Sun Country Airlines faces an uncertain future following last week's resignation and arrest of its former chairman, warning employees that a shutdown by Dec. 1 is "a distinct possibility."
LuxairGroup will acquire a fifth Q400 for Luxair Luxembourg Airlines and a 737-800 for its tour operator LuxairTours to replace an ERJ and 737-500 respectively. The 72-seat turboprop should join the Luxair fleet in 2010.
KD avia 737-300 en route from Barcelona landed on its belly at Kaliningrad on Oct. 1, although none of the 138 passengers and six crew were hurt, according to press reports and Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network. KD Executive Director Leonid Itskov told Interfax that the fuselage was not destroyed and that passengers evacuated with slides. According to ASN, the crew declared an emergency following an unsafe gear indication and confirmed gear did not deploy following a low pass. The crew landed the aircraft gear up on its second approach.
Continental Airlines said September consolidated RASM rose an estimated 8%-9% year-over-year, with mainline RASM climbing 9%-10%. It flew 6.49 billion consolidated RPMs last month, down 10.9%, against an 8.1% fall in capacity to 8.49 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 2.5 points to 76.5%. American Airlines flew 9.86 billion system RPMs in September, a 9.1% decline from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 7% to 12.87 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 1.8 points to 76.6%. American Eagle flew 587.4 million RPMs, down 17.2%, against a 9.9% fall in ASMs to 910.7 million.
Lufthansa will increase its winter schedule capacity 2.4% year-over-year as it adds flights to six airports to its network, lifting the number of destinations served to 194. European ASKs will rise 1.9% from the 2007-08 winter schedule and long-haul capacity will grow 2.7%, LH said. The winter schedule begins Oct. 26 and runs to March 28. Flights to domestic and European destinations will comprise 91.6% of the weekly program, roughly equal to last year.
Boeing last week said it is combining its Alteon training subsidiary with existing training groups within Boeing Commercial Airplanes "to form a new, unified training organization" that will retain the Alteon name and become a business unit within Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. The new organization will provide customers with "a single integrated business encompassing all development, deployment and delivery of aviation training and flight services," the company said.
British Airways admitted that its full-year revenue forecasts "carry some risk" as "forward bookings are being affected by the increased anxiety in financial markets and by the uncertain economic outlook." It said long-haul premium traffic has "softened." It continues to target a breakeven result at the operational level and said that "good yields and the stronger [US] dollar are broadly offsetting volume impact. It anticipates fuel costs to be around £3 billion ($5.3 billion). BA flew 9.29 billion RPKs in September, down 4.8% year-over-year.
Mesa Air Group announced that Paul Foley has been tapped to serve as COO. Foley formerly was president and CEO of Mesaba Holdings, parent of Mesaba Airlines and Big Sky Airlines. Under his leadership, Mesaba Airlines exited bankruptcy protection and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines. Big Sky shut down in March after continued losses ( ATWOnline, Dec. 21, 2007).
Hawaiian Airlines last week took delivery of the first of four 717-200s on lease from Boeing Capital Corp. Remaining aircraft will arrive one per month in November, December and January, at which point HA will have 15 717s operating on its inter-island network. Aircraft will seat 118-123 passengers with eight seats in first class and will replace a 767-300 used on inter-island routes while restoring a spare aircraft to HA's 717 and 767 fleets.
Japan Airlines took delivery of its first E-170 Friday. JAL signed a deal with Embraer in June 2007 for 10 firm orders plus five options ( ATWOnline, Feb. 23, 2007). The 76-seat, single-class aircraft will be operated by regional subsidiary J-Air.
Turkish Airlines will re-launch thrice-weekly Istanbul Ataturk-Baghdad Oct. 26. Route has been closed since the 1991 Gulf War. Qatar Airways Cargo launched weekly Doha-Zaragoza-Dubai-Doha aboard an A300-600F. Jet Airways re-launched daily Pune-Bengaluru aboard a 737NG. Horizon Air will launch 12-times-weekly Sacramento-Santa Barbara Nov. 9 aboard a CRJ700 Continental Airlines will operate seasonal thrice-weekly Houston Intercontinental-Rio de Janeiro Galeao Dec. 17-Feb. 28 aboard a 767-400.
Aer Lingus said Friday that it will "proceed with a cost-reduction program to deliver. . .substantial savings," adding that "fundamental change" is needed to keep the carrier "competitive" going forward. Meetings are planned this week to detail the cost-cutting plan to EI's labor unions. The SIPTU union representing more than 1,500 ground workers last week voiced "total opposition to outsourcing any part of the Aer Lingus operation." EI reportedly has approached labor groups about outsourcing ground handling operations.
