US National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that preliminary findings of its investigation into the Feb. 12 Colgan Air Q400 crash outside Buffalo reveal no pre-impact system failures or anomalies. The flight data recorder shows that the stall warning and protection system activated at an airspeed and angle of attack consistent with that expected for normal operations when the deice protection system is activated, the board said.
Shanghai Airlines reported a 2008 net loss of CNY1.25 billion ($182.8 million), nearly tripling a net deficit of CNY435.12 million in 2007, on an 8.6% lift in revenue to CNY13.37 billion.
Frontier Airlines Holdings, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, posted a $3.2 million net loss and a $1.5 million operating profit in February, numbers it said bode well for its effort to secure financing to exit Chapter 11.
US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker, responding yesterday to reports that his counterpart at Continental Airlines, Larry Kellner, did not oppose re-regulation of commercial airlines ( ATWOnline, March 24), said, "In general, [re-regulation] is exactly the wrong direction." Parker said one of the industry's major problems is that it has not been truly deregulated. "We've spent 31 years trying to get deregulated."
US Regional airlines enjoyed robust growth and financial returns over the past several years when mainline partners reduced capacity and outsourced flying, but those days may be coming to an end, Delta Connection Senior VP Don Bornhorst told ATWOnline. "In the old days, capacity pulldowns meant more flying for the regionals," he said, but prospects for regional airline growth are limited this year as capacity cutbacks by mainline carriers likely will be "mirrored" by their regional partners.
UK Secretary for Transport Geoff Hoon said the government would be "completely at ease" if the merged British Airways and Iberia chose to locate their headquarters in Spain, The Times reported ( ATWOnline, Feb. 3).
Eurocontrol said the number of flights in Europe this year will decrease 8.1%-1.4% from 2008, with a "most likely case" of 4.9%, and demand is not expected to recover this year. It said drops will occur across all sectors of the industry, including low-cost airlines, which operated 5% fewer flights last month than in February 2008.
Ryanair will launch thrice-weekly flights from Nottingham East Midlands to Reus and Palma in July. It will cease serving Paris Beauvais from EMA. It also said all Beauvais service will be suspended June 3-10 as the airport closes to upgrade its landing systems.
Air China parent CNAC intends to move forward with its acquisition of a stake in East Star Airlines despite the Wuhan-based carrier's "strong opposition" to its "forceful purchase."
IATA yesterday revised downward its 2009 forecast, projecting a global airline industry loss of $4.7 billion for the year, a near-doubling of the $2.5 billion loss it forecast in December. Collective revenue is expected to decrease 12% year-over-year to $467 billion. "The state of the airline industry today is grim," DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said. "Demand has deteriorated much more rapidly with the economic slowdown than could have been anticipated even a few months ago."
Alaska Airlines flew 1.27 billion RPMs in February, down 10.2% year-over-year. Capacity dropped 10.5% to 1.73 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.2 point to 73.5%. Allegiant Air flew 351.2 million RPMs in February, a 6.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.9% to 401.6 million ASMs and load factor climbed 3.5 points to 87.4%. Copa Airlines flew 485.6 million RPMs in February, up 9.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 15.7% to 627.2 million ASMs and load factor fell 4.1 points to 77.4%.
SR Technics and Air India announced that their existing maintenance contract covering Air India Express's CFM56-7B engines will expand to include CFM56-5Bs on AI's fleet of 27 A320 family aircraft (planned to increase to 43 by 2010). Extended contract will expire in May 2010 and contains an extension clause for an additional two years. Services will be performed at SR Technics' engine services center in Zurich.
Chongqing Airlines took delivery of the first of three 122-seat A319s on lease from ILFC, Airbus announced. A joint venture between China Southern Airlines and Chongqing International Invest, the carrier currently operates four A320s and will take delivery of the remaining two A319s this spring.
International Aero Engines announced the delivery of the first set of V2500s to Airbus's A320 final assembly line in Tianjin. The V2500 will be installed on nine of the first 10 aircraft assembled there, including the first plane scheduled for delivery to Sichuan Airlines this summer ( ATWOnline, Sept. 30, 2008).
US Airways expects to generate $400-$500 million this year in ancillary revenue, according to President Scott Kirby. Speaking yesterday at the airline's media day in Phoenix, Kirby said that after initial negative reaction, there has been "very little consumer pushback" to the new fees. Ancillary revenue contributed $165 million to US last year, with $116.5 million coming from the first-bag fee, $37.6 million from the second-bag fee, $5.3 million from the Choice Seats program and $5.7 million from increased beverage fees.
Greek government signed an agreement to sell Olympic Airlines' flight, maintenance and ground handling divisions to Marfin Investment Group, which should take over the carrier in October if the deal is approved by the country's parliament ( ATWOnline, March 11). It is worth a reported €177.2 million ($241.5 million). The new OA will employ some 4,000 workers, about half the current total.
Bombardier Aerospace announced the addition of Alenia Aeronautica, Fokker Elmo and Goodrich Actuation Systems to its team of CSeries suppliers. Alenia will provide horizontal and vertical stabilizers, Fokker will be responsible for the design and production of the wiring and interconnection system and Goodrich will handle design and production of the flap and slat actuation systems.
Delta Air Lines and V Australia signed an interline agreement covering each carrier's transpacific flights and remaining networks. DL's Los Angeles-Sydney service begins July 1. V Australia signed an interline agreement with Northwest Airlines, now a DL subsidiary, last year ( ATWOnline, April 1, 2008).
Air Jamaica said it is ending its economy class meal service effective May 1 and will offer a "packaged snack" instead. Nonalcoholic beverages will remain free. A buy-on-board snack program will be launched in September.
News from Travel Technology Update: Travelport GDS will "temporarily" indemnify travel agents from new surcharges that Air France KLM intends to impose for bookings made through the Galileo and Worldspan systems. The carrier has said that it will assess a €4.50 surcharge for bookings made through the systems by travel agents in France beginning June 1 and in the Netherlands beginning in mid-July. Travelport's combined Galileo and Worldspan presence makes it the dominant GDS company in the Netherlands. Its agreement with Air France KLM expired in December.
Qantas declined to confirm a report in The Australian Financial Review that it intends to cut 100 senior executive positions. However, a QF insider suggested to ATWOnline that the report was true and that the airline would announce details mid-week. The reductions are in addition to the 1,500 announced last year and are not unexpected as new CEO Alan Joyce strives to streamline the carrier ( ATWOnline, July 21, 2008).
A FedEx MD-11 en route from Guangzhou to Tokyo Narita crashed yesterday on landing in high winds, cartwheeling on the runway and catching fire, killing the two pilots. Video of the crash shows the aircraft landing hard, lifting back into the air briefly and then bouncing on its front and then rear ends. The left wing hit the runway, starting a fire as the MD-11 rolled. The crash occurred at 6:50 a.m. and closed the longer of NRT's two runways, forcing Japan Airlines and ANA to cancel at least 40 flights combined.
GE Aviation said it completed its acquisition of Airfoil Technologies International-Singapore with the purchase of Teleflex's 51% stake for $300 million. ATI-Singapore employs some 535 and repairs more than 2 million compressor airfoils per year, GE said.
