Midwest Air Group CEO Timothy Hoeksema told employees in a memorandum sent Wednesday that he will take a 40% pay cut effective July 15 as part of a series of wage reductions across the company, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. He said senior VPs will take a 25% cut, maintenance workers will be subject to 10% cuts and professional staff 5%. Midwest's restructuring also includes the grounding of its MD-80 fleet ( ATWOnline, June 24).
Emirates launched six-times-weekly flights from Dubai to Guangzhou and Kozhikode this week. It will operate A330-200s on the Guangzhou route and both A330-200s and 777-200s on the Kozhikode route. Guangzhou is EK's fourth Chinese destination while Kozhikode is its 10th in India. Copa Airlines will launch five-times-weekly Panama City-Belo Horizonte on Aug. 21.
SeaPort Airlines, a startup based in Portland, Ore., launched service to King County Municipal Airport (Boeing Field) aboard nine-seat PC-12s. Return flights operate eight-times-daily on weekdays and four-times-daily on weekends. Operating under US FAR Part 135 (general aviation), SeaPort said passengers will not be subject to Transportation Security Administration screening and can arrive 15 min. before departure. Tickets are priced at $149-$224 each way excluding taxes and fees.
Eight years to the month after the crash of an Air France Concorde began the countdown to the end of the age of supersonic air travel, a French judge ruled that five individuals as well as Continental Airlines should stand trial for manslaughter in the disaster. The decision, announced yesterday by the prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Pontoise, did not specify when the trial will start.
American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia are close to applying for antitrust immunity to form a transatlantic revenue- and profit-sharing joint venture, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing executives at the carriers.
Alaska Airlines on Tuesday began charging $25 for a second checked bag weighing up to 50 lb. Additional bags will cost $100 each, but first class passengers, premium loyalty program members and customers on intra-Alaska routes will be exempt. Separately, Alaska yesterday announced that it will move to an all-cashless cabin on Aug. 5 and no longer will accept cash for inflight purchases. GuestLogix will provide the card reader used by cabin staff. Also, it promoted Director-Reservations Lane Kemper to MD-customer service/call centers.
AirTran Airways was awarded a US General Services Administration flying contract covering 119 city-pairs worth an estimated $47 million during FY09, a more than 30% year-over-year increase.
Lufthansa Systems reached a six-year deal with Gol for provision of its NetLine resource management solution and MRO technology. Implementation is expected in the 2009 first quarter.
American Airlines flew 11.85 billion system RPMs in June, down 3.1% year-over-year, while capacity declined 1.2% to 13.86 billion ASMs. Load factor dropped 1.7 points to 85.5%. American Eagle flew 736.7 million RPMs, down 8.6%, against a 2.3% decline in capacity to 980.8 million ASMs. Load factor fell 5.2 points to 75.1%. Delta Air Lines flew 11.69 billion system RPMs in June, up 0.2% year-over-year, against a 0.7% rise in ASMs to 13.68 billion. Load factor dropped 0.5 point to 85.4%.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways will launch an advertising campaign this weekend informing consumers of their right to claim refunds following the carriers' admission that they colluded on transatlantic fuel surcharges between August 2004 and March 2006 ( ATWOnline, Feb. 19).
Germanwings will phase out four of its 29 A319s Nov. 1. "We don't want to make the mistake of expanding at any cost. The business of our industry has changed, especially the high fuel prices. We have to be profitable. That's why we have to reduce our fleet," MD Thomas Winkelmann said. It was not clear whether any destinations will be removed from the network or if there will be any employee reductions.
MWW Group will provide JetBlue Airways with contingency planning and training services, incident response support and issues management counsel under a deal announced Tuesday. Contract covers on-site support in 53 markets across the US, Caribbean and Latin America.
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. told its employees this week that more than 6,700 of them will be cut by year end, representing about 8% of the company's total workforce.
Jazz Air said yesterday that owing to planned fourth-quarter capacity reductions by Air Canada, with which it has a contract to operate regional flights, it will reduce its flying by 5% in the year's final three months and cut 270 employees. AC said last month that it will reduce total system capacity by 7% year-over-year in this year's fourth quarter and the 2009 first quarter and slash its workforce by 2,000 ( ATWOnline, June 18).
IBS Software Services will provide KLM with its AvientCrew solution featuring crew data management, real-time alerting and decision support capabilities.
Boeing delivered 126 commercial aircraft in the second quarter, up 10.5% from the 114 delivered in the three months ended June 30, 2007. Deliveries comprised 100 737NGs (compared to 86 in the year-ago quarter), five 747s (compared to four), three 767s (three) and 18 777s (21). Year-to-date deliveries totaled 241, up 9.5% from 220. Separately, Boeing announced delivery of a 737-800 to Canada's Sunwing Airlines. Aircraft will be operated on lease from Aviation Capital Group. Sunwing will lease a second from ACG next year, at which time its fleet will comprise 15 -800s.
Cathay Pacific Airways yesterday issued a profit warning saying that first-half and full-year 2008 results "are expected to be disappointing" as its fuel expenses have risen by approximately 60% so far this year.
AirTran Airways will impose a 15% pay cut on officers and a 5%-8% cut on most staff, according to a letter to employees from Chairman, President and CEO Bob Fornaro cited by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Approximately 48% of AirTran employees are unionized, the paper said, and the carrier will have to negotiate the reductions. It expects them to take effect next month and for overall wage expense to fall 10% over the next six months. AirTran announced its most recent capacity cut two weeks ago ( ATWOnline, June 17).
Bob Johnson stepped down as head of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise yesterday, announcing his retirement at age 60 just two years after he was appointed CEO of the high-flying aerospace company ahead of the 2006 Farnborough Airshow ( ATWOnline, July 13, 2006). George Mushahwar was named acting CEO. He previously was COO of Dubai-based TECOM Investments. In a statement, Johnson said DAE has made significant strides over the past two years, "but now is the right time for me to retire.
British Airways reached an agreement to acquire French all-business-class operator L'Avion for £54 million ($107.7 million) and will integrate the company into its new premium transatlantic subsidiary OpenSkies.
El Al will close its thrice-weekly Tel Aviv-Miami service on Sept. 1. It will codeshare on American Airlines flights from MIA to New York JFK, from which El Al serves Tel Aviv. Jet Airways will launch flights from Pune to Hyderabad (daily), Nagpur (six-times-weekly) and Ahmedabad (daily) on July 15 aboard ATR 72-500s. ANA and Turkish Airlines this week launched a codeshare and reciprocal loyalty program agreement under which ANA will place its code on THY's four-times-weekly Istanbul Ataturk-Tokyo Narita and twice-weekly IST-Osaka Kansai services.
Lufthansa said it is expecting a 10% increase in passengers flying between Germany and Russia. It transported 1.7 million between the countries in 2007 and currently flies to nine Russian destinations.
SkyEurope Airlines this week opened its fourth base at Kosice. It has invested €30 million in the facility, which it is calling a "satellite hub" and where it expects to handle 340,000 passengers this year, up 80% from 2007. It is offering 11 daily flights from the airport to Split, Bratislava, Prague, London Stansted, Dublin and Manchester.
