GKN Aerospace said it received FAA PMA authority and EASA STC authority for 737 No. 1 and No. 2 heated cockpit windshields. Separately, GKN reached a three-year, $1.5 million overhaul and repair deal with Prime Air to support Delta radomes on the 777, 767, 757, 737 and MD-80.
Air Canada and Jazz flew 3.99 billion RPMs in December, up 2.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 1.6% to 5.07 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 0.6 point to 78.8%. SkyWest Airlines flew 1.39 billion RPMs in December, a 7.9% increase from the year-ago month, against an 11% rise in capacity to 1.89 billion ASMs. Load factor fell 2.1 points to 73.6%. Hawaiian Airlines flew 655.7 million RPMs in December, up 2% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 5.5% to 798.8 million ASMs and load factor dropped 2.1 points to 82.1%.
Alitalia Chairman and CEO Maurizio Prato said early negotiations with Air France KLM "are going rather well," according to press reports, with the early buzz surrounding the recently launched talks ( ATWOnline, Jan. 3) centering on the amount of AZ that will remain with the Italian state once AF KLM takes over and a share swap is completed. Originally pegged at 3%, the stake may rise to 5% if Prato and the UGL union have their way, Reuters reported.
Embraer's 61 fourth-quarter aircraft deliveries boosted its full-year 2007 total to 169, up 30% year-over-year and a company record. The manufacturer said it "sought to adapt its industrial processes to the delivery schedule established with customers. Such actions as hiring new employees, implementing a third shift for some of the production processes and adopting a lean manufacturing concept" were key.
Goodrich announced a $5.5 million project to expand its customer service headquarters and MRO facility in Monroe, La. Slated for completion in the third quarter, the expansion will accommodate additional services, including complex repairs of large aircraft cargo systems.
Ryanair will establish its 24th European base at Bournemouth on England's south coast. From April the LCC will base one 737-800 there and launch service to Malaga, Murcia, Nantes, Palma and Wroclaw, lifting to 12 the number of routes it serves from the airport. It also will add a second daily flight to Glasgow Prestwick. It expects to bring 1 million passengers per year to Bournemouth. Separately, Ryanair said its proposal to establish operations at Milan Malpensa has been rejected by airports operator SEA, which is 84.5% controlled by the municipality of Milan.
British Airways will launch its new transatlantic subsidiary, OpenSkies, in June with daily flights from New York JFK to Brussels or Paris Charles de Gaulle using 757s carrying up to 82 passengers in business, premium economy and economy sections.
Air Canada Technical Services reached a 10-year OnPoint Solutions agreement with GE for material to repair CF34 engines and a 10-year materials deal with CFM for the repair and overhaul of CFM56 engines, specifically the -2, -3, -5A, -5B and -5C. Contracts total an estimated $2.5 billion covering life-limited and nonlife-limited parts plus component repair and used materials for work on GE and CFM engines.
China Eastern Airlines began assessing its options in the aftermath of Tuesday's rejection by minority shareholders of its planned 24% stake sale to Singapore Airlines and parent Temasek, with pressure mounting for it to resolve its ownership situation quickly.
KLM Cityhopper will transfer the maintenance of its F70 fleet to Nayak Aircraft Services from Martinair Maintenance & Engineering following the latter's decision to "focus more on improving its own operations and making preparations for Martinair's possible fleet renewal," KLM said. Cityhopper operates 21 F70s. Nayak already works on Cityhopper's 14 F50s. Martinair will continue MRO on Cityhopper's 20 F100s until they are phased out in 2010. Between late 2008 and early 2010 it will replace its 15 oldest F100s with 10 E-190s and five F70s.
ARINC announced installation of its AviNet Type B business networking service for air berlin under a three-year service contract. Technology features protocol translation and IATA Type B messaging.
Southwest Airlines released a summer schedule that features the elimination of 57 roundtrip flights and the addition of 40 new flights, including service to six new destinations from Denver. The schedule takes effect May 10 and reflects the fact that the airline is "concerned about slowing economic growth, and we want our flight schedule to be built around flights that are in high demand," according to CEO Gary Kelly ( ATWOnline, Jan. 9).
