Sun Country Airlines will furlough 45 of its 156 pilots from May 1 to Oct. 31 during which time it will lease out two of its nine 737-800s to Air France-KLM subsidiary Transavia. While the Minneapolis/St. Paul-based carrier does not plan to cut routes, it will reduce frequencies on existing routes during the period. SCA, which operates its fleet of -800s on scheduled services and charters to points in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean, does more robust business during the winter months as it caters to leisure passengers from cold weather cities traveling to warm weather vacation spots.
Vietnam's Pacific Airlines, in which Qantas Group purchased an 18% stake with an agreement to raise that holding to 30% in 2010, will change its name to Jetstar Pacific as part of a partnership with QF that will see it become "Vietnam's first low-cost, value-based airline."
Aeroflot will launch four-times-weekly Sochi-Novosibirsk on April 30 and twice-weekly Moscow (airport unidentified)-Bratislava on May 27, both aboard Tu-154Ms.
Sudanese-owned An-32 crashed Friday in Moldova, killing all eight aboard, according to the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network and widespread press reports. The aircraft, which belonged to Kata Transportation, was carrying 2.3 tons of fuel and took off from Chisinau, but pilots requested permission to return and land just a few minutes into the flight, the Associated Press reported. A wing struck wires and a fence on approach. Flight was en route to Sudan via Antalya.
Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines late yesterday announced a merger agreement to create a mega-airline that would be the world's largest absent divestitures with aggregate annual revenue of more than $35 billion, a fleet of more than 800 aircraft and 75,000 employees worldwide.
IATA and African air traffic management organization ASECNA agreed to combine their efforts to improve safety, service levels, efficiency, cost effectiveness and infrastructure on the continent ( ATWOnline, April 9). "IATA and ASECNA have a shared vision to unlock the potential of African aviation," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said. "Africa has the world's worst safety record and its airlines are the least profitable with $300 million in losses forecast for this year. This must change.
Thales reached a deal with Ethiopian Airlines to provide its TopSeries inflight entertainment system for 10 forthcoming 787s. Contract includes media services and maintenance support.
Lufthansa announced the sale of its 49% stake in ground handling company GlobeGround Berlin to WISAG Group. Price was not disclosed. LH said the Berlin airports also will sell their majority stake in the company to WISAG. GlobeGround will continue to handle LH in Berlin after the sale closes.
Virgin America will receive an additional $100 million in capital in the next few weeks, according to a key investor who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, bringing investment in the US startup to approximately $400 million. Cyrus Capital Partners COO Robert Nisi, a Virgin America board member, said his hedge fund feels "very good about the investment" and that the new financing will not change the shareholding among the carrier's owners.
American Airlines said its scheduled operations "are now back to normal" following the grounding and inspection of MD-80s that forced it to cancel more than 3,000 flights last week ( ATWOnline, April 14).
Bangalore-based National Aerospace Laboratories will receive approximately $75 million from India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to launch design of a turboprop aircraft to rival those manufactured by ATR, Mint business daily reported. The RTA 70 project eventually will cost an estimated INR20 billion ($500.6 million) and will aim at flying a 70-seat prototype aircraft in four years, project head Kota Harinarayana told the paper. It also expects to design 50- and 90-seat models. Harinarayana said the aircraft will have more composites than current models.
The first official meeting of the EU-US Joint Committee on the implementation of the first stage of the transatlantic open skies agreement will take place in Washington today and tomorrow. The task of the Joint Committee is to "manage and monitor" the agreement, European Commission Director for Air Transport Daniel Calleja told media yesterday. Calleja, who is in Washington for the talks, emphasized that this week's meeting is not related to the second-stage negotiations set to commence next month in Slovenia.
Frontier Airlines said a US Bankruptcy Court approved the "first day motions" related to its Chapter 11 reorganization, allowing the carrier to continue operating uninterrupted and to honor preexisting obligations. "Our reorganization is off to a smooth start and we look forward to taking important steps to further strengthen our company," President and CEO Sean Menke said.
SITA will provide SAS Scandinavian Airlines with telecommunication services covering 800 users in 40 locations across 23 countries under a deal announced yesterday. Contract is expected to save SAS $3.6 million.
Chinese mainland carriers are preparing for commercial flights across the Taiwan Strait to be permitted before year end, as the newly elected president of Taiwan, Ma Yingjiu, has promised. Ma will take office on May 20 and said he plans to allow the launch of weekend charter flights across the strait in July, followed by daily scheduled flights before 2009.
AirTran Airways will begin charging certain passengers $10 for a second checked bag May 15, following the lead of other US carriers but asking for considerably less than the $25 standard. Fee will not apply to premium loyalty program members or business class passengers. A third bag and beyond will cost $50 each.
Delta MEC of the Air Line Pilots Assn. met in special session Friday in Atlanta, the union acknowledged, as reports spread that DL was looking to reach an agreement with the pilots to proceed with a merger with Northwest Airlines despite the two groups' inability to come to an agreement concerning the combination of their respective seniority lists ( ATWOnline, March 20).
US major airlines will need to spend an estimated $110 billion to update their fleets, but even if they had the money, which they don't, the order backlog at Airbus and Boeing "means any replacements are years from delivery," according to a report from UK-based Ascend. The consultancy figures that US carriers operate 1,420 aircraft that will be coming to the end of their service lives over the next 15 years. It said problems "are particularly acute" for American Airlines, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines.
European low-cost carrier seat capacity grew 22% in 2007 compared to 2006 and LCCs accounted for 35% of all intra-European capacity last year, up from 31% two years ago, according to the 2008 edition of RDC Aviation's Low Cost Monitor. Number of routes operated by LCCs increased 28.9% year-over-year to 2,999 while the number of airports served rose by six to 287. In comparison, 466 airports received service from conventional carriers, down from 477.
British Airways is delaying until June the move of 120 long-haul flights to its troubled new Terminal 5 at London Heathrow in order "to iron out" remaining problems, including the baggage system and other aspects of its operation ( ATWOnline, April 8).
Austrian LCC Niki will add its ninth aircraft, a 212-seat A321, on May 9 and has an additional nine A320 family aircraft on order for delivery by 2014 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 14). "The average age of the fleet is now between 1.5 and two years," founder and majority owner Niki Lauda told ATWOnline.
European Commission issued a revision of its list of banned airlines, the seventh update since establishment of the blacklist in March 2006. Newcomers are Ukraine Cargo Airways (the third Ukrainian airline after Volare Airlines and Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines) and Hewa Bora Airways of DR Congo. HBA previously was allowed to operate a single aircraft under a special arrangement that has ended. Garuda Indonesia also remains on the list ( ATWOnline, July 6, 2007).
KLM UK Engineering announced the launch of its line maintenance facility at London City. Shop services KLM and CityJet aircraft and is expected to handle additional volume this year.
Ramco said El Al selected its Maintenance & Engineering & MRO Suite featuring legacy system transformation, best-of-breed business process improvement and compliance and conformance for Regional Regulatory Aviation Administration reporting and control requirements.
