BAA's appeal against the March Competition Commission ruling ordering it to sell three of its seven UK airports (London Gatwick, Stansted and either Edinburgh or Glasgow International) within two years was launched yesterday at the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Thai Airways' new president, Kasikornbank Bank executive and former Thai Minister of Energy Piyasvasti Amranand, yesterday said he plans to raise funds through a share issue next year. Thai has THB29 billion ($854.8 million) in debt to pay off in 2010. "We need to raise capital because we have a lot of short-term debt to be repaid," Piyasvasti said, according to Reuters. "We are also trying to convert our short-term debt to longer maturities.
US FAA is investigating American Airlines' maintenance of MD-80s, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing preliminary agency findings that "have identified as many as 16 [AA MD-80s] that were operated for months despite allegedly substandard bulkhead repairs."
CSA Czech Airlines named Miroslav Dvorak, head of Prague Ruzyne operator Prague Airport, as its new chairman and CEO. He succeeds Radomir Lasak and will run both organizations, Reuters reported. Miroslav Zamecnik was named chairman of CSA's supervisory board, succeeding Vaclav Novak, who resigned. The Czech finance ministry said it is continuing to evaluate a CZK1 billion ($57.5 million) offer for the airline from Unimex and Travel Service.
ST Aerospace said the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore approved its commercial pilot training subsidiary, ST Aviation Training Academy, as a Flight Training Organization. "Aspiring pilots who train with STATA will be CAAS-certified. This eliminates the previous practice of having to convert licenses obtained from foreign FTOs to a CAAS license," the company said.
Air New Zealand simplified its fare structure to comprise two options rather than three and cut average fares by 10%, with cheapest domestic tariffs falling by up to 23%, effective yesterday. The largest cuts are in regional markets where ANZ faces no competition rather than in cities where Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways operates domestic flights. ANZ's fare structure now consists of Smart Saver and Flexi Plus fares. It flew 2.49 billion RPKs in September, down 6.8% year-over-year, against an 11.9% cut in capacity to 3.03 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 4.5 points to 82.3%.
Air France KLM flew 17.35 billion RPMs in September, a 3.7% fall from the year-ago month. Capacity was down 4.9% to 21.19 billion ASMs and load factor lifted 1 point to 81.9%. Southwest Airlines flew 5.77 billion RPMs in September, up 8.8% year-over-year. Capacity fell 7.8% to 7.72 billion ASMs and load factor surged 11.3 points to 74.7% JetBlue Airways flew 1.92 billion RPMs in September, up 9.8% from the year-ago month, against an 8.6% increase in capacity to 2.47 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.9 point to 77.6%.
Japan's finance minister is planning to meet with the country's transport minister today to discuss a potential government bailout of Japan Airlines, which saw its weakened financial status deteriorate further over the weekend when its largest creditors balked at providing ¥300 billion ($3.3 billion) in debt relief and equity swaps.
Aegean Airlines expects 2010 and 2011 to be "very difficult years," but it is targeting growth "even in a tough environment" thanks to the Star Alliance membership expected to take effect next May, MD Dimitris Gerogiannis told ATWOnline last week.
Porter Airlines President and CEO Robert Deluce said the first phase of a new C$45 million ($43.4 million) privately financed terminal will open in December at Toronto City Centre. The second phase, which will add 150,000 sq. ft. to the airport, will open before the summer season, he said at last week's Airports Council International-North America meeting in Austin.
Gol said it raised BRL627.1 million ($356.4 million) through the sale of 38 million common and preferred shares, part of a global share offering comprising 62.2 million shares that netted BRL1.07 billion. Gol controlling shareholder Fundo ASAS also participated in the capital raising ( ATWOnline, Sept. 24). Gol said its improved cash position now represents more than 20% of net revenue in the past 12 months
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China last week agreed to purchase a 48% stake in Sichuan Airlines subsidiary United Eagle Airlines in order to facilitate the sale of its ARJ21 and C919 aircraft. A COMAC source told ATWOnline that the manufacturer will invest CNY1 billion ($146.3 million) in Chengdu-based United Eagle, which under terms of the agreement will order 30 ARJ21s after the stake sale is concluded.
