SITA signed a five-year, $3 million agreement with Middle East Airlines to implement and maintain its IP VPN. SITA will provide secure Internet access to MEA network users at their sites around the world and connect the Beirut headquarters to 19 global outstations through one gateway. Implementation is underway and will take up to nine months to complete.
Air Line Pilots Assn.'s United Airlines chapter, citing frustration with UA's ontime performance, low customer service ratings and declining financial results, called for the resignation of Chairman, President and CEO Glenn Tilton and launched a website that it claimed chronicles "his failure in virtually every category that can be measured."
Gol reduced its fleet plan by two leased 737-800s in 2008 and five leased -800s in 2009. Full-year 2008 capacity growth will be around 20% instead of the 25% previously forecast. The Brazilian airline's board voted to suspend quarterly dividends for the remainder of 2008, freeing "cash to fund investments and improve credit ratios."
China Eastern Airlines yesterday continued to hope that it could secure Singapore Airlines as a strategic investor even though its stake sale deal expired officially on Saturday. CEA noted in a statement that the deal, reached last September, was "automatically terminated owing to the preconditions for implementing the agreement had not been satisfied by the deadline."
Pilots from Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines voted to approve a joint contract that will take effect when the carriers' planned merger is finalized. DL CEO Richard Anderson confirmed the positive vote yesterday and called it a "historic milestone" that would facilitate the merger.
Delta Air Lines flew 12.44 billion system RPMs in July, up 0.7% from the year-ago month, against a 0.9% rise in capacity to 14.34 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 0.1 point to 86.7%. United Airlines flew 10.49 billion system RPMs in July, down 4% year-over-year. Capacity dipped 1.4% to 12.33 billion ASMs and load factor fell 2.3 points to 85%.
Cathay Pacific Airways announced more changes to its network strategy designed to reduce fuel expenses and focus on demand. It will cut 10 flights to North America, add eight weekly services to Australia and increase capacity on 14 flights to Europe. Last month it added four weekly flights to Dubai and Bahrain and cut frequencies to Toronto and Vancouver ( ATWOnline, July 14). CEO Tony Tyler said, "We have to maximize our earnings during this difficult period which is why we are moving our capacity.
Tiger Airways reported a net profit of S$37.8 million ($27.3 million) for the year ended March 31, according to Reuters. The previous year the airline posted a loss of S$14.30 million. Revenue increased 56% year-over-year to $S271 million. Tiger, which launched in 2004 and also operates an Australian subsidiary based in Melbourne, said passenger numbers rose 73.7% during the fiscal first quarter ended June 30. It will base two A319s at Adelaide early next year.
US Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Republican presidential candidate, last week called the proposed UPS takeover of DHL's North American air lift a "train wreck" and vowed to "do everything in my power to avert it," while two prominent senators raised antitrust concerns with the US Dept. of Justice.
Air Canada reported second-quarter net income of C$122 million ($116.4 million), down 21.3% from C$155 million in the year-ago period, blaming the earnings drop on a "difficult industry environment created by unrelenting high fuel prices."
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said last week that his government is in talks with a "large foreign company" about forming an alliance with Alitalia. "We are in talks with a big foreign company for an alliance on an international level, exactly the opposite of the hypothesis of the fire sale to Air France KLM, which the previous government wanted, which among other things, included 7,000 job cuts," Berlusconi said in a television interview. "We already have the industrial plan. We have the investors.
Ryanair is interested in launching a £2 billion ($3.9 billion) bid for London Stansted if the UK Competition Commission recommends a breakup of airports operator BAA, CEO Michael O'Leary told The Daily Telegraph.
Boeing won US FAA certification for carbon brakes from Messier-Bugatti for 737NGs. Brakes recently entered service on a 737-700 delivered to Delta Air Lines.
SkyWest Inc., parent of SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines reported second-quarter net income of $36.4 million, a 10.3% drop from the $40.6 million posted in the same period last year. Operating revenue rose 11.2% to $950.8 million thanks largely to increased cost reimbursements from SkyWest partners. Expenses were up 17.9% to $877.8 million on rising fuel and maintenance costs. Operating profit fell 14.6% to $72.9 million from $88.8 million. Traffic declined 3.5% to 4.49 billion RPMs against a 1.5% dip in capacity to 5.72 billion ASMs.
Austrian Airlines Group CCO Andreas Bierwirth told ATWOnline last week in Damascus that the carrier, which continues to pursue privatization, plans on increasing its focus on the Middle East. He said AAG is looking to be a "leading player" in the region.
Silver Air of Djibouti selected Jordan Aircraft Maintenance to conduct C checks on 737-200s and prepare aircraft for registration in the UAE. Work will take place at Queen Alia International and is slated for completion in September.
Airbus's gross orders climbed to 754 through July and 711 net of cancellations. It secured orders from nine customers last month. The A320 leads the 2008 order book with 460, followed by 291 A330s/A350s and three A380s. Orders for three A340-600s have been cancelled. Boeing's gross order book through Aug. 7 stood at 553 and it has had just two cancellations. Biggest seller is the 737 with 423, followed by the 787 with 80, the 777 with 46 and the 747 and 767 with two each.
Lufthansa continued to cancel flights throughout the weekend and planned to cancel 22 today and 20 on Tuesday resulting from a strike by CityLine pilots represented by Vereinigung Cockpit. The strike ended Friday.
Air Transat of Canada joined IATA last week, becoming the organizations 230th member. It operates a fleet of 17 A310s and A330s and carries nearly 3 million passengers per year to some 60 destinations.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, reported second-quarter net income of $1.5 million, down 96.5% from $43.2 million in the year-ago period. President and CEO William Flynn said that "aside from the impact of fuel prices. . .our performance remains on track." Fuel expenses leaped 69.5% to $207 million. Flynn added that fuel costs "will effectively be eliminated" when Polar becomes a DHL Express carrier in October ( ATWOnline, Feb.
