The European Commission said Friday that Lufthansa's latest offer regarding its planned takeover of Austrian Airlines Group contains insufficient concessions, making it unlikely the EC can grant antitrust clearance for the deal by the end of this month.
Qantas last week was fined C$155,000 ($133,000) by Canada's Competition Bureau after it pleaded guilty to participating in an air cargo cartel. The guilty plea in a Canadian court is the latest consequence of the airline's admission of price fixing between 2002 and 2006. It was fined A$20 million ($15.5 million) by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission in 2008 and $61 million by the US Dept. of Justice in 2007 for the same offences. Qantas is the fourth carrier to be convicted in the Canadian investigation.
Assn. of European Airlines said Friday that air cargo demand continues to decline at a "catastrophic" rate while passenger traffic registered its "worst result" of the economic downturn in May. AEA said that its member carriers "have seen their cargo volumes cut by one-third or more" and in May posted a year-over-year airfreight traffic decline of 19.8%.
Air France will review crew training and the quality of its weather information, CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said last week in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, adding that not being able to detect a severe storm on radar may have played a role in the May 31 A330-200 accident that killed all 228 passengers and crew.
Lufthansa Technik and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will intensify their cooperation on testing of fuel cells, with DLR stationing the Antares DLR-H2 experimental fuel cell aircraft at Lufthansa Technik's base in Hamburg. LHT will support DLR with material supplies, assist in the installation and removal of components and provide a mobile hydrogen filling station for fueling Antares. The aircraft successfully completed its first public flight July 7.
Vueling and clickair integrated their operations at 1 min. past midnight on July 9 as planned. The merged airline ( ATWOnline, July 7) is flying under one AOC and holds a 6.8% share of the Spanish market, based on AENA figures for the first five months of this year, making it the second-largest Spanish carrier after Iberia, which has a 15.8% market share and owns a 45.85% stake in the new Vueling. Ryanair and easyJet hold 10.9% and 7.2% market shares in Spain respectively.
Aircraft Purchase Fleet of Ireland selected GE's CF6-80E1 engines to power its 12 firm orders and eight options for A330s. The firm engine order is valued at more than $400 million. Deliveries to the lessor are slated to begin in 2010 ( ATWOnline, April 6).
Embraer confirmed yesterday that three E-190s originally announced Tuesday as part of a fleet renewal by Algeria's Tassili Airlines never were finalized and that "specific conditions" requested by Tassili were not agreed to by the Brazilian manufacturer. "Embraer was disqualified from the public bid" by Tassili for new aircraft, the manufacturer said ( ATWOnline, July 9).
AirAsia yesterday launched RedBox, a Malaysian courier service that delivers packages in 2-3 days at prices the airline describes as "up to 50%" lower than other domestic delivery options. RedBox says on its website that it "leverages AirAsia's extensive route network" to ferry packages between the country's central region (Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and selected parts of Negeri Sembilan) and the eastern cities of Kuching, Miri, Sibu, Kota Kinabalu, Labuan and Sandakan.
Iberia Chairman and CEO Fernando Conte has resigned and will be replaced by former IB board member and former CEO of Spanish tobacco company Altadis Antonio Vazquez.
This week's G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, reaffirmed support for ICAO's role, in cooperation with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in addressing emissions reduction targets and policy for the international airline industry post-2012. The G8 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US, together with the EU. The UNFCC climate summit will take place in Copenhagen in December.
WestJet will add 11 new destinations in its seasonal winter schedule; Varadero (thrice-weekly from Toronto on Nov. 1), Holguin (twice-weekly from YYZ on Nov. 2), Cayo Coco (twice-weekly from YYZ on Nov. 4), Ixtapa (twice-weekly from Calgary on Nov. 3), Cozumel (twice-weekly from YYZ on Dec. 10), St. Martin (thrice-weekly from YYZ on Nov. 1), Providenciales (twice-weekly from YYZ on Nov. 4), Freeport (twice-weekly from YYZ on Nov. 2), Lihue (twice-weekly from Vancouver on Dec. 16), Miami (daily from YYZ on Oct. 21) and Atlantic City (daily from YYZ on Oct. 22).
Delta Air Lines flew 17.78 billion system RPMs in June, a 6.3% fall year-over-year. Capacity dropped 5.8% to 20.81 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 0.5 point to 85.5%. Lufthansa Group airlines flew 13.15 billion RPKs in June, down 5.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity was cut 2% to 16.76 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 2.7 points to 78.4%.
US Dept. of Transportation said it fined Delta Air Lines $375,000 for violating the department's denied boarding compensation rules. DOT said a recent inspection of DL's internal passenger complaint records from January to July 2008, as well as a review of complaints directly to DOT, revealed "numerous instances in which the carrier bumped passengers but did not follow one or more of the provisions of Part 250" governing denied boarding compensation.
Amadeus won a five-year contract from SAS Group for a full-content agreement that guarantees travel agents access to the full range of fares and inventory of SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Wideroe, Blue1 and Estonian Air.
Air France yesterday rolled out its first A380, which was painted in the airline's updated livery and is scheduled to enter service in November on a daily Paris Charles de Gaulle-New York JFK service. Powered by GP7200 engines, the A380 will be configured for 538 passengers in a three-cabin layout with 80 business and 106 economy seats on the upper deck and nine first class and 343 economy seats on the main deck. That compares with 450 seats on Qantas A380s, 471 on Singapore Airlines and 489 on Emirates.
Delta Air Lines and Virgin Blue announced, subject to regulatory approval, a joint venture that will expand both carriers' reach in the US, Australia and the South Pacific through an alliance involving route and product planning, codesharing and loyalty program linkage.
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China began construction on its new research and development center near Shanghai Pudong that is scheduled to open in 2012. The facility will be responsible primarily for production of China's 150-seat "trunk liner" narrowbody and regional aircraft such as the ARJ21. It is one of three centers planned for the trunk liner program, including a customer service center launched last year and a final assembly base to be located at Pudong and Dachang in Shanghai.
Ryanair yesterday opened a poll on its website asking passengers if they would be willing to "stand" on the LCC's 737s if flights were free or 50% cheaper. The carrier said it is considering "vertical seating. . .on short flights of approximately 1 hr." ( ATWOnline, July 7).
Air Dolomiti, the Verona-based regional that is 100% owned by Lufthansa and mainly operates feeder flights from northern Italy to LH's hub in Munich, is planning to introduce larger aircraft with lower seat-mile costs.
Tassili Airlines parent Groupe Sonatrach released a statement yesterday saying that an order for three E-190s announced on Tuesday has not been confirmed ( ATWOnline, July 8) but that it did plan to sign a contract yesterday with Boeing for four 737-800s worth $228.4 million.
Naverus said Air China successfully completed its RNP validation flight into Lhasa from Chengdu on June 26 using an A330-200. "The flight clears the way for Air China's entire fleet of Airbus A330s to fly the Naverus-designed procedures at the Lhasa Gonggar Airport," Naverus said.
British Airways will launch daily London City-New York JFK all-business-class flights Sept. 29 aboard 32-seat A318s, increasing to twice-daily in October. Lufthansa Cargo will launch a weekly Frankfurt-Dallas/Fort Worth-Guadalajara-Frankfurt freighter service on July 22. CSA Czech Airlines said it will cease Prague-New York JFK flights in the coming winter season. Two A310-300s used for the service will be switched to charter operations. The move is part of the 2009 "action plan" to achieve overall cost savings of CZK300 million ($16 million).
