 billion) in debt forgiveness from its creditors and increase its planned job cuts to 9,000.
ITA Software said yesterday that Air Canada will deploy its "pricing, shopping and Web front end modules across multiple online channels, including the airline's consumer website and travel agency website," with implementation scheduled for next summer.
The US airline industry generally welcomed the results of last week's ICAO High Level Meeting on Climate Change but appeared to be taking a guarded approach to the organization's call for a 2% annual improvement in fuel efficiency through 2020, in line with previous comments from IATA and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization.
Datalex reached agreement with Midwest Airlines to provide its Travel Distribution Platform, which will allow customers to shop and reserve both Frontier Airlines and Midwest flights in support of codeshare agreements. Frontier and Midwest were acquired by Republic Airways Holdings this year.
Swissport renewed its agreement with United Airlines to provide cargo handling service at Los Angles, San Francisco and Chicago O'Hare until 2012. It has handled the airline in these locations since 2003.
Japan yesterday joined US FAA, Airservices Australia and Airways New Zealand as a partner in the ASPIRE (Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions) program. ASPIRE flights use a host of optimized operational procedures and ATC routings, including tailored arrivals, to save time and fuel. "This is an important milestone in our collective effort to lessen aviation's environmental footprint," said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, who signed the agreement along with Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau DG Ryuhei Maeda.
AirBaltic named Vigo Legzdins its new chairman. Legzdins is also chairman of Latvian Roadworks and was previously state secretary of the Ministry of Transportation and head of its Investment and Transit Policy Dept. Nordic Aviation Capital, the turboprop lessor, named Jim Murphy chief commercial officer.
IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani met yesterday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at UN headquarters in New York, briefing him on aviation industry emissions goals that were presented at last week's ICAO High Level Meeting on Climate Change ( ATWOnline, Oct. 12). "I assured the Secretary General that the aviation industry is serious about its climate change responsibility," Bissignani said in a statement.
