Airbus booked 31 new orders in September and delivered 34 aircraft. Its 2008 gross order total now stands at 785. The manufacturer said deliveries during the month were mostly A320 family aircraft that went to Afriqiyah Airways, Air China, AirAsia, Avianca, British Airways, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, CIT Leasing (for Juneyao Airlines and Qatar Airways), CSA Czech Airlines, easyJet, GECAS (for Aeroflot, East Star Airlines and Juneyao), GoAir, ILFC (for Shenzhen Airlines), IndiGo, JetBlue Airways, LAN Airlines, TAM, Turkish Airlines and US Airways.
Qantas A330-300 turbulence incident that injured 71 of 313 passengers and crew Tuesday likely was caused by a computer malfunction, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said ( ATWOnline, Oct. 7). The aircraft, on its way to Perth from Singapore before diverting to Learmonth, suffered "some irregularity" with its elevator control system that caused the dramatic altitude change, according to ATSB Director-Aviation Safety Investigation Julian Walsh. The A330 climbed some 300 ft. and then nosedived.
Network carriers based in the US that cut fall and winter capacity as a result of soaring fuel prices may have insulated themselves somewhat from the steepening global economic downturn, United Airlines Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton told ATWOnline.
A Yeti Airlines Twin Otter en route from Kathmandu to Lukla yesterday crashed on landing and caught fire, killing all 16 passengers and two of three crewmembers. According to Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network, "visibility was reported as poor." The flight captain was the sole survivor. The Twin Otter's first flight was in 1980, ASN said. Lukla has a single 1,600-ft. runway at an elevation of 9,380 ft.
Lufthansa Flight Training announced the opening of its Munich training center. Expected to have a staff of 24, the facility initially will accommodate E-190, A320 and A330/A340 simulators. CAE said it will add a CRJ200 FFS to support the CRJ200/900 FFS currently installed at its Madrid training center. Simulator is slated to enter service early next year.
Aegean Airlines will launch new service from Athens to Paris Charles de Gaulle (daily from Nov. 12, becoming twice-daily in March) and Dusseldorf (five-times-weekly from Oct. 26). A third daily ATH-London Stansted will start Dec. 15. Aegean will take delivery of two new A320s by year end, the ninth and 10th to enter the fleet this year. It plans to have 27 new A320/321s in service by 2010. Separately, it promoted Director-European Sales and Operations Giovanni Matassa to commercial director.
KLM took official receipt of a new cost-saving aircraft painting system using environmentally sustainable, chromate-free paint. The system, developed by KLM Engineering & Maintenance and German manufacturer Mankiewicz, claims to use 15% less paint and allows the degreasing of the aircraft before repainting to be performed with only soap and water. Previously this required 800 litres of aggressive, flammable solvent. Paint retains gloss and color longer, dries faster and application process takes two fewer days, KLM said.
Olympic Airlines cancelled more than 100 flights yesterday as members of Greece's largest union GSEE staged a 24-hr. strike in protest of the government's plan to privatize the carrier ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1). Nearly all modes of transport were affected.
Virgin Atlantic Airways posted a pre-tax profit of £72 million ($125.9 million) in the fiscal first half ended Aug. 31, up 67.4% from the £43 million reported in the year-ago semester. Revenue climbed 15% to £1.37 billion and passenger numbers were up 3% to 3 million. Premium traffic rose 6% year-over-year. Separately, VS this week launched a website "showing why passengers will lose out" if antitrust immunity for American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia is approved ( ATWOnline, Sept. 15).
Turkish Airlines won the tender to acquire a 49% stake in B&H Airlines ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5), a Bosnian government official told Reuters in Sarajevo. "After the evaluation of all bids, we found the offer of Turkish Airlines by far the best," the unnamed official told the news service. Comintel Corp. of Malyasia and a Jordanian consortium including Royal Jordanian were among THY's competitors.
Singapore Changi is to be taken over on July 1, 2009, by Temasek Holdings, the state-owned investment company with a portfolio valued at S$185 billion ($126.29 billion) as of March 31, 2008. The corporatization will see the airport's current operator, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, hived off into a separate aviation regulatory and safety authority handling air traffic services, safety and economic regulation and aeropolitical negotiations.
