Malev Hungarian Airlines said Russia's Vneshekonombank, which took over the carrier in January ( ATWOnline, Feb. 12), has provided a €20 million ($28 million) loan that will enable it to add a third and fourth Q400 over the summer. Chairman Anatoly Ballo said Malev has revised its 2009 business plan, which now "includes important steps to offset the crisis that are sufficient to bring the airline into a stable operational position."
Austral Lineas Aereas signed an agreement Friday to purchase 20 E-190s. Embraer said the contract "will go into effect after fulfilling certain requirements and that should take place within two months." First delivery is slated for the first half of 2010. The aircraft will be the Advanced Range model that has a range of 2,400 nmi. (4,400 km.) and will feature a dual-class, 96-seat configuration.
The US House of Representatives last week passed an FAA reauthorization bill containing several controversial provisions championed by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.), setting the stage for debate in the Senate on the long-stalled effort to renew FAA's legislative mandate and provide long-term funding for the agency.
British Airways reported a net loss of £358 million ($563.7 million) for its fiscal year ended March 31, reversed from a net profit of £726 million in its prior fiscal year, and said it will slash capacity 4% in the upcoming winter season and park up to 16 aircraft.
Sensis Corp. said the General Authority of Civil Aviation of Saudi Arabia selected its Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems and Wide Area Multilateration systems for King Abdulaziz International in Jeddah and King Fahad International in Dammam.
Bombardier Aerospace selected SAMCO Aircraft Maintenance as a recognized service facility for Dash 8/Q Series aircraft. SAMCO's facility is located at Maastricht and will provide service for aircraft based in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It will be able to perform C checks, heavy maintenance and aircraft modifications and upgrades.
US Senate last week confirmed former Air Line Pilots Assn. President Randy Babbitt, 62, as FAA administrator ( ATWOnline, March 30). The confirmation giving Babbitt a five-year term ends a period that lasted more than 19 months in which the agency was headed by acting administrators. "We heartily congratulate Administrator Babbitt on his confirmation and look forward to working with him. .
Hainan Airlines is expected to receive a CNY3 billion ($439 million) capital injection from the Hainan provincial government and its parent Hainan Airlines Group to facilitate fleet expansion and improve its debt ratio. The provincial government and HAG each will provide CNY1.5 billion to HNA. The money is intended to reduce the Haikou-based carrier's debt ratio to 81%. HNA plans to introduce 90 new aircraft in 2009-13. They will cost around CNY24.3 billion; the capital injection is aimed at broadening aircraft financing channels available to HNA, Guotai Junan Securities noted.
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair reported an 8.8% rise to 2.2 million passengers enplaned in April. Traffic increased 5.3% to 7.88 billion RPKs on a 1.1% lift in capacity to 9.54 billion ASKs, resulting in load factor heightening 3.2 points to 82.6%. The increase was mainly owing to the Easter holiday falling in April this year and fare stimulation, the airline group said. "The slump in demand for premium traffic continued unabated across the network and. .
Lufthansa Technik Sofia, the 80-20 joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Bulgarian Aviation Group launched last year, recently opened a second maintenance line for Boeing and Airbus narrowbodies. First user of the facility was a Ural Airlines A320. Beginning in July the JV will add 737 maintenance to its portfolio.
Czech Airlines signed a seven-year global maintenance agreement with ATR valued at $14 million covering repair of LRUs on the 12 ATR aircraft in CSA's fleet. The accord marks the launch of ATR's new Door-2-Door service program in which the manufacturer is responsible for the entire supply chain management process.
EgyptAir plans to launch twice-weekly Cairo-Abuja flights June 1 using 737-800s. Bmibaby will introduce service to Grenoble from Nottingham East Midlands, Birmingham, Cardiff (all twice-weekly) and Manchester (weekly) for its 2009-10 winter schedule.
The regional airline industry continued to look forward to a stretched turboprop, but thus far neither ATR nor Bombardier has gone beyond informal consideration. "There's been substantial interest in a Q400X," Bombardier Commercial Aircraft VP Rod Williams said last week at the Regional Airline Assn. conference in Salt Lake City. "But we're not there yet. There's not a formal product program."