SAS Group airlines flew 2.71 billion RPKs in December, up 2.9% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 3.3% to 4.11 billion ASKs and load factor dropped 0.3 point to 65.8%. SAS Scandinavian Airlines enjoyed a 1.1% increase in yield as traffic climbed 2.2% to 1.81 billion RPKs. Capacity was up 3.6% to 2.61 billion ASKs, lowering load factor 1 point to 69.3%.
Kuwaiti government yesterday approved the sale of 40% of Kuwait Airways in a domestic public placement and another 35% to a long-term investor within two years, according to press reports. The government will hold 20% with workers taking the remaining 5%. The head of the parliament's financial committee told reporters that KU will place an aircraft order following the privatization, according to Reuters
Singapore Changi's new Terminal 3 opened for operations yesterday after months of intensive preparatory tests, which included 50 trial flights of which 20 were actual flights. First arrival was SQ001 from San Francisco at 11:50 and first departure was to London Heathrow at 12:50 ( ATWOnline, June 18, 2007). T3 will increase SIN's annual capacity to 70 million passengers.
British Airways will launch five-times-weekly London Heathrow-Hyderabad flights on Oct. 27 aboard a 777. Hyderabad becomes BA's sixth Indian destination. Austrian Airlines Group announced the expansion of its Russian network with thrice-weekly flights to Sochi starting April 1 and Nizhny Novgorod the following day. Both routes will be operated by F70s. AAG currently serves five Russian destinations and will be the Western carrier with the second-largest presence in the country behind Lufthansa.
SriLankan Airlines Chairman Harry Jayawardena issued a statement confirming that the government of Sri Lanka will take "total control" of the airline following Emirates' decision to opt out of its management contract from April 1 ( ATWOnline, Jan. 8). He said the government "will continue to manage the national carrier for the best interest of the public and the country at large" and will continue to be SriLankan's majority owner with no plans to divest.
AWAS, the Dublin-based lessor, gave Airbus a strong start to the year with an order for 75 A320s plus 25 options. The firm aircraft will bring its Airbus portfolio to 145 units, the manufacturer said. The deal is valued at $6.9 billion at list prices.
Commport Aerospace Services launched its fuel administration software, realTimeFuel, at IATA's fuel forum in Istanbul. Compatible with most hardware and management systems, the technology could save airlines "at least $300 per flight, while airport authorities and into-plane agents will be able to reduce labor costs and manage the fueling process much more efficiently and effectively," CEO David Ralph said.
Etihad Airways is targeting 6 million passengers in 2008 compared to the 5 million it served last year. The Arab Air Carriers Organization reported that the airline will relocate to the new passenger terminal at Abu Dhabi, where 10 aircraft parking stands will be available and a dedicated runway for Etihad will be ready in April. The carrier is preparing to launch flights to Beijing and Moscow in March.
Singapore Airlines today will become the first carrier to operate from Changi's new Terminal 3. First outbound flight is SQ318 en route to London Heathrow. SQ will continue to operate out of T2 as well. The airline's flights to North America, Northern/Western Europe, East Asia (save certain Japanese services) and Oceania will operate out of T3.
AerVenture Ltd., a joint venture among AerCap Holdings, LoadAir and Al Fawares, will lease six new A320-200s to TAP Portugal under eight-year lease agreements. Aircraft will be delivered in 2009 and are part of a 2005 order from Airbus.
JetBlue Airways will increase 2008 capacity 6%-9% year-over-year, CEO Dave Barger said. "Given an uncertain economic environment and record high fuel prices, we plan to grow more conservatively in 2008," he said. "Assuming market conditions remain favorable, we expect to take advantage of continued strength in the worldwide aircraft market to manage our fleet growth." JetBlue's December passenger RASM rose 5% from the year-ago month while traffic increased 6.4% to 2.16 billion RPMs. Capacity climbed 10% to 2.81 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 2.6 points to 76.8%.
