Airbus's Power8 restructuring program as originally conceived no longer is sufficient owing to the US dollar's decline and the manufacturer now needs to take significant measures to rescue itself from a "life-threatening" situation, CEO Tom Enders and parent EADS CEO Louis Gallois said in a series of recent public comments.
TAP Portugal signed a firm order for 12 A350 XWBs plus three options, replacing its 2005 order for 10 of the former version of the A350, Airbus said ( ATWOnline, June 19). The carrier also signed a letter of intent for an additional eight A320 family aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines' resurgence continued in the third quarter as net profit soared 51.7% year-over-year to a record MYR364 million ($106 million) from MYR240 million, the carrier reported yesterday, crediting "strong passenger demand and sustained yield improvement" for the result.
Virgin America, forced by the US Dept. of Transportation to replace CEO Fred Reid ( ATWOnline, May 21), yesterday announced that American Airlines Senior VP-Global Sales C. David Cush will take over the position on Dec. 10. "David's extensive industry experience, business acumen and creativity are the perfect attributes for leading the company as it continues to grow from a promising startup to a major carrier," VX Chairman Donald Carty said.
China's government reached agreement with Airbus yesterday on firm orders for 110 A320 family aircraft and 40 A330s valued at approximately $15 billion and also signed an MOU with the manufacturer stipulating that Chinese industry will take a 5% stake in A350 XWB production.
China expanded its airspace capacity from Nov. 22 by implementing Reduced Vertical Separation Minima in order to be better prepared for next summer's Olympics. Under the new rule, CAAC halved the height of each flight layer between 8,900 m. and 12,500 m., increasing the number of layers from 7 to 13 and nearly doubling the number of aircraft that can fly through the same area simultaneously. The regulator noted that Sanya, Hong Kong and Taipei are excluded as these cities already have implemented RVSM. Chinese carriers welcomed the new policy.
Air France KLM Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta credited the airlines' "strong" long-haul network and "ongoing group-wide efforts to contain costs" in the face of rising oil prices for a robust profit of €736 million ($1.09 billion) in the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, up 96.8% from the €374 million reported in the year-ago period.
British Airways yesterday confirmed that it will not increase its 9.95% stake in Iberia through the acquisition of shares being sold by BBVA and Logista, to which it has preemption rights as a core shareholder under a 1999 agreement.
DHL announced yesterday that it will establish a $175 million "Express North Asia Hub" at Shanghai Pudong. "Hubs like Shanghai are optimally positioned to reduce transit times and distances within the region [and] also ensure that the region is better connected with the rest of the world," DHL said, adding that the new hub will allow it to provide guaranteed time definite morning delivery "to more major cities in North Asia." The facility's peak sorting capacity will be up to 20,000 parcels and 20,000 documents per hr.
Korean Air released further details about its new low-cost airline, a project it originally said could launch within three years but that now is scheduled to take flight next May ( ATWOnline, June 5). The new carrier, dubbed Air Korea, will start operations with three A300s and two 737s flying mainly leisure travelers to Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia.
Aeroflot transported 688,900 passengers in October, up 7.2% from the year-ago month, and reported a 5.9% rise in RPKs to 2.97 billion. Load factor was 69.6%.
SAS Group is offering all of its 27 Q400 aircraft for sale. "There is big interest from airlines all over the world. To sell the Q400s will be not a big problem for us," an SAS spokesperson told ATWOnline while refusing to divulge the names of potential customers. According to the company's interim flight schedule introduced when it grounded its Q400s ( ATWOnline, Oct. 30), 90% of all SAS Denmark flights are being operated and the full schedule should be available again by year end.
EasyJet will launch daily flights from London Luton to Jersey (March 31) and Liverpool (April 21). Qatar Airways and United Airlines implemented their codeshare agreement following approval from the US Dept. of Transportation. QR's code now is placed on select UA domestic services from Washington Dulles and on flights from several European gateways to the US. UA's code is on QR flights between Doha and IAD and Newark as well as a number of other QR routes. Last June QR started scheduled flights from Doha to EWR via Geneva.
