Hainan Airlines last week re-launched its Grand China Express Airlines subsidiary as Tianjin Airlines, part of its plan to focus on domestic regional market expansion this year and in 2010, according to Chairman Chen Feng. Tianjin-based GCEA has been loss-making since its June 2007 launch. The re-launched Tianjin Airlines has a registered capital of CNY1.3 billion ($190 million). Hainan will remain the controlling stakeholder and expanded its holding to more than 83% with an additional investment of CNY500 million.
Virgin America reported a first-quarter net loss of $40.3 million, narrowed from a net deficit of $52 million in the year-ago period, and the nearly two-year-old carrier said it is poised to continue growing steadily.
Few major aircraft orders expected; Airbus warns of possible 15% production cut CFM maintains orders, production levels despite 'grim' market UK report details air transport's global economic impact Additional stories CFM President and CEO Eric Bachelet briefs reporters in Paris on 'grim' commercial aviation market
Aer Lingus said it has offered pilots and cabin crew unpaid leave, will cut long-haul winter seat capacity by about 25% for 2009-10 compared to the 2008-09 winter and also will trim short-haul capacity at Belfast and Dublin while adding frequencies and routes at Shannon and London Gatwick.
Delta Air Lines President Ed Bastian said last week that the company is "using the downturn to accelerate" the integration of DL and Northwest Airlines. With the carrier cutting capacity ( ATWOnline, June 12), it is able to eliminate overlapping services more quickly, he explained. "Our expectation is that by spring 2010, we will be a single company," he told the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference in New York, available via webcast.
South African Airways CEO Chris Smyth told ATWOnline at last week's IATA annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur that he expects the airline to post an operating profit for its fiscal year started April 1 and that the carrier's two-year restructuring is largely complete.
GE Aviation and NASA plan to begin wind tunnel testing this summer to "evaluate counterrotating fan-blade systems" for open rotor jet designs, GE said ( ATWOnline, May 26). Testing will be conducted throughout 2009 and early 2010 at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. For the NASA tests, GE will run two rows of counterrotating fan blades with 12 blades in the front row and 10 in the back row.
GE Capital Aviation Services announced the promotion of Norman Liu, 51, to president and CEO. Liu will take over executive management of the business from Henry Hubschman, 61, who will take on the new role of chairman of GECAS. Changes are effective July 1. Liu is a 22-year veteran of GE Capital including 14 years at GECAS, where he most recently served as executive VP-commercial operations. Hubschman joined GECAS in 1997 and oversaw the growth of assets from $10 billion to more than $46 billion during his tenure.
Boeing yesterday said that commercial aviation is "cyclic and has a long history of declines and upturns" as it revised downward its 20-year forecast only slightly to a market demand of 29,000 new passenger and freighter aircraft worth $3.2 trillion.
Air France KLM flew 16.41 billion RPKs in May, down 8.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 5.7% to 21.24 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 2 points to 77.3%. Finnair flew 1.34 billion RPKs in May, down 11% year-over-year, against a 16.3% decline in capacity to 1.94 billion ASKs. Load factor rose 4.2 points to 69.1%. Copa Airlines flew 445.6 million RPMs in May, a 2.3% drop year-over-year. Capacity rose 18.4% to 686.9 million ASMs and load factor plunged 13.8 points to 64.9%.
United Airlines reassured investors that the RFP it submitted to Boeing and Airbus is for "fleet renewal" and not growth and expressed confidence it will be able to finance any order it places. The carrier's credit facility rating was downgraded earlier this week by Fitch Ratings, which cautioned that UA faces "a deepening liquidity crisis" and questioned its ability to finance a large long-haul aircraft order ( ATWOnline, June 11)
Air Nostrum intends to lay off up to 507 employees, representing some 23% of its workforce, according to a statement cited by Reuters. "The measure we are implementing is part of a viability plan required to guarantee the company's future, which also includes cost savings and cost cuts," the Spanish carrier said.
Cathay Pacific Airways Chairman Christopher Pratt said this week that "demand and yields seem to have stopped falling" but that rising oil prices are contributing to what "continues to be a very nasty situation" for the airline, which lost HK$8.56 billion ($1.1 billion) in 2008 ( ATWOnline, March 12) and suffered a 22.4% drop in first-quarter revenue.
Air China is cutting its international capacity owing to the market downturn but will not go so far as to defer any aircraft deliveries this year, MD Lou Yongfeng told ATWOnline at this week's IATA annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
Singapore Airlines will fly the A380 to Hong Kong beginning July 9. The daily flight will replace an existing 777-300ER frequency and will bring to five the number of airports served by SIA's A380 fleet (Sydney, London Heathrow, Tokyo Narita and Paris Charles de Gaulle). It operates five daily SIN-HKG flights.
Skytech-AIC announced the lease of two 747-400s to Eagle Aviation Europe. The first aircraft was returned by the previous lessee in March and already has been delivered; the second will be delivered to Eagle on July 31. Skytech also said it has been selected to remarket four additional 747-400s for an unidentified customer.
US Regional Airline Assn. announced at a Congressional hearing that it would "push for new advances in aviation safety" following this week's announcement that FAA will inspect regional carrier training programs to ensure they are fully compliant ( ATWOnline, June 10). "We need to take bold action to address every single issue that could possibly affect the culture of safety that is the fundamental cornerstone of the aviation industry," RAA President Roger Cohen told members of the House aviation subcommittee.
European Commission yesterday extended the deadline of its initial review of Lufthansa's proposed takeover of Austrian Airlines Group from June 17 to July 1 after the carriers offered remedies to address competition concerns. The Commission did not specify the routes on which it identified competition issues or what the offered concessions were.
Delta Air Lines and American Airlines yesterday announced additional capacity and job reductions in the second half of 2009, with international flying in particular taking a bigger hit than previously planned, and other US carriers said they are considering further capacity reductions.
CTC Aviation Group announced that it will be launch customer and host of two next-generation full flight simulators featuring Rockwell Collins CORE simulation architecture. The first, a 737NG, will be delivered to the company's training center near Southampton in late summer.
SkyWest said it is "aggressively pursuing other opportunities" for the 12 CRJs that are being removed from the Midwest Airlines fleet after that carrier ended its air service agreement with SkyWest and struck a separate deal with Republic Airways to provide regional lift.
Council of the European Union formally adopted the regulation allowing the suspension of the "use it or lose it" rule governing slots at EU airports for the current IATA summer schedule at its meeting in Luxembourg this week. "This temporary measure will help airlines cut costs by allowing them to cut capacity more easily at busy airports, knowing that their slots will be safeguarded for the next summer season 2010," it said in a statement ( ATWOnline, May 11).
Delta Air Lines flew 15.85 billion system RPMs in May, a 9.7% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity dropped 7.9% to 19.27 billion ASMs and load factor was down 1.6 points to 82.3%. Lufthansa Group airlines flew 12.65 billion RPKs in May, down 7.1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1.6% to 17.05 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 4.4 points to 74.2% Air Canada and Jazz flew 3.86 billion RPMs in May, a 10.3% drop year-over-year. Capacity fell 6.1% to 4.86 billion ASMs and load factor slipped 3.7 points to 79.5%.
