Goodrich reached a seven-year, multimillion-dollar deal with Emirates to provide component support related to the repair of all Goodrich Actuation Systems products fitted in the airline's A330s and A340s.
Boeing said yesterday that it has made a number of changes to the 787 program that will enable it to meet the revised schedule it announced in October, including first flight by the end of the 2008 first quarter, first delivery in late November or December 2008 and 109 deliveries in 2009.
Jordanian government yesterday announced the "successful completion" of an IPO of 71% of flag carrier Royal Jordanian at JOD3.08 ($4.32) per offer share ( ATWOnline, Dec. 5). With 59.9 million shares being sold, the market capitalization of the carrier is JOD260 million. Total proceeds came to JOD164.5 million. The shares are expected to begin trading on Dec. 17.
China Southern Airlines announced the launch of a new telephone payment system that will allow customers to book their e-tickets with a CZ representative rather than directly entering their credit card information. CZ flew 6.79 billion RPKs in November, up 18.6% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 10.5% to 8.89 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 5.2 points to 76.4%.
China Airlines said yesterday that its board approved the signing of a letter of intent with Airbus to purchase 14 A350-900s plus six options valued at $4.2 billion if all options are exercised.
Star Alliance will decide before year end which Indian carrier it intends to invite into the partnership, CEO Jaan Albrecht told ATWOnline yesterday in Shanghai on the eve of the official joining ceremony of Shanghai Airlines and Air China.
Icelandair said it will terminate its operation at Baltimore/Washington International effective Jan. 13, citing "escalating costs and decreasing revenues." The carrier will continue flying from New York JFK and Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Orlando Sanford and will add Halifax and Toronto to its list of North American gateways next spring. "We are fine-tuning the Icelandair route network and our capacity in an effort to increase profitability," President and CEO Jon Karl Olafsson said.
US Airways selected the IAE V2500 to power the up-to-153 A320 family aircraft it has on order ( ATWOnline, Oct. 8). The engine deal covers powerplants for 78 firm aircraft valued at approximately $1.3 billion, IAE said. Aircraft will begin delivering in November 2008 and will feature the SelectOne version of the V2500 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 13). IAE's offering powers 94 of US's 196 current A320 family aircraft.
Air France KLM will launch daily London Heathrow-Los Angeles service on March 30 aboard a 777. The same day, AF KLM will begin codesharing with Delta Air Lines on 12 DL flights between the US and the UK/Ireland ( ATWOnline, Oct. 18). Ryanair will launch service from Brussels Charleroi to Bergerac, Limoges, Perpignan, Porto and Zaragoza on March 5, when it will base a fifth 737-800 at CRL.
ILFC announced the following aircraft lease deals: Jet Airways for one new 737-800 powered by CFM56-7B24s, delivered in December 2008 under a 10-year lease, and Jet subsidiary JetLite for one 737-700 powered by CFM56-7B24s, delivered next month under a seven-year lease; Air Canada for one new 777-300ER powered by GE90-115Bs, delivered in April 2009 under a 10-year lease; Air Berlin for three new 787-8s, delivered in May 2011 under 12-year leases; Air Europa for two 767-300ERs powered by CF6-80C2B7Fs under a lease extended from early next year to spring 2013. Also, TAM for one A320-20
JetBlue Airways Flight 641 left New York JFK yesterday morning for San Francisco featuring the airline's new free Wi-Fi service onboard. Dubbed BetaBlue, the service allows passengers to access Yahoo! Mail (sans attachments) and Messenger from their laptops and personal e-mail and text messages from two models of BlackBerry PDAs ( ATWOnline, Dec. 10). The aircraft returned to JFK last night and will continue to fly mostly on JetBlue's transcontinental network.
Amadeus reached agreement with Avianca to provide a new-generation IT platform that integrates its Altea Customer Management Solution and e-commerce technology. The software is expected to streamline reservations, departures, inventory management and other logistics.
Saudi Arabian Airlines signed a contract with Airbus firming the order for 22 A320s announced at last month's Dubai Air Show ( ATWOnline, Nov. 13). The deal includes eight options.
Gate Gourmet's investment yesterday in Sydney-based consulting firm Performa and its subsidiary Elan, which specializes in training services and crew-leasing, is expected to expand GG's hospitality capabilities across the airline and hotel industries. Contract terms were not disclosed.
Lufthansa will launch five-times-weekly Frankfurt-Nanjing service March 31 and thrice-weekly Munich-Shenyang service via Seoul June 8, bringing the number of Chinese destinations served to five. Routes will be operated with 221-seat A340-300s. LH flew 9.38 billion RPKs in November, up 6.7% on the year-ago month. Capacity rose 5% to 12.37 billion ASKs, lifting load factor 1.2 points to 75.8%.
Copa Airlines flew 419.9 million RPMs in November, up 14.4% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 16.1% to 535.7 million ASMs and load factor fell 1.1 points to 78.4%.
Jet Airways exercised options for five A330-200s, according to a statement cited by widespread press reports. Delivery is scheduled from October 2009 through first-quarter 2011. The airline placed an order for 10 of the type plus 10 options at the 2005 Paris Air Show ( ATWOnline, Oct. 26, 2005).
Air France KLM flew 16.09 billion RPKs in November, up 3.5% on the year-ago month, against a 3.7% climb in capacity to 20.53 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 0.1 point to 78.4%. TAM flew 1.9 billion domestic RPKs in November, up 15.5% on the year-ago month, against a 9% rise in capacity to 2.63 billion ASKs that lifted load factor 4.1 points to 72.1%. International RPKs climbed 58.4% to 960 million while capacity grew 65% to 1.41 billion ASKs. Load factor fell 2.9 points to 68%.
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. approved a special distribution of $2.15 per share to holders of its common stock, or approximately $250 million, scheduled for Jan. 23. It also said it has paid down $500 million of the term loan under its existing credit agreement ( ATWOnline, Nov. 28).
Sinotrans Air Transportation Development Co. and Korean Air will expand on their cargo agreement with construction of a new freight station in Tianjin. The joint venture will launch with $14.9 million in capital, of which Sinotrans Air contributed $3 million for a 20% stake while Korean invested $7 million for a controlling 47% stake. Other investors are Air Korea, Hanjin Group and Dongliqu Economic Investment Co. The station will be developed in two phases.
Air France KLM's plan to concentrate Alitalia's operations at Rome Fiumicino appear to have won the backing of AZ Chairman Maurizio Prato, who told Corriere della Sera over the weekend that the Franco-Dutch bid "is based on Alitalia's own plan with integrations and changes" while rival Air One presented a bid containing "some generic statements" and AZ "still need[s] to understand how the [Air One] plan will actually work."
Airbus parent EADS CEO Louis Gallois indicated that the aircraft manufacturer's sale of six plants could be pushed back into next year, signaling a delay in implementation of a key component of its Power8 restructuring program.
Frontier Airlines said it expects a pre-tax loss of $0.58-$0.68 per share excluding special items in the third fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31. It did not offer a comparison to the year-ago quarter, when it reported a net loss of $14.4 million. It also said it planned to reduce year-over-year mainline capacity growth for the fiscal fourth quarter to 8.6% from the originally scheduled 13.7%. Frontier flew 788.8 million RPMs in November, up 22.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 14.1% to 1.01 billion ASMs and load factor rose 5.3 points to 78.1%.
