Pace Airlines CEO William Charles Rodgers was arrested Tuesday and charged with one count of willful failure to pay group health insurance premiums. North Carolina officials alleged that Rodgers terminated the policy without providing required notice to Pace's 337 employees. Pace is a charter carrier based in Winston-Salem and operated 17 Boeing aircraft, according to its website.
CSA Czech Airlines will cease operating from Prague to both New York JFK and Manchester, UK, during its winter schedule and will reduce frequencies to London Heathrow, Riga and Hamburg. Flights will be added to Moscow Sheremetyevo, Yekaterinburg, Yerevan, Rostov-on-Don, Tbilisi and Minsk. Emirates now is scheduled to launch its previously postponed Dubai-Luanda service on Oct. 25. Route will be operated thrice-weekly with a 777-300ER.
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew 1.67 billion RPMs in August, up 8.5% year-over-year, against a 5.7% increase in capacity to 2.05 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 2.1 points to 81.5%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 734.8 million RPMs in August, a 7.3% lift year-over-year. Capacity was up 3.2% to 860.1 million ASMs and load factor rose 3.3 points to 85.4%. Republic Airways Holdings airlines flew 1.07 billion RPMs in August, a 14.7% increase year-over-year. Capacity rose 13.3% to 1.36 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 1 point to 78.5%.
US Dept. of Transportation and National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. are expected to sign a new labor agreement today following an affirmative ratification vote by union members ( ATWOnline, Aug. 14). Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the vote "marks a new day between the controllers and the FAA."
Lufthansa took delivery of its first E-195 that will be operated by its CityLine subsidiary. LH took over an order for 30 E-Jets by Swiss International Air Lines when it acquired the carrier ( ATWOnline, April 18, 2007). The first six are flying with Air Dolomiti ( ATWOnline, Jan. 23). The new E-195 is configured for 116 passengers in two classes with a moveable divider. It will be based in Munich.
Jet Airways said it received shareholder approval to raise up to $400 million through private share placements, global depository receipts or foreign currency convertible bonds, according to a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange cited by numerous press reports.
Airlink Jetstream 41 on a repositioning flight from Durban to Pietermaritzburg crashed shortly after takeoff yesterday morning owing to what the airline called an "engine loss of power." The aircraft hit in a vacant lot and slid into the grounds of a school about 400 m. from the runway, causing substantial damage to the plane and injuring the two pilots, one flight attendant and a bystander. There no passengers. The Johannesburg-based carrier said the four were being treated at a local hospital.
Boeing said it has started making the upper wing join area fix on the first flight test 787 and the static test Dreamliner to address the structural weakness identified in June that led to the program's latest delay. The manufacturer said in August that first flight "is expected by the end of 2009" with first delivery to launch customer ANA pushed back to the 2010 fourth quarter, and insisted that the wing join area modification is relatively simple ( ATWOnline, Aug. 28).
China expects to secure the launch customer(s) for the new C919 large commercial aircraft sometime in the first half of 2010, Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Marketing Director Chen Jin told reporters at this week's Aviation Expo/China event in Beijing. "A lot of airlines and aircraft leasing companies have applied to be the launch customer for the C919, but since launch customers can get a favorable price, the number of launch customers is limited," Chen said. He said the initial order could number as many as 90 aircraft.
DHL Express introduced two new 767ERFs into its fleet. Aircraft are operated by DHL Air (UK) on flights from Nottingham East Midlands and Leipzig to New York JFK and Cincinnati. A third new 767ERF will enter into service on the EMA-CVG route next month, with three more joining the DHL fleet by 2013. The aircraft will replace shared capacity on MD-11Fs secured through a joint venture with Lufthansa Cargo. They offer payload capacity of 59 tons.
Alitalia has sufficient funds to support its operations through next year and does not need new capital, CEO Rocco Sabelli told a parliamentary transport committee. "Alitalia has been stabilized. It has moved from the recovery room to another room where it will complete its rehabilitation," Chairman Roberto Colaninno said, according to Dow Jones. Sabelli reportedly said that AZ is focused on shoring up its Rome Fiumicino operation and solidifying its position at secondary and tertiary airports where LCCs have eaten into its market share.
ACSS, an L-3 Communications and Thales joint venture, introduced a software enhancement that will enable aircraft operators with its TCAS 2000 and TCAS II to upgrade to "Change 7.1 capability," which it said "delivers two important safety enhancements: Reversal logic and new aural alerting for Adjust Vertical Speed." The upgrade will be available in the fourth quarter.
Wizz Air will add a third A320 to its Sofia base in May 2010 and will launch new thrice-weekly flights to Madrid, Paris Beauvais, Frankfurt Hahn and Forli on May 22. Frequencies to Eindhoven and Valencia will increase and passenger numbers at the airport are expected to rise 37% over 2009.
Australia's airlines were thrown into chaos yesterday as unprecedented dust storms in Sydney and Brisbane and wild weather in Melbourne closed and restricted runway operations at the country's three largest airports. The disruption was caused by an intense low-pressure frontal system with winds up to 100 miles per hr. that blew 75,000 tonnes of dust per hr. over New South Wales and southern Queensland. Pollution levels were 1,500 times normal, the highest on record, and visibility fell to as low as 100 ft. Hundreds of flights were diverted, disrupted or canceled.
Air France Industries and KLM Engineering & Maintenance extended its contract with Virgin Atlantic Airways for heavy airframe maintenance on 747-400s for one additional year through 2011. It also announced that its CRMA subsidiary was named a primary repair source on the Engine Alliance GP7200 TCF and combustion chambers by GE.
The US House of Representatives yesterday passed a three-month extension of FAA funding to Dec. 31 and the Senate is expected to follow quickly, decreasing the possibility that a multiyear reauthorization bill will be passed this year.
Gol announced the early October sale of at least 51.8 million shares on the Sao Paulo stock exchange--34.5 million preferred shares in a primary offering and 17.3 million voting shares in a secondary offering. According to press reports form Sao Paulo, the offering would raise BRL963.9 million ($530.1 million) based on Tuesday's closing price and would raise the LCC's capital to BRL2.57 billion.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and US Airways each made moves in the financial markets over the past two days, indicating that confidence in the industry is starting to recover somewhat even if traffic and revenue continues to lag.
United Airlines this week furloughed 290 pilots, part of its plan announced last year to radically "resize" itself ( ATW, November 2008). It plans to cut 7,000 jobs overall and already has let go more than 1,100 pilots. There are still more than 6,000 active UA pilots.
Jat Airways said it presented a business plan to the Serbian government outlining its program "to regain its position as the regional leader in air transport" and stated that it would need to transport 1.5 million passengers per year aboard its 16 aircraft to accomplish the goal. It carried 1.4 million in 2008. Jat said it planned to join an alliance, reconfigure its schedule to facilitate better connections, "upgrade the quality of service" and implement "intensive marketing" initiatives to boost traffic.
Helvetic Airways will continue to operate three F100s for Swiss International Air Lines through spring 2014 under an extended ACMI agreement announced this week. Helvetic operates a fourth F100 on charter flights.
Aeroflot took delivery of its fifth A330-200 on lease from AerCap. The Trent 772-powered aircraft seats 34 in business class and 207 in economy. SU currently operates the type to Beijing, Havana, Vladivostok and London Heathrow and said it will fly the new aircraft on both international and domestic routes. It said it plans to take delivery of five A330-300s and one more -200 before year end.