Southwest Airlines Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said this week that the carrier will take delivery of 10 737NGs next year, down from the 14 previously planned, with four deliveries deferred until 2016. He added that SWA continues to consider flat capacity growth next year an option and could treat the new 737s as replacements by "returning five [737 Classics] to the leasing company" and selling "five or more" that it owns.
Alitalia Extraordinary Administrator Augusto Fantozzi said he received several expressions of interest for acquisition of the group's assets and activities. Deadline for offers was Sept. 30 ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1). Fantozzi said only one proposal directly concerned air transport activities whereas the other expressions of interest were for specific branches and/or activities of various companies comprising Alitalia Group.
The ongoing Boeing machinists strike has forced Australia's Virgin Blue to postpone the launch of its V Australia transpacific service between Sydney and Los Angeles planned for Dec 15.
Rockwell Collins will provide Norwegian with avionics for 42 737NGs with an option for 42 additional aircraft. Technology includes RC's WXR-2100 MultiScan Hazard Detection System. Deliveries are slated to begin next year.
Sun Country Airlines, which is seeking to gain financial independence from scandal-hit parent Petters Group Worldwide ( ATWOnline, Oct. 1), announced yesterday that President and CEO Stan Gadek was appointed chairman replacing Tom Petters, who resigned. DHL Express named George Kerschbaumer executive VP-commercial division. He formerly served as Deutsche Post World Net's executive VP-corporate development.
Porter Airlines reached agreement with Bombardier to convert two existing options on 70-seat Q400s into firm orders. Aircraft will be the 17th and 18th in the Toronto-based regional's fleet. Value of the new contract is $52 million at list prices.
Wizz Air said it will base one extra A320 each at Timisoara, Bucharest Baneasa and Cluj Napoca and double its Romanian capacity over the next six months. From Timisoara it will launch thrice-weekly Dortmund (Dec. 18), thrice-weekly London Luton (Oct. 27), twice-weekly Paris Beauvais (Feb. 20), thrice-weekly Treviso (Feb. 19), thrice-weekly Bergamo (Feb. 19), thrice-weekly Rome Fiumicino (Feb. 17), thrice-weekly Barcelona (Feb. 19) and twice-weekly Valencia (Feb. 22).
Etihad Crystal Cargo this week took over its sales and customer service activities in Thailand from local cargo general sales agent United Kargo Kare. UKK had handled Etihad's sales in Thailand since 2004, but the carrier said it determined that its own local team should take over given the market's "strategic importance." Thailand is Crystal Cargo's second-largest Far East market and the carrier projects its business there will grow 8% annually over the next five years.
Jetstar Airways' new CEO, Bruce Buchanan, downplayed the impact of Tiger Airways in the Australasian market, telling ATWOnline yesterday that his focus is on "bigger [low-cost] competitors with large fleets that have a significant impact on the market. There is only one or two in the Asian region and I don't put Tiger in that category." Virgin Blue operates more than 50 aircraft and has local market presence, while Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia has 70 aircraft and has been frank about its ambitions ( ATWOnline, Sept. 19).
KrasAir and Domodedovo Airlines, two of the five members of the defunct AiRUnion alliance, have been granted approval by Russian authorities to operate certain flights until Oct. 31. The other three carriers--Omskavia, Samara Airlines and Sibaviatrans--will shut down operations by Sunday.
Transaero DG Olga Pleshakova said the carrier plans to announce an order for six A350 XWBs or A380s very soon. She told the Vedomosti business daily that the airline is awaiting a detailed offer from Airbus, adding that the A350 "is a more economical aircraft" than the 787. Transaero has ordered eight A330-200s and four A320s but currently operates no Airbus equipment. It expects its fleet to reach 43 by year end, up from 38 one year ago. It recently took delivery of its first 777-200.
European Low Fares Airline Assn. criticized the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency for its "abusing pricing policy" and called on it to reduce its cost base significantly and introduce a single charge zone for terminal navigation services in Poland. "PANSA's pricing policy is clearly to the detriment of passengers and regional airports, which risk losing many of the direct routes, opened by low fares airlines in recent years, as operating to Polish regions becomes prohibitively expensive compared to other European regions," ELFAA Secretary General John Hanlon warned.
