Consortium including Portuguese-Canadian investment fund Longstock Financial Investment Fund and Madrid-based Gadair European Airlines has offered €450 million ($693 million) for Spanair, Longstock President Vitor Pinto da Costa told Diario Economico. He said the offer is well above Iberia's bid of €300 million, yet he admitted it could fall though owing to an SAS condition that the consortium pay €100 million before the deal is completed, according to Reuters.
US Transportation Security Administration acknowledged that a US Airways pilot and member of the Federal Flight Deck Officer program "accidentally" discharged his handgun on a Saturday flight between Denver and Charlotte. It said the flight "was never in danger" but that it will "take this matter seriously and an investigation is underway." The A319 has been removed from service, US told the Associated Press, and the pilot is on leave.
Air France KLM appears willing to make some concessions to Alitalia's unions amid reports that AZ rival Air One is interested in making another offer for the flag carrier.
A US federal appeals court ruled yesterday that New York State's airline passenger rights law violates federal law, rendering it invalid and dealing a blow to those considering similar laws in other states.
AirAsia X will exercise its 10 A330-300 options in a deal worth $2.1 billion, CEO Azran Osman Rani told media in Kuala Lumpur. It already has 15 of the type on firm order. A signing ceremony is expected to take place this week. Separately, Aero Ventures, a holding company that holds 48% of AirAsia X, announced that ACE Aviation Holdings Chairman, President and CEO Robert Milton has invested in the group. "My involvement with AirAsia X has provided me with the exciting opportunity to participate in the newest and most promising airline business model today," Milton said.
Sherwin Williams Aerospace Coating won SAE AMS 3095 certification for its Jet Glo Express exterior painting systems. Certification approves Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings CMO483928 with High Solids Chromated Epoxy Primer and CMO481968 High Solids Chrome Free Epoxy Primer/Surfacer.
Oman Aviation Services, parent of Oman Air, will invest $4.2 million over four years to upgrade IT at Muscat International. SITA will install and maintain AirportConnect Open, its common use passenger processing system that supports CUTE, dedicated and Web applications on the same common use workstations, in addition to SITA BagManager and PassengerHandler. Last year Oman Air carried more than 1.5 million passengers to and from Muscat, a 22% increase over 2006.
Swiss airline Flybaboo reported 2007 revenue of CHF30 million ($29.5 million), up 50% from 2006, an increase it said hinged on the launch of flights from Geneva to Naples, Marseille, Biarritz and Rome Fiumicino. It transported 180,000 passengers last year and expects 350,000 in 2008. This year it will start flying from GVA to St. Petersburg (four-times-weekly from May 27), Kiev (thrice-weekly from May 26 pending approval) and Malaga (four-times-weekly from May 26). It intends to add five 100-seat E-190s over the next two years, with the first three arriving by June.
VLM Airlines reported net income of €3.6 million ($5.5 million) for 2007, up 13.3% over €3.2 million earned in 2006 and the regional's 10th consecutive profitable year. Revenue rose 12.6% to €112.5 million while expenses increased 11.6% to €106.8 million, producing operating income of €5.7 million, up 33.9% over €4.3 million the previous year.
JDA Aviation Technology Solutions of Washington, DC, was hired by Southwest Airlines "to evaluate its maintenance programs and to make recommendations on how the airline can improve its maintenance process," JDA announced. The move follows SWA's failure to comply with a US FAA airworthiness directive that resulted in the temporary grounding of 34 737s and a proposed $10.2 million fine ( ATWOnline, March 19).
Boeing's Airplane Health Monitoring software was ordered by Qantas for its fleet of 30 747-400s to better evaluate inflight data and manage unscheduled maintenance events. QF also will use AHM for its 65 787s. More than 44% of the world's 777 and 747-400 fleets are covered by AHM technology.
KLM Engineering & Maintenance reached agreement with the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau to perform base maintenance on 747-400s. JCAB also granted KLM E&M a two-year line maintenance extension. Work will take place in Amsterdam.
