Qantas A330-300 on its way from Singapore to Perth yesterday afternoon experienced severe turbulence and diverted to Learmonth, about 700 mi. north of its destination, with dozens injured. At least 10 were hospitalized in Exmouth, with QF confirming that both passengers and crew suffered "fractures and lacerations. . .following a sudden change in altitude." There were 303 passengers and 10 crew onboard, and local media were reporting that up to 50 were hurt. Qantas dispatched two 717s from Perth to pick up passengers as the A330 was grounded for inspections.
Air France KLM flew 17.99 billion RPKs in September, a 0.5% increase on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 2.2% to 22.25 billion ASKs and load factor fell 1.4 points to 80.9%. Gol flew 1.73 billion consolidated RPKs in September, down 3.1% year-over-year. Capacity rose 4.1% to 3.03 billion ASKs, dropping load factor 4.2 points to 57%.
US Airways expects fourth-quarter mainline unit costs excluding fuel, special items and transition expenses to increase 6%-8% year-over-year, it reported in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It cited "higher engine maintenance expense" and costs associated with previously announced capacity cuts as the cause ( ATWOnline, July 23). It has hedged 56% of its fuel exposure for the fourth quarter and expects to lose $0.19 per gal. purchased as a result.
US Dept. of Transportation said the 19 reporting carriers cancelled 1.6% of their scheduled domestic flights in August, improved from 1.9% in the year-ago month and 1.7% in July. Comair (4.6%), ExpressJet Airlines (3.3%) and JetBlue Airways (3.2%) had the highest cancellation rates while Frontier Airlines (0.3%), Northwest Airlines (0.5%) and Southwest Airlines (0.6%) reported the lowest. Airlines posted an ontime arrival rate of 78.4%, up from 71.7% in the year-ago month and 75.7% in July.
Air France will consider deploying the A380 in India "when the airport infrastructure at the Mumbai and Delhi airports supports the aircraft," which also would require a renegotiation of AF's rights with the Indian government, Senior VP-International Jean-Louis Pinson told Indian media last week, the Business Standard reported. AF has 12 A380s on firm order and currently serves Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.
Dalavia Far East Airways, based at Khabarovsk, had its traffic rights suspended by the Russian government due to rising debts, Itar-Tass reported. Aeroflot and Vladivostok Air have been transporting Dalavia passengers. The news service reported that Dalavia's debt to Khabarovsk Novy Airport exceeded RUB240 million ($9.2 million) last month and bank accounts were frozen in order to allow the airport to collect its money.
Orix Aviation of Dublin announced the following transactions: Purchase of two 737-700s from BOC Aviation on lease to WestJet and one A319 from RBS Aerospace on lease to South African Airways; sale of two A320-200s to Global Knafaim Leasing; lease of three 737-400s to Comair (South Africa) until 2013; lease extension of two US Airways 767-200ERs until 2010.
US Dept. of Transportation's Office of Inspector General said in a report released last week that FAA needs to upgrade its safety oversight to account for the growing amount of aircraft maintenance work outsourced to foreign countries by US airlines. According to the report, the nine largest US passenger carriers sent 71% of their heavy airframe checks to outside repair stations last year, up from only 34% in 2003.
JetBlue Airways flew 1.75 billion RPMs in September, down 4.8% year-over-year. Capacity fell 11.5% to 2.28 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 5.3 points to 76.7%. EasyJet transported 4.2 million passengers in September, up 22.1% year-over-year. Load factor rose 1.8 points to 86.9%.
Frontier Airlines reached an agreement with the Transport Workers Union, which represents its dispatchers, for wage and benefit concessions through September 2012. Deal is subject to TWU membership and bankruptcy court approval. Frontier is negotiating similar agreements with the Frontier Airline Pilots Assn. and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Caja Madrid, Iberia's largest shareholder, said yesterday that British Airways shareholders likely will receive approximately 60% of a merged company while IB shareholders take the remainder, Reuters reported. CM Chairman Miguel Blesa told reporters that he expected the new board to have a similar composition.