Delta Air Lines flew 9.71 billion system RPMs in September, down 0.8% year-over-year. Capacity fell 3.7% to 12.14 billion ASMs and load factor rose 2.4 points to 80%. Etihad Airways transported 4.4 million passengers through the first nine months of 2008, up 33.3% year-over-year. Overall load factor rose 7 points to 75% while business class loads climbed at the same rate to 63%. It launched routes to four new destinations this year and will add two more, Moscow Domodedovo and Almaty, in December. It said it is "set to exceed" its full-year target of 6 million passengers.
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China yesterday launched the Shanghai Aircraft Customer Service Co., which will be the first domestic enterprise of its kind for civil aircraft and marks an important part of China's large commercial aircraft manufacturing strategy.
Star Alliance returned to Latin America yesterday, formally inviting Brazil's TAM to be its 24th member, and said it will look to increase its presence further in the region next year.
Virgin America is introducing a Main Cabin Select fare for flights starting Nov. 3. The service class will offer passengers 38-in. seat pitch, "a more streamlined boarding process" and complimentary food and cocktails inflight. "In short, this is for the traveler who wants an upscale experience for far less than what they would pay for business class on someone else," President and CEO David Cush said.
Air France launched a booking facility for children under 12 traveling alone. The mandatory form for all unaccompanied children will be filled out automatically according to details given at the time of reservation. Customers can then print the form and hand it in to AF ground staff. AF said it is the first airline to offer online reservations for under-12 passengers on all flights and those of its franchised carriers.
CTT Systems yesterday said it will supply Nord-Micro with its Cair System cabin humidifiers and Zonal Drying System designed for the A350 XWB. Nord-Micro will deliver the systems to Honeywell to offer as an option to Airbus and airlines.
Copenhagen Airports will construct a low-cost terminal designed to "provide new opportunities for growth for the airlines during these difficult times and more cheap fares to choose from for the passengers," CEO Brian Petersen said. Passenger charges for airlines using CPH SWIFT will be half those applied to carriers using Kastrup's main infrastructure. Airlines wanting to fly SWIFT will have to meet a number of efficiency requirements, including a 30-min. turnaround, while passengers will be expected to check in mainly via the Internet, a mobile phone or at self-service kiosks.
Etihad Airways expanded its codeshare agreement with Brussels Airlines and will place its code on SN flights from Brussels to Oslo Gardermoen, Stockholm Bromma, Gothenburg, Helsinki and Copenhagen effective Oct. 6.
Mesa Air Group said yesterday that it has reached a tentative agreement with the Air Line Pilots Assn. on a new contract of undisclosed duration. "This agreement, if ratified, will resolve many of the scheduling-related issues between Mesa and the pilot group," it said. The pilots' contract became amendable in September 2007. The sides entered into an "expedited negotiation process" and said yesterday the new contract includes "more days off. .
Pinnacle Airlines Corp., parent of Pinnacle Airlines and Colgan Air, plans to exercise up to 15 Q400 options before year end and shop the aircraft to its mainline partners, President and CEO Phil Trenary told ATWOnline yesterday.
SAS Group yesterday said that a decline in bookings related to the August Spanair MD-82 crash at Madrid will impact its result by SEK500 million ($69.4 million). "Forward bookings in Spanair have, as expected, been affected by the tragic accident. . .The initial effect was significant, but the bookings are gradually improving and [are] now almost in line with normal levels," SAS said ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5).
Alaska Air Group expects to suffer a "significant" third-quarter loss on a GAAP basis resulting from a $220 million mark-to-market loss on the value of its fuel hedges and other special items, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It will announce its third-quarter results on Oct. 23. It said it expects third-quarter passenger RASM to increase 3%-4% year-over-year and it recorded a one-time gain of $42 million related to a change in its loyalty program's mile expiration policy.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told reporters yesterday in London that "if aircraft fleet prices collapse," he would be interested in spearheading an effort to launch a long-haul LCC, Reuters reported. "There may be the opportunity to buy a fleet of long-haul aircraft cheaply next year," he said. He provided few details, but revealed his interest in the long-haul "no frills" transatlantic carrier concept more than a year ago ( ATWOnline, April 13, 2007). He said the potential airline would be independent from Ryanair.
