US Government Accountability Office General Counsel Gary Kepplinger told Congress yesterday that he has concluded "that FAA may not auction [airport] slots under its property disposition authority, user fee authority, or any other authority, and thus also may not retain or use proceeds of any such auctions."
TACA last week unveiled a new logo, livery and uniforms that the Central American company claimed "implies a transformation of our products and our service culture." Logo includes a stylized red bird next to the company name. "We're undergoing a complete transformation to gain customer preference," Chairman and CEO Roberto Kriete said. TACA said it will "offer passengers a new experience that includes improvements to onboard services, fleet upgrades and an overhaul of the airline's customer service philosophy," without elaborating.
Mechtronix World Corp. announced that Richardson Capital, the private equity arm of Richardson Financial Group, has invested C$39 million ($37.8 million) in the Montreal-based simulator maker for a minority stake. The company said the funds will be used for "widening of turnkey services for new-generation training centers, expanded market development efforts" and expansion of manufacturing and R&D. "We're multiplying our manufacturing capacity by three," Mechtronix President Xavier Herve told ATWOnline.
Nigeria's Arik Air ordered three A340-500s, Airbus announced. The Trent 500-powered aircraft will be delivered by the end of November and will be used on new routes to London, New York and Houston, the manufacturer said. "This aircraft order will enable Arik Air to start international connections with new and modern aircraft that will support our objective to become one of Africa's key airlines that operate at international standards with new aircraft, top maintenance and where security and quality come first," Arik Chairman Joseph Arumemi-Johnson said.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes VP-Marketing Randy Tinseth told reporters in Tokyo that "frankly we do not know when the [machinists] strike will end" and that the manufacturer will have to "reassess our production, deliveries and program schedule for the 787 at that time." Launch customer ANA said last week that it had "reached an agreement with Boeing" on a new 787 delivery schedule that would see its first Dreamliner arrive next August ( ATWOnline, Sept. 26).
NIIT Technologies inked a three-year, multimillion-dollar deal with British Airways to support and test business-critical applications across various business areas.
Italian Civil Aviation Authority issued a provisional operating license to Alitalia valid until March 1, both ENAC and AZ confirmed ( ATWOnline, Sept. 30). The license is conditional on a monthly check of The carrier's economic and financial situation.
Jat Airways, which the Serbian government put up for sale over the summer ( ATWOnline, Sept. 22), has not found an investor willing to purchase the state's 51% stake and now must depend on the government for a rescue, CEO Sasa Vlaisavljevic told the daily Blic. He said the state will have to assume Jat's €250 million debt.
IATA reported that global international RPK growth in August slowed to 1.3% year-over-year from 1.9% in July and 5.4% in the first half of 2008. August load factor fell 1.8 points to 81%. "The slowdown has been so sudden that airlines can't adjust capacity quickly enough. While the drop in the oil price is welcome relief on the cost side, fuel remains 30% higher than a year ago," DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said, reiterating IATA's forecast of a $5.2 billion industry loss for the full year ( ATWOnline, Sept.
Turkish Airlines is expected to announce its long-awaited fleet order this month, President and CEO Temel Kotil told ATWOnline in Istanbul. Kotil declined to elaborate on the order's size or composition and confirmed only that it will be "big" and include both narrowbody and widebody aircraft ( ATWOnline, Sept. 5). "We intend to double our narrowbody fleet in the next ten years," he said. "We will have about 200 of them at Istanbul [Ataturk]. We will then be a good player."
Sun Country Airlines moved to become financially independent from parent company Petters Group Wordwide, which has become ensnared in a US federal criminal investigation that led to this week's abrupt resignation of Chairman and CEO Tom Petters. Petters Group offices and Petters' personal home were raided by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service, which allege that the company head and certain associates were involved in a massive multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.
Air One will suspend its recently launched five-times-weekly Milan Malpensa-Boston service from Oct. 6 until April 4, 2009. Brussels Airlines will add a fourth daily Brussels-Manchester on Oct. 26.
Alitalia's rescue by Italian investment group CAI appears fully on track after the last of AZ's nine labor unions yesterday backed the €1 billion ($1.46 billion) plan to re-launch the troubled airline that is estimated to be losing €3 million daily.
Welcome Air of Innsbruck, one of Europe's few small independent regional carriers, recently took delivery of its fourth Do-328, a 328JET version. Aircraft originally was for Hainan Airlines. Welcome will launch a weekly Innsbruck-Weeze service for the upcoming winter schedule but will stop operating to Rotterdam and Antwerp because of "massive pressure" from Dutch LCC Transavia.com, Welcome owner Jakob Ringler told ATWOnline.
Frontier Airlines reported a $5.6 million net loss in August but posted its second consecutive monthly operating profit ($3.3 million). Net result included a $4.7 million loss on a sale-leaseback transaction, $1.8 million in professional fees, a $500,000 mark-to-market noncash loss on fuel hedging contracts and a $300,000 loss on early extinguishment of debt. It reported a $500,000 gain on a reversal of severance accrual. Net income excluding those items was $1.2 million.
Royal Jordanian carried 295,000 passengers in August, up 16% on the year-ago period. Load factor gained 1 point to 82%. It said fuel expense more than doubled to JOD33.5 million ($47 million), or 49% of total costs. Separately, RJ signed a parts pool program service contract extension with Embraer to include two E-175s. Five E-195s already were covered.
Discussions about a potential three-way merger among German charter/low-cost carriers Condor, TUIfly and Germanwings failed following Thomas Cook Group's decision to withdraw.
News from Travel Technology Update: Getting people to put "awesome" and "airline" into the same sentence these days is no easy feat. But JetBlue Airways managed it with its recent auction of flights and vacation packages on eBay. The idea came about when the carrier was thinking of ways to stimulate travel during the fall lull. "We were looking for something unique to get people thinking about travel," Don Uselmann, manager of business development, said. "We wanted a 'water cooler' story, something that people would talk about."
Japan Airlines yesterday said it is canceling cargo flights between Tokyo Narita and New York JFK from Oct. 1, part of a reduction in freighter services for the second half of its fiscal year ending March 31. "The airline is currently facing a tough environment, particularly in terms of its North American freighter business," JAL said. "Even though the price of fuel has stabilized, it has remained at a very high level.
SAS Group airlines flew 3.66 billion RPKs in August, down 0.7% year-over-year. Capacity rose 2.2% to 4.91 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 2.1 points to 74.4%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines flew 2.51 billion RPKs, down 0.4%, against a 4.6% rise in ASKs to 3.41 billion. Load factor fell 3.7 points to 73.5%. Aer Lingus flew 1.68 billion RPKs in August, up 8.8% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 10.3% to 2.08 billion ASKs and load factor was down 1.2 points to 80.5%.
SmartLynx is the new name of LatCharter Airlines, which announced the change last week in conjunction with its 15th anniversary. President and CEO Gardar Forberg said the Riga-based carrier's "business has changed direction over the past couple of years and it was important that we developed a new branding that better identified with our business model and company spirit." The name, accompanied by a new orange and black logo, reflects that of another Icelandair Group subsidiary, Prague's Smart Wings.
Global Infrastructure Partners, a Connecticut-based investment fund, said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AIG-Financial Products' 50% interest in London City Airport. The transaction is expected to close in October.