Hit hard by competition from high-speed rail, Shanghai-based Spring Airlines, the most profitable Chinese LCC, is abandoning plans to open a second base in Zhengzhou to the north and shifting its attention south to Sanya in Hainan Province.
Southwest Airlines announced the closure of the second tranche of its sale and leaseback deal with BOC Aviation, selling three 737-700s for $104 million ( ATWOnline, April 7). BOC immediately leased the aircraft back to SWA for 16 years.
Alaska Airlines flew 1.48 billion RPMs in April, down 5.9% year-over-year. Capacity dropped 8.3% to 1.87 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2 points to 78.9%. AirTran Airways flew 1.51 billion RPMs in April, up 0.3% year-over-year, against a 7.9% fall in capacity to 1.88 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 6.5 points to 80.4%. WestJet flew 1.19 billion RPMs in April, a 5.5% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 7.2% to 1.47 billion ASMs and load factor dropped 1.3 points to 81.2%.
Emirates Group said that "under the circumstances" its AED1.49 billion ($405.6 million) profit in the fiscal year ended March 31, a 72% drop from the record AED5.3 billion posted in 2007-08, was a "satisfactory result" and demonstrated its "flexibility in a challenging economic period." Group revenue rose 10.4% to AED46.3 billion but profit suffered as a result of "the record fuel prices in the first six months of the [fiscal] year and the impact of the global recession," EK said. Fuel accounted for 36.2% of the carrier's expenses compared to 32.9% in the prior year.
US Airways yesterday launched seasonal daily Philadelphia-Oslo Gardermoen service aboard a 757. Aerolineas Argentinas will begin a daily Buenos Aires-Cordoba-Mendoza flight on July 1 JetBlue Airways yesterday launched daily New York JFK-Montego Bay flights aboard an A320 and said it will begin serving Kingston from JFK this fall.
Bmi founder and Chairman Michael Bishop initiated UK court proceedings to force Lufthansa to purchase his 50%-plus-one-share stake in the carrier, according to multiple UK press reports. Bishop in December exercised an option to sell his stake to LH (which owns 30% minus one share) for an estimated £350-£400 million ($544-$622 million) under terms of a contract signed in 1999. LH announced seven months ago that it would purchase Bishop's stake ( ATWOnline, Oct.
Pratt & Whitney's PurePower PW1000G geared turbofan program for the Bombardier CSeries and Mitsubishi Regional Jet will enter the detailed design phase by midsummer, VP-Next Generation Product Family Bob Saia told ATWOnline yesterday. This stage, which follows completion of the preliminary design phase, will take 12-15 months, leading to first engine runs by the third quarter of 2010. "We start testing in the middle of next year, we get engine certification at the end of 2011 and start flying on the MRJ. . .and we fly on the CSeries in the middle of 2012," Saia said.
Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney said that with the 787 on the "eve" of first flight, "we're turning to profitability" and working on developing an efficient production process that will allow the manufacturer to benefit from the troubled program as quickly as possible.
US FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. began mediated negotiations this week, guided by a three-member panel comprising former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, Richard Bloch and George Cohen ( ATWOnline, May 4). Agreement provides for binding resolutions of unresolved issues, "guaranteeing a new collective bargaining agreement," FAA said. Process is expected to last through early June.
Embraer announced the delivery of the first of two 50-seat ERJ-145s to Passaredo Linhas Aereas through its ECC Leasing subsidiary ( ATWOnline, March 20). The aircraft operated its first flight for the Ribeirao Preto-based airline Monday. The second plane is being prepared for delivery at Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services in Nashville. Passaredo also operates six Brasilias.
Boeing Corporate President and CFO James Bell said Boeing Capital Corp. will provide about $1 billion in financing for new aircraft deliveries in 2009 but expressed confidence that there also are "adequate sources of financing" in traditional credit markets. He added that it's too early to make an assessment for 2010 but said the company does not plan to be a primary financing source going forward. "There is not the need [for Boeing] to finance aircraft [on a large scale]," he insisted.
