Contact Air F100 carrying 78 passengers and crew made an emergency landing yesterday morning at Stuttgart with retracted landing gear, forcing the airport to close for several hours. There were no serious injuries. According to Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network, the Lufthansa Regional flight's pilot decided to carry out the emergency landing after "several unsuccessful attempts to unlock the gear." Video showed a hard landing during which sparks and smoke spewed from the undercarriage. ASN said the aircraft entered service for Contact on Sept.
Bahrain Air plans to place a firm order for three A320 family aircraft in January, MD Ibrahim Abdulla Al Hamer told reporters. "The company had planned to buy about four Airbus planes. Due to the current international financial issues there is a delay in the purchasing process and a reduction in the number to three airplanes." It signed a letter of intent for up to six aircraft last summer ( ATWOnline, Aug. 27, 2008).
ACG Air Cargo Germany took delivery of a second 747-400SF. The startup carrier, which received its operating certificate in July, operates charter flights out of Frankfurt Hahn and said it expects to secure traffic rights for scheduled operations shortly without offering further details.
Boosted by a gradual economic recovery, the global airline industry is expected to recover in 2010, industry players concluded at yesterday's Global Strategy Summit, part of the World Route Development Forum in Beijing.
LAN Airlines will complete installation of Aviation Partners Boeing blended winglets on its 767-300ER fleet by August 2010. "We invested $70 million on winglets for 28 passenger and nine freighter aircraft. The winglets save about 5% in fuel burn on our aircraft and deliver 320 miles extra range," VP-Business Planning and Control, Passenger Division Ernesto Solis Grau told ATWOnline in Santiago. Installation will be handled during C checks, taking around 25 days each.
LOT Polish Airlines is attempting to cancel the current labor deal with its employees and introduce a new contract on Oct. 1 featuring 15% cuts in employee numbers and salaries, the International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation said. They also claimed the airline fired the president of the Polish Cabin Crew Union and the president of the LOT Polish Airlines Employees Union in July.
Jeppesen signed a five-year electronic charting service contract with Royal Air Maroc that it said "will help the airline make the transition from using standard paper navigation charts to adopting tailored, digital information in the cockpit."
Hawaiian Airlines pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. voted to authorize a strike in case contract talks with the carrier break down and the National Mediation Board declares an impasse. HA and ALPA are scheduled to meet with a mediator on Oct. 12. "There has never been a strike in the 80-year history of our airline, and we don't want one now. But if that's what it takes to win a fair and reasonable contract, our pilots have told us loud and clear that they're ready to take that final step," HA ALPA unit Chairman Eric Sampson said.
Qantas will operate three sightseeing flights over Antarctica during the southern summer with its new A380. It has partnered with Antarctica Sightseeing Flights of Melbourne since 1994 using 747-400s. The first A380 flight is scheduled for Dec. 31 from Melbourne, the second on Jan. 24 from Sydney and the third on Feb. 14 from MEL. The New Year's Eve flight will be under the command of Capt. John Dennis, who has flown more than 40 of QF's 85 747 flights to the ice. Fares start from A$999 ($859) for the 14-hr. flight, which includes two meals.
Airline ticket sales through Arlington, Va.-based Airlines Reporting Corp. fell 16.8% in August compared to the year-ago period to $5.16 billion while the volume of total transactions was down 1.7%. Figures represented a very slight sequential decline compared to the performance in July, when transactions were off less than 1% year-over-year and sales decreased 16.7% ( ATWOnline, Aug. 14). Total fares, excluding taxes and fees, dropped 17% to $4.38 billion in August compared to August 2008.
Wizz Air will increase service from Cluj Napoca to Rome Fiumicino (from four-times-weekly to daily) and Paris Beauvais (from thrice-weekly to four-times-weekly) on Oct. 25. Air Pacific and Cathay Pacific Airways will codeshare on FJ's twice-weekly Hong Kong-Nadi service scheduled to launch Dec. 3.
China Southern Airlines is applying for another capital injection from the government, according to Chairman Si Xianmin. Beijing gave the airline CNY3 billion ($438.7 million) last year ( ATWOnline, July 30). "We hope to get more government capital, but we don't have the final say," Si said.
