United Airlines Chairman and CEO Glenn Tilton told reporters in Washington yesterday that the company "expects to get further information for manufacturers by the end of the year" regarding its request for proposals to Airbus and Boeing covering a large order for widebody aircraft ( ATWOnline, June 5). Separately, UA announced yesterday that it plans to offer 19 million shares of its common stock in an underwritten registered public offering.
Air India cancelled at least 30 flights yesterday and took the unusual step of suspending bookings for the next 15 days as a standoff between pilots and management extended to its fourth day. About 400 pilots have engaged in a wildcat work action since Friday to protest not being allowed to form a union. "We have deployed additional staff at airports across the country and will ensure that passengers are shifted to flights operated by other airlines," an AI official told India's Economic Times.
TUI Travel said yesterday that it has engaged "in extensive discussions with Boeing" regarding its 787 order book and "both parties" have agreed that 10 of its 23 firm orders will be cancelled while 13 purchase rights will be added.
Goodrich Corp. said its Landing Gear business signed an "innovative agreement" with an unidentified major airline under which Goodrich will use the carrier's rotable landing gear as part of its landing gear overhaul services. Under the agreement, Goodrich will offer the rotables as exchange units to other airlines that purchase overhaul services. Covered types are 737NGs and 777-200ERs. Embraer signed a five-year Flight Hour Pool Program service contract with Arkia Israeli Airlines covering an E-195 operated by the carrier since last December. Under the cost-per-flight-hr.
Purolator USA said its Itasca, Ill., processing facility gained TSA approval to participate in the Certified Cargo Screening Program. The facility will be able to screen customers' air shipments so they can be loaded onto designated flights upon arrival at airports.
Airbus parent EADS CEO Louis Gallois told Reuters yesterday that the company has been in discussions with Singapore Airlines about pushing one of the carrier's A380 deliveries from December to January, which would lower the manufacturer's 2009 A380 delivieries from 14 to 13.
Jet Airways is to raise up to $400 million to meet its working capital requirements, according to India's Financial Times. Chairman Naresh Goyal said Jet last year deferred plans to raise funds via a rights issue owing to volatile market conditions. It had planned to launch the issue in October 2008 but deferred it until conditions improved. Goyal also said he would dilute 5%-10% of his personal stake in the company. He currently holds 80%. He told the paper that the airline is open to various sources of funding including banks or private equity placement.
Scandinavian Avionics said it was chosen to provide full design, EASA certification and installation support for complete glass cockpit upgrades on a "significant number" of BAE ATP aircraft operated by West Air Sweden. The installations will include a five-panel suite of Universal Avionics' large format EFI-890R flat-panel displays as well as a Rockwell Collins TWR-850 Enhanced Weather Radar System. They will be performed at West Air Sweden's facilities in Malmo.
Qatar Airways said it arranged a pair of financings worth $700 million covering four 777s arriving this autumn. In the first, it secured an asset-backed, $350 million lease finance deal covering 100% of the purchase cost of a 777-300ER scheduled for delivery this month and a -200LR due to be delivered in November. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank AG, Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Europe Limited struck the deal with a 12-year term.
US Airways named Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, who famously piloted an A320-200 to an emergency water landing on the Hudson River in January, to its flight operations safety management team and announced that he will return to piloting scheduled flights shortly.
Etihad Airways CEO James Hogan, speaking with The Australian in Abu Dhabi, said the carrier has been able to maintain loads on Australian routes but has seen pressure on yields. "If you look at Melbourne and you look at Sydney, the two Sydney flights are certainly averaging 80% and so is Melbourne," he said, "And what's pleasing is the two premium cabins are holding up too.'' Hogan added that Etihad already is experiencing some improvement in cargo and some reversal in yield decline.
World airline passenger traffic was down 1.1% in August compared to the same month in 2008, an improvement over the 2.9% year-to-year decline in July, IATA reported. With ASKs off 2.5%, industry load factor reached 80.9%, up 1.2 points over the same month last year. Freight performance also improved, from a negative 11.3% in July to a negative 9.6% in August.
Welcome Air, a small regional carrier based in Innsbruck and owned by Swiss Lions Air Group AG, is in the process of taking over Air Alps, an independent Austrian regional that is 76% owned by BZS Holding, a consortium of several Italian companies. Air Alps connects regional airports such as Bolzano, Rimini and Parma with Rome Fiumicino and also flies between Perugia and Milan Malpensa. It operates the flights in cooperation with Alitalia. "The plan for the merger is well underway and could be completed soon," an Alitalia source told ATWOnline.
Air France is still studying the possibility of launching high-speed train services in Europe under its own brand in cooperation with a partner, although the project will not take off as initially planned in 2010 when the intra-European rail transport market opens up, the carrier confirmed to ATWOnline. AF declined to comment on a report in Les Echos that talks between the airline and Veolia about a partnership have stopped.
US Airways closed its previously announced common stock offering, raising $137.3 million in aggregate net proceeds from the sale of 29 million shares including an overallotment of 2.7 million shares. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. Citi underwrote the offering.
Air Berlin and Pegasus Airlines started their cooperation Monday by cross-linking their websites. Passengers will be able to book 17 additional connections from Germany to Turkey as well as 26 routes within Turkey. Pegasus belongs to ESAS Holding. ESAS also is AB's largest shareholder with an 18% stake. Separately, AB announced that it will add 10 new destinations and 54 new nonstop services, especially from Cologne, Stuttgart and Memmingen/Munich West, starting Nov. 1 following its takeover of TUIfly's scheduled flight operations.
British Airways launches its all-business-class service between London City and New York JFK today. The service, which will be offered twice-daily by mid-October, will be operated on specially configured A318s with 32 lie-flat business class seats. The launch flights bear numbers formerly used for Concorde services, BA001 to BA004. "For the first time, New York has a tailor-made premium service to the London Canary Wharf area on its doorstep," said BA Executive VP-Americas Simon Talling-Smith.
Lufthansa Consulting signed a deal with UTair to identify new network growth opportunities for the Russian carrier, starting in July and due to be completed in September.
Bernstein Research raised concerns that while passengers are returning to the skies, the large number of aircraft to be delivered in 2009-10 potentially could lead to excess capacity over the next two years and thus more deferrals.
Air India's flight schedules could be disrupted this week after nearly 400 management pilots proceeded with a threatened wildcat strike beginning last Friday to protest cuts in their flying allowances, according to India's Economic Times. The pilots are not allowed to form a union, which is why they resorted to wildcat action. A spokesperson for AI said the airline "had not heard anything from the pilots [about the strike]. They have gone to the media rather than coming to us.
ST Aerospace announced yesterday that its commercial pilot training operation ST Aviation Training Academy has partnered with Singapore-based LCC Tiger Airways for A320 pilot training under STATA's Multi-crew Pilot License curriculum. STATA was created by ST Aerospace two years ago to respond to projected demand for significant numbers of new pilots in the Asia/Pacific region over the next 20 years ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5, 2007).
AJW Aviation expanded its power-by-the-hour contract with Czech Airlines to include an additional two A320s and two A321s. The program is set to cover the entire OK fleet of 33 aircraft by 2016.
Finnair introduced daily Helsinki Vantaa-New Delhi service Sept. 25. Alaska Airlines last week launched daily Houston Intercontinental-Seattle Tacoma service using 737-800 equipment. Jet Airways begins daily Hong Kong-New Delhi service Sept. 30 using an A330-200, complementing existing service from Mumbai to HK, It will launch twice-weekly Bangkok-Gaya-Varanasi service Oct. 6.
