Under pressure from the industry downturn and, potentially, Lufthansa's acquisition of Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines is seeking help from both Star Alliance and a future industry partner, President and CEO Dariusz Nowak told ATWOnline. Speaking to this website on the way to last week's Star board meeting in Chicago, Nowak said LOT is working on selling a 49% stake to a strong industry partner. "We will try to sell it next year, preferring a European airline," he said.
Air India plans to ask for INR25 billion ($502.8 million) from the government to help finance expansion and its continued integration with Indian Airlines, Chairman and MD Raghu Menon told the Indo-Asian News Service. "We have a very small equity base of INR1.45 billion but our aircraft acquisition plan alone is worth INR450 billion," he said.
China Southern Airlines Group Chairman Liu Shaoyong was appointed as the new chairman of China Eastern Airlines parent China Eastern Air Holding Co. Friday, appearing to pave the way for the merger of CEA and Shanghai Airlines.
US National Transportation Safety Board, commenting on the Brazilian Air Force's final report issued last week on the Sept. 29, 2006, midair collision between a Gol 737-800 and an ExcelAire Legacy 600 that led to the deaths of all 154 aboard the 737, emphasized that ATC failures were the primary cause of the accident. While not rejecting the report's conclusion that the ExcelAire pilots inadvertently turned off the Legacy's transponder ( ATWOnline, Dec.
Air France KLM flew 15.96 billion RPKs in November, a 0.8% fall from the year-ago month. Capacity was down 0.7% to 20.39 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 0.1 point to 78.3%. Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair flew 7.13 billion RPKs in November, up 1% year-over-year. Capacity rose 7.4% to 9.43 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 4.7 points to 75.7%. WestJet flew 1.06 billion RPMs in November, up 14.4% year-over-year, against a 13.5% increase in capacity to 1.39 billion ASMs. Load factor rose 0.5 point to 76.1%.
Boeing yesterday confirmed that the 787's first flight will not take place until the 2009 second quarter, with first delivery to ANA pushed back to the 2010 first quarter, marking the fifth time the manufacturer has delayed the Dreamliner program.
Spanair said it received approval from national labor authorities to move ahead with a restructuring plan that includes the layoff of 517 permanent employees and conversion of an additional 185 fulltime jobs into part-time positions ( ATWOnline, Aug. 12). The "viability plan" is worth an estimated €90 million, the carrier said yesterday, adding that it "expects to break even or generate a small profit" by 2010.
Mesa Air Group pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn. ratified the labor agreement reached with airline management in October ( ATWOnline, Oct. 8), with only 51% of those voting approving the deal. The union said the voting was a "clear indication that there is still much work to be done" when negotiations on a new contract start in 21 months.
American Airlines will launch daily Dallas/Fort Worth-Madrid service on May 1 aboard a two-class, 225-seat 767-300. AirTran Airways will launch daily Atlanta-Branson service on May 11 aboard a 717-200. Branson Airport will open that day and is the first privately financed and operated commercial airport in the US, AirTran said.
South Korea's Jeju Air will launch 737-800 service from Incheon to Osaka (daily) and Kitakyushu (thrice-weekly) on March 20, becoming the country's first LCC to operate internationally, The Korea Times reported. Jeju launched domestic flights in June 2006 and currently flies two 737-800s and four Q400s. It plans to take delivery of two more 737s next year.
Air France KLM subsidiary CityJet will take over the London City-Amsterdam route from VLM Airlines and KLM Cityhopper on Jan. 5. It will operate a two-class, 95-seat RJ-85 eight-times-daily on weekdays, once on Saturdays and four times on Sundays. VLM will take over CityJet's current twice-weekday LCY-Eindhoven service on Jan. 12 and base an additional F50 at Rotterdam from Jan. 5 to operate charter flights. It will continue to operate its eight-times-weekday LCY-Rotterdam service.
ACE Aviation Holdings, which was created in 2004 as part of Air Canada's restructuring and still holds a 75% stake in AC, this week revealed plans to use C$811 million ($644 million) in cash reserves to purchase all of its outstanding convertible shares and senior notes, allowing it to seek shareholder approval for liquidation.