IATA reported that August premium passenger traffic was down 12% year-over-year, a marked improvement over May's 23.5% year-over-year drop that signified the "low point" of the decline. In was also improved from July's 14.1% fall. In its latest "Premium Travel Monitor" release, IATA said the sharp drop in premium fares also receded in August.
Responding to media speculation that its 787 program may suffer more delays because of the complex side-of-body modification, Boeing VP and GM-787 Dreamliner Program Scott Fancher issued a statement Friday claiming that the troubled aircraft is on schedule to fly this year.
Aeroflot said it earned a RUB3.5 billion ($119.2 million) first-half profit according to Russian accounting standards, representing a 55.6% increase over the RUB2.25 billion earned on the same basis in the first six months of 2008. Passenger revenue fell 12.1% year-over-year but market share rose 1.5 points to 26.2%.
Qantas will have to wait until December for the delivery of its fifth and sixth A380s after encountering flight stability problems with the fifth aircraft, which had been expected to enter service on US routes next month. QF confirmed to ATWOnline that the aircraft will require further testing in Toulouse to rectify a minor trim stability problem. However, it dismissed media rumors that the A380 was not flying straight while on autopilot.
Volaris intends to lease two new A319s next summer, CEO Enrique Beltranena said last week, according to Dow Jones. He also said the Toluca-based carrier has been operating in the black for the past 17 months. Flydubai took delivery of a fifth new 737-800, part of its order for 50 placed at last year's Farnborough Airshow. Aircraft seats 189 in one class and is financed by the $320 million sale/leaseback deal recently announced with GECAS ( ATWOnline, July 2).
EFIS Morocco won a cargo GSA contract from DHL Aviation to market capacity on 757 freighter flights from Casablanca to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Leipzig.
Airport Council International-North America launched a new database that will give airports access to information on successful programs and sustainability trends. "Airports across the country and around the world have undertaken or are in the process of implementing innovative sustainability programs to improve efficiency in aviation, but until today, there has been no central repository of this important information," ACI-NA President Greg Principato said last week in Austin.
Spanish government will lend domestic airlines up to €600 million ($895.8 million) in 2010-12 in order to "avoid possible restructuring or bankruptcies," it said in a statement cited by Dow Jones.
Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara once again attempted to ease fears about Japan Airlines' weak financial prospects, saying at a Friday news conference that "there is no change at all in our policy that the government will back up" the airline if it is in imminent danger of collapse. JAL's share price hit a seven-year low Friday, driven by concern over the struggling carrier's effort to develop a viable restructuring plan ( ATWOnline, Oct. 14).
SriLankan Airlines will launch twice-weekly service from Colombo to Milan Malpensa on Dec. 16 and increase flights to London Heathrow, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Tiruchirapalli, Male, Bangalore, Karachi and Bahrain. Frequencies to Doha and Dammam will rise on Oct. 25. Norwegian will launch service from Copenhagen to Malta, Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Sardinia at the beginning of May, as well as Oslo Gardermoen-Malta, Stockholm Arlanda-Athens and ARN-Palermo, which will start at the end of March or beginning of April. Bergen-Tromso service is set to begin in March.
Assn. of European Airlines expressed disappointment that the EU Council of Transport Ministers did not discuss the prolongation of the slot waiver for the . . .winter season and summer 2010 at its recent meeting.
SITA confirmed that 12 Arab Air Carriers Org. member airlines will be the first to deploy its Aircraft Emissions Manager ( ATWOnline, July 2). Next month's deployment follows the submission, in consultation with SITA, of the airlines' plan to monitor carbon dioxide emissions and capacity to EU authorities in an effort to comply with the new Emission Trading Scheme.
