European Commission, as expected ( ATWOnline, Jan. 9), granted conditional approval for the merger of Clickair and Vueling Airlines Friday. Clearance depends upon the release of slots at Barcelona "and other European airports to address competition concerns." Clickair, Vueling and Iberia, which will hold 45% of the new airline, have offered to cede slots on "all routes where competition concerns were identified," according to the EC.
Cebu Pacific Air soon will take delivery of a seventh new ATR 72-500 and launch flights from Manila to Catarman and Virac (each four-times-weekly) on Feb. 14 and Calbayog and Cauayan (each thrice-weekly) on Feb. 18. It also will increase service from Manila to Naga and Busuanga. American Eagle will launch a third daily Miami-Tallahassee flight on March 2 aboard an ERJ-140. Transaero launched twice-weekly Moscow Domodedovo-Krasnoyarsk service using Tu-214s and 737s.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes will cut some 4,500 positions from its payroll this year in "an effort to ensure competitiveness and control costs in the face of a weakening global economy," it said Friday.
SkyWest Inc. reached an agreement with Delta Air Lines for subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines to operate 10 CRJ900s on Delta Connection service starting later this year. The aircraft were ordered by DL and will be contracted to ASA, the principal Delta Connection carrier at DL's Atlanta hub. ASA currently operates 110 CRJ200s and 39 CRJ700s. Separately, ASA announced Friday that 80 pilots will be furloughed effective Feb. 9. "We do everything we can not to have to do that. It's a last resort option for us," a spokesperson told ATWOnline.
Disgruntled with what it believes is an overcrowded low-cost airline terminal at Kuala Lumpur International, AirAsia revealed plans to shift its operation to its own new airport just 30 min. outside the capital.
Oneworld announced the following London Heathrow relocations: Finnair will transfer to Terminal 3 from T1 on Jan. 27; Iberia will switch to T3 from T2 on Feb. 25; British Airways will transfer remaining flights at T1 to T3 on Feb. 25. American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines and Royal Jordanian all are based in T3. Qantas will switch over from T4 later this year.
US National Transportation Safety Board in a preliminary report issued this week offered no scenarios to explain what factors may have caused a Continental Airlines 737-500 to depart the runway during takeoff on Dec. 20. The aircraft was destroyed when it veered from the left side of the runway on its takeoff roll, crashing into a ravine and catching fire, injuring 38 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 7). NTSB said the runway "was bare and dry and free of debris." Winds of 24 kt. gusting to 32 kt.
Hit hard by the deepening global financial crisis, Chinese airlines posted a net loss of CNY7.7 billion ($1.13 billion) in the first 11 months of 2008, according to CAAC Vice Minister Yang Guoqing. Yang noted in a conference this week that the carriers suffered from a sharp decline in demand last year, especially on international routes. Even Hong Kong and Macau slipped. Based on the regulators' rough estimate, Chinese airlines transported 192 million passengers in 2008, down 13% from 2007. Cargo volume plummeted 14.8% to 4 million tonnes.
Lynne Osmus was appointed by President George Bush as FAA acting administrator effective Jan. 16, when current Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell has said he will resign. Sturgell had named Osmus, formerly assistant administrator for security and hazardous materials, as acting deputy administrator this week. She is expected to serve in the post until President-elect Barack Obama's yet-to-be-named choice for administrator is confirmed by the Senate, a process that could take some time. Obama takes office Jan. 20.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.78 billion system RPMs in December, a 0.7% increase from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 2.4% to 12.2 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 2.4 points to 80.1%. Northwest Airlines flew 6.04 billion system RPMs in December, down 3.6% year-over-year, against a 4.5% decline in capacity to 7.38 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.7 point to 81.9%.
Vietnam Airlines reported a $14 million pre-tax profit in 2008, down 39% from the $23 million earned in 2007, according to a statement cited by Agence France Presse. GD Pham Ngoc Minh said the carrier "has never faced so many continuous challenges and disadvantages," even though full-year revenue climbed 22.8% to $1.56 billion. It transported 8.8 million passengers and load factor rose more than 1 point to approximately 76%.