Star Alliance yesterday confirmed that Brussels Airlines, which is owned partially by Lufthansa, will join the organization, and Star CEO Jaan Albrecht said the 21-member group eventually may more than double in size.
Federal Court of Australia upheld the A$20 million ($13.2 million) fine imposed on Qantas for its role in an international cartel that colluded on air cargo fuel surcharges between 2002 and 2006. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reached a settlement with QF and British Airways, which was fined A$5 million, in October ( ATWOnline, Oct. 29). ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said yesterday that the penalty reflected the seriousness of the contraventions and Qantas's large share of the market.
Air France KLM lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission regarding the conditions under which Lufthansa intends to take over Austrian Airlines. The Franco-Dutch group said it "strongly believes" that the transaction "is not being conducted in the best interest of Austrian Airlines stakeholders and at a fair market price. This sale therefore entails state aid elements that need to be thoroughly investigated."
Ryanair yesterday confirmed that it will shutter its Fuerteventura operation on Jan. 31 "after local tourism group AIE failed to honor the commercial agreemen. . .to promote Fuerteventura as a tourist destination" ( ATWOnline, Nov. 20). It will cancel 23 weekly flights to Birmingham, Bremen, Dublin, Dusseldorf Weeze, Nottingham East Midlands, Frankfurt Hahn, Liverpool, London Stansted and Shannon. " It said that "legal action" would continue against AIE and its members.
Virgin Atlantic Airways and Lufthansa confirmed discussions regarding future cooperation and the latter's impending takeover of bmi ( ATWOnline, Dec. 10). "Lufthansa can confirm that it is exploring options regarding the future ownership of BMI. These options include different scenarios," the German carrier said in a statement cited by the BBC.
CAAC yesterday "urged state-owned airlines to cancel or delay orders for new aircraft next year," according to China's official state news agency Xinhua, which estimated that Airbus and Boeing are slated to deliver a combined 180 aircraft to the nation's carriers in 2009.
United Airlines flew 7.47 billion system RPMs in November, a 17% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 14.2% to 9.71 billion ASMs and load factor was down 2.7 points to 76.9% Continental Airlines said November consolidated RASM rose 1%-2% year-over-year and mainline unit revenue climbed 2%-3%. It flew 6.58 billion consolidated RPMs last month, down 10.5%, against a 7.3% fall in ASMs to 8.51 billion. Load factor dropped 2.8 points to 77.3%.
Siemens PLM Software signed a deal with Safran Group's Snecma to provide its Teamcenter lifecycle management solution, which is expected to increase partner and supplier collaboration and improve product development practices. Deployment through three implementation phases will occur over the next three years. Separately, Satair will continue to provide Siemens with product support and serve as its authorized distributor in the Asia/Pacific region under a renewal agreement.
PASSUR Aerospace said Orlando International selected its Pulse Proactive landing fee management technology featuring radar network intelligence, flight information validations, Web transparency and specialized activity filters.
Air New Zealand will conduct the world's first commercial aviation test flight powered by a sustainable second-generation biofuel on Dec. 30. The flight was scheduled for Dec. 3 but was postponed after the loss of one of the airline's A320s during a "return from lease acceptance test flight" in France ( ATWOnline, Nov. 12). The 2-hr.
Mexicana took delivery of an A330-200 on lease from CIT Aerospace. A second will arrive later this month. Aircraft is powered by Trent 772Bs. Separately, MX recently unveiled a new logo and livery featuring an angled eagle's head and two shades of blue.
The US Aerospace Industries Assn. said yesterday that US civil aircraft sales are on pace to reach $80.6 billion in 2008, up 0.5% from $80.2 billion last year. It forecast that civil aircraft sales will rise 7.4% to $86.6 billion in 2009. Speaking at AIA's annual forecast luncheon in Washington, President and CEO Marion Blakey asserted that the "main reason [for slow growth this year] was not the economic atmosphere but the work stoppage at Boeing."