Anxious for a financial boost in the wake of a ¥99 billion ($1.08 billion) loss in its fiscal first quarter ended June 30 and an increasing debt burden, Japan Airlines launched negotiations with oneworld partner American Airlines and SkyTeam rival Delta Air Lines concerning a potentially significant investment, according to multiple sources.
FedEx Corp. expects earnings for its fiscal first quarter ended Aug. 31 to exceed its previous guidance of $0.30-$0.45 per diluted share. It now expects earnings of $0.58 per diluted share, which would represent a 53% decline from the year-ago quarter. Fiscal second-quarter earnings are expected to be $0.65-$0.95 per diluted share thanks in part to "a continued modest recovery in the global economy," it said. CFO Alan Graf Jr.
WestJet said it expects its third-quarter unit revenue to be down 16%-18% year-over-year. It flew 1.33 billion RPMs in August, down 4.7%, against a 0.4% fall in capacity to 1.57 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 3.9 points to 84.5%. Aer Lingus flew 1.72 billion RPKs in August, a 2.3% increase year-over-year. Capacity fell 0.7% to 2.07 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 2.4 points to 83%. Gol flew 2.03 billion RPKs in August, a 6.9% year-over-year increase, against a 4.2% hike in capacity to 3.43 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 1.4 points to 59%.
US President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Erroll Southers as assistant secretary, Dept. of Homeland Security-Transportation Security Administration. Southers is assistant chief for Los Angeles World Airports' Office of Homeland Security and Intelligence and associate director of the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. Lufthansa CFO Stephen Gemkow was named chairman of the supervisory boards at Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik, LSG Lufthansa Service Holding and Lufthansa Systems.
Air France KLM is preparing an in-depth restructuring of its cargo business including a further reduction of its freighter fleet, transfer of all remaining freighters to its Martinair subsidiary and a 20%-30% increase in rates, according to Les Echos. When contacted by ATWOnline, AF KLM said it would not comment on the substance of the report while contradicting several figures used by the newspaper.
Avient, the Zimbabwe-based DC-10 freighter operator, said it has moved its European hub from Vatry to Liege. It said services are uninterrupted by the abrupt move and that it will continue to specialize in Europe-Africa flights.
US Congressional staff expressed optimism Friday that FAA reauthorization legislation can be passed this year but conceded that several contentious issues, in particular regarding FAA inspections of foreign repair stations, remain unresolved.
AirBaltic said it "very much appreciates and welcomes" a meeting between the transport ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and their discussions regarding a pan-Baltic flag carrier, while claiming that it already fits that profile. The Riga-based airline plans to expand its Tallinn operation with flights to Turku beginning Oct. 1 and is "prepared to become involved in future negotiations," according to President and CEO Bertolt Flick. "If the airline's capital base is expanded, airBaltic will expand even more rapidly than before in the Baltic states," he said.
WestJet announced an offering of 13.4 million common and variable voting shares, with an overallotment option of up to 2 million shares, which it expects to produce proceeds of C$150-C$172.5 million ($139-$159.9 million). A syndicate of underwriters led by CIBC will sell the shares at C$11.20 each, and the offer is expected to close on Sept. 30. Frontier Airlines Holdings said its plan of reorganization, which includes its purchase by Republic Airways Holdings, was confirmed yesterday by the US Bankruptcy Court.
Amadeus announced what it called a "groundbreaking partnership" with AirAsia that will enable the more than 102,200 travel agencies that subscribe to the GDS to book travel on AirAsia and its affiliates "in the same way they would for a full-service carrier." In addition to AirAsia the partnership covers Indonesia AirAsia, Thai AirAsia and AirAsia X. Amadeus said the enabling technology is its Amadeus Ticketless Access solution "that allows real-time fare and flight information" for AirAsia "to be displayed alongside that of full-service airlines on a travel agent's Amadeus screen."
A wealth of information is available on aviation safety, but improvement is needed in coordinating and sharing the best safety practices that could benefit the entire industry, ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin said yesterday at the annual FAA International Aviation Safety Forum in Washington.
