Jordanian government launched an IPO of 71% of Royal Jordanian's issued share capital, the Arab Air Carriers Organization said. In October, RJ President and CEO Samer Majali confirmed to this website that privatization of the carrier would proceed as scheduled this month ( ATWOnline, Oct. 25). Offer price is set at JOD2.75-JOD3.40 ($3.86-$4.77) per share.
Delta Air Lines launched daily Atlanta-Lagos service Monday aboard a 214-seat 767-300ER. It plans to start New York JFK-Lagos flights on June 9, part of an African expansion planned for next year that eventually will lead to its serving seven destinations in six countries. Bmi regional will launch six-times-weekly Nottingham East Midlands-Cologne/Bonn flights on Feb. 11. Wizz Air will start thrice-weekly Warsaw-Doncaster Sheffield service on April 1.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters petitioned the US National Mediation Board seeking a vote to represent mechanics at United Airlines, who currently are represented by the American Mechanics Fraternal Assn. IBT said it expected a vote in six weeks.
Air Vanuatu placed an order for one ATR 72-500 with delivery scheduled for 2009. The 70-seat aircraft will be equipped with 120-min. ETOPS capability, enabling the carrier to develop its international network with flights to surrounding islands such as Fiji and the Solomons.
News from Travel Technology Update: Amadeus this week will unveil the first components of a new next-generation distribution technology platform for the hotel industry. As a first step, Amadeus has completed the migration of the 75,000 hotel properties that participate in its GDS from a system based on TPF (transaction processing facility) to a Linux platform, Jeroôme Destors, deputy managing director of Amadeus' Hospitality Business Group, said. All hotel GDS operations are now running on the open-systems platform.
US Dept. of Transportation said an investigation it conducted into "chronically delayed flights" and threats of stiff fines against airlines led carriers to "fix" the problems. Actions taken included "changing flight routes, adding flight crews and making additional aircraft available," DOT said.
Panasonic Avionics will supply its eX2 IFE and communications system to Air Austral for installation on three existing 777-200s and two 777-300s currently on order.
Despite high fuel prices, Chinese carriers are entering what analysts predict will be a period of robust growth driven by rising load factors. According to statistics released Friday by CAAC, the Chinese air transport industry flew 3.28 billion RTKs in October, up 16.7% over the year-ago month. Passenger boardings jumped 15.2% to 18.6 million while cargo traffic climbed 19.7% to 1.05 billion ATKs. Load factor rose 4.3 points to 79%.
CFM International announced that Skybus Airlines will be the first US carrier to operate the CFM56-5B Tech Insertion engines, which are onboard an A319 that was delivered to the budget airline. The Tech Insertion program was certified for A320 family aircraft in September.
Speaking last week on the occasion of the launch of Swiss International Air Lines' new daily service to Delhi, CEO Christoph Franz said his carrier's acquisition by Lufthansa not only will continue to benefit Swiss but should serve as a model as the industry continues down the road to consolidation.
Nationwide Airlines remained grounded yesterday ( ATWOnline, Dec. 3) as it denied press reports that it leased a 767 from KLM in order to continue its Johannesburg-London Gatwick service. KLM has performed MRO on Nationwide's own 767, but the South African carrier vehemently denied any other arrangement.
European Commission and Nepal announced a horizontal air services agreement allowing any EU airline to operate between Nepal and any EU nation where a bilateral agreement with Nepal exists and traffic rights are secured.
Click suffered a two-day strike by cabin staff that affected approximately 220 flights. The strike ended Monday when the Mexicana-owned LCC offered a 4.74% salary increase and other benefits, Reuters reported.
Claiming it is on the verge of a "quantum leap" forward, Turkish Airlines yesterday reported a third-quarter profit of TRY104.9 million ($88.3 million), up 16.2% from the TRY90.3 million posted in the year-ago period. The profit will leave THY well-positioned as it plans to boost its fleet by 20%, taking delivery of seven A320-200s, five A321-200s and eight 737-800s through 2008.
Atlasjet MD-83 accident investigation was joined this week by Boeing and Pratt & Whitney officials who traveled to Turkey and inspected the crash site. There has been no initial discovery of technical problems on the MD-83, which was on wet-lease from World Focus Airlines, and no explanation yielded from tower recordings that reveal the pilots believed they were headed for a routine landing at Isparta Airport, according to Turkish officials ( ATWOnline, Dec. 3).
Emirates commenced nonstop service between Houston and Dubai yesterday, offering thrice-weekly flights using a 777-200LR. Service increases to daily in February. US Airways will launch thrice-daily Charlotte-Daytona Beach service Feb. 1 aboard E-175s operated by Republic Airlines. Germanwings will begin twice-weekly flights from Cologne to Keflavik and Osijek next summer. Sama will launch thrice-weekly flights to Amman from Dammam and Riyadh on Dec. 6. It is the Saudi carrier's third international destination.
S7 Airlines introduced the A319 on its thrice-daily Moscow Domodedovo-Krasnodar service. It claimed it is the first airline to serve the southwestern destination with Western-built aircraft. S7 currently operates 12 A319s.
Qatar Airways will phase out its four A340-600s earlier then scheduled as it takes deliveries of its new 777s, CEO Akbar Al Baker said last week in Seattle as the carrier took its first 777-300ER. He also confirmed that QR will not exercise its six A340-600 options. It took its first -600 in September 2006. Separately, QR will establish a leasing company called Oryx Leasing that will aim to place the carrier's older aircraft. It will start by the middle of next year with six A300-600s and eventually will handle the A340-600s.
EgyptAir signed a long-term contract with GECAS for the lease of six 777-300ERs. The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in February 2010 and will be used on nonstop routes from Cairo to New York JFK and Tokyo Narita. A stop in Bangkok will be eliminated on the latter route but the city will continue to be connected to Cairo with a separate flight. "The 777-300s will supplement our current fleet of five 777-200s," Chairman and CEO Sherif Saad Eldin Galal told ATWOnline.
An Atlasjet Airlines MD-83 outbound from Istanbul crashed early Friday morning during its approach to Isparta Airport in southern Turkey, killing all 57 passengers and crew onboard. The crash site was located in mountainous terrain approximately 7 mi. from Isparta. The aircraft, which was wet-leased from World Focus Airlines, departed IST at 12:50 a.m., 90 min. late owing to its late arrival inbound from Pristina, according to Atlasjet. The crash occurred about 45 min. after takeoff. Published reports described weather as clear and moonlit.
Ryanair said Friday it filed its fifth lawsuit in recent weeks in the European Court of First Instance against the European Commission, this time alleging it failed to investigate illegal state aid to Alitalia. According to the LCC, AZ's subsidies included a split-up of the company's assets and operations and an uneven allocation of debt, resulting in a €1.7 billion ($2.51 billion) debt write-off. Ryanair said it called on the EC to investigate this "blatant abuse" of EU competition rules more than two years ago but the EC has failed to do so.
A profitable fourth quarter helped SkyEurope Airlines narrow its full-fiscal-year loss to €24.1 million ($35.6 million) from the €57.3 million suffered in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2006. Full-year revenue rose 27.4% to €236.2 million against just a 4.2% lift in expenses to €226.6 million. Fuel costs actually declined 5.2% even in the face of a capacity increase thanks to a fuel hedge that expired in August and a weak US dollar, the carrier said. Operating loss improved to €20.9 million from €55.5 million in the 2005-06 fiscal year.
Condor Airlines will establish a maintenance facility for its 757s and 767s in Frankfurt, creating 170 jobs. The new facility will perform work up to A checks.
