US National Transportation Safety Board said a manufacturing flaw affecting GE CF34-3B1 fan blades made by Teleflex Aerospace Manufacturing Group in Mexico was responsible for two CRJ200 engine failures in the past two years. A July 2006 Air Nostrum flight and a May 2007 Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight each landed safely following a fan blade fracture that in one of the cases led to an engine fire.
AAR Corp. completed the acquisition of Miami-based third-party MRO provider Avborne Heavy Maintenance and renamed it AAR Aircraft Services-Miami. It will operate as a segment in AAR's MRO business ( ATWOnline, Feb. 28). The deal gives AAR 226,000 sq. ft. of hangar space at Miami International, boosting its overall MRO space by 22%, and adds 467 aviation maintenance technicians to a workforce that now numbers more than 2,000 AMTs worldwide. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
American Airlines likely would have gotten credit in the old, pre-global-warming days for operating a nearly empty 777 across the Atlantic to avoid further disrupting the travel plans of a handful of customers. But in today's hyper-climate of environmental concern, the airline is taking some heat for the decision. The Feb. 9 flight from Chicago O'Hare to London Heathrow, revealed in London newspapers yesterday, occurred when the originally scheduled flight was delayed 11 hr. owing to a mechanical failure and most passengers were moved to other flights.
Silvio Berlusconi, head of the Forza Italia party and the favorite to be elected Italy's new prime minister in April, said this week that he opposed Air France KLM's acquisition of Alitalia. The comments, made on domestic television, conflict with those by Lega Nord officials last month. LN is allied to the center-right coalition headed by FI ( ATWOnline, Feb. 20). "On Alitalia I am critical, very critical. I think Italy should not be deprived of its flag carrier," Berlusconi reportedly told Sky TV 24.
Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders said "preparatory work is now underway" to establish an A330 freighter final assembly line in Mobile following last week's US Air Force decision to award EADS/Northrop Grumman an initial contract potentially worth $40 billion to build KC-30 aerial refueling tankers based on the A330 design.
China is making final preparations for the launch of its "jumbo aircraft" manufacturing company, which is scheduled to begin operations in Shanghai this month. China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council will be the controlling shareholder of the new entity ( ATWOnline, Jan. 29). Other stakeholders include AVIC I and AVIC II--which will hold the second-largest stake jointly--the Shanghai local government, Baosteel Group and Aluminum Corp. of China.
US airlines' ontime performance deterioriated in January as the 20 reporting carriers achieved an ontime arrival rate of 72.4% compared to 73.1% in January 2007. Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines came in first and second as usual, while US Airways continued its operational turnaround with a 79.5% performance that was the best among mainland carriers. United Airlines' 62.1% was the worst, followed by SkyWest Airlines at 65.3%. Mesa Airlines had the highest cancellation rate at 6.5%, with American Eagle Airlines second at 5.6%. Frontier Airlines' 0.2% cancellation rate was the best.
Singapore Airlines will open a new front in the increasingly heated competition for premium travelers, announcing yesterday that it will reconfigure its five A340-500s with 100 lie-flat business class seats for use on transpacific routes to the US. Since the routes were launched several years ago, SIA has operated the A340-500s in a business class/premium economy configuration seating 181. Owing to range shortfalls, it never was able to incorporate a first class cabin into the aircraft. The all-business-class configuration will feature a 1-2-1 arangement.
US FAA generally concurred with the findings of a Dept. of Transportation Inspector General report released last week that called for the agency to modernize its oversight system for aviation manufacturers to account for the increasing reliance on parts suppliers from disparate locations around the world.
American Airlines flew 9.97 billion system RPMs in February, up 2.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 2% to 12.98 billion ASMs and load factor was up 0.3 point to 76.9%. American Eagle flew 607.7 million RPMs, down 2.4%, against a 1.9% decline in capacity to 880.6 million ASMs. Load factor slipped 0.4 point to 69%. United Airlines flew 8.15 billion system RPMs in February, down 0.5% from the year-ago month, against a 3.7% climb in capacity to 10.95 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 3.1 points to 74.4%.
Astar Air Cargo pilots "overwhelmingly ratified" a new four-year labor contract, the airline said yesterday ( ATWOnline, Feb. 12). "The contract provides increased wages, benefits and security for our pilots, while also providing Astar with a platform for future business growth in an increasingly competitive marketplace," Chairman, CEO and President John Dasburg said.
Sterling Airlines named JPMorgan executive Reza Taleghani as president and CEO succeeding Almar Orn Hilmarsson, who has held the posts for the past 2.5 years and is resigning. "We are very pleased to get Reza on board to lead Sterling to the next level on its future growth path. Reza's extensive experience within the airline industry, both from the strategic as well as the financial perspective, is very valuable for the company," Chairman Thorsteinn Orn Gudmundsson said.
Pratt & Whitney selected Hamilton Sundstrand to provide engine controls and accessories for engines covering Mitsubishi Regional Jet, Bombardier CSeries and Cessna Citation Columbus aircraft. Contract also includes fuel, pneumatic and thermal management systems.
STG Aerospace reached an MRO deal with Inflite Engineering Services to provide its WEPPS emergency power system to BAe 146/Avro RJ operators. System offers wireless status monitoring and nonrechargeable battery modules.
Singapore and Portugal concluded an open skies agreement that will become fully effective from the 2010 IATA summer schedule. Singapore now has concluded open skies agreements with 14 EU countries.
SAS yesterday announced the launch of an aggressive environmental strategy aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20% from 2007 levels by 2020. The airline group said it will reach the target, which assumes passenger growth of 4% annually, by "implementing energy enhancements and mixing jet fuel with renewable sources."
Air China will launch four-times-weekly Shanghai-Milan Malpensa on March 30 aboard an A340. Air Canada will operate daily Calgary-Newark from June 16 aboard an A319. Separately, it launched a codeshare arrangement with Jet Airways under which AC will place its code on Jet's flights from London Heathrow to Mumbai and from Toronto to Chennai via Brussels.
Turkish Airlines took delivery of its second converted A310-300F from the EADS EFW facility in Dresden. A third A310-300 will be converted beginning in July.
Continental Airlines paid $209 million for four pairs of slots at London Heathrow, according to a US Securities and Exchange filing cited by several press reports. CO did not identify the seller of the slots. It plans to serve the airport from both Newark and Houston Intercontinental ( ATWOnline, Jan. 18). The Financial Times said GB Airways (two), Air France and Alitalia sold the slots and that CO will pay $116 million for the summer season and an additional $93 million for the next witner schedule.
Alaska Air Group announced completion of a $100 million stock repurchase program authorized last September. It repurchased approximately 4.1 million shares of outstanding common stock, or 10%, at an average price of $24.31. The company now has around 36.5 million shares of common stock outstanding. US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. sold 12% of its stake in Delta Air Lines for $106.2 million, the Associated Press reported, citing regulatory filings. PBGC reduced its DL stake to 43.6 million shares from 49.5 million shares through 14 separate sales.
Alitalia Group said its net debt as of Jan. 31 was €1.28 billion ($1.95 billion), up 6.8% from a month prior. It made €3 million in debt repayments last month.
Russia's United Aircraft Building Corp. signed an MOU with the Iranian government for the sale of 100 Tu-204 and Tu-214 aircraft, a spokesperson told reporters yesterday in Moscow. The contract is expected to be signed next year and is worth a reported $2.5 billion.
