Intersky, an Austrian LCC, will add a fourth Dash 8-Q300 to its fleet and launch service from Friedrichshafen to Paris Charles to Gaulle (four-times-weekly) and Munster Osnabruck (five-times-weekly) on March 29. Intersky enjoyed an 11% increase in 2007 revenue to €23 million ($33.7 million) as passenger numbers climbed 9.1% to 180,000. It expects to carry 235,000 in 2008.
Bmi will launch a second daily London Heathrow-Moscow Domodedovo flight on March 30 with an A320. Lufthansa will launch twice-daily Frankfurt-Bergen service on March 30 aboard a Lufthansa CityLine CRJ700. LH will operate a twice-weekly Hamburg-Bergen service during the summer schedule. TACA will launch four-times-weekly San Jose-David service on Feb. 18 onboard a 48-seat ATR 42.
Hawaiian Airlines' fleet overhaul is in jeopardy because of strained relations with its pilots, the carrier said Friday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines last week sold a 25% stake to a foreign private fund for $100 million, a source at the carrier said yesterday, taking the LCC one step closer toward its goal of listing on an overseas market by early 2009.
Southwest Airlines board authorized a new share repurchase program to acquire up to $500 million of SWA common stock, equal to roughly 41 million shares. It is the sixth repurchase program authorized since January 2006, resulting in the repurchase of 116 million shares of common stock worth $1.8 billion, CEO Gary Kelly said. The company has around 735 million shares outstanding.
In the aftermath of this week's announcement of an additional three-month delay to the 787 program, Boeing is facing a growing credibility problem while the likelihood rises that it will be forced to make penalty payments to airlines for late deliveries.
SITA announced creation of a Geneva-based technology research facility, SITA Lab, focused on driving innovation for the air transport industry. CTO Jim Peters will head the operation, which will deploy an innovation knowledge management system.
LOT Polish Airlines signed a contract for 12 E-175s plus two options and 10 purchase rights, the Brazilian manufacturer announced yesterday, adding that the aircraft were listed on its fourth-quarter backlog as unidentified. Firm aircraft are worth $372 million and the order could rise to $744 million if all options and purchase rights are exercised. Aircraft will seat 82 passengers. LOT will become the largest E-Jet operator in Europe once the jets are delivered, Embraer said. It was an E-Jet launch customer with the E-170 in 2004 and currently operates 10 170s and six 175s.
Lufthansa will start operating a wet-leased PrivatAir A319LR outfitted with an all-business-class cabin on a Munich-Dubai flight from June 1, creating an all-year service that will supplement LH's winter flights aboard a three-class A340-300, the carrier confirmed to ATWOnline. It sees sufficient demand to justify an all-business operation during the summer. LH currently has two PrivatAir A319LRs operating from its minihub in Dusseldorf on a daily Newark run and a five-times-weekly service to Chicago O'Hare.
UK's Air Accident Investigation Branch will be joined by the US National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing to investigate yesterday afternoon's accident at London Heathrow, where a British Airways 777-200ER landed in the grass several hundred meters short of Runway 27L near a busy perimeter road. The aircraft skidded, causing severe damage to the landing gear, both engines and the wings. Three passengers suffered minor injuries during evacuation, BA said.
Eurocontrol revealed that the number of flights in Europe surged to approximately 10 million in 2007, an all-time high and an increase of 5.3% on 2006. Average daily traffic was 27,676 flights last year compared to 26,286 in 2006. Traffic growth was strongest in Eastern Europe, with several states seeing growth near 20%, while growth in Finland, Sweden, Azores and Canary Islands was lower than the European average.
Boeing Commercial Aviation Services reached agreement with El Al to provide landing gear MRO services for the carrier's 777s. Contract features a landing gear exchange program.
ARINC won US FAA certification for issuing aircraft STCs and performing related service and modification work under the new Organization Designation Authorization program. ODA regulations allow FAA to delegate additional responsibility to private industry, reducing workload while streamlining aircraft certification and inspection. The agency expects the ODA program to replace its existing Designated Alteration Station program by November 2009.
Spring Airlines signed an MOU to purchase CFM56-5Bs for 10 A320s in an order valued at approximately $170 million. Delivery is slated for March 2009. Spring also agreed to lease 12 additional CFM56-5B-powered A320s to be delivered between 2009 and 2012.
Continental Airlines reported pre-tax income of $566 million for 2007, up 53.4% over earnings of $369 million on a similar basis in 2006, but the company is resolving a "noncash tax" issue related to pilot pensions that prevented it from disclosing net income yesterday.
PrivatAir converted a 787-8 purchase right into a firm order, Boeing announced yesterday. The company now has two 787s on firm order plus one remaining purchase right. "The ever-increasing demand from charter customers for long-range, large-cabin aircraft shows no sign of abating," PrivatAir CEO Greg Thomas said.
Airbus recorded another blockbuster year with deliveries of 453 aircraft, 19 more than in 2006 and 12 more than Boeing, and a record 1,341 net orders worth $157.1 billion. While slightly less than its rival's 1,413 net orders ( ATWOnline, Jan. 7), the difference largely is academic as both manufacturers have the sobering challenge of delivering, ontime, what they have sold ( ATWOnline, Jan. 14).
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. reported full-year 2007 net income of $504 million, more than double the $231 million earned in the prior year, despite a fourth-quarter net loss of $69 million that it attributed largely to "record fuel prices."
ACE Aviation Holdings yesterday said it will sell 13 million units of its Jazz Air Income Fund to West Face Capital and Sunrise Partners Ltd. Partnership for approximately $96.9 million, Reuters reported. ACE's stake in the regional will drop to 9.5% from 20.1%.
Alenia Aeronautica and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on the Italian firm's acquisition of a 25%-plus-one-share stake in the Russian OEM ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12, 2007), which is designing and producing the Superjet 100 ( ATWOnline, Sept. 12, 2007).
Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines have launched formal merger negotiations, US Rep. and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D.-Minn.) told the Star Tribune. "Northwest sees a benefit to them of a merger with Delta," Oberstar said, adding that NWA executives said "there is little route overlap and not a significant effect on competition, which I disagree with." The Congressman confirmed DL is looking at United as well ( ATWOnline, Jan.