East Star Airlines, which launched operations from Wuhan last year, said it will purchase six A320s worth CNY3 billion at list prices, Xinhua reported. East Star will finance the purchase with loans from Royal Bank of Scotland. Separately, the carrier said it successfully launched its daily Wuhan-Hong Kong-Macau service ( ATWOnline, Oct. 29).
Aegean Airlines reported a €33.4 million ($49.2 million) profit through the first nine months of 2007, up 45% over the year-ago period, Thomson Financial reported from Athens. Sales climbed 20% to €370.5 million and passenger numbers were up 19% to 4.1 million.
Turkish Technic inked a C check maintenance services agreement with Inter Airlines covering the carrier's three A321s. The checks will be carried out in Istanbul. Both parties said increased cooperation and future agreements are likely.
LAN Airlines placed a firm order with Rolls-Royce for Trent 1000s to power 26 787s it has on order to begin delivering in 2012 ( ATWOnline, Nov. 6). The order, which includes 15 options, is the first LAN has placed with Rolls. The two parties also reached agreement on a long-term TotalCare service program. Total value of the deal, including the 15 options, is more than $2.4 billion, Rolls said. LAN is slated to be Latin America's largest 787 operator.
SkyTeam Governing Board Chairman Leo van Wijk believes alliances will be around for years to come "because it is clear that a global airline with a single ownership is not yet possible" owing to regulatory issues, nationalism and the complexity of combining carriers. However, he does not think they will retain their current form. In a speech to the European Aviation Club in Brussels, he said alliance composition will change along with the intensity of cooperation between alliance partners. "It is increasingly difficult for an airline to survive without an alliance," he said.
ANA is upgrading the premium economy service it offers on international flights aboard 747-400s and 777-300ERs by giving passengers in the fare category access to its business class lounges at Tokyo Narita, London Heathrow, New York JFK and Washington Dulles. It also will give premium economy passengers arriving in Japan the option of free delivery of one piece of luggage to their home or hotel. Amenity kits and refreshment vouchers will be available at airports other than those listed.
Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht told ATWOnline in Frankfurt that the importance of offering global alliance products and the shrinking number of carriers targeted as potential members will play a critical part in shaping the group's strategy going forward. He said Star will have to balance its desire to continue as the world's largest airline grouping with its effort to develop pan-alliance products, which the continuing addition of new members may complicate. "That's why we can't estimate how many new airlines will join us," he said.
Gate Gourmet signed an LOI with Aviapartner Group to acquire its catering business. Terms of the proposed transaction, which will be finalized by year end, were not disclosed. Aviapartner Catering Brussels offers a complete range of catering services including meal production, logistics, dry stores and catering loading. It currently prepares some 3.5 million meals a year for about 25,000 flights and 30 airlines. Gate Gourmet produces an average of 200 million meals annually, serving customers from 93 flight kitchens in 25 countries on five continents.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines named SkyWest Airlines VP-Flight Operations Bradford Holt as COO effective Dec. 1. He is replacing the retiring Bryan LaBrecque.
Brazil's OceanAir placed a firm order for seven A330-200s, 14 A319s and seven A320s collectively valued at $2.65 billion, Airbus said. Deliveries will begin in 2009. OceanAir is owned by Synergy Group, also parent of Colombia's Avianca. Synergy Chairman German Efromovich told reporters in Sao Paulo yesterday that he wants to grow OceanAir's domestic market share to 15% by 2010 from 2% currently and compete more directly with Gol and TAM and believes the 21 A320 family aircraft will help achieve that goal.
Alitalia flew 3.39 billion RPKs in October, up 1% from the year-ago month. Capacity fell 1% to 4.5 billion ASKs and load factor rose 1.5 points to 75.3%. Silverjet transported 6,782 revenue passengers in October with a load factor of 58.5%. It said passenger numbers have risen 86% since May.
Shanghai-based Spring Airlines plans to slow its development owing to a pilot shortage, though the carrier still expects to earn a net profit of CNY80 million ($10.8 million) in 2007, according to President Wang Zhenghua. Based on its revised plan, Spring will maintain its current fleet of eight A320s until the second half of next year, when it will introduce four more. It originally planned to expand its fleet to 10 aircraft in 2007 and 30 in 2009.