CSA Czech Airlines' summer schedule will include new services from Prague to Strasbourg (nine-times-weekly), Tbilisi (thrice-weekly) and Rostov-on-Don (thrice-weekly) beginning April 24. It also will launch thrice-weekly service to Damascus on April 30, twice-weekly to Almaty on May 1 and twice-weekly to Heraklion on May 30. CSA will serve 69 destinations this summer with 813 weekly flights, up 5% from summer 2007. Ethiopian Airlines will resume twice-weekly 737-700 service from Addis Ababa to Riyadh and Kuwait City in mid-June.
Kronos said Air Canada Flight Operations selected its Altitude Manpower Planning solution featuring resource allocation intelligence, enhanced planning capabilities and various cost efficiency strategies.
Indonesia's National Transport Safety Committee determined that the fatal Adam Air 737-400 crash on Jan. 1, 2007, was caused by pilot error and faulty navigation equipment. All 96 passengers and six crew were killed when the aircraft plunged into the ocean. "The [CVR] revealed that both pilots were concerned about navigation problems and subsequently became engrossed with troubleshooting. . .Inertial Reference System anomalies for at least the last 13 min.
Iberia flew 4.1 billion RPKs in February, up 2.6% on the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 4.1% to 5.19 billion ASKs and load factor slipped 1.2 points to 79.1% Rossiya carried 366,681 passengers in January and February combined, up 13.1% over the year-ago period. Domestic passenger numbers climbed 2.7% to 188,809 and international rose 26.9% to 177,782. The airline carried 3.2 million passengers in 2007.
AirTran Airways will become the 19th airline member of the US Air Transport Assn. on April 1, the parties announced yesterday. AirTran President and CEO Bob Fornaro will represent the carrier on the ATA board.
Hainan Airlines reported a net profit of CNY651.4 million ($92.2 million) in 2007, nearly quadrupling the CNY166.8 million earned the previous year, on a 3% lift in operating revenue to CNY12.82 billion.
Malaysia Airlines said it will gain annual incremental revenue of MYR70-MYR100 million ($22-$31.4 million) thanks to an "enhanced" hub-and-spoke network that now includes 25 airline partners and affords customers the opportunity "to connect to most destinations worldwide." MD and CEO Idris Jala said, "We are now driving this harder, ensuring that we can extract the maximum value from our network." MAS last week announced a codeshare agreement with China Southern Airlines ( ATWOnline, March 24) and revealed that s
US Dept. of Homeland Security is scrambling to avoid a potentially chaotic scenario in which driver's licenses issued by three and possibly four states would become legally unacceptable for presentation as airport identification beginning May 11.
Dubai World Central Aviation City reached a AED40 million ($10.9 million) deal with Palm Aviation for a 24,400-sq.-m. FBO ground handling facility designed to accommodate flight support services. Contract calls for the extension of PA's existing center from Dubai Airport Free Zone to DWC Aviation City.
Aloha Airlines, which declared bankruptcy last week, said it received US Bankruptcy Court approval to continue operating and that it is looking for a possible buyer. "We are grateful to the US Bankruptcy Court for enabling us to move ahead and continue all operations while Aloha seeks additional investors and new opportunities," President and CEO David Banmiller said.
Ukraine International Airlines said it will add up to 30 new aircraft in the next 6-7 years, starting with four winglet-equipped 737-800s leased from Aviation Capital Group scheduled to arrive next year (two) and in early 2010 (two). Aircraft will be powered by CFM 56-7B26s. "This initial order represents the start of the rollout of our fleet renewal and expansion strategy," UIA President Yuri Miroshnikov said. "In the near future we plan to operate the newest and most technologically advanced fleet of aircraft in the region.
Technical problems will postpone delivery of the first Sukhoi Superjet indefinitely, the Russian manufacturer announced yesterday. First deliveries originally were slated to begin by late 2008. "The airplane is currently in the final testing stages and it will make its first flight within a month," Alexei Fyodorov, CEO of United Aircraft Building Corp., told RIA Novosti. "Our specialists are working round the clock to meet our obligations to contractors."