Air Berlin's single largest shareholder, Dutch investment company AI Aviation Cooperatief, sold its 18.94% stake in the carrier, AB said yesterday. AI is a subsidiary of Access Industries, which is controlled by Len Blavatnik, a Russian/American investor. No details were released regarding the buyer. "We made this ad hoc announcement today. According to company law it is not possible to say more about the deal at the moment," an AB spokesperson told ATWOnline in Berlin.
A year that featured soaring fuel prices, a slumping global economy and a 58-day machinist strike ended with 662 net commercial aircraft orders for Boeing, a steep drop from the record 1,413 garnered in 2007. The 662 orders is the eighth-highest annual total on record for Boeing. The 737NG again was the manufacturer's most popular model with 484 net orders. It sold 93 787s, "primarily [to] Middle East customers," as well as 54 777s, 28 767-300ERs and three 747-8Is.
Saudi Arabian LCC Nas Air took delivery of three new 110-seat E-190s from Embraer, the Arab Air Carriers Org. reported. Nas now operates 14 aircraft and signed a maintenance support agreement covering them with Lufthansa Technik.
AeroMexico will launch daily flights from Mexico City to Toronto and San Francisco, both on Feb. 2, and to Denver on March 2. Cebu Pacific Air will operate thrice-weekly flights from Cebu to Cotabato beginning Jan. 10 and to Dumaguete from Jan. 12. Frequencies to Tacloban, Ozamiz and Iliolo will be increased in the coming weeks. EVA Air will relaunch thrice-weekly Taipei-Paris Charles de Gaulle passenger flights on Jan. 21 aboard a 777-300ER. Route has been operated as a cargo service since November 2007.
US Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) this week introduced legislation to abolish the "perimeter rules" that restrict flights to/from Washington National and New York LaGuardia. Federal statute prohibits flights between DCA and airports beyond 1,250 mi., though several notable exceptions have been made. A similar 1,500 mi. restriction is imposed on LGA with an exception made for service to Denver.
Lufthansa confirmed yesterday that it did not make an offer for Alitalia, which Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi revealed Wednesday ( ATWOnline, Jan. 8). An LH spokesperson told both Germany's dpa news agency and Reuters that the airline preferred to cooperate with its Star Alliance partners in the Italian market. In November, LH announced the launch of an Italian subsidiary based at Milan Malpensa ( ATWOnline, Nov.
Mesa Air Group announced that shareholders approved an increase in the number of authorized shares of common stock to 900 million from 75 million and the issuance of shares to satisfy Mesa's potential obligation to repurchase outstanding senior convertible notes due in 2023 and 2024. "We appreciate our shareholders giving us this flexibility while we continue to discuss a number of options with our bondholders," Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said.
AAR named Dave Cann VP-regulatory compliance. He was head of US FAA's Flight Standards Service Aircraft Maintenance Division until his retirement one year ago.
Amadeus and Star Alliance announced that three additional Star members switched over to the Star Alliance Common IT Platform based on the Amadeus Altea customer management system. Austrian Airlines, Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines "have all switched their inventory, pricing, flight schedules, seat planning and passenger re-accommodation applications," according to a statement from Amadeus and Star. Croatia and Adria are regional members of Star.
Airstream International Group was named as exclusive agent to offer for sale or lease one BAe 146-200 and one -300 on behalf of Tronos Ltd. Aircraft most recently were operated by Flightline Ltd. on behalf of BA CityFlyer.
Finnair will launch twice-weekly Helsinki-Istanbul Ataturk flights on March 3, doubling to four-times-weekly on March 30. Route will be operated with both A319s and E-190s. Swiss International Air Lines will launch a four-times-daily Zurich-Lyon service on March 29 using RJ100s. Japan Airlines announced an expanded codeshare agreement with British Airways under which JAL will place its code on BA flights from London Heathrow to Lisbon, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow International beginning Jan. 14.
Last year was one of the safest years on record for air travel, according to Ascend, with 539 reported passenger and crew fatalities, down from 730 in 2007 and the second-best year on record. The UK-based consultancy and information services provider said that only 2004 had fewer fatalities at 434. On the down side, 2008 saw an increase in the number of fatal accidents to 28 from 24 in 2007. Ascend said the fatal accident rate for 2008 was 1 per 1.3 million flights compared to 1 per 1.2 million for the nine years since 2000.
