American Airlines parent AMR Corp.'s announcement that it plans to divest subsidiary American Eagle was not enough to reassure shareholder FL Group, which said Friday that it lowered its stake in AMR to 1.1% from 9.1%.
Precision Conversions will provide Babcock & Brown Aircraft Management with a 15-pallet-position 757-200PCF. Following modification next year at the Flightstar facility in Jacksonville, CargoJet will operate the Rolls-Royce-powered aircraft under a lease from BBAM.
Embraer announced the sale of two E-170s plus one purchase right to Suzuyo & Co., which intends to start an airline based at the Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport scheduled to open in 2009. Delivery of the aircraft, worth up to $87 million if the purchase right is exercised, is planned to start in the 2009 first quarter.
Aeroports de Paris plans to increase main airport fees at Charles de Gaulle and Orly by 3.8% in 2008, down from the 4.25% hike it applied this year. The proposal represents a preliminary estimate of the average increase in passenger fees, landing fees, aircraft parking fees and fees for the use of fueling facilities, ADP noted. It added that the 3.8% figure takes into account "buoyant" passenger traffic growth in 2007 as required by a "ceiling adjustment mechanism" included in its contract with the French government as part of its privatization.
Silverjet reported £11.8 million ($24.4 million) in passenger revenue in the six months ended Sept. 30, its first full fiscal semester since launching operations in January. The all-business-class carrier launched a second daily London Luton-Newark service during the period. It also announced a proposed placing of £12 million and a proposed convertible loan of £10 million from TFB Ltd.
Pinnacle Airlines bought out all of Northwest Airlines' common stock holdings in the regional carrier. Pinnacle announced the purchase of 2.5 million shares from NWA for $13.22 per share, or $32.9 million. It also agreed to purchase the Class A Preferred Share retained by NWA in January. It has repurchased 4.5 million shares of its common stock since launching a repurchase program in May, leaving 20% of total shares outstanding.
Frontier Airlines Friday launched four-times-weekly Denver-San Jose, Costa Rica, service aboard an A319. A fifth weekly flight will be added Jan. 5. San Jose is Frontier's 10th foreign destination--it already served seven in Mexico and two in Canada.
SkyWest Inc. placed a firm order for 18 CRJ700 NextGen aircraft and four CRJ900 NextGens, plus 22 options that can apply to either type, Bombardier announced Friday. SkyWest subsidiaries SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines operate the world's largest CRJ fleet of 244 CRJ200s, 102 CRJ700s and 17 CRJ900s. This is its first NextGen order. Firm aircraft are worth $773 million at list prices. The new CRJ700s, configured with 66 seats in three classes, will be operated by SkyWest Airlines for United Express.
Delta Air Lines named former Pinnacle Airlines Chairman and Greyhound Lines CEO Stephen Gorman executive VP-operations, succeeding the retiring Joseph Kolshak. Gorman previously was executive VP-flight operations and technical operations at Northwest Airlines and became Pinnacle chairman in 2003.
Nationwide Airlines of South Africa announced Friday that the South African Civil Aviation Authority suspended the carrier's Aviation Maintenance Organization license, resulting in the grounding of all flights. "We have approached the CAA for further details and guidance in respect of any actions they would like us to implement that would enable them to reinstate the AMO's license at which point normal operations will resume," Nationwide CEO Vernon Bricknell said in a message to customers posted on the airline's website.
CHINESE AVIATION ANALYSTS USED to warn that China's air transport industry could not fly on the single engine of Air China. For example, the industry enjoyed a significant financial turnaround in 2006 with a collective net profit of CNY2.38 billion ($311 million) compared with a CNY1.35 billion loss in 2005. But that reversal, as outlined in CAAC's annual report, largely was owing to Air China's success, as the Beijing-based carrier earned CNY3.19 billion.
THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE WHEN you enter the reception area of the Florida headquarters of Spirit Airlines is that there is no receptionist. Stretched across the wall is a banner with an explanation in bold letters: The self-service reception area allows the company to save 2 cents per customer by not staffing the front desk. That's right, 2 cents. Spirit, which bills itself as an ultra-low-fare carrier, does indeed count every penny.
Attempting to leave no trace is a noble, often unsung pursuit. You don't have to tiptoe across rice paper to sense the courage of that ideal. For aviation manufacturers and suppliers, a greener footprint calls for vision, commitment and stewardship. Practices that foster energy efficiency, pollution prevention, longer lifecycles, recycling and responsible disposal no longer bow to the bottom line. "There's more consistency around the world about the need to be environmentally accountable," says Goodrich Environmental, Health and Safety Director Dennis Hussey.
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, Jérôme Destors, deputy managing director of Amadeus' Hospitality Business Group, said. All hotel GDS operations are now running on the open-systems platform.
'IT'S NOT TOO FAR, IT JUST SEEMS LIKE IT IS' I first experienced the above quote from the legendary baseball player Yogi Berra in an airline purchasing executive's office. The subject was a proposed modification on a cabin pressurization switch, and there was general agreement from the vendor and those from maintenance and materials. "Everyone loves this mod," I remember someone said. "But these systems are problematic to line maintenance and pilots. Replacing manual cabin pressurization with electronic results in higher reliability, more comfort for passengers."
BASED IN COPENHAGEN but with warehouses scattered around the globe, Satair is one of the leading distributors of aircraft production parts and spares. In the year to June 30, 2007, it boasted revenues of almost $360 million, up 37% from the previous year. Of this growth, 18% was organic with the remainder attributable to acquisitions that made a sizeable contribution. For the current FY it is forecasting revenue in the range of $400-$410 million, up 13%, reflecting a period of consolidation following considerable acquisition activity in the last couple of years.
IT WAS 1 P.M. ON A TYPICAL SUMMER afternoon at Los Angeles International. WestJet Flight 900, a 737NG from Calgary that had just landed, held between parallel Runways 24R and 24L as directed by the LAX tower. "Without authorization, the WestJet crew changed radio frequencies and contacted ground control," according to the US National Transportation Safety Board. The ground controller "assumed" that the 737NG had been "cleared to cross Runway 24L and provided instructions for the flight to taxi to its gate," NTSB said.
THE STRENGTH AND longevity of the current aircraft buying cycle continues to surprise, but is it a legitimate reflection of the underlying vitality of the global economy or a dot.com-like bubble that is soon to burst? Among aircraft financiers and asset managers with whom ATW spoke, the consensus is that it's the former.
Anyone who spends much time in or around the airline industry is familiar with the concept of faith. In the early days of air travel it was as fundamental as believing that the runway would be there when you broke out of the clouds and that the propellers would keep spinning until the tires touched the ground. Faith continues to play a significant role in guiding our industry, although thankfully the subjects almost never involve a wing and a prayer anymore.
The speed at which revenue is processed and understood together with the level of accuracy that results from certain accounting methods has been a growing concern in the airline industry for some time now. Greater processing complexity tends to drive cost up, and these days cost is a factor that most airlines can't afford to be complacent about.
DURING ITS DRAMATIC 19-MONTH stint in Chapter 11, the third-largest US carrier focused adeptly on costs, especially the folks in purchasing. "To put a bit of scale to it," says Shawn Anderson, Delta Air Lines VP-supply chain management, "we renegotiated over 2,000 contracts600 separate sourcing initiatives."
WHEN SINGAPORE AIRLINES launched the world's first A380 service with a flight from Singapore to Sydney on Oct. 25, it was more than the first commercial flight of the world's largest passenger airplane: It was an undeniable sign that there has been a seismic shift in the aviation world's center of influence in the 60 years since SIA took to the air as Malaya Airways Ltd. with three destinations. SIA no longer is just a major player in the Asia/Pacific region and a "great way to fly" but a global force that influences the direction and style of air travel everywhere it goes.