Ryanair will base a sixth aircraft at Shannon and launch service to Frankfurt Hahn and Newcastle in November. It also will add 26 weekly frequencies on existing routes. From Oct. 31 it will cease operating to Nottingham East Midlands and cut frequencies to London Luton. It also will launch daily flights to Paris Beauvais from Nottingham (Oct. 28) and Liverpool (Nov. 3). Separately, it extended its online check-in service from five days to 14 days before travel, allowing most passengers to check in for both outbound and return legs before departure.
Aer Lingus intends to cut up to 1,500 jobs as part of an effort to save €74 million ($101.8 million), it announced yesterday following meetings with unions, according to widespread press reports.
Facing a projected $250 million drop in revenue this year, Mesa Air Group is finding it impossible to "support the same level of overhead" and is reducing staff across the board, Chairman Jonathan Ornstein told ATWOnline yesterday. "The company will be smaller this year and we needed to right-size the workforce to the new level of reductions," Ornstein said. "Reductions were made throughout the company at all levels. It was a very difficult process for everyone, me in particular." He did not disclose further details.
Jet Airways launched daily ATR 72-500 flights from Hyderabad to Pune, Visakhapatnam and Goa, re-launched Pune-Bengaluru aboard a 737NG and started daily Muscat-Thiruvananthapuram aboard a 737-800. It also expanded its codeshare agreement with Brussels Airlines effective Oct. 26 to include SN flights from Brussels to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Manchester. Ethiopian Airlines will begin serving Ouagadougou six-times-weekly on Oct. 26. The 757-200 flights will originate in Addis Ababa and operate via Accra, Abuja and/or Lome.
Air France subsidiary Brit Air converted six CRJ1000 NextGen options into firm orders, Bombardier announced. Aircraft are worth $299 million at list prices. Original order for eight firm plus eight options was placed in February 2007 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 21, 2007). Brit currently operates 15 CRJ100s and 15 CRJ700s. The CRJ1000 NextGen completed its inaugural flight last month at Montreal Mirabel ( ATWOnline, Sept. 4).
Chinese carriers should get some relief in the fourth quarter as the Chinese government decided to cut the price of fuel by CNY570 ($82.37) per ton owing to the recent drop in international oil prices. The reduction took effect Oct. 1. It marks the fifth time that Beijing has adjusted the domestic fuel price. It introduced a CNY210 per ton increase in the first quarter, a CNY80 drop in the second quarter, a CNY1,500 hike on June 20 and a CNY720 addition on July 8.
Thai Airways said last week that its third-quarter loss would narrow from the THB9.25 billion ($269.7 million) deficit reported in the second quarter, executive VP Pandit Chanapai said, according to Reuters. He cited declining costs as the reason for the improvement. Load factor is expected to be around 70%. For the full year, Pandit said revenue will fall from the THB174 billion reported in 2007.
Miami International Airport dropped its landing fee 39% to $1.18 per 1,000 lb. of landed weight for the current fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The move reduces the cost per departing passenger to $16.48 from $17.39 in the prior fiscal year and a projected $18.87 under the previously announced FY09 rate. The fee was projected to rise to as much as $2.46. Director of Aviation Jose Abreu warned that in FY10 the landing fee could be as high as $3.73 per 1,000 lb.
Boeing booked 11 more commercial aircraft orders last week, taking its year-to-date net to 623, but said that third-quarter deliveries fell 23% year-over-year. Last week's most notable commitment was ANA's order for nine 767-300ERs, which was announced last month but incorrectly identified with an identical order logged for nine -300ERs the prior previous week ( ATWOnline, Sept. 29).
Emirates SkyCargo announced development of its White Cover application for shipment of temperature-sensitive freight. Design includes heat shielding, air and water resistance and internal escape prevention features. Patent is pending.
Avianca took delivery of the first of 10 A330-200s last week. Aircraft are part of a May 2007 order that included 47 A320 family aircraft ( ATWOnline, May 31, 2007). The A330 will seat 280 and be powered by Trent 772Bs. Avianca will take delivery of one more -200, plus one A319 and one A320, before year end.
Brussels Airlines' recent financial tie-up with Lufthansa and its possible entry into Star Alliance will not affect its cooperation with Jet Airways, SN MD Bernard Gustin told ATWOnline last week.
